My Bahá'í Pilgrimage During a Crazy Global Pandemic
March 1, 2020
Post 5: Once Upon a Time, in a Swiss Castle
[Post 4] [Post 6]
Last night, our fabulous Airbnb host stopped by to refill our complimentary stash of coffee, which Travis and Dad were overjoyed about. She also shared that she had visited Chateau de Chillon (a famous Swiss castle) for the first time ever that day.
“Have you gone yet?” she asked. We hadn’t, but funnily enough, we had considered going that very day! “You have to go. It’s amazing,” she told us. “And when you do, take the Juan Pass. It’s a longer drive, but it has a breathtaking views of the moutains.”
We thanked her and told her we definitely would.
Whoa. The castle was on our itinerary, and now we had a recommendation for a special route to get there. Confirmation strikes again!
Pictures don't fully capture the majesty of these mountains. They were mesmerizing...
Our host was right. The route we took through Juan Pass was breathtaking. Most roads in Switzerland are beautiful, but this was like driving through postcard after postcard of pristine views. We rolled down the windows and blasted “The Hills Are Alive” from The Sound of Music soundtrack and sang it at the top of our lungs.
We stopped every five minutes for an impromptu photoshoot. It was just us and the Alps.
“Well, this is too cool, guys,” Dad frequently declared.
Travis, being a writer and a poet, said things like, “The peaks are glowing like celestial halos!”
Katie was in a photographer’s heaven and constantly snapped pictures. I just agreed with everything everyone said while I dabbed tears of gratitude from my eyes, lol. It all felt like a dream.
When we reached the castle, the dream became a fairy tale. Towering proudly on the rocky edge of a clear lake, Chateau de Chillon was enchanting and mysterious.
Queen Katie welcoming us to Chateau de Chillon. :)
The windows were gorgeous, and so was the view of the lake!
We’d never seen a castle before. It was actually a little intimidating. The stern stone walls were riddled with narrow slits where soldiers used to shoot arrows at their enemies. I wouldn’t want to mess with this chateau!
The castle was more welcoming inside. There were so many rooms to explore: dining halls with massive fireplaces, bedrooms with delicately painted walls—even a creepy secret passageway in a royal chamber!
I wondered what stories these old walls held. Chillon was a popular place hundreds of years ago. Just like today, people from all over Europe would come to visit. I understood the appeal. It was comforting to be surrounded by those thick, formidable walls. I imagined living there with my family, once upon a time.
I would NOT want to be Cinderella in this castle. It would take ages to clean those fireplaces!
Then we ventured down to the dungeon. It was cold, and only pale slivers of light from the narrow windows illumined the rough rock walls. The prisoners had been chained to giant pillars with nothing but the stone beneath them for comfort. It reminded me of when Bahá'u'lláh was unjustly imprisoned in an underground dungeon known as the “Black Pit,” where there was no light at all, and prisoners were linked together with heavy chains that left scars on their necks. That story always haunts me. Just the thought of being chained to the pillars in this dungeon was chilling enough. Not everyone who came to this castle had a “happily ever after.”
The prison was haunting. I wonder how many prisoners were chained to these pillars?
But I remembered that Bahá'u'lláh did not despair. Though He was shackled in filth, no earthly dungeon could chain His spirit. He chanted a prayer with His fellow prisoners: “God is sufficient unto me; He verily is the All-sufficing! In Him let the trusting trust.” Their voices were so loud that the sháh who had imprisoned them heard their joyful cries from his palace. In any earthly location, Bahá'u'lláh was an inmate of heavenly paradise. He suffered to share teachings that can free humanity from its prison of hatred and disunity. Reflecting on this made me feel even more grateful to be heading to our pilgrimage in Haifa.
It was raining when we left the castle. As we drove back through the storm to our Airbnb, Katie sighed from the passenger seat. “The coronavirus is spreading in Switzerland now. There are cases in Zurich and Geneva.”
I grimaced. If Switzerland got bad, Israel might ban anyone who had travelled through, just like it had with Italy. Which would mean we couldn’t make it to Haifa for pilgrimage.
We only had three more days left in Switzerland before we flew to Greece (where there was only one confirmed case). We were optimistic that we would make it out before things got too bad.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel like we heard the faint jingling of a jailer’s keys not far behind us.
Travel82 Blogs37 Castles4 Prison6 Nature162 Families76 Cultures128 Pandemic23