October 4, 2001 ("Meanderings...." The Final Chapter)
Hi, All!
The trip is over and we're home safely now. In fact, Jay has already had his
back surgery (which went well, thank you!) But I thought you'd like to hear
about the final days of our Model A European Tour, so here it goes...
On Sept. 26th, we took a chartered (people) boat across Lake Lucerne to the city
of Lucerne. It was sunny today -- blue, blue lake; green hills close by; and
snow-capped peaks just beyond the green ones. Couldn't have picked better
weather for a walking tour of the historic city center with its covered wooden
bridges and ancient churches of many faiths. We returned to the hotel via the
the public ferry, which took the scenic (but slow) route, stopping at many
villages along the edge of the lake.
On Sept. 27th, we took the car ferry across the lake to Weggis, then on to
Affoltern, where we all med for a "dairy tour" (of a Swiss cheese factory, of
course!) and lunch. Beautiful weather again -- and we had a surprise concern of
yodeling! I had never appreciated yodeling before, but this group was REALLY
good. During the tour of the dairy, I noticed a display of colorful ceramics.
Both Gordon and Kendra had previously mentioned that Dorothy likes ceramic
tiles, but these beautiful ceramics were not in the dairy's gift shop. We asked
Werner to translate the sign in the display
case and learned that there was a shop nearby. So, we three cars abandoned the
hum-drum, planned afternoon route to that night's hotel and went in search of "AEBI"
ceramics... We knew the name of the shop and the town -- and off we went! When
we got to the town, we had a choice of turning left or right...a 50% chance of
doing it correctly, right? We chose right and within a couple of blocks, I saw
the sign "AEBI" and triumphantly motioned everyone over. Well, it was a
MUNITIONS store -- and a very large, very complete one. If Dorothy had wanted an
AK-47, we could have gotten her one, but there were no ceramics in sight. The
young man (with limited English) simply said "Ah HAH!" when we asked about AEBI
ceramics. He directed us back the way we had come and we continued to the end of
town before we got out to ask for more directions. This shop lady spoke NO
English and replied "Ah HAH!" when we inquired about AEBI ceramics. (Is this a
standard Swiss response -- or were we THAT weird to everyone?) Through a mixture
of broken German, Italian and very creative sign language, she sent us back in
our original direction, past the munitions shop (you can image the sign language
for THAT) and on to the ceramics factory. Adhering to Carla's motto "A good
story is never too expensive), we all bought ceramic souvenirs of this escapade.
(Dorothy, I hope you like the ceramic tray Gordon chose better than an AK-47!)
After our afternoon's adventure, there was still one last surprise at our
hotel...Gordon's and Kendra's room was in an attic loft! You actually had to
walk through unfinished attic to reach it -- picturesque, but it had reasonable
beds and a private bath -- what more could you ask?
On Sept. 28th, we headed for the port in Basel to drop off the cars. A sad day
in some ways...and the most challenging in terms of navigation. With six pages
of directions, we led our little three-car group fearlessly toward the large and
confusing city of Basel, then right downtown... Halfway
through the sixth page of directions (in the heart of a very BUSY downtown), a
bee stung me! Well, I proceeded to get us lost and Jay kept trying to find a
place we could all pull over -- we almost got hit by a street car (or was it a
train?) -- we managed to avoid crossing the border into France, but
we got very lost leaving downtown before we could pull over. Finally, we were
able to stop so I could tend to the bee sting and we could all study our maps.
Fortunately, a taxi driver happened by. We stopped him to ask directions then
someone had a MARVELOUS idea...We hired him! He very gallantly led us back
downtown and to the port (what a cute parade we must have made!) He didn't have
time for a ride in a Model A, but he really wanted his photo taken with one of
the cars, which we will send to him shortly with additional expressions of
appreciation!
After turning in the cars, things were somewhat anticlimactic. We took a bus to
our hotel in Zurich, had a free evening and full day in Zurich, all got together
for a farewell dinner, then spent a long day traveling to get back home. (In
Kendra's case, it was TWO long days.) In any case, we all arrived home safely
and are adjusting to Pacific Standard Time again. We took a lot of photos, which
we've already had developed but haven't sorted through yet. Hopefully, Adina
will be able to put some of the best up on our website soon.
Our best to all of you,
Pat and Jay
