5.30am start, Genelle is well again, just feeling a bit doughy, probably the drugs she took to kill the migraine.

6.30am we’re out of the hotel, bag wheels clatter on the cobblestones, echoing in the almost empty dark street.

Florence SMN train station is quiet, you can actually get a seat while waiting for your platform to come up on the board. Soon enough our train to Milano is on the board and we load up, walk, board the train, lift bags and sit in our seats. The two hours to Milan at up to 300 kmh, passes pretty quickly, the country is farming, looks like productive country, no spectacular scenery or villas to stay in.

We’re not in Milano Central, we’re in one before it called Milano Porta Garibaldi where we change trains to Lucerne, a one hour wait. Not an attractive place, we’re a bit edgy and tired and maybe we just want to get on last leg into Switzerland.

The scenery gets more interesting after Monza, Lake Como, Lake Lugarno, the mountains, lush paddocks with actual cattle eating real grass. The mountains are getting bigger, more grass, more cows and the odd sheep in drizzling rain. Its a Swiss train so we arrive in Luzern spot on time. The Navigator is debating whether to taxi to our apartment or walk, she cant decide but I can tell she wants to take a taxi so I say lets walk. Luckily she’s agreeable and its only a 10 minute walk past the bridge up a few streets, our host is waiting in the carpark which looks a bit mingy but the apartment is lovely, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a living room, warm cosy, modern, clean, we picked a winner I reckon. Our host gives us a lot of tips on local living, top marks for the intro and friendly guidance.

We gather ourselves after the long train trip, shopping at Aldi is next, we spend 80 swiss franks (1SF = $1.56 AUD, about the same as Euro’s), a few nibbles, lagers, breakfasts, dinners, the women get some fruit and some bread from the bakery downstairs. Its a local neighbourhoood where we are located, on the edge of “old ” Luzern, our address is Kasimir-Pfyffer- Strasse 2, Luzern. There are funky shops in the streets, bakeries, barbers, 2nd hand shops and others that will temp a world class shoper like the Navigator.

Dinner tonight is in house, a few 59c lagers from Aldi, a chicken dish and salad for dinner is planned and a good sleep before we attack the cog railway up to Mount Pilatus tomorrow then we now have a plan for the/ Jung Frau on Monday, Tuesday will be rest and shopping day, before we head to France on Wednesday.

So for 4 days the following is translating basics for Swiss German ;

Goodbye = Auf Wiedersehen, Entrance = Eingang, Exit = Ausfart, Good Morning = Guten Morgen, Good Evening= Guten Abend, piss off = Verpiss Dich (same as for f…. off), Thankyou = Danker, toilet = toilette, pretty easy for a multi linguist like Il Maestro who we’ve been travelling with in the south and Tuscany, but now he’s in Sardinia and not with us, we’ll do the best we can.

So Guten Abend from Luzern, Switzerland tonight – Pauolo