Today’s jolly jaunt was to Bern, for lunch with Pam, Geoff, Lesley and Carlo. It meant an early start: the 08:18 from Bellinzona, with a change in Luzern, and we got to Bern bang on time at 11:00 after a beautiful ride through several Cantons. As we approached Bern we had fine views of the snowy Oberland. Back in the 1990s I frequently took the train to Bern for business meetings with intransigent interlocutors (whose ability I nevertheless respect), and the beautiful views helped to take the sting out of the experience.
Before I leave the subject of train journeys, I need to express sympathy for the people in the train ahead of ours last night. We’d to wait half an hour for the Postauto when we were kicked off the train. When we passed their train in said bus, they must have been stuck between stations for well over an hour and a half.
We found our friends on good form, and we had a long luscious lunch in the garden of the Restaurant Veranda, where we last met for Geoff’s 80th birthday party. It is a reasonable hop, skip and hobble from the railway station which, I'm glad to say, is well supplied with escalators. Our table was next to a hedge of ivy which was in flower, attracting dozens of honey bees. Tea and sumptuous cakes followed at Pam and Geoff’s flat in Weissenbühl. We had a little air display of nine Pilatus trainers in close formation as we sat on the balcony: she had obviously organised it just for us…. Carlo kindly went out of his way to drop us off at the station.
The old knees are complaining a bit after the last few days’ footslogging. It’s a ten-minute walk uphill to the station from the flat, but the station is well equipped with ramps and escalators. Stairs up aren’t too much of a problem, but stairs down, particularly from the older continental railway carriages, are a slow business. Modest plans for tomorrow. Late departure for lunch in Lugano, then quite possibly a siesta.
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