Every so often the publication Senior Discovery Tours arrives in the mail. The beautifully presented brochure offers trips all over the world. Among them are trips to Switzerland, a country renowned for beautiful scenery. Reading about these trips takes me back to the time when I, too, was a tourist in Switzerland, only not quite in the traditional way.

The year is 1949, the month January, and my family is bidding me farewell in East Railway Station in Budapest. I am off to study at the Hotel School in Lucerne, Switzerland. Because of the political situation, I am not sure I will see my parents again. My only consolation is a salami sandwich my mother has tucked into my carry-on bag to eat on the train.