Rooted Wanderings

July 28 was a long day. It began at 3:30 am in the drizzly darkness of the Munich suburbs and ended with the call of seagulls and the funky smell of the ocean at Findhorn campground in rural North Scotland. Between these two wildly different places was a two and a half hour plane ride, a morning at the mall in Edinburgh buying groceries and SIM cards, a five hour Megabus ride through endless traffic jams and construction, an hour-long local bus ride along the coast outside Inverness, and then a 5 kilometer walk to the campground as we staggered under the weight of our combined 40 kg of gear. Finally, we had arrived at Findhorn! Why here, you might ask? We chose Findhorn for our first week in the UK because it is a world-famous intentional community and ecovillage. We are both intrigued by life in such a community and wanted to get a feel for this iconic place. Later on, we will be volunteering at two smaller intentional communities in England, so we figured Findhorn would be a fi...

“Goodbye Switzerland!” As the bus rolled across the border into Austria, we bid farewell to the country we had called home for the past 10 weeks. We were en route to Munich, Germany, to spend a few days visiting Julia’s relatives before our 90 days in the Schengen countries were up. Julia was eager to reconnect with her dad’s second cousin Martin, his wife Emilia, and their kids Cedric and Marie. Although Julia’s great-great grandparents emigrated to the United States way back in 1903, the two branches of the family have kept in touch over the decades. In fact, since Martin has no first cousins and his branch lost contact with the rest of the German family during the post-WWII division of East and West Germany, our connection is one of the most direct he has remaining. Julia’s family spent a few days with Martin and company back on a family trip to Germany in 2009, so it was a delight to reconnect with them. The 3-year-old Marie in a stroller was now an 11-year-old having great f...

“Just in time for milking!” our new WWOOF hosts Nicholas and Esther greeted us with a smile. It was 4:00 pm and we had just arrived at their house in the small city of Chateau d’Oex, nestled among the mountain valleys of French-speaking southeastern Switzerland.  Although we were tired after a day of travel, we heaved our bags into the back of their car and climbed in for the ride up to their alp for milking. The alp is a remote mountain valley up at 1500 meters, where their 37 milk cows and 75 young cows (some theirs, some boarding for the summer) spend the summer feasting on nourishing grass. In October, the cows will descend back to the milder climate of the low pastures near Chateau d’Oex for the fall and winter. Cows and cheese are a big deal around here, and we were excited to explore this Swiss tradition by delving into the life of a working farm. After about 20 minutes winding up the valleys, we arrived at the alp. We helped Nicholas round up the cows from their past...