When I was a little girl, I enjoyed making jigsaw puzzles. My parents encouraged this hobby, and I remember we’d frequently visit a little toy shop in my hometown in India, and I would always ask if they had any new jigsaw puzzles in stock.

One year, they had a few 300-piece puzzles in stock and my parents bought the lot! These included the St. Basil’s Cathedral Moscow, a lovely English cottage, a beautiful floral landscape and a quaint little church nestled in the midst of mountains. Each puzzle had the name of the location printed on the inside cover. The quaint little church was located in Bavaria, Germany. That’s all I knew about it.

I loved all my jigsaw puzzles and kept them nicely, counting all the pieces before putting them away, and keeping them safe from my younger sister who wanted to play tazos with the pieces! 😄

However, as she grew up, she became interested in puzzles too, and we spent many a summer vacation playing with the jigsaw puzzles we’d collected over the years. They’re priceless treasures and I cherish all the memories made while making them.

Little did I know that decades later, one day I would actually be able to visit the little church that I spent so many hours constructing from puzzle pieces! The church is called St. Sebastian’s Church and is located in a little town called Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps.

I cannot begin to describe how wonderful I felt when I got off the bus right in front of the church that I knew like the back of my hand! I remembered every corner, every wall, the shape of the tower, the trees and even the bridge across the little brooke that flows in front of it! I walked around, taking it all in. Everything felt so strangely familiar. It was like meeting an old friend, a pen pal in person!

It was a surreal experience and truly one of the best birthday experiences I’ve ever had!