We left Dulles airport in Washington at 7:00 PM, Friday evening, June 25, 1993 and landed in Zurich on Saturday at 10:30 AM. Our flight was by Swissair on a 747. What an airline. They seemed only concerned about our creature comforts, and it seemed we were fed throughout the flight. On the way home, we got to fly on the second level.

Since we had the first day free, Mary and I took the train from our hotel in Regensdorf and traveled to downtown Zurich. We walked down along the Limmat into the old city. I wanted to see the Grossmunster, which was Ulrich Zwingli's church. Zwingli was the founder of the Reformed church in Switzerland. That was quite an experience. From there we walked out on the Munster bridge and took pictures of the Stadthaus. It was on this site that my ancestor Hans Landis was executed because he was an Anabaptist. We walked back up to the railroad station. Near the station, we had supper at an outdoor Indian restaurant. Of course, we had curried chicken with fruit in it. Absolutely delicious. Then we rode the train back to Regensdorf for a group meeting at 6:00 PM with our tour guide.

On the flight to Europe, I developed an extremely sore spot on the gum below my left , rear, lower molar. Later Saturday night, the tooth started hurting. By the next morning, I was pretty sure the tooth was abscessed. I said something to the tour guide, and she said she would see what we could do when we got to St. Moritz that evening.

We left that morning by motor coach and drove across Northern Switzerland, traveling through the canton of Appenzell. That is where our Hershey ancestors had lived. We stopped in the village of Appenzell to see an old church. Later that morning we reached the Rhine river and drove South to Lichtenstein. We ate lunch in Lichtenstein, but didn’t see the prince, although we could look up to the castle. From there we drove across the Alps, crossing on the Julier Pass, a pass used by the ancient Romans and drove into St. Moritz. What a spectacular drive. When we arrived in St. Moritz, the tour guide made arrangements for me to see a dentist. He was rather loathe to do anything since his nurse had gone home for the day. The appointment was at 6:00 PM on a Sunday night. He took an x-ray, and couldn't see any sign of abscess at the root, but he said there was some periodontal infection. He gave me some pain pills and sent me on my way. Charged 120 Francs, about $84.00 The pain pills didn't do much more than the 600 mg Ibuprofen I had with me for my back pain.

When we left the dentist’s office, we decided to walk back to the hotel. I t was about 6 blocks. Well, we took the wrong direction. After about 10 minutes, I knew we were lost. Worse yet, I couldn't remember the name of the hotel where we were staying. The hotel key had nothing printed on it. What to do? We stopped at a hotel near where we were standing. I asked the girl at the desk if she spoke English. She said she did. I said, "I'm in serious trouble.", and I told her my story. She asked if we could describe the hotel. Since we had entered the hotel by the rear, that wasn’t much help. She then got on the phone, and called several places until she found out where we were registered. I asked her to call a cab, and she gave us a brochure with the hotel on it. The cabby took us there. What a relief. I was in a real panic. Needless to say, I gave that girl a nice tip.

The next morning we left St. Moritz on a train that crossed the Alps to Tirano, Italy. There we had lunch at an outdoor restaurant. Real Italian Pizza. Absolutely delicious. We also had a glass of red wine. Wine is cheaper there than soft drinks. However, I sure missed cold water. We never saw a drinking fountain any place in Switzerland. Some restaurants served you water if you asked, but some even charged you for it. Every evening when I reached our hotel, the first thing I would do was drink about 4 glasses of tap water. Not very cold, but it surely hit the spot. By this time, my cheek was starting to swell. That afternoon we drove through Italy. Saw beautiful scenery in the Italian Alps and finally came down through vineyard country and crossed the border near Lugano. There we spent the night, and what a night it was.

This was the worst hotel on t bought some antibiotics and some more pain pills. I found you could easily get antibiotics and pain pills in Europe without a prescription. The antibiotics kind of kept the swelling from getting worse, but I was making no headway with the infection. We saw lots of vineyards, and bought some ice cream along Lake Maggiore. Then we went back into Switzerland via the Simplon Pass and drove into Tasch. Incidentally, about 5 miles out of Tasch, the bus broke down and we had to wait for a replacement. Got in to Tasch about 7:00 PM. No chance to see a dentist that night. We had a good supper at the hotel, but I had to leave in the middle of the meal. Chewing was just too painful. I spent the next hour and a half in bed, writhing in pain before the pain pills took effect. Finally, it began to subside.

The next morning we took a cog railroad to Zermatt, where we hoped to see the Matterhorn. However, it was too cloudy and we could not see the mountain. We bought some fresh fruit for lunch at Zermatt. The tour guide tried to get me a dentist in Zermatt. We walked quite a few blocks to where there was a dental office. A sign on the door said he would not open this office until July 12. That took care of that. We were to be back at Tasch by 1:00 PM. Well, wouldn’t you know one of the ladies tried to board the train on the wrong side, and it started to go while she was trying to board. Her friend tried to pull her in. She fell and was dragged along the platform for some distance. She went to a doctor, and it was 3:00 PM by the time we left Tasch for Lausanne. She was lucky that she only had some nasty brushburns. However, she was quite shaken up by the experience.

I forgot to tell you that there two young ladies in our group who were citizens of Japan. Their agent failed to get them Visas to go in to Italy. Hence, they had to leave the tour and they rejoined us at Tasch. The tourguide had to make last minute arrangements for them to do this. More trouble still to come.

We finally left for Lausanne, and motored through the vineyards and apricot groves in the lower Rhone Valley and arrived in Lausanne quite late. Again we were too late to see a dentist that night. By now, my cheek was quite swollen. I did get some more antibiotics in Zermatt. By this time I was fighting a losing battle with the infection. Mary and I did have a wonderful dinner at a French Bar in Lausanne. Our appetizer or entree as they called it was tomatoes and mozzarella cheese balls in herbs, swimming in olive oil. Absolutely scrumptious. We also had a huge salad for our main course. It was tough eating, but I managed. Here we stayed at the City Hotel, the most modern hotel on our whole tour. The next morning we left early. This was a busy day. We visited a cheese factory at Gruyere, went on to Berne, where we saw the famous clock, the bear pits, and the Federal Palace. We had lunch in a cafeteria. One of the ladies had her passport and plane ticket taken from her purse while she was paying for lunch. That meant that the tourguide had to make arrangements for her to go to Zurich the next day to the embassy to have her passport replaced. She also had to go to the police station to file a report. Replacing the airline ticket was pretty easy they said compared to having her passport replaced. Anyway they accomplished it.

Meanwhile, let’s return to the city of Berne. My Martin ancestors hailed from the Canton of Berne. Mary and I ate lunch in a little coffee shop along the Aar River (Of course the Aar is familiar to all you crossword fanatics). Here we found some benches along the river bank. We had about an hour to just sit and relax before the bus left. An old lady sat down beside me, who spoke no English. I knew only a few words in German. However, we ended up having quite a conversation. She taught me a little German, and we used sign language. Lots of fun. Early in the afternoon, we left Berne and drove to Interlaken where we got a hazy glimpse of the align="justify">Mary and I took a train from Luzerne back to the hotel in Lungern. I really ate well that evening, although my gum was still quite sore. The next morning the coach took us to the airport at Zurich, and we flew home, arriving at Philadelphia at 5:00 PM, where a bus was waiting to take us back to Lancaster. We were quite tired when we arrived home.

The next morning, July 4, I had to be at church, since they were going to use one of the hymns I wrote, and I was to be there to introduce it. We got there, but Jet Lag was in strong evidence. My tooth got sorer and sorer as the weekend wore on. Mostly it was my gum that was sore now. On Tuesday morning, I called my periodontist, and he saw me right away. He set me up for surgery on Thursday, July 8. He cleaned another pocket of pus out, but thought the tooth was not involved. Friday, I called him and said I felt pretty good, but the tooth was still draining pus.

On Sunday, Mary and Ellen (my daughter) and I and a bass sang in a quartet at a special Sunday School program on Music and Faith. At that time I presented the second hymn text that I wrote. I also harmonized the melody on this one. I thought it went quite well. However, my tooth was getting sorer and sorer. Monday I called the periodontist and told him I am sure the tooth is abscessed. He looked at it, and agreed with me. However, he wanted me to see an endodontist to decide whether the tooth should be pulled or if I should have a root canal done. He said if it is to be pulled, he will pull it without charge. The endodontist said the tooth was not worth saving, so Tuesday morning I had it pulled. What a relief. However, this is not the end of the story.

Through out this whole experience, I had a very sore spot on the gum below the tooth. It felt like something sharp inside. I thought it was the jawbone. Finally, on Friday of the next week, I rubbed the gum through. and this whole jagged edge of what I thought was bone was exposed. The soreness healed up almost immediately. But, I knew that exposed bone had to be dealt with eventually. One night I made up my mind that I was going to call the periodontist to have this taken care of. However, on exploring it with my finger, I noticed it was loose. I began to wiggle it some more, and finally worked it loose to the point where it popped out. I had broken this tooth about a month ago, and my dentist did a buildup in anticipation of putting a crown on. Evidently, the tooth was infected for some time, and the bone began to deteriorate. It finally worked its way out of the gum The tooth and gum finally healed.

I apologize for boring you with this long saga about my dental woes, but the whole thing is so tied up in my mind with the Switzerland trip that I can hardly separate them. It is a trip we will never forget, and I am sure that as time goes on we will forget the bad and remember the trip for what it really was, the trip of a lifetime. I had wanted to take this trip since I was a boy. I'm so glad we went.