Genoa, Geneva, Gex...

We are back in our comfortable little cottage in La Garde Freinet. We need some down time. It's been go, go, go since we left. We're too old for all this: 3 countries, 3 major cities, 4 small towns, two lengthy train rides, a boat ride, 2 hostels (one of them twice), 2 castles, several churches with belfries, a huge garage sale, a birthday party, and a partridge in a pear tree all in eleven days! The weather quite cold (near freezing) in Gex near Geneva is balmy now down here in the south. The chestnuts have dropped since we left and the grape leaves are turning red and gold. Now that I'm back with my familiar Mac and American keyboard I'm going to transcribe some of my musings and simply upload with the next internet connection. It may not be in exact chronological order but you'll the general idea. Hell, it was easier to keep connected in Thailand and Nepal than here! 

I lost my internet connection while posting our experiences in Gex so I wasn't able to express my gratitude and appreciation for the hospitality shown to us by the Allex family. Friends since a Rotary Club exchange program between my sister and Pierre's sister 35 years ago we once again invited ourselves to impose on their hospitality. Six years ago they allowed us to be part of their family and again their warmth and generosity is overwhelming. Diane, after a visit to her native Poland, arrives the day after we do and puts her home back together after Pierre and the girls have been home alone for a month, arranges meals, and makes us feel comfortable; while Pierre puts his business on hold to entertain and show us the local sites. At the same time, daughter, Dorothy, turns 18 and is given a surprise breakfast by 6 of her girlfriends with celebratory assist from us with cake from the local patisserie and the Happy Birthday song. 

These moments; sometimes brief with the playful fleeting interaction of a child, or time spent engaged in incomprehensible conversation and pantomime with a helpful stranger; or three intimate  days of closeness and intrusion into the lives of friends. Novel for us but no more exotic for them than yet again visiting local tourist attractions or repeatedly and patiently tolerating an American's attempt at learning a language that results only in rare identifiable nouns and often misused conjugation, is what makes all this worthwhile.

 The insecurity of travel, the feelings of helplessness and dependency, the chasing after trains hauling luggage with broken zippers, the occasional overcharge at cafes and the frequent night on hard lumpy beds in cramped hostel bedrooms is all compensated by the kindness of strangers, the 2 hour lunches and the thousand year old buildings. 

We Americans forget, or indeed don't even know, that there is a whole world out here this is different. They talk different. They eat different. They pray different. But, they talk, eat, and pray. And there are a lot of them-these different people; and I travel to acknowledge these differences, least I forget the diversity that exists not only on a globular scale but within the bounds of my own secular place. Thank you Pierre, Diane, Dorothy and Caroline.