30th October 2025
"There and back again" (with apologies to JRR)
With many thanks to Sarah Sheehy for pointing out that none of our posts has been dated. That was much appreciated (it's one of my pet hates when someone else omits dates!) So from now on they will be - and past dates have been guessed at.
(Also, in the interest of speed and staying topical, these are the photos which are immediately to hand, although there are definitely better ones taken by other people, which may be switched in later.)
Our 10-journey Eurail Passes first took us north through Milan (sometimes at 300km/hr, not so great for photos!) to Vercelli in Piedmont, to our dear friend Anna Brunello who once was a Leeming neighbour. It was so good to see her happy and healthy now, and a granny to her son Luca's little Lila-Sophie. Sadly we forgot to take a photo of them.
The rice fields of the area were a surprise, dinner in a Mediaeval village was amazing (including local Arborio rice risotto, with a fried cheese wafer), as was the pure and delicious mountain water (flat or fizzy) available in her town square, virtually free.
Biella, the local city, is the birthplace of Alfonso Bialetti the inventor of the Moka pot - now produced in a bewildering variety of versions, including the 'Bridgerton' set!
Back on the train, and to Switzerland where we were generously hosted by the wonderful Uhlmann family, who we met in Francavilla at the MintWood gathering last month.
It's such an impossibly pretty little country, which always seems to be clean, tidy and well-organised. Maybe too much for us, if truth be told. We had a good look at Bern, the beautiful old capital city, but spent more time getting to know people from the 'happy gospel' community there, Joe finishing up with a long outdoor sauna session with some of the guys on our last night. It's extraordinary to feel like family straight away with those you've just met.
Helping Deby Uhlmann to pair a mountain of socks for their four girls was much appreciated too!
And some firsts....
Joe waiting for me at Milan Central Station, where I had to pay for the loo with a credit card, finding ready-to-eat hardboiled, brilliantly coloured 'picnic eggs' in the supermarket and equally bright cat homes in Bern market. Not to mention the gloriously orange 'Halloween' themed toilet paper!
Then Schoggiwegli...which with that name just had to be tried,
and the wonderful Tete du Moine cheese flowers.
Albert Einstein in a shop window was a surprising first too (just downstairs from his apartment) and the busy dredgers in the River Aare were there for Joe's entertainment.
This trip was all about friendships - both new and deepening. Many of those we spent time with have close ties with Francavilla and are either supportive of or will be directly involved in the projects here next year. We are more and more aware of just how small Europe is, and especially grateful for the freedom of movement we have due to Joe's Irish/EU citizenship. In fact we travelled into Switzerland and home again without once being asked for our passports. The postcard below lives on our kitchen cupboard, for handy reference...apparently Perth to Mackay is a little further than Barcelona to Moscow!
