A long day’s walking today and now seeing a few more walkers. We met our first Australian, a woman from Sydney; we had a quick chat. She was married to a Swiss and finding it difficult living away from home. A German man intrigued us with his novel way to travel to Spain – wheeling his bike with his backpack on the seat.
We passed through the special hilltop village of Romont. Making sure we got the directions right I asked a young couple and others to confirm, and set out again. Another hilltop village with 2 kids with water pistols and an older woman sitting in an otherwise isolated square. I was very hot and I asked the boys to spray me. It took a lot of convincing but reluctantly, then happily they let loose. We sat on the one chair watching the kids bathing in the fountain.
We were sitting in another rest chair when the Swiss couple who had given me directions walked past. They stopped to talk and we then walked the last 5kms with them and their dog. Kristof was in the national gymnastics team and now, 10 years later runs an organisation where he distributes funds from the government to 64 different sports groups. Most of the money comes from people buying lotto tickets.
Riccarda was also a professional athlete and now works with the premier train builders. We talked about their love for their work, relationships, their dog who is also their clock. She knows when meal times are supposed to be and gets very demanding very close to the usual meal times.
We arrived at the end of a long hot track and they invited us for some drinks at a local hotel. They were a lovely couple and by the second drink we were having a lot of fun and enjoying interesting discussions. We gave them Swiss kisses and look forward to maybe catching up tomorrow. I was chuffed by the fact that I could keep up with two professional gymnasts, but they were carrying sports injuries.
