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| Switzerland |
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| Bern Map |
The next day we got a late start but got a group lift to Baden with a girl from Frebourg. Baden is a nice small place which is supposed to have hot mineral springs.
We slept overnight in the doorway of the youth hostel. It was warm but a bit hard, actually very hard.
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| Zurich Youth Hostel Brochure |
Having had enough of the big cities of Switzerland, we decided to return to Lausanne. We found ourselves once more on the road with our thumbs out and frozen feet. A young just-married Japanese couple stopped and picked us up in their rented Mercedes.
They thought everything was fun and laughed like crazy as we motored along - they were taking two weeks to see all of Europe by car.
They dropped us at Interlaken, a small town between high lakes and surrounded by mountains. It was the most beautiful place we visited in Switzerland: a combination of snow, mist, lake and mountain. But as the Youth Hostel was closed, we had to stay in a small private hostel which was of course more expensive. However we joined some Americans who were also staying there and decided to have a small party.
After a breakfast of hot chocolate and rolls we departed leaving behind us a couple of hung over Americans. Walking in the brisk morning mountain we headed out of town.Luck was on our side as a car pulled up almost straight away on its way to Thun. There we picked up a lift to Bern, for a third time, and after walking a fair distance we settled down to serious business: we had lunch among the autumn leaves of rich and varied colours.
Downing the last drop of our apricot juice we were our feet again in search of a good hitching spot. We must have found it, as another car pulled up and we were on the move once more. The last ride to Lausanne was in a speeding Fiat 124 - the driver had visions that it was a Ferrari and had to show us how fast it could go fully loaded! We were dropped outside the city and caught a bus into Lutry where we spent a few days with Michelle and Jean-Pierre, mucking around before we made for Paris.
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| Boat cruise brochure |
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| Boat on Lac Laman |
Staying in one place for a while with Michelle and Jean-Pierre meant that we could send and receive some correspondence with Australia and friends we's met on our travels - our only method of communication . Every now and then we relied on Post Restante (where a post office holds letters for you) but that was pretty hit-and-miss. I received a letter from Rhonda which said that she was in Germany, playing at being chambermaid with Elvie in a mountain hotel Ettal in Germany.
Danielle wrote "I am now at the library where showing a photo passport and filling out a form is required just to go in and look at a couple of books and to sit down and read. It's got one thing going for it though it's free, so having a couple of hours to kill before lunch. I am therefore waiting writing this drivel to pass the time away". I helped with designing and producing graphics and signs for John-Pierre's shop.
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| Danielle, Regis, Jean-Pierre and Michelle in the snow |
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| Jean-Pierre, Regis and Michelle |
Jean-Pierre was not the most relaxing driver, and reminded us of the maniacal guy in the Fiat 124 who gave us a lift to Lausanne - except Jean-Pierre was driving a Volvo sedan with 4 adults and a child. Danielle recalled that he used to be in car racing, possibly that's why, on the way back, in the dense fog, in the late afternoon, on the winding road he tailgated the car in front and scared the life out of us.
Over the next few days, we read a bit and received and sent a few letters.
Together we all went to the Lausanne the Vivarium, but apart from mouse eating owls, a gigantic spider, and masturbating bats, was not very exciting.
We also watched an episode of the TV series "Prisoner" with Patrick McGoohan on TV dubbed into French - that was interesting.
It was now mid-November and we decided to leave for Paris to try and get some work. We were delayed by rain, so postponed leaving for a couple of days.
