The driver was there promptly at 7:30. He and I loaded the bags into the back while everybody got their final things together. Plane leaves at 10:20, so our goal was to be at the airport by 8:20. We didn't want any surprises from Easyjet ("Sorry, you're 5 minutes late. That will be £59 for late baggage check-in" or some nonsense.) As long as the traffic gods were on our side, we'd be there in plenty of time. If traffic is really bad, it can take over an hour to get the the airport.
We said our goodbyes to Steve and Laura and Seren and Ayden, loaded up, and were off.
The traffic gods smiled on us. We left Steve's at 7:39 and we got to the airport a pinch after 8. Great time.
No problems checking in baggage. We pre-paid for 80 kg of checked baggage, and ours weighed 79.8 kg. Whew! The ten bucks for the luggage scale we brought was money well spent.
Sofia looks excited to be in an airport at 8 am
No problems getting through security. We wouldn't know our gate till 9:30, so we looked around in Boots, a drug store chain. Cristina wanted to get some arnica cream. The sell sandwiches and snacks there too, and since we knew there would be no food on the flight, and we'd be hanging out in the next airport for hours, we bought some food at Boots. They had a meal deal which was an excellent deal, especially for an airport. And sandwich, snack, and drink for £3.70. I got a big chicken sandwich that had three sandwich halves of different varieties. A bag of crisps, and a green machine Naked Juice. The juice alone was £2.50. A full-on picnic lunch for five from an airport drugstore for about £20. Yes!
Our plane departed on time, and as we neared Basel, the pilot said he had taken a short time and we were actually coming in about 15 minutes early. So far, everything today was going great.
Bella and I were sitting by a girl from Freiburg, Germany (where I would soon be picking up the rental car). Bella is just like her mother, and struck up a conversation with this girl from the start of the flight while I tried to sleep. When I gave up on my nap, I chatted with her some too, particularly getting tips about my bus ride to Freiburg and my picking up the car. With traveler's ignorance, I asked if there were any Lidl grocery stores in Germany. She kind of laughed and told me that Lidl is a German chain. Ah. Right!
We got our luggage, got some Euros from an ATM (bus only takes cash), and found the bus stop. We had missed the 1:30 bus (it was 1:50) and the next bus was 2:30. So we staked out a good set of seats and I hung out with the family until it was time for my bus.
Our temporary home in the Basel airport
At 2:25, Bella and Sofia walked me around the corner to the bus and I said goodbye. Paid my €26 to the driver, and found a seat. The bus was big, clean, and quiet. It wasn't completely full, so I had an empty seat beside me. But everyone on the bus was so incredibly quiet. The ride lulled me into a light sleep.
I had reserved the car for pick-up at 5 pm, which now felt too late, as I was getting into Freiburg around 3:15. But it was closer to 3:30 when I got off the bus, and it took me about 15 minutes to find out which bus to take to the car rental place. That bus took about 30 minutes, so when I finally got to the Avis, it was about 4:30. Perfect.
Our third rental car of this trip was an Opel Astra station wagon, gasoline (not diesel, unfortunately) and manual transmission. It was nice to be driving on the right side again. Nice not to have to be consciously thinking about that aspect of driving. I got the GPS set for the airport and I was on my way.
As I approached the airport around 5:45, I saw some kids playing on a luggage trolley, one pushing the trolley with two kids on it. Then I quickly realized I knew those kids. I rolled down the window and yelled in their direction as I passed.
We loaded up the luggage (this station wagon had the roomiest trunk so far) and headed to Langenthal, Switzerland to stay with Elisabeth (Eli) Tardent, an exchange student at GHS a few years ago who we became good friends with.
Switzerland is the only country we were driving in that required the purchase of a decal, somewhere in the neighborhood of $50. When I was picking up the car, and I told the guy we were going to be in Switzerland, he looked out the window as the car pulled up and said, "You're in luck. Your car already has this year's Swiss decal." So we didn't have to buy one when we went through the border decal checkpoint.
Switzerland was very pretty, but we were on the freeway for a good portion of the journey, which I'm discovering is never as pretty as the small roads. When we pulled up to Elisabeth's house, we saw a homemade banner that said Welcome to Switzerland, with everyone's hand prints and names. Very sweet.
Quick tutorial on the Tardent residence. Elisabeth has four younger siblings and two parents. In addition, her boyfriend Neil is visiting for the summer (from Gainesville). So that's seven people in the house, not including us. One of the sisters spends most of her time training for gymnastics in another city, but she comes home on the weekends. Got all that? Quiz on Friday.
Elisabeth's youngest sister, Dominique, met us in the driveway, and we soon met Elisabeth's mom, Brigitte. Three of the remaining others were away at scout camp, and Anne was away for gymnastics. Furthermore, Eli and Neil were in another city to see a friend. So as big as a household as the Tardent residence has, we had a relatively small party of two meeting us.
Dominique and a furry friend
Brigitte gave us the tour, showed us our rooms, and we unloaded the car. She served a wonderful dinner of curry chicken and rice. We visited until it was time for bed. I hadn't gotten enough sleep, so I was ready to crash by 11. I slept till 10 the next day.
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