Back on board Katinka

With our return to Katinka, we end our vacation in our home country and close, on the one hand, the year 2019 and continue, on the other hand, our circumnavigation of the world in 2020. We had braved the cold in Germany for five weeks and on the way back via Vienna we were hit once again, with -1°C and high fog. Trembling, we walked through the wet and cold Vienna and warmed up again and again in a temple of consumption.

The Brezlgwölb, a historical restaurant between Färbergasse and Ledererhof, invited us with its coziness to stay and we had lunch there. The Fiakergulasch was excellent and the following apple strudel made us a little lazy. We strolled through the old town and then made our way to the S-Bahn station Wien Mitte to get from there back to the airport. The plane brought us to Fiumicino on time, so that we could also do some shopping in order to have breakfast the next day. After first sight, everything was ok and we could relax in our comfortable bunk. After this exhausting day, we also fell asleep quickly, as we were glad to be back home.

The last week was very hard. Various visits to the authorities and a visit to Switzerland, did not let any boredom arise. Edith and Roger were the first ones we visited and they granted us lodging for one night. During the fondue we told them how we had been doing so far and what our next plans are. The evening was long and we said goodbye the next day after a long breakfast.

In the afternoon we had an appointment with Beatrix and Mario. The Café Klatsch in Rapperswil was, as always, packed, but they were already there and had reserved a place for us.

The time flew by like in no time and already our next appointment was waiting, where an Italian evening was to be expected. Rosetta and Angelo again outdid themselves in their hospitality. While Angelo waited for us outside to assign us a parking space reserved especially for us, Rosetta prepared the aperitif. The dinner, was of course also much too much and slowly the trousers started to tighten. For our circle of friends, we must appear quite emaciated that they put so much food in front of us. We gave our best during the meal and talked until deep into the night. The next morning we were bid farewell with a "Buuräzmorget".

Our friends Brigitte and Peter were next on our agenda. They had just returned from vacation yesterday and therefore had a lot to tell. As you can imagine, this evening also turned into morning and the fact that we didn't see any dawn was only due to the fact that we still have winter time. Thus, the next day started a little sluggishly and the planned sightseeing in Sankt Gallen had to be postponed to another time. 

We barely made it to our next appointment. Ivo our WG comrade from our time in Wetzikon - probably comrade is politically incorrect, I hope he won't hold it against me - invited us to a feast. With Michael and me, the three founding members of the autonomous group "Rotwein-WG" met again. How a living together between a green-liberal, a freethinking and a left-wing can work at all, will probably never be completely elucidated, but it shows that humans can be quite adaptable in their social behaviour and tolerant in their nature. Everyone can probably imagine that in the evenings in Wetzikon there were regularly long-lasting discussions in which everyone consistently represented his point of view. The topics were variable and multifaceted, the wine consumption, depending on its complexity, moderate to exorbitant and for many other members of the WG tiring and not always comprehensible. Gaby always used to say: "I'll be off then". 

That evening we were five with Gaby and Cyril, Ivo's father, who was 93.5 years young at the time. Ivo gained an unfair advantage over Michael and me by serving us a leg of lamb on an oriental vegetable bed and hash browns. This was accompanied by a red wine from the Austrian Thermenviertel, which Michael had brought along. The discussion revived and Cyril obviously enjoyed the conversation and contributed to it with anecdotes from his former life. Much too early Michael left us, who had an important appointment the next day. But this did not stop the discussion, as Ivo saw himself leaving the court as the winner this evening. To have the victory as a bland aftertaste through the leg of lamb would not do justice to the leg of lamb, this was excellent and for us a surprising and great idea. No, the evening was simply perfect and we were happy to meet old friends again and to have gained a new friend. Maybe we will make it to Cyril's 95th birthday. In this respect, we allow Ivo the victory with all our hearts.

This marked the end of our stay in Switzerland. Unfortunately we could not visit all our friends, we will make up for this during our next stay in Switzerland.
Back in Germany we prepared ourselves for our journey home. A last meal with friends. In between a short visit at the CMT fair and we are already back at the beginning of this blog. New adventures are waiting for us in the year 2020 and the question "Where will we be next year at this time", keeps us busy. We will see. What we will do here in Italy next, you can read as usual in the next blog. Until then, as always, fair winds and keep your ears stiff.