DAY 132

Sunday 20 November 2011

Dian and Charles's day:
The long awaited day of Sebastian and the van's arrival was a long one but in the end a victorious one. Charles and Dian were up at 9 AM, having slept well despite the cold. Dian had gotten it down to two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, a jacket, a mink coat and a wool cap for sleeping attire, and with the new Ikea comforters the chills that radiated from her spine were minimal. She wondered how Saint Francis did it with nothing on his feet and basically a long, burlap hoodie.

Goodbye, Clifford

Nicole stopped by and we decided we would leave early the next morning (provided the van arrived), in order to take full advantage of Paulo and Paula's kind offer to see Milan. Charles and Dian had the leftover panini (sandwich) and played Boggle.

And good riddance

At 11 AM Sebastian called and said he was only five or six hours away, so by 5 PM when we hadn't heard from our White Knight we were beginning (oh, let's be honest) - CONTINUED to fret until around 6:03 when the phone rang and Thomas, Lisa and Sebastian were in Lugano!!! Charles guided them into our parking lot and within two hours Sebastian had our van purring like a kitten. He really has a knack with these Westies, having grown up with parents who loved them and took the kids traveling in them throughout his youth. Now Sebastian and his buddies are scout leaders and so they were PREPARED to rescue us - they even drove through the Alps instead of a major tunnel in order to test the readiness of our new van.

Lisa, Thomas and Sebastian 

With the transfer of all our accumulated belongings and instructions on everything and how it worked in the new van, they were off to have pizza in Italy, since the three of them had never been there, and Charles and Dian stowed everything in preparation for an 8 AM departure. With smiles on our lips and David's homemade raki in our bellies we fell asleep with the new heater at full force.

Nicole's day: Woke up, got ready to pull my stuff downstairs the next day to see our new White Steed!