From Lugano to Bergamo I took advantage of the Lugano hostel’s free wireless (if you held the laptop in the air just right) to do a little reserach on places to stay that night. The website of one of the campgrounds in Switzerland that Berck had found said they offered caravans to rent for a night. So I found the hostel’s public phone and inserted my credit card to call them. A woman answered in German. “Do you speak English?” “Nien!” “Are you open?” “Nien!” She tried to tell me something else and then handed the phone to a male.…
We’re staying in a hostel in Lugano, Switzerland, just inside the border. It has free wireless, if we hold the laptop just right in the air. I posted everything we’d written so far, but there are gaps that have to be filled in. Check back for them. The dollar has no value; things are very expensive.
Nov. 16 (Friday) Autostrataing In the morning, it seemed high time to head North and find the Alps. Though the memory of the cold night at the campground had just started to fade, the bruises from sleeping on the rocks had not. If we’d had our thermarest pads, I think it would have made all the difference in the world. But the ground was cold and rocky, so we thought we’d try to find cheap beds for the night. We elected to do our first real travel on the autostrada (like our interstates), which we’d avoided so far for a…
Thursday, Nov. 15 (I know because we had to write it on our HI card applications.) Murlo We washed a load of clothes last night. We didn’t have enough change for the coin operated washer, so I went back up to the front desk armed with a ten Euro note. The lady wasn’t there anymore, so I rang the bell and waited. There was a button outside that said FOR EMERGENCIES, but not having enough change to wash your clothes didn’t seem all that urgent. No one came, but I could hear someone coughing in the other room watching TV.…
Day 5 (It must be; it’s time to do laundry. Nov… who knows, it’s Wednesday.) We slept in at the Hotel Posta, awakened every quarter hour or so by the bell tower across the courtyard from us and shining into our room. It would give the hour by the number of bells and then a different bell would strike one, two, or three times, indicating which quarter hour had passed. It got hot in the room, so Berck got up and opened the window. Then we were awoken by the sound of pouring rain. That’s the other thing about touring…