SWITZERLAND - We left our Tuscan villa a day early to visit with our Swiss friends we had met in Spain a few weeks earlier. We drove north for about 7 hours and reached Bern, the Swiss capital. We stayed with our hosts Alex and Francie and their two teenagers Simon and Celine. Francie and Alex are a similar age to us. Francie is a nurse and Alex a lawyer. They live on the top floor (4th) of an inner city apartment which they share with their two pet Australian lizards which live in a huge 1 metre glass tank in their lounge and are fed on a diet of live crickets! Alex cooked us a wonderful traditional Swiss fondue meal which even the kids enjoyed. The next morning Francie walked us around her home town showing us all the sights. Alex and Francie also bought our tent off us so that made our luggage a little lighter and it was nice to know it had gone to a good home. We had a lovely lunch outside at one of the city cafes and and then drove our shortest journey to date of 1 hour north to Basel.