Winding down

Leaving Italy I took a different path from my father. He stayed in Italy as long as he could, hoping to attend Stefan and Sonia's wedding, but was required to leave for Scotland just weeks before the ceremony, Stefan ended up in Argentina, and the two would never see one another again. My path through the Alps will lead me to family; first in Austria and then Poland. Scotland and England will be another time.

---

Among the places I'm sorry to miss is Munich, where my father had an improbable reunion at the train station with his childhood friend, Mulek. Mulek miraculously survived Auschwitz, and was waiting to board a train to Italy, from where he would take a boat to Palestine and start a new life. My cousin Marc here stands before the wailing wall at a former concentration camp near Linz. New arrivals were required to stand here upon entering the camp, chained and facing the wall for hours, sometimes days. What awaited them inside the walls was even more ominous. Over 140,000 people lost their lives in this satellite camp, over 30,000 of them Poles.

After weeks on the road and maneuvering between train stations and new lodgings in foreign cities, it was such a joy to stay with Marc's family for a few days, and to see my cousin Rhylla and her husband Gunther. We explored Linz and just chilled and chatted long into each evening. And of course how can you not be happy and smile with Sophie around. The goodbyes at train stations are never easy, but we will see each other again soon, and now I travel to Poland to reunite with my family there, the home base for my fathers story.