40 years ago today, I was in Lucerne, Switzerland as part of a tour of Europe and Israel. We were a little over 2 weeks into the tour, and we had already experienced a lot including death threats. But, we had come to a very pretty area of Europe, and all of the bad stuff had been forgotten. The 4 girls and I had gotten much closer. I still didn't like the idea of being their bodyguard, but it was a trade-off I had to live with.
We started our day visiting Mt. Pilatus in the Alps. It had the steepest cogwheel railway in the world. It was an overcast day, but one could still see the surrounding beauty of Lake Lucerne and the Alps. When we go to the top of the mountain, there was a nice overlook. I wanted a picture of the four girls, with the Alps as a backdrop. Mr. Vivian told me that I never took any pictures with another girl named Joyce. She was not in our group of four, and I guess he felt sorry for her, so much to the dislike of the other four, Joyce was included in the shot. I don't want to sound like we were mean toward Joyce, but she just didn't fit in with the rest of us. There were a lot of black birds flying around the overlook, and it took me quite a lot of patience to catch one landing on a stone wall. The descent down the mountain was done on a ski lift. Once again, it was pretty but a little frightening being up so high and depending on the cable not to break. I was glad I had packed a light jacket, because it was pretty cold up there.
We got back to the hotel and had the afternoon and evening free. The girls wanted to take their naps, which gave me the opportunity to explore Lucerne. I watched swans in the lake swallow whole apples. I walked along a covered bridge, and saw some shops that I thought the girls would like, and I saw that there was a movie theatre just down from our hotel. The movie playing was "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", and it was in French. I had taken five years of French in school and felt pretty fluent in it. I thought Sandra and I could go to the movie that night. When she got up from her nap, I asked her if she would like to see the movie that night, and she said it would be fun. The other 3 girls were planning on washing clothes and writing postcards. Sandra was a bit wary about the movie being in French, but I told her I would translate it for her.
The other girls got up and we headed out for the shops. We went into one crystal shop that gave each of us a long-stemmed rose just for coming in. We also went to a watch store, as Sandra was interested in purchasing an Omega watch. Our impression of Lucerne was how clean it was, and how friendly everyone was. It was just an idyllic place.
After supper, Judy, Sha, and Talula said they wanted to go to a stuffed animal shop near the hotel. Sandra looked at me, and I told them that she and I were planning on going to the movie. Mr. Vivian heard our conversation and told us that the majority ruled, and that she and I would have to do what the other three wanted. We were not pleased in that decision, but it couldn't be argued, so we went with the others to the toy store and missed the movie.
It had gotten dark, and we decided to walk around Lucerne and see what they had to offer at night. There were some bars open, but most of it had shut down. We turned a corner just before the covered bridge. Judy, Sha, and Talula were walking ahead of me, and Sandra and I were bringing up the rear. Just then, I heard Sandra scream and yelled my name. I turned around to see five drunk Swiss soldiers had formed a circle and were passing Sandra around the circle. She was screaming. They were laughing. I came up behind the soldier holding her; grabbed his shoulder; and yanked him to the ground. It was a karate move I had learned when I took karate. Unfortunately, I grabbed Sandra's hair in the process, and pulled a few strands out. The soldier hit the pavement. The other four soldiers started to taunt me: "Oh big man!!". I got Sandra up and we took off running down the bridge. I had never used karate before in that manner, and haven't since.
We were scared to death. The other three girls didn't know what had happened at first, but they quickly found out. Paranoia set in. Feelings of our time in Jerusalem came back. The soldiers were mad. Were they going to follow us? We got to the other side of the bridge. I had all four girls in front of me, while I watched for the soldiers. When we got to the other side of the bridge, there was a bar there with soldiers drinking outside. We saw them and ran past. We doubled back to the hotel and took a couple of side streets to avoid them, if they were following us. I didn't see them come after us, but I wasn't taking any chances.
We got back to the hotel, exhausted. I didn't tell Mr. Vivian about what had happened, but I did tell Sandra it wouldn't have happened if we had gone to the movie. She just shrugged her shoulders. But, I felt good that I had defended her. I would have done the same for any of the other girls, but the two of us were closer friends than the others. I couldn't sleep that night, because we were going to Paris the next day. I had plans.
No comments:
Post a Comment