From Interlaken, we drove a few hours to the canton (district) of Graubunden
near the Austrian border.
We had learned all about where Rosa was born (my great grandmother),
but upon arriving in Canada, she married a nice Swiss boy by the last name of Mueller,
whose family came from this area via Wisconsin.
In fact, his father was born in St. Antonien, so we booked a B&B there.
We exited the main highway understanding that we had
10 or so kilometers to go before reaching St. Antonien.
We had no idea it would take us on an amazing winding road that just kept
climbing and climbing and climbing!
We immediately fell in love with the tiny village. It is very quiet this time of year, though it does attract some skiers in the winter months.
The beautiful church in St. Antonien.
Another family name from this area is Flutsch.
It was fun to find this name carved inside the church along with the
other families belonging to the congregation.
My mom asked the proprietor of our B&B who the town expert was on family history.
We were excited to find yet another author who had written a book on the area we were interested in.
We asked to meet him. Our host came with us as interpreter.
At first he told us that all copies of the book were sold, but by the end of our time
together, he had tracked down one more copy. We were thrilled.
Now we just need a German interpreter to help us understand it!
He also suggested we speak to the woman who cares for the museum,
so he took us across the street and knocked on her door.
She grabbed her keys and crossed the parking lot to open the small village museum.
There were many pictures and artifacts of days gone by.
This was how the village looked when my great great grandfather lived here.
It's not a whole lot different today.
The boys were so in love the area, they begged to stay another day.
It helped that they heard of a special hike up through the mountains that sounded amazing.
We cozied up by the fire in our chalet, drank some hot chocolate, and dreamed of
the hike we were planning for the following morning.
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