Chapter 38: To Switzerland
(This book has been signed, and it will start double tomorrow, with a minimum of 6,000 words.) Now I dare to ask you for recommendation votes, and there are free evaluation votes, I hope you will support more. Thank you, old demon!! )
Another parting caused the women to cry again. But this time the one who cried turned out to be Caroline. Zhou Nan was raised by her from two years old to 21 years old, completely taking care of her own children.
Although there were differences in the past, they were all short-term, and they would meet again in half a year at most. But this time, Zhou Nan, who has grown up, has completely left this family, and he will develop alone in another country. And this time apart, I won't see each other for at least a few years, so she couldn't help crying.
Her crying also triggered Audrey's tears, and the little girl was always soft in her heart about this separation. It wasn't until they got on the train in Leverkusen that Audrey's tears were still falling from her eyes, and she looked pitiful.
Everyone's mood was not high, and even John was lying under his seat a little unhappily because he was separated from Sam and Ivan.
Only Kelly has not been affected too much, and along the way, she has been busy taking care of Zhou Nan and the three of them.
The train they were travelling on was a direct transport of military supplies from the Ruhr area to Italy, half of the carriages were freight cars and half passenger carriages.
However, because it is a long-distance international train, the transportation volume is relatively large, so there are more carriages. The two steam locomotives towed more than 30 carriages in total, and there were more than a dozen passenger compartments alone.
Because there are many people and it is an international special train, there are more Gestapo people on the car. Each carriage had a Gestapo in military uniform, and there were also mobile patrolmen.
Every passenger on the bus is subjected to strict checks, and then these passengers are registered with the Gestapo, and it is impossible for any stranger to stay on the bus or mix with strangers.
Travel in this era was not very comfortable, passenger carriages were not yet popular with sleepers, and even to Rome, Italy, the train had to travel for two days on the road, and could only stay up in cramped seats.
Therefore, every time they arrive at a station, passengers will go to the platform to move their bodies like a wind.
Since there is no toilet in the carriage and there is a small platform at the end of the carriage, the man can barely solve the problem, but it is also dangerous. So every time you go to a station, you can see countless men releasing water by the platform.
The women were even more pitiful, the small platform at the end of the carriage was difficult to squat, and they could only endure it. When they arrived at the station, they didn't pay much attention to it, and the conditions were limited, so they could only block each other to create a slightly private small space to solve physiological problems.
There are also many women who don't pay attention to it, they don't care about the men's gaze at all, and directly expose a row of snow-white butts, and everyone is used to it.
Zhou Nan was at a station, and as soon as he looked up, he accidentally saw a large row of women's buttocks, which made him extremely embarrassed. It just so happened that his embarrassment was seen by Audrey, who couldn't help but giggle and snicker, scraping his fingers on his face.
Kelly was in a high mood at first, but she was the one who suffered the most. Her sheer size meant her journey to be a sin, but fortunately Audrey, who sat next to her, was thin, otherwise she would have been even more uncomfortable.
By the time the train arrived in Mannheim, it was already dark. After dinner on the train, Audrey was a little sleepy. Crying is also a physical job, and with the boredom of the journey, she collapsed into Kelly's arms and rested.
Zhou Nan, who was sitting opposite her, asked her to put her feet on her body, she was a little embarrassed at first, but in the end, she couldn't take care of it and put her feet in Zhou Nan's arms.
Zhou Nan and Yannick didn't discuss any sensitive topics in the car, but they always had to find a way to kill time during the boring journey, so they kept playing chess, and the most talked about topic was how Zhou Nan should develop in music.
For music, Zhou Nan didn't take it too seriously. Because he knows very well that although he has countless musical knowledge than others, in terms of talent, he can only be regarded as average.
He is able to play the bamboo flute at a master's level, but this is because he has played the flute for nearly 100 years in another life, and the experience and experience of his life have been completely integrated into his flute sound.
But when it comes to other instruments, he's still at the amateur level.
In Europe, the most important instrument for a true musician is the piano, which is also recognized by most musicians as the king of musical instruments. If Zhou Nan wants to become a recognized music master, it is useless to rely on the bamboo flute alone, and he must also make achievements in the piano.
The favorable condition is that Zhou Nan has a natural pianist, and his hand can naturally cover two more keys than others. However, it takes a lot of practice to develop in this area.
Hoffmann's family had a Hamburg-made Steinway piano, but because Zhou Nan's home in Switzerland had not yet been decided, and Zhou Nan insisted on refusing, the piano was left at Leverkusen's home.
Yannick has always said that after settling down in Switzerland, Zhou Nan will start to study piano systematically. However, this plan is also affected by Zhou Nan's military service, so it will take at least a few years to implement.
The darkness of the night made the inside of the carriage gradually quiet, and there was a sound of snoring of different lengths and heights in the carriage. Most Germans snore when they sleep, regardless of men and women, and for this, it is the only place where Zhou Nan can't accept it.
Like most of them, people will have body odor, and when deodorants have not yet developed to be as effective as later generations, their strong body odor is unacceptable to ordinary Oriental people.
But after a long time, Zhou Nan slowly got used to it, and deliberately ignored this feeling, and he was barely able to do it.
Only the snoring sound, Zhou Nan couldn't stand it, and when he heard such a sound at night, he couldn't sleep at all.
In this era, there were no lights in the carriages. And even if there were, in this war years, it would not have been opened. So, after dark, the carriage fell into darkness, and there was no entertainment at all except sleeping.
Zhou Nan hugged Audrey's feet, leaned against the side of the car window, and thought about his future plans. In his heart, there are too many plans for the future, but all plans need to be implemented little by little.
Unfortunately, most of these plans could not be implemented until the end of the war.
However, he also needs time to write the book he wants to write, and it is acceptable for him to spend two years to accumulate it.
The train kept moving in the dark, and only at some major stations did it stop to refill coal or transfer cars, and people also took advantage of this time to go to the toilet.
Summer nights in Europe are short, and when the train arrives at its last stop in Germany, Waldshut across the river from Switzerland, the sky is already light.
Here the train underwent a final check, where everyone was re-registered according to the list, before departing from the station and entering the Swiss town of Koblenz.
This time, everyone is facing a stricter investigation of the people who came to Switzerland, and if the Swiss border inspectors are not satisfied with your answer, Ken will be thrown out of the car and sent back to Germany.
However, Zhou Nan and Audrey, Kelly have already obtained visas issued by diplomats, and they have almost become half Swiss. Therefore, although Zhou Nan, an Oriental, was able to get a visa, although they were a little curious, his attitude towards them was still relatively kind.
But for the Germans, they are just businesslike, and even a smile is very stingy, and it can be seen from this that although they have the same roots and ancestors, Switzerland is still very annoyed by the German coercion.
This train takes the eastern line, because it is a direct train with Italy, in Switzerland, although it will stop many times, but people can only get up and down in Zurich. In Switzerland, due to the existence of the neutrality law, there is no transshipment of goods at all.
So, when the train enters Switzerland, there are more Swiss supervisors and international observers. Personnel can't just get out of the car to let the wind out, and even passengers going to the toilet will be supervised by everyone.
If anyone dares to take advantage of the opportunity to escape, the guns in the hands of these people are not decorations.
The distance from Koblenz to Zurich is only 40 kilometres, and although the train makes a short stop in Baden, it takes just over an hour for the train to enter Zurich railway station.
After nearly twenty hours on the train, everyone was a little tired. In later generations, it was less than a six-hour journey, but in this era, not only was the speed slow, but it also took twice as long because of frequent stops.
During this period, Zurich almost became a city of spies. Although the capital of Switzerland is not here, it is the economic center of Switzerland, and it is close to Germany, so it is also the main battlefield of the spies' warfare.
In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Yannick took Zhou Nan and they did not leave the train station at all, they exchanged the mark in their hands for a small amount of Swiss francs, and directly bought four tickets to Lucerne.
There was also a direct train from Zurich to Engelberg, which was already a famous health resort in Europe a hundred years ago. However, there was only one direct train a day, and when they arrived, the train had just left the station.
So, they have to buy a train ticket to Lucerne first, and when they get to Lucerne, there are more trains to Engelberg.
Kelly went alone to the bakery in the square outside the train station and bought a basket of croissants, which are very famous here. This kind of bread really lives up to its name, it is charred on the outside and tender on the inside, and it can be called the best bread that Zhou Nan has ever tasted.
Once again, I boarded the train to Lucerne, which was very crowded and the old-fashioned wooden carriages were so classicist that they looked like museum displays.
The train travels slowly through the Swiss lakes and mountains, including Lake Zurich and Lake Zug, as well as rolling hills and vast fields. Maybe he came to Switzerland, without the threat of war in the German occupation zone, and the depression in his heart also dissipated, seeing the surrounding scenery, Zhou Nan felt that this place was more beautiful than anywhere else.