On, to Switzerland

On Friday, August 10th, we had our continental breakfast and left for the station to catch the 10:23 train to Basel.  We arrived there in time to cross to the Swiss side of the station and just barely catch the 11:17 train to Lucerne.  The French station agent in Colmar had said that she couldn't sell us a ticket all the way to Zug, Switzerland, but that we wouldn't have to use our five minutes between trains to buy a ticket, because we could buy one from the conductor on the Basel-Lucerne train.  Only, no one had told that to said conductor, because he politely but firmly refused to sell us such a ticket, saying that he was not allowed to do so.

On arrival at Lucerne, we quickly found a ticket machine, but it, and another that we tried, refused to so much as recognize the existence of my Visa card.

Well, we would miss the 12:35 train.  The conductor had said that the next one would be along ten minutes later.  Not quite: sixteen minutes.  But that would give us time to buy tickets from live human beings who could probably understand English and could certainly understand even my paltry German.  That being achieved, we then tried to call Mary Joy's cousin Eva, who was going to be at the station in Zug to pick us up at 12:57.  We have a cell phone on this trip, but we are waiting until Italy to buy the SIM chip to activate it.  So we tried using a Swisscom phone booth.  It wouldn't take Visa.  When we  put in some coins and tried Eva's number, we couldn't get a connection.  Later, we would learn that it was a matter of incorrect non-use of zeroes (I'm not going to explain that here!).

So we had to give up and catch the S1, a sort of suburban commuter train that would take half an hour instead of twenty-three minutes to get to Zug.  But Eva met us, though we were forty minutes late.  When we told her why we were late, she said that it didn't sound right to her: the conductor should have been able to sell us a ticket on the train.  Maybe there would be a surcharge, but he should have been able to sell us the ticket.  So she went to the ticket counter with our tickets and discussed the situation with the ticket agent there, who agreed with her, and as a peace offering, gave her two chocolate tablet bars for us.

Eva took us to her home, high on the hill overlooking Zug (pronounced "tsoog") and we there had a snack with her and her husband Andreas.  Then Andreas went back to work and Eva, Mary Joy and I walked down to the old town and caught a bus for Arth, at the other end of the Zugersee (Lake Zug).  There we caught the ferry and spent a pleasant hour or so riding back up the lake.  Andreas, as usual, then cooked a wonderful dinner.  I remember the lamb (which I don't usually like) and the small potatoes cooked in butter and herbs, but two nights later, my memory fails me as to anything else.  Then we stayed up too late talking, over schnapps.