World Men à la Mode

Chapter Thirteen - Churches

        Your last full day in Switzerland had arrived. It felt like you had only been there for a few hours, but it had really been two, almost three, full days in the country of banks and chocolates. You wondered what the day would hold for you as you brushed out your hair, waiting for Samantha to finish using the bathroom so you could get ready as well. While you waited, you checked the weather forecast for the day to make sure you dressed appropriately for the weather.

        Samantha finally exited the bathroom, carrying an arm full of her belongings with her. You ushered yourself in and quickly took a shower, blow drying your hair immediately afterward. You put on a minimal amount of makeup and dressed yourself before completing your morning routine and exiting the bathroom with your things. You packed away what you wouldn't need for the day so you wouldn't have much to pack up whenever you'd leave for your next destination, which you weren't completely sure what country it was. You never really knew where you were headed off to next until Alfred or whichever local tour director you were with at the time announced it the day before you left.

        The two of you exited the room with your day bags and headed to the dining room for breakfast. You were the first ones there, but you weren't the last ones either. Once the whole group was together, you all grabbed your breakfast and happily ate. You made idle chit chat with Lily and Valerie throughout it. Breakfast concluded after roughly a half hour. Basch then cleared his throat to grab your attention before speaking.

        "Okay... So, uh..." He glanced over to Alfred for help, but the shorter haired blond urged him to continue speaking. "Our first stop today will be at Grossmünster, which is a twelfth-century cathedral here in Zürich. Afterward we'll be going to to Fraumünster, which is yet another cathedral, but this one is an eleventh-century one, so it's old as dirt..."

        A few of the girls giggled at his speech.

        "We'll stop for lunch after that. It'll be your choice and you'll have two hours of free time to do it and shop a little. Then we'll be on a Dada art tour around the city before getting dinner. Our final stop will be at Urania Sternwarte, an observatory. We then head back to the hotel. You'll have a little time to sleep, but you have a flight at two in the morning?" Basch looked to Alfred for confirmation, to which your tour director nodded. "Yeah, two in the morning. You'll be headed to Amsterdam."

        "WOOOO! AMSTERDAM!" Charlotte cheered.

        Everyone blinked at her for a moment before bursting out laughing.

        "Alright! To the bus!" Alfred declared after his laughing fit had ceased.

        The group headed to the bus and made its way to Grossmünster first. The building was somewhat modern-looking in your eyes, even though the outside was sort of far from it. You could see Fraumünster from across the Limmat river, standing tall as ever. Basch caught everyone's attention before talking about the history of both churches.

        "So, Grossmünster is the younger of the two churches we're visiting by a century, though some people will disagree considering who founded and or commissioned the churches. According to Zürich legend, Charlemagne commissioned this church to be built. What you see today of the Romanesque-building started to be built in 1100 AD. The church used to be a momentary back through the Middle Ages and, as I said before, commissioned by Charlemagne after his horse went to its knees over the tombs of our two patron saints or Zürich. It's also been found through recent years of archaeological study that the church is home to a Roman burial ground, but am I really surprised at that? No. That with the way the church looks." He cleared his throat before speaking again. "Now, Fraumünster is another story. That church was commissioned by Louis the German, the grandson of Charlemagne, for his daughter, Hildegard, in 853. The current church was built on the remains of an abbey for aristocratic women of the time. Louis granted the abbey immunity and it went through some power gains and wanes throughout its life before being dissolved in 1524 AD by Huldyrch Zwingli, no relation to me, during his reforms."

        Basch gave the tour of Grossmünster and explained some of the paintings and alters to the group before walking everyone over to Fraumünster. He did some more explaining during the tour and pointed out the stained glass windows specifically.

        "These five were created by Mark Chagall and installed in 1970. Each depicts a Biblical story. I'm not going to explain them, because I don't want to go into too much detail, but they look cool and have been named the Chagall Windows after the artist. The other stained glass window over there was created by Augusto Giacometti in 1940. Now, I'm going to take you to the crypt of the church. A lot of its religious artifacts have been sealed away down here until recently."

        You got to see part of the crypt before leaving but not all of it since it was a little crowded down there. Afterward, you all went out to lunch as a group and did some shopping before doing the Dada art tour on the bus. Dinner came and went, as did the observatory, which put on an amazing program while you were there. With energy still left in the group, you boarded the bus one final time that night and headed back to the hotel. No one really slept, just as Basch had predicted. Everyone was too excited to move on to the next city considering it was Amsterdam. When midnight rolled around, Alfred gathered everyone so they could say their goodbyes to Basch.

        As you bid your farewell to the Swiss male, you handed you a piece of paper. He explained that it was his phone number and email, saying that if you ever wanted to talk or visit again, that you should let him know. You smiled and kissed him on the cheek, telling him that you'd be sure to do that. You left him a blushing mess before boarding the bus with your suitcase and carry-on bag with your friends so you wouldn't be late to the airport.

~Author's Note~

DreamsForDays here! It's on time this week! Yay! It's a little on the shorter side again, but guess what? Our favorite Dutch guy is about to make his appearance! I've never written for the Netherlands before, so I'm hoping a can nail his character. I'm not sure how well I did with Switzerland, but I hope he wasn't too OOC. Anyway, that's all for now! Thanks for reading! Feedback in the comments is always appreciated! Until next time!