The Journey Home

So, the fateful day arrived and we got on the train to Dover from were we would cross the Channel to the French town of Calais. We were going to Paris where we were to spend a few days. We had already sent off our heavy baggage for loading on the P&O (Pacific & Oriental) liner via Carter Patterson, a firm specializing in moving materials. Thomas Cook had arranged our bookings for the train journey to Marseilles via a round about tour of Paris, Milan and Geneva. We would catch the P&O liner in Marseilles for our journey to Bombay. We were travelling in “Tourist Class” this time – and “Second Class” on the Railways.

Whilst sitting in the dining car for lunch before reaching Dover, Mona and I got into conversation with an Italian gentleman from Milan. He told us that he had a palatial villa there and would be happy if we looked him up when we visited the city. He even offered us the hospitality of staying at his house. He was a charming person, very cultured, and we learned a lot about Italy from him. We told him that we would look forward to visiting him and take him up on his offer to put us up for three days or so.

We arrived in Paris in the late afternoon after having caught an Express train from Calais. With Mona’s fluency in French, we had little trouble in finding a nice middle-class hotel. We had decided that, as far as travelling in Europe was concerned, it would be more enjoyable and economical if we stayed together in a double room! We spent three days in Paris and thoroughly enjoyed the food and the gardens and palaces. We then made for Geneva on the beautiful Lac Leman. We spent only a couple of days in Geneva as there wasn’t much to the city but the scenery and the lake were marvelous! Geneva is an important place internationally as it was (and probably is) the Headquarters of many international bodies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Red Cross, etc… We were not politically minded and, at that time, this aspect of the city was lost on us. However, we did enjoy the delicious Swiss food – especially the pastries and chocolates!

We then crossed into Italy via the famous Simplon Tunnel. An Italian official checked our passports and other documents as we crossed the border. I had started a small moustache and the Italian official turned to Mona and said “the moustache suits your friend”! We arrived in Venice where it was quite warm and even slightly uncomfortably so! It was very enjoyable visiting the gondolas and palaces. We had read a lot about Venice and I was especially interested to see the location of Shakespeare’s play, “The Merchant of Venice”. One of the places we found very interesting were the glass factories. We visited one and admired the skill with which the worker drew up the molten glass and blew it to form a goblet and then turned it skillfully on the side of a metal mould to form beautiful shapes. As we entered the premises we were asked to sign a “Visitors Book” and, in turning the pages, I was pleasantly surprised to see the name “Badruddin Tyabji” next to a date indicating the late 1890’s! We also duly fed the pigeons at the front of the Doge’s Place, took a tour through the canals and saw a bit of the country outside the city.

From Venice, we went west to Milan and enjoyed visiting an impressive city. It had a very large glass covered “super” market selling almost everything one could think of. The trams, very modern, were also quite chic and better than the London Underground in comfort and appearance. Unfortunately, it was very hot! The temperature was over 100 degrees farhenheit as far as I remember and we did not have clothes suitable for the “tropics” as they were in the boxes that had been sent ahead to the ship! The villa of our friend, however, was pleasantly cool and a complete blessing.

We had an interesting 3 days and then took the train to Marseilles to join the P&O liner. It was quite an old ship but quite comfortable for the trip home….