To Working days the kitchen remains also closed sometimes. We stand at the pier of Ballyvaughan (I hope I never have to pronounce these names) and learn that there is a fantastic restaurant here.
Unfortunately, in high season it is not possible to get a table without a reservation. Good thing we have a table and a whole home with us. We order "to go" and while Gerd drives our table and home from the pier to the restaurant car park, I get into a conversation with a local. So we both wait together for our meal.
He asks how we like it, whether we have already seen many beautiful things and whether everything works with the van. I beam, rewind the familiar In Praise of Ireland and we are both satisfied. I don't want to tell you about our defective grey water tank, I don't feel like doing any more repairs on the pier today.
To keep the conversation going a bit, I mention, rather in passing, that only the Rubbish topic is a problem for us. We could dispose of glass and cans, and we burn paper in the campfires. But the rest, we just can't find anything. Since there are no public rubbish bins, not even tiny ones, it's a bit frustrating.
He nods, knows the problem. We Irish always take the rubbish home. That way there's nothing lying around. The communities don't have to dispose of anything and the seagulls don't pick anything out. That's actually clever. It's just that the travellers weren't thought of, that's true, he says.
When we get our food, we say goodbye and I'm about to run to Felix, the gentleman calls out to me that I should get the rubbish bag ready, he'll pick it up right away and take it home. Then we would have one less thing to worry about and he would have a bin at home.
A little later he is actually standing in front of our van, I hand him my rubbish, a short "Enjoy your trip!" and he jets off and we are speechless with gratitude.
Never in our lives would we have thought of taking someone's rubbish in Switzerland. And we intend to change that. Just asking, "Is everything working out for you, is there anything we can help with?" is so simple and can generate so much happiness.
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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Wow! No one in Germany would have thought of that!
On the contrary:
The rubbish just flies out of the car window in a high arc!
And there would be enough rubbish bins and disposal facilities in our country. 😔
By the way:
Another beautiful photo of the two of you. ❤️
Kind regards from Dachau
s'Racheli
Good morning Rachel, yes, the rubbish is such an issue. In England, for example, it's much dirtier than in Germany. In Switzerland, as you know, you can eat off the ground in many places (not everywhere!).
It's really interesting that the zero bin strategy works here in Ireland and there really is nothing lying around!
Have a great week!
Gerd & Heike