Monday, April 5,
1982
At 20:00, Hans-Rüdi
arrived with the 8-year old daughter to pick me up. He managed my suitcase
and heaved it into the back of his car. The car sank a couple inches (or several
centimeters!). I had my French session with Brigitte, then our English session,
before 21:50 when Hans-Rüdi took me to the Grenchen North train station. We
arrived at 22:00 and the ticket window was closed. It was still closed at 22:20
when my train was at 22:23! Closer inspection of the schedule showed that the
station was supposed to be closed at that time and you were requested to buy
your ticket on the train. The train arrived on time and Hans-Rüdi helped get my
suitcase in the car (I left it in the vestibule). I bought the 7.20 CHF/$3.60
ticket from the conductor.
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| Grenchen North to Basel train ticket |
Arrived in Basel at 23:25. The train to Brussels left the French SNCF station at 00:27. Dragged my suitcase to the French end of the Basel station and purchased a one-way ticket for 70.40 CHF/$35.
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| Bael to Brussels train ticket |
Waved through customs and got a compartment to myself on the train.
Tuesday, April 6, 1982
I stretched across the row of seats as the train left on time, and was interrupted a couple times by the conductor and customs at Luxembourg, where we pulled in at 4:00. In Belgium, a few people boarded, so I sat up for the rest of the trip. I expected to arrive in Brussels at 8:30, and was surprised to see the clock said 7:30. I thought maybe Brussels hadn’t switched to Daylight Savings Time yet, but my watch confirmed that was the time.
Got the 7:43 train to the airport, and had to stand in the vestibule. I had 37 Belgian francs (BEF) with me which I thought was a lot of money (it is confusing dealing with too many currencies!) and so was shocked when the train fare was 50 BEF. The conductor seemed willing to wait for me to change money at the airport. As it turned out, I had less than $1 in BEF and the fare was $1.10! The train speeded along and whipped through some switches and I almost fell. I was worried about crushing the breakables in my backpack. I left my suitcase at the Capitol Airlines desk which was closed and ran to find a money exchange booth. I exchanged 50 CHF and got 1300 BEF! I ran back to the train, but it was gone. I tried to explain to the man at the ticket window the situation, and he took my 50 BEF and gave me a ticket!
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| Train to the plane ticket |
I got an orange juice and croissant for 70 BEF/$1.50 and sat to wait for the Capitol Airlines desk to open at 9:00. A trim older man was also waiting and he was a German, Wolfgang Schmidt. We conversed in German and he was wondering what to do to spend the time waiting for the desk to open. I could tell him it was now open. But they just told us that check-in started at 10:00! Wolfgang told me he was going to travel around the U.S. in his VW camper, and I gave him my parents address. Soon it was 10:00 and we went to check in.
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| Brussels to JFK ticket |
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| Brussels to JFK baggage check |
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| Brussels to JFK boarding pass |
I had only the huge suitcase that weighed 23 k/50 lbs. to
check, and when it turned out Wolfgang had one too many suitcases to check, I
let him check one on my ticket. (NB. Do not do any of these things today; leave
a suitcase alone at a closed desk, give out your address, check someone else’s
bag!). Wolfgang also wanted to know what to do until the plane left at 14:00. I
was going into Brussels to sightsee, and he thought that was a great idea
(i.e., he was coming with me!). We caught the train to the plane back to
Brussels Centraal Station, where Wolfgang checked his carry-on bag. We headed
for Grand Place/Grand Square that only had a few market stalls open today.
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| Wolfgang in Grand Place |
Down
Charles Buls street on one
side of City Hall, we found the monument to Everard 't Serclaes (he led a group of patriots to drive the Flemings
from the city; statue by Julien Dillens), which we rubbed for good luck or to return to Brussels. A couple
blocks farther was the famous Mannekin Pis (1618 or 1619, by Hiëronymus
Duquesnoy the Elder), a small
bronze sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating. For only being 61 cm/2’
tall, he has quite a reputation as he stands there filling up a fountain behind
a fence.
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| Tamiko with Mannekin Pis |
Today he was wearing a military uniform (Soldat de 1e Classe de la Légion Etrangère/Soldier of the Foreign
Legion), so at least he wasn’t cold. Turned right to turn right on Rue du Midi
to the Bourse/Stock Exchange.
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| Bourse/Stock Exxchange |
Stopped
in at Église Saint-Nicolas/Church of St Nicholas where a Mass was in
progress. We wandered the pedestrian shopping streets around Grand Place, and
through narrow lanes with quaint restaurants with open hearths. We stopped in a
café in Grand Place for drinks, sitting inside near a fireplace. Wolfgang had a
beer and I had Schweppes avec citron/Schweppes
with lemon, which came with goldfish and mini-pretzels to nibble, as we talked
about brothers and sisters. It started to pour rain, so Wolfgang took us
through the shopping arcade to the train station, where we retrieved his bag
and got the 12:38 train to the plane. Wolfgang began talking about having
found, then lost a great love, and about being lonely. I was afraid to
sympathize. Arrived at the airport at 13:00 and boarding started at 13:15.
Wolfgang had to wait for his standby status, as I went ahead through customs
and security.
The seat next to
me was empty, but during the flight, the girl in front of me leaned her
backrest into my lap, and the guy behind me propped his long legs on the back
of my seat. Wolfgang came to visit after drinks were handed out. After lunch of
beef chunks in a tomato-ey sauce with boiled potatoes and carrots, with salad,
a roll, and vanilla mousse, I slept. There was a German magazine in the pocket
of the empty seat, that I thought might belong to the girl in the window seat,
but she asked me if she could read it! Wolfgang came to visit again and it
turned out he had left it there!
We had a snack of
a ham and cheese sandwich as we approached New York, and we were told the
airports were closed due to snow, and we had to wait to see when we could land.
A little while later I overheard a stewardess, so knew that the pilot was
going to tell us we were landing in Philadelphia, at about 22:15 or 15:15 local
time. We got off the plane and waited for our luggage. I said goodbye to
Wolfgang when my suitcase arrived and headed out through customs. I went out
into the wind and blowing snow to catch a shuttle to the domestic terminal, and
heard this weather came on suddenly. I joined the long line at US Air, and was
able to use my New York to Buffalo ticket for the $89 ticket to Buffalo on the
18:30 flight.
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| JFK to Buffalo ticket |
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| Philadelphia to Buffalo ticket |
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| Philadelphia to Buffalo baggage check |
I checked my suitcase and went to call Buffalo to let them know
when I was arriving. Went through security at 17:30, boarded at 18:15. On the
plane we got drinks and a handful of peanuts. Had a few roller coaster dips,
before arriving in Buffalo at 19:35. At the end of the corridor I did not
recognize a tall Paul with a deep voice! We had to wait a half hour for the
suitcase, then headed to the new house. When I left the
family last July, they were living in Suffern, NY! It was cold at 17 degrees F.
I pulled out all
the souvenirs, ate a little supper, then went to bed at 23:00, which was 6:00
Swiss time!
