Our European Adventure 2023
The trip begins on 5th September like clockwork. Thanks to James driving us to the airport, we arrived in plenty of time to enjoy some refreshments before the flight. Our journey to Singapore was faultless. We left and arrived on schedule. With over four hours until our next flight, we wandered the shops at the airport, looking for some Australian wine to buy for our friends, Peter and Bern, who live in Switzerland. "Why didn't you buy some wine at the duty free in Brisbane?" you may ask. Apparently, when flying Singapore Airlines, you are not permitted to do so, as we discovered after finding a rip snorter of a label and taking it for purchase. Unfortunately for Peter and Bern, we weren't prepared to pay $350 for a bottle of Australian wine in Singapore.
Our flight to Zurich was scheduled for boarding at 12.25 am and promptly opened then. All of the fully booked plane was loaded and departed the airport at 1.25. We proceeded to the runway, where we waited for 15 minutes before returning to the airport for another two hours, where we sat in the plane. It was all due to a minor mechanical problem. I think they replaced an engine and was sure we were going to die 5 minutes before the further 12 hour flight ended.
Obviously, we didn't die. After making it through customs by queuing for over an hour we just missed a train to Fribourg, and had to wait another hour for the next one. I decided coffee was in order to keep us awake and have discovered a place where coffee is even more expensive than Enzo's.
Our lack of geographical knowledge resulted in us thinking we had paid more than required for our train tickets, when in reality we had not paid enough. Who would have thought that $100 for a 2 hour train journey for one person was not enough? We realised our error after the ticket inspector had approved our purchase. He thought we would alight at Berne, when we had a further 30 minutes to travel. Luckily, he didn't return to kick us off the train. I was going to plead ignorant tired tourist. In all, it took us 30 hours to arrive at our destination.
The smiling Peter met us at the train station and took us to his apartment for a delicious lunch. He lives in the old town. Fortunately our apartment is just around the corner. After lumbering up four flights of stairs, we discovered that our room was in the next building. A further three flights of stairs with our luggage, saw us collapse for a couple of hours sleep before we returned to Peter's for dinner. On our return to our digs later that night we found the lift!
Singapore in the distance as we were pulling into the flight terminal. Note the two fearful old fogeys in the reflection. Haven't caught covid yet though.
A view of the Alps from our window as we were getting close to Zurich
Walking down Rue De Lausanne as we approached Peter's apartment. A very quaint and charming street.
A lot of expensive cars in Switzerland. Also there are more "bigger" cars (say, compared to italy) because the streets are usually wider. Rue de Lausanne, whilst it used to be the main street of Fribourg, is not a mixed zone street where pedestrians have right of way.
We quickly discovered a cafe on the corner of Rue de Lausanne and Rue de Pier-Aeby where our hotel was. Why are croissants always better in Europe, (except if you buy them from Santini Gelateria)