This small town fringes Lake Thun, trad wooden chalets climbing up towards pine forests. An ideal place to live or for a tourist A small cafe at the ferry wharf, so a coffee before heading east to Interlaken, or west to Thun. Or a guacamole bagel for lunch! Our friends' house is a recent build, the roof covered in solar panels. K is an artist with fabric..a puppet leans at leisure, quilted birds against a wall. Such skill and patience. Nearby a pool complex, well used, a practical protocol of pre showering, shoe removal etc, that allows a high patronage with courtesy observed. Everywhere garden corners fit in the urban landscape.
Here we are, back from Switzerland, reunited with Santiago. Sad to leave our Swiss friends, such a bittersweet time with one of them very ill. Nearly 2 weeks there, mountains, lakes, a mad fun folk club evening, trains through and round mountains, one to Italy for a day. And time to reminisce 50 years of friendship. Santiago rocks gently on her mooring, resplendent in her repaint, needing a good clean inside. And so for decision time - which agent to select to sell her for us, what route to take for a last trip. What to throw out, donate, keep. Amazing how much can be stuffed into a small boat. Today a 40min bus trip along the flanks of the Pennines, Pott Shrigley, Bollington to Macclesfield, where my mother was born, worked, married, and from where she left with our little family to Oz. An old mill town, bordering the canal, so familiar to us. Back with our shopping 🛍 along the same winding bus route. Another passenger pointe...
Where shall we go for our last Santiago voyage?😢 initially we thought Llangollen, over that amazing unpronounceable aqueduct the Pontcysyllte. But time is short, still Scotland, Portsmouth, Lancashire, Yorkshire and London to fit in to our last 5 weeks So we settle on Chester. Not so many miles or locks as Llangollen. Funnily enough the River Dee runs through both, in Chester close to the sea, in Llangollen high in the Welsh hills, feeding part of its flow into the canal, enabling the transport of stone. So we travel back through the Harecastle tunnel, approximately 40 minutes, the Cap'n sensibly wearing a lifejacket. Falling into an unlit tunnel, banging your head on a metal boat...it has happened, but not to us.
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