REMEMBERING PRETEND TRIP TO GENEVA #1

One nothing special morning while Ben and I sat in the kitchen drinking coffee, Ben said, 
"Why don't we make a trip by ourselves and this time not put it on the blog. It will just be for us to enjoy."


What a brilliant idea. I joined in. "Yes, we can be like real tourists and see everything in, in...where?"
Ben said, "Neither of us has been to Geneva. Let's go there."


(Here I want to mention that this is a test on my theory I presented to my face book friends last fall: that if a pretend trip has many details and a story line, it can be accepted by the brain the same way an "in the flesh" trip is remembered. So I will be testing my memory now.Ben died April 6, 2012 and it is wonderful to spend this time with him.)


So this is how our pretend trip to Geneva began. We tell people that I have come into a lot of money with the stipulation that it can only be used for travel. They would never believe or understand it is actually paid for by Monopoly Money!! 
But you, my blog Friends, already know about that!




I'll skip to when the plane landed in Geneva. It was late morning. We could barely make out the snow covered mountains through the clouds; we hoped this would not be one of those "never saw an alp" trips you hear about. 
 
We were staying in a small, charming, cozy inn so, so...well, Swiss like!! It was a short walk from this church.
We had barely opened our suitcases when the phone rang!!!! Who?? Why??? I picked up the phone and heard a familiar voice. I even thought I could smell cigar smoke! Cigars were one of the caller's passions.

"Hello, Annie. This is Larry.  You should have told me that you and Ben were leaving the country. Believe me, Ben is in danger!" 
I rolled my eyes. It was Larry, our old friend. Larry and I were classmates at Humes High School, '51. 

He was the class nerd; yet he went on to lead the most exciting life of anyone in our class...as a CIA agent. Although retired he has kept contact with his old friends at the agency. Also, Larry's son is an agent now.
 Yet he remained Larry of our teen years to me.
I tried to speak...uh, uh, uh....
Larry  wouldn't let me talk.


 "Annie, you must leave immediately for PresidentWilson Hotel. There is a room already reserved for you. Go quickly." Phone went dead.


  I tried to tell Ben about Larry's call while I was stifling a laugh. But Ben took the call seriously; a short cab drive later we reached this large, uncozy looking, not particularly Swiss looking hotel!! NOT what we wanted for our little getaway.





When we went inside we were ushered straight to our suite.
(Get that? SUITE!) on a private (Get that? PRIVATE!) elevator to the top floor; our reserved "room" covered the entire floor.
 The windows were bullet proof. Ah, just what we wanted!?!


"Larry, I could wring your neck," I thought.



There was a simple note on the coffee table. It only said, "You will be safe here in the Royal Penthouse suite.  I will contact you on your secure phone soon. Love, Larry. PS. I know money is no object with you, so you won't be upset that the suite costs $65,000 a day!"
Also there was an information sheet about our prison!

six bedrooms facing Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc

six bathrooms

doors and windows bullet proof

private elevator
secure phone

 

I was tired and wanted to take a nap before we got further instructions from Larry. But which bedroom out of four?? Which???

So I decided to put this on my blog, because it wasn't about to be the trip Ben and I wanted.

But it COULD get interesting?!

More later as we know more.

Love, ben and annie

disappointed "campers!"

So far I am remembering that trip made in February, 2012, very well.  I'll enter Part 2 tomorrow.
old7lady9blogger80@gmail.com

 annie

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