On Tuesday 26th, all of our worldly chattels were wrapped and packed into a 40 foot container. Not just the household stuff, but the cherished Lotus Elise was also backed into the same container, after which the container doors were locked and sealed.
The Argentinian truck driver told me that he would take the container over the Alps to Basel where it would be transferred to a train for the leg to the port of Hamburg. At Hamburg, it will be put onto a Maersk container ship with 6,999 other container friends for its passage to Australia.
Then we left Via Belvedere for the very last time .... to have a last supper at our favourite pizzeria, La Bettola, with Kevin, Cornelia and Astrid. Kevin is our mad English friend in Lugano whom I met hiking one day. Shortly afterward we met his girlfriend, Cornelia, who is a fair-dinkum Ticinese girl. Shortly after that, they got married rather hurriedly and we met the lovely Astrid, Cornelia's mum.
No, the quick wedding was not what you think. It had to do with Swiss and rules and procedures. Because Kevin was a foreigner, he had to get a permit to marry a local. To receive his permit, he had to have a church booked. Churches generally will not allow you to book in churches outside your little area ... and they will only book a short distance ahead of time.
In the end, it was a fantastic wedding ... with Cornelia's street entertainer friends providing the music and entertainment.
The following and final night was spent in a little Albergo in Gandria … very pleasant but quite a hike from Lugano and especially from the train station where we were to catch our train to Geneva. Karen says that Switzerland was sad to see us go because tears fell from the clouds all the way to Geneva.
Geneva evening was lovely ... visiting our favourite pizzeria (Pomodoro) with Neil and Sue. Friday saw us finally leave Switzerland head up through France to paris. Beautifully quiet and peaceful journey on a TGV ... made even more quiet and peaceful when a train in front broke down and we had to sit stationary for 2 hours waiting for the broken train to be pushed out of the way.
Apart from being a bit weary arriving in Paris, we were also very sad ... because as we lugged our bags out of the Metro station ... I bumped the bag and broke the last remaining fine red wine that I've lugged around the world. We were keeping the 1989 Grange Hermitage for a special occasion enroute, but now it's splashed across a Metro platform.
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