Cafe LaCoste

German desserts often look better than they are, but not if baked by Cafe LaCoste - they are every bit as good as they look. I hope you visit us someday - we'll be pleased to treat you to some of these!

Kandern is a quaint town, 1230 years old - that's right, founded in 776 AD! Thus it has narrow, crooked streets, lined with buildings dating back hundreds of years. It's at the confluence of two small mountain streams, and at one time had a few mills to show for the water power.

Kandern has three fine grocery stores, the usual banks and offices, and a hardware store, Schneider's, that brings one back to the days when a store had everything in one little place - be it in bins and boxes or whatever. We actually rarely need to leave Kandern. And that suits us just fine.

Many of our Christmas traditions, including the Yule tree, originated here in Germany. It is a wonderful place to be during the Christmas season. It helps that it's not minus 30 degrees Celsius too!

Ocean

The sun shone beautifully today, and in late afternoon we headed up into the hills around Kandern. Good friends, Ted & Betty Dick, were with us. Not more than 7 kilometers out, a bank of fog rolled in from France, completely obscuring the landscapes we had hoped to see. Blauen ("The Blue One"), looming some 800 meters above our valley, provides the best views. Might we rise high enough to penetrate the fog?

The view from below had been one of gloom and greyness. But from on top, it was as though we had emerged from a misty ocean, an ocean which pushed into the bays formed by the hills as they descended toward the Rhein River to the West. There was no trace of the many towns and roads below us - a normally busy scene had been transformed into one of complete tranquility.

The transformation we witnessed reminds me of God's work in our lives. What appears to us as fog and disappointment, He changes to a thing of beauty, peace and joy. I think He will do this with my ALS as well.