ESCAPING THE SNOW FOR SUNNY AUSTRALIA IN 1970.

Continuing My Story

When we were living in Switzerland in 1970, we drove to England to visit where I was born and where I lived. When it was time to return to Switzerland we booked the car onto a Bristol aeroplane from Lydd to Le Torquet. Bill wasn't taking any chances of me throwing up on the Channel Ferry again. It was a bumpy flight as we were very low but it only took 20 mins.There were 3 cars and five passengers. They were all Swiss. One of them offered to show us a quick way through Paris. So we followed him and we kept driving all day, only stopping for lunch and tea. On the border of France and Switzerland it was snowing. I was excited to see snow again after such a long time, but it was difficult to drive in it. However, we arrived home in Thun near Bern at 10:00pm.

The snow was covering the mountains around Bill's town and they looked awesome

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We drove up to Beatenberg where the snow was deeper than in town. I was laughing at the snow on the bench.I had fun playing in the snow and throwing it at Bill, who was bemused at my excitement. He was more concerned about us being able to drive through the Alps to get to Italy and the ship to take us back to Australia.

We had another month in Switzerland. Bill went back to work. He had been given a casual job before we went to England. I went shopping with my in-laws for warm clothes.We did a lot of last minute sight seeing and saying goodbyes to friends and relatives.

Soon the sad day came when we must say goodbye to Mutter and Vater. It was hard for them as Bill is their only child and he was going to live in Australia on the other side of the world.

With the car packed to the roof with our newly acquired belongings we set of for Kanderstag in the mountains where we were putting the car on a train to go through the Alps to  Domodossola in northern Italy. We didn't have chains and only summer tyres because we knew we weren't staying so we were worried about making it up to the station.

I heaved a sigh of relief when the station came into view. I was also struck by the beauty of the snow/ice in the trees. 

We drove the car onto the train and opted to stay in the car as Bill was concerned about getting our gear stolen in Italy.  It wasn't a good move as we nearly froze because we couldn't turn the engine on.We both snuggled under my Kangaroo fur coat but still shivered all the way.

Genoa

We drove to Genoa staying overnight in Domodossola on the way. I remember trucks trundling past our window all night. It was much warmer though. Bill was worried about someone breaking into the car.We were a day early for the ship departure so we stayed in a hotel .

We were excited when we saw the Marconi at the dock. We found our trunk we had sent ahead and got it and the car loaded onto the ship. After a long wait we finally got on board and found our cabin. However, we were informed that we were not sailing for another 24 hours due to a strike. So with some other Aussie and Swiss passengers we walked into town and had a meal.The next morning we did the same for breakfast and we spent the day walking and walking around Genoa. The next day we set sail for sunny Australia.