Stay in Switzerland

October 2016

 Lucerne Chapel Bridge

Our stay in Switzerland

5 weeks Switzerland with a detour to Germany.

We have spent a good amount of time with people that mean a lot to us. Interesting and sometimes critical conversations resulted from this.

The hustle and bustle 

and the masses of people especially in the Swiss cities have according to our feeling increased noticeably during the last three years. Surely the compacted building does not contribute to the positive appearance of the places. Sometimes one gets the impression that not only the sight is limited.

Driving, especially on motor ways, is much more relaxing in southern Africa. Overtaking being allowed from the left and from the right side. On normal rural roads the slower or heavier vehicles try to move as far to the side as possible to enable a safer over taking. Hooting is rare Tolerance is not a foreign concept on African roads. 

All of the above does unfortunately not apply to Switzerland anymore.

One of the reasons for our Swiss visit was the application for a pensioner visa for South Africa. Within a 365 day period the current legislation allows persons travelling on a tourist visa a 90 day stay. The pensioner visa must be applied for in the country of residence. It is valid for four years and allows the holder an unlimited stay with multiple entries. 

As we are planning a change of continent for the next year we would like to sell our vehicles in South Africa without any annoying time pressure.
The visa allows us to travel to Namibia and Botswana with the option to be able to return to South Africa at any given time. Plus we have an additional travel alternative for later. 
The visa has been stamped into our passports by now. The fact that the South African Embassy initially sent our passports to an unknown address is a different story.

Retired Visa South Africa

We are also taking advantage of our time in Europe to evaluate our future travel vehicle. We visited some motor home manufacturers and were at an exhibition in Isny. We also extended our stay in Switzerland to be able to visit the Caravan Salon in Bern.
A Swiss Army Knife does not exist when it comes to motor homes!
We are confident that we know now what we need for our future requirements: which vehicle, built by which manufacturer which is now the best compromise.

Photos