Monday 29 January 2018

Oh well, I suppose all good things must come to an end. My trip to Switzerland is now nearly over. I cannot wait to come back again.

After breakfast we went back into our room and I helped Timbo pack his suitcase. He needs a Bärli's help as he is only human.

Once I had got him almost completely packed I allowed him a little rest while I caught up on my blog. I need to edit it when we get back home and select the best photographs to go with it, then I need to make the photopgraphs look their best with Photoshop, so that it can be presented to the world. I would never want to publish anything that is not worthy of the faith my grown-up human has in me.

We checked out, it was the same kind lady that checked us in. Timbo again spoke German with her. I think he needs more confidence as he seems to manage quite well. We met up with Heidi for a nibble and coffee to say "Auf wiedersehen".

We then got on the number 10 tram, and Heidi came one stop with us. The journey time is about thirty minutes, roughly three times longer than the train, but in some ways it is more relaxing. When you arrive there is a little walk to the airport terminal, but at least you can enjoy the Swiss air just that little bit longer. 

Bärli.
Gepäckli.
Alles in Ordnung.

As Timbo had checked us in on line and we only had hand baggage, we were able to go straight to the security check which went smoothly, and at Zurich it is much nicer than security usually is at London, either Heathrow or City airports.

We looked through the Duty free, and as usual Timbo uttered strange oaths under his breath I could not quite make out. I think I heard him say something like "Overpriced tat" but he might equally have said "Oh, look at that".

We relaxed for a while in the lounge and then a little before the call we went to the gate as Timbo always likes to be there in plenty of time, and he likes planes a lot, almost as much as this Bärli does, that he enjoys being in his seat watching the activity going on outside.

Buckled in ahead of time ready for take off.

Our flight was late leaving as it arrived late, but it was parked at a gate and not out in the middle of nowhere, as the flights to London City sometimes are.

The journey was wonderful and we had our cameras ready. We took lots of photographs and I am only showing you the best ones. I will not tell you which ones are mine and which ones are Timbo's. You will have to work it out for yourself.

Moments after take off we left Zurich behind.

A lovely view of the mountains in the distance rising above the cloud.

No, we did not photoshop in the engine!

Is this photograph better showing us banking and everything tilted or ...

... or is it better straightened out a bit?

We again had the vegan meal, this time we were given cold couscous with spinach in filo pastry, a warm vegetable samosa, in which there was potato but the greens were chopped up and it was hard to tell what they were. To finish off we had a very light chocolate mousse.

Our yummylicious lunch,

As a birthday toast to Laing, we had a glass of champagne, which the very kind steward topped up. Timbo had to ask him to stop. He did not want to be squiffy.

Belated happy birthday, Laing, and belated Australia Day wishes too.

Our arrival was scheduled just before sunset. I think Timbo and I were wise to sit on the left hand side, cameras ready to paw, to take some super shots.

Sunset between two layers of clouds (1)

Sunset between two layers of clouds (2)

Sunset between two layers of clouds (3)

Should I have asked Timbo "Are we there yet?" at this point?

We landed only a few minutes later than scheduled, which is not bad as we left about ten minutes or so late. We were through the automatic gates at passport control in next to no time, and only had to wait five minutes for the DLR. Our connection at Stratford was excellent. All in all, we had a good journey home and were back home indoors roughly an hour after landing.

My next trip is going to be to Bangkok and Singapore. I cannot wait to go, but no matter how much fun it is to go away and see friends, Timbo quite rightly says, there is no place like home, and there is nowhere as perfect as one's own bed.

In my own bed. Lucky me.

Sunday 28 January

Golly! Were we tired! Again! We woke up later than we had intended. This meant we had to have a change of plan for the day. Heidi suggested we could go for a walk around a little lake in Pfäffikon. In German it is called der Pfäffiker See.

 
It was a really lovely thing to do. Even though the day was a little bit cloudy for most of the walk we saw the countryside and it was lovely. There were lots of people walking around too. There were even the usual joggers! Heidi and Timbo were having a lot of grown-up talk. I think Timbo is lucky to have such a good friend.

This art work had no title, but it looked impressive.

Timbo likes to photograph these jetties.
I like this one as he made sure it is off centre.

The landscape was magnificent, lush greenery and sunlight sparkling on the mountains.

Timbo said it was rather early to see catkins.

There is a rather nice café in the small village of Seegräben. It has a very cute tiny church.

The church at Seegräben

The good thing about the café is it is about two thirds of the way through the walk round the lake so the last third seems to take next to no time once you have had some refreshment inside. But we were sitting down having our nibbles and drinks a lady spoke to Heidi. It turns out she only lives round the corner from Heidi. Talk about a small world! 

The light was dazzling when it broke though the clouds.

On the last leg around the lake we saw a stork building its nest, which seems to be made, among other things, from dogwood branches. There were heaps of dogwood shrubs on our walk, not only just below where the stork was building the nest.

A stork on the nest.

A blowup of the stork from the other photograph.

We also saw a lady swimming in the lake. Now I know I have got fur which keeps me warm, but I was not so stupid as to be walking around semi naked. You would not catch me swimming in that lake on a cold day like this.
 

This looks far too cold to go swimming for me.

Heidi took us back to Winterthur through some very nice countryside. Timbo thought the landscape was astounding as we went through valleys gouged by glaciers thousands of years ago. Back in Winterthur we said good bye for a little while. We came back to Zürich, and had a snooze again in the hotel.

Tonight we had dinner with Heidi's sister, Elsa. So on this trip we had met all of Heidi's siblings each evening. The restaurant in the hotel, Swiss Chuchi, basically serves nothing but fondue and raclette. It is not a good idea to bring a vegan friend here to eat. Again we had a wonderful evening with wonderful company. At least this time I do not have so far to go after my dinner.

Saturday 27 January 2018

Today we had a rather lazy start. We had arranged with Heidi to meet up round about lunchtime. Before we did, Timbo took some money out of a bank machine. He withdrew Fr. 300 which is about £225. Timbo was very surprised when the notes came out, instead of the usual set of three Fr. 100 notes he got a Fr, 200 and a Fr. 100 note. So that meant one piece of paper represented about £75 and the other about £150. Now I understand why Timbo tries to get smaller notes as fast as he can in Swiztzerland.

We did something rather crazy because Timbo knows Switzerland quite well he does not need to do all the tourist things like he used to. That does not mean to say he has done all of the things you should do but he has done a lot of the important ones. 

So what was this the crazy thing we did? We went shopping in a garden centre with Heidi! She was going to buy some plants for Alexandra, as well as for herself. She also said there was a wonderful coffee shop in the garden centre.

Alexandra has asked for a surprise, and Timbo suggested we could buy her a tree, even though it would be more of a shock than a surprise as she lives in an apartment. Well, would you believe there was a surprising tree we found and we got it for her?

Bonsai Style Thyme Tree!

When we got to the garden centre I could not believe how big it was indoors. There was more space outside, but of course, as it is winter there were no plants outside to choose from. We then went and had something to drink and a little bit to nibble. We also had to buy some wooden crates. The first place we went to did not have the right sort. So we went to another shop. This time we were lucky. Now we have bought everything it was time to deliver it.

After having been good delivery people, we went back to Heidi's house, where we had a little rest before getting ready to go back out again. This time we went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Kloten (Chloote in Swiss German). We picked up Alexandra and made out way to the restaurant where we were joined by Heidi's brother Willi and his wife.

Timbo did try to speak German but he found it more difficult today. He wishes he could be much better. But that did not stop us from all having a wonderful time with lots of laughs as well as enjoying our scrummy meal.

Willi kindly offered to drive us to the airport which was not far away, so that we could catch the train from there rather than to travel back to Winterthur and then back into Zürich. It is a good idea as there are more trains from the airport than there are from Winterthur.

We could not have had better timing as the train came in only a couple of minutes after we got down to the platform.

Sadly our luck run out at this point. We just missed the tram by seconds. At least it is not very far to walk from the station to the hotel. Once we got back we collapsed onto the bed and had a long sleep. A very long sleep.