Frances Federer Blog: The Trip

We did it; 2 weeks of travel from Poland to Vienna to Slovenia to Italy to Geneva and finally, finally, home. Henry spent the most time in the car, only emerging to eat and to go to bed. A different bed almost every night. Poor old boy got pretty sick of that but was gallant and not once complained. He couldn’t walk, could see precious little but could see the landscape, which he loved. He wanted to make the trip (and probably regretted it) but never let on. The main thing was seeing Vienna once again. With most things he doesn’t know what he wants, and this was no exception. ‘No, I don’t want to go to Vienna….’ then very glad that we did. It has been decades since he was there.

Not all the memories were bad, happily. But he did tell his great granddaughter when we saw her in Geneva how he was thrown out after 3 years of medical school and firmly believed his world had come to an end. But he survived that and much else. Quite a good lesson for a 15 year-old who is convinced there is nothing as important in her life as facing exams.

We went for Henry to see one last time, and for the food and drink. On the last we were not disappointed as Italian coffee for some reason is like no other, and the wine divine. But the pasta of which he and I have fond memories, was very poor. My Australian cousin and his wife are always posting fabulous pics of food they eat on their many trips to Europe, but they eat at the best places, fearfully expensive, and the food is first class. We are too mean in our family to do that, and still think we can do it on the cheap.

Back home and I am feeling overwhelmed. How can we get such a large plot and the house under control in one lifetime? We seem to have mountains of STUFF.

Being summer (as I write) most effort is dedicated to the garden, which is producing faster than I can cook and freeze! Let alone bottle. So who said I would be bored?