There is a time to start and a time to end. This story has to be finished and for those of you who were reading it during the company hour, you've got to get back to work :-). Those who took a break from their study, you better get back to your thesis work :-). Well my friends, I told you earlier that we loved Milan. Actually, after we had the time to digest all our experiences in the 5 European cities we visited this time, we loved them all. Each city was unique and brought good memories, including the 'free tour' to Murano :-). It was compounded by our 'luck' that we met C and H in Zurich who offered us to stay at their apartment on our last night in Europe after we arrived back from Salzburg. Imagine if we had to go to Camping Seebuch and endured the hassle of just one night camping. I might not be able to smile back to all the Singapore Airlines stewardesses on our Zurich-Singapore flight :-).
Our train from Salzburg, after passing many beautiful and scenic places around the border of Austria and Switzerland, arrived around noon on May 21. Knowing Zurich well then, we stored our backpacks at the train station and we took advantage of our Eurailpass. Its holder was entitled to a free Lake Zurich tour. However, because of the time, we took the shorter (one hour) version of the tour. It turned out that we were on the public boat (not an exclusive tour boat) that stopped at many places. Eventually getting bored as that lake was nothing special, we got out at a place called Kirchberg. The idea was to visit Lindt chocolate factory near there. Bad luck this time because the tour was only in the morning. Lonely Planet misguided us again when it said that visitors would get ample sample of free Lindt chocolate. It was a lie, cause we were offered only ONE small piece of Lindt chocolate. It was even smaller in size and less in quantity than those we gave to our neighbours' kids at Halloween time :-). No wonder Switzerland is a rich country :-).
I was kidding of course because C who was so generous with her time and everything else for us, picked us up at the station after we returned from our do-it-yourself tour. We had dinner together and continued chatting till the evening with her and her husband. I enjoyed talking to H because he has a hobby to visit hot countries like Indonesia and Kenya (safari). When I asked what is his favourite place in Indonesia, he said Bangka (island). I was alarmed and of course demanded a justification :-). He had been there several times and he said, the beaches were perfect. I didn't want to argue with my host, of course. But later on, without H knowing I verified his statement with my Bangka island relative who swore without the bible that H was right :-). Since my wife doesn't like hot places too much, I doubt that I will ever visit Bangka island. C showed us an exemplary generosity of an Indonesian, not only by driving us to the airport, but walked together to the departure gate on our last day in Europe, May 22. She could do so because she worked for Garuda Indonesia (airline) office in Zurich and thus has special privileges.
I have many friends and some of you guys do not believe in God which is fine with me. After all, in my birth country called Indonesia, it seems that the more people believe in God, the more determined they are to kill one another. So, whatever you believe in, the canoe "god", the cycling "deity", they all must have worked together with the God that I believe in making our European trip such a wonderful experience. Whether you gave us your blessings and prayed for us or you just said farewell, I thank you again for your prayers and your best wishes. It is Cecilia's belief and I had to agree with her if I still want to win in Scrabble :-) that it was more than just luck, we had Divine Providence. To our "sponsors" of this trip, our family and friends, danke schoen noch einmal, grazie mille, terima kasih berat. Please pray again for our next Australia and New Zealand trips, to start on June the 14th. :-) Greetings from Jakarta, bye for now.
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We have been to the Canadian Rockies but never to the Alps. Being a mountain climber when I was a youth in Indonesia, I had been reading about European mountains such as the Matterhorn, Zermatt, Jungfrau, etc. Even though we didn't have the time to visit those peaks, we were very satisfied with the scenic fiesta that were bestowed upon us when the train started to enter the Alps region in our Zurich-Milan route. What made it so beautiful and breathtaking was when we saw peaks with ice-caps and glaciers on one side of our view and turquoise green lakes on another side of the picture postcard scenery. I just wished I could paddle my canoe on those lakes :-). Lake Lugano which is not far from the Italian border was one of the most beautiful, no wonder it is a resort area for the Swiss and Italian people.
Zurich-Milan was the first of our allowed 5 days Eurailpass trip. There were only 2 wagons of 1st class fare, the rest were 2nd class wagons. However, they were almost empty. Throughout the 5 days we were able to have a private compartment (6 persons sitting) because there were not too many 1st class fare passengers. The trains in the 3 countries we travelled were pretty clean and so were the washrooms. Their schedules were quite precise, departing and arriving as planned. I love train travel because it allows me to do many things while on the train. We don't have to waste time going through security check and wait for hours like when we travel with airplane. We don't have to fight traffic, especially in the cities like when we go with car. Seating in a train first class compartment is even better than airplane 1st class, with one exception. There are no stewardesses to serve you :-) but if you fly Air Canada, only old ladies serve 1st class passengers anyway because it seems that one has to work for 25 years before being promoted to serve 1st class passengers in the North American airlines :-).
When the train passed Chiasso, Swiss border town after Lugano, the Italian immigration officer embarked and checked our passport. The train arrived at Milan central station at 3:35 PM, about 2 minutes difference from the written schedule. I haven't told you yet. There is no camping facility in Milan. The closest campground is in another town and it will be too long or a waste of time to go back and forth from that campground to Milan. The same thing in Venice. So we decided early to stay in a modest hotel in both Milan and Venice. Through our Europe Lonely Planet book, we were able to find the closest hotel to the station, Abergo Italia. The rate was not too bad for that one star hotel, 70 Euro per night. Our room was quite spacious and there was a bath or shower inside. We stayed for 4 nights in Milan and we enjoyed the city very much. We arrived on May 8 and thus had one more day preparation prior to celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary at the Duomo :-). One small note, besides US $ traveller's cheque, I also purchased (American Express) Euro T.C. It was not widely accepted yet. So I cashed them all in Milan at an Amex office. Milan's transportation system was one of the best in the cities we travelled. It has 3 main subway lines, M1 to M3 and numerous tram and buses. The best deal was to buy a 48 hours ticket that entitled us to use any kind of public transportation, 5.50 Euro. Like in Zurich, this was the way we do our own sightseeing and were able to go to many places in the city. We love Italian food and having a sweet-tooth, eating Gelato (Italian ice cream) outside a cafe was like sitting in a paradise for me :-).
Father Kusmaryanto joined us on our D-Day, May 10th, coming straight from Rome to bless us :-). Yes, he celebrated the Eucharist on our 25th wedding anniversary in Rome in AD 2000, together with 6 other Indonesian priests. I am looking forward however to the time he will graduate from his study and be able to celebrate my 30th wedding anniversary with him in Pasang Surut or Deso Musi Banyu Asin near Palembang :-). That's one of the reasons I keep exercising and try to be fit all the time. One needs superman energy to survive in that harsh environment.
After meeting Father Kus at the train station, since it was already late or lunch time, we went to a nice Italian restaurant and enjoyed another fine Italian meal, thanks to the Italiano ability of our translator :-). Then we went to the Duomo and prayed in front of Fr. Kus's patron saint, Carolus Borromeus whose body was rested in a crypt at the cathedral basement. We had prime and excellent time throughout our blessed May 10th day together with Fr. Kus.
However, in the next episode we will tell you about how pissed-off was the gentle Fr. Kus upon visiting JUST a dining room called Il Cenacolo where we had to pay 29 Euro for seeing a faded picture that was painted on the wall of that dining room :-). Take care my friends, hope you like my story so far. Ciao.
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Remember when I was disappointed that my young wife wouldn't want to walk 4 km with her pack from Zurich train station to the campground? I said, "When we were doing portaging you could carry your pack and sometimes the canoe for kilometres distance. How come you already gave up before the 'battle'?" Indeed she won the war and I was wrong because again and again, she was so loved by 'Oom Han' (intimate name for God used by Indonesian youth). A week before we left for Zurich, we went for our routine dental check-up. Mei-mei, the doctor's private 'dental assistant' :-) mentioned to us while helping her hubby whether we still remember C, our Indo friend who once lived in TO but then emigrated to Swiss and lives in Zurich. Of course but we didn't think of asking any help. To cut the story short, Madame a.k.a. Bu Tien of Toronto called C and we got a limo pick-up from the airport :-). C came with her Mercedesz and then drove us from the airport to the campground! To top that, C and her husband, a native Schweizer from Zurich invited us over for dinner the next day. Now you know more why I kept saying to you all, thank you always for your prayers :-).
As soon as we said farewell to C, we put up our tent and took an early siesta because we didn't sleep well on the short flight from Toronto to Zurich. A couple hours sleep was all that we needed before we started our venture to downtown Zurich. We learned first hand how expensive is everything in Switzerland when the campsite attendant told us the fee, 33.50 Swiss franc (Sfr) per night. On top of that fee, taking a shower at the campground would cost us another 2 Sfr for just 3 minutes. For Net addicts, cost of an Internet connection is 15 Sfr an hour. BTW, one Sfr is approximately the same as 1 Canadian dollar. Our campground was on the shore of Lake Zurich, about 4 km from the train station which is in downtown. We have to transfer from the bus to tram at a place called Buerkliplatz. All European bus and tram systems are not too complicated. Once we learn one system, it should be easy to learn another. Strolling along the famous street in Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse, where only the rich can afford to buy things, restored our confidence. We felt like a rich couple, sort of Japanese tourists who stayed at a five-star hotel and not at Camping Seebuch where we lived :-). After all, the Schweizer won't be able to distinguish our Indonesian from Japanese :-). Here on Banhofstrasse you would start to see big Swiss banks with signs, 'by appointment only'. I can only imagine the Indonesian tycoons going in and out to such banks.
Zurich is not a big city compared to say Milan or Vienna; it is much smaller than Toronto. Therefore, it was very convenient for us to do the city tour ourselves. We hopped on a tram after checking its route and compared or looked to the city map from time to time. This way we would know what building we were passing or which area we were in. The help of my small Suunto compass was very valuable especially at times where we emerged from the cities subways and wanted to go to certain places. As Cecilia once said, this is the main difference or advantage of doing your own tour than taking an arranged one. You are free to go to places where you would like to and you can take your own time once you are there. Almost in all package tours that we knew of, there was a gang-up between the tour provider and the local merchant. From time to time you would likely be whisked to places where you either would be hard-sold to buy the goods or would waste your time in a shop you hate :-).
If you recall, my friends at the IBM Toronto Lab showered me with gifts upon my retirement. A and M who took care of the shopping included a Cdn $ 100 gift certificate from MEC. Prior to our trip, while biking along with J and D my cycling buddies from the office, we went to Mountain Equipment Co-op for a shopping spree. I bought a new MSR gas stove and also its cooking set. They were excellent. Cooking rice was a breeze. Cecilia's estimate on the food we brought was near perfect too. Not too much, just enough to last. We ate our last rice meal in Salzburg and we didn't even throw one grain. I had to buy 2 canisters of Camping Gaz cartridges, unfortunately I had to leave the last one half-full because it wouldn't be allowed to board the plane with us :-). Zurich was still quite cold when we were there from May 6 till the 8th. Our down-filled sleeping bag, the fleece jacket and headband provided enough warm that we were able to sleep soundly, despite the train traffic by the campsite.
In spite of the pricey Zurich or Switzerland, we were happy and felt blessed upon seeing the beautiful scenery on our train journey from Zurich to Milan on May 8. I will tell you more about this Alpine route beauty in the next episode. Till then, auf wiedersehen.

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