Fifth Port – Hamburg

18 July

The morning of the 14th, we saw the New Orleans coming down the Elbe River on her way to port from the window of our inn:

It was thrilling to see her “in action” now that we felt like we knew her so well.

Having decided to disembark in Hamburg, we spent the night of the 14th onboard to pack up our gear.  It was a nice reunion with the crew, but a slightly sad departure the next day, knowing at best we would see some of them again when we rejoin the New Orleans in September.

In any event, we set off to the south to cross Germany on our way to Italy via Switzerland.  We stopped in the small town of Bodenwerder, home of the original Baron Munchausen who inspired fantastical fictional stories that occasionally involved disturbing and macabre treatment of animals.

We finally had some Indian food that night in the medium-sized town of Paderborn, moving on the next day to a small inn in the Black Forest:

We entered into Switzerland to spend the night in Lucerne.  Stayed in an historic old hotel overlooking the town and the lake on which it sits.

A notable landmark in Lucerne is a statue dedicated to members of the Swiss Guard who were slaughtered while defending the royals from the mobs during the French revolution in 1789.  It shows a dying lion; Mark Twain (probably an animal lover) called it one of the saddest sculptures he had ever seen:

Perhaps this incident taught the Swiss people their lesson not to interfere with the politics of other countries and inspired their determination to remain neutral (pretty successfully!) through subsequent conflicts.

Late that night we received a message from Henry’s daughter Holly that she and her family were cutting short their stay in Milan to meet us in Italy the next day, 18 July!  A swift acceleration of planning ensued…. and we dashed across the rest of Switzerland on the 18th, traversing the Alps on our way to the rendezvous point west of Milan.  Along the way, our route took the usual zig-zag over mountains:

But then we were surprised when we were brought to a station where you drive your car onto a train car for a ferry ride through the Simplon Pass into Italy, by-passing some of those tortuous roadways.

Henry got into some trouble with the border agent who observed him taking videos coming out of the tunnel.  They thought he might be planning some sort of subversive activity!

In any event, we arrived safely 18 July at the Castello de San Giuseppe near Ivrea in Italy, as did Holly and her brood, for the family phase of our overland adventure in Europe.