Teresa;
The view from Mt Generosa
Daniele
Isabel and Marinella
We found the train to Gouda and boarded, dragging our luggage with us. We stood in the "compartment" part of the train, since it would be a short ride. The train was old and the compartment was not air conditioned; soon we were both sweating bullets. We finally got to the little station and dragged our luggage off. At these little towns, the train stops for maybe two minutes, so one has to be quick about getting on and off. Also, in these small old towns, there is usually just a staircase to go up or down to the get to the "station". In larger cities they have elevators or escalators or even ramps so the luggage dragging is not too painful. I managed to get my stuff down the stairs to the main little office and come out to the sunlight of Gouda. It was hot, in the 80's. There were taxi's waiting; we piled in and I gave him the address of our hotel.
This time we were not so lucky with our hotel; it was small and old. The lady at the desk gave us a ground floor room which was barely big enough for the bed. Of course it had no air conditioning; the one window we could open had a sawed off broom handle in the window to hold it open a few inches. The thing that aggravated me was that this place was the same price as the hotel in Delft, but what a change. We don't stay at four star hotels, but this was really the worst we had seen. Thank goodness we would not be there long.
We had planned for a quick trip to Lugano during our stay here in Gouda. We would leave most of our luggage in our room, pay up for the stay, and then take the train to Lugano for a couple of days, return to Gouda and then head to Utrecht.
Our Italian teacher/friend Teresa was in Lugano visiting her parents during that time and we wanted to see them. She had the two boys, Mahdi and Daniele, with her. We baby sat both of these darlings, and we got to know her parents when they came to see her in Dallas.
So on Sunday morning, July 4, we left Gouda early in the morning, rode the train to Basel, Switzerland, switched in Basel to Lugano, reaching there about 5:00 in the evening. I warned Jack that maybe they couldn't meet us at the train, but as we walked from the train to the station, we looked up and there they were: Mahdi, Teresa and Daniele and Guido, Teresa's brother! We were so excited to see them! Of course Mahdi knew us; he was turning five in a couple of weeks, but we wandered if Daniele, just two, would remember us. I think he did, sort of.
We went straight to Carolina and Leno's house to stay for awhile. They fed us, and we had a good time, trying to communicate with Carolina and Leno, since they do not speak English, and I certainly couldn't remember much Italian. But we were fine.
Teresa took us to our little hotel, where we had stayed several times before, and the owner had our regular room ready, with the fan that we had bought a few years ago.
The next morning Teresa took us to get our rental car, and we came back to have a birthday lunch with Isabel. She was celebrating her birthday by having a big lunch for all of us. Guido kept cooking food for us until we were completely stuffed. I have included some photos of the big day.
The next day was a big one; we loaded up everyone and took off for Mount Generosa. Both sets of grandparents (Carolina and Leno, Jack and I) would take Mahdi and Daniele on the train up the mountain while Teresa and Guido and Guiness, the family dog, would walk up part of the trail. The tricky thing was to distract Daniele onto the train before he realized that his mother was not with us. Teresa looked at me and said "you can do this, Jole. You have babysat all year, distracting him". We hustled everyone on the train and away we went! It was an electric train that was glued to the mountainside, and the earth seemed to fall away as we traveled higher and higher. We had a great time, and Daniele was fine with all of the excitement.
We walked, played and ate on the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful day and I got some great photos of the lakes in between the mountains, with the Alps in the background.
After a little rest we were ready to head down the mountainside. That got complicated because Daniele was tired, but I had to scoop him up and get him downstairs for the ride down. Teresa and Guido were going to hike halfway down the mountain and then hop in their car and meet us at the train station.
He was not happy and cried his heart out when I grabbed him up and took him to the train. He saw his grandmother and reached for her. That hurt my feelings, but of course I understood, since he had been with her for almost two months. He was almost asleep anyway, and when we got on the train his eyes closed and he was gone. Even Mahdi fell asleep on the way down. We had ice cream that evening and a walk around the park. We were ready for bed ourselves.
The next morning Teresa took us to return our rental car and then dropped us off at the train station. It was a very short trip but we had lots of fun and we were so glad that we saw them again. Mahdi asked me why we had to go back to Holland instead of Dallas, but I promised him we would return to Dallas in a little while.
Our trip back was a little sad, but we got back safe and sound that night about 10:00pm. The next morning we were on the train again to Utrecht!
In my next blog update I will write about Gouda - it is kind of an interesting little town. Please check in - and I have photos of Jack!
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