Bruce met Edith and Gregor on his long "Remote Atlantic Islands" voyage in March/April 2023. They became firm friends and he kept in touch with them afterwards. They all looked forward to a time when they would be able to meet again, so when we booked a river cruise from Amsterdam to their home city of Basel, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to stay on for a few days and meet them again, also to introduce them to Geoff. Unfortunately, the cruise got cancelled by Noble Caledonia (who make quite a habit of doing things like that) but we decided to go ahead with the visit to Basel anyway and, to make it a worthwhile trip, booked a few days in Strasbourg beforehand, a city that we had long wanted to visit and which had been on the itinerary of the cancelled cruise.

We loved both cities and felt quite overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity shown to us by Edith and Gregor. Not only did they travel to Strasbourg to be with us on our last night there, they also escorted us back to Basel on the train, booked and paid for a lovely hotel for us there, then treated us to meals out and at their home, not to mention taking us on a full day tour, featuring Lucerne, a Steamboat cruise across the lake to Vitznau and a cogwheel railway journey up to and back down from Rigi Kulm.