Zurich -> Paris

Zurich. Breakfast at the hotel, followed by a flying visit of the town. We have two hours to see everything. The map given to us at reception has a walking tour which seems to take in all the major sights, so we follow it.

It's a lovely city. We see the biggest clock-face in Europe, the river, the Grossmünster church, the Fraumünster with it's stained-glass windows by Chagall, the old town. Eileen sees beautiful clothes in every window and is extremely dissapointed that it's Sunday and the stores are all closed. We pass by a store with the biggest selection of Swiss watches in Europe, and I feel a pang of disappointment myself!

Did I mention that Switzerland is expensive? Maybe not such a bad thing that the stores are all closed...

We wind up our flying tour and head back to the hotel to pick up our bags. Check out and head for the train station. Buy coffees and sandwiches to eat on the train, but somehow Eileen leaves her coffee in the shop. Not a good start!

TGV to Paris. When we arrive in Paris, it's cloudy and cold. Apparently the planes are flying again. Everything back to normal.

It all seems a bit unreal. Our heads are still full of sun-drenched salt water memories. Every once in a while the ground starts swaying...

The end of a big adventure.

Igoumenitsa -> Ancona -> Zurich

Ferry from Igoumenitsa to Ancona. Bye, bye Greece! I finally get a fix on the iPhone GPS. Our "Superfast" ferry is in fact doing 26 knots! This time we have an outside cabin for the return crossing. Much nicer. The window is bigger than expected, not just a little round porthole. And no rattling, so everyone has a good night's sleep.

Ancona to Zurich by train, via Bologna and Milano. Desperate to get a gelato in Bologna as we change trains, but no luck. As we zip along, I'm contemplating the fact that Italy now has modern, comfortable, fast trains. They even have air conditioning. Then I realize the windows no longer open. No more warnings of "é pericoloso sporgersi". 

Eileen is terribly disappointed that the tea-cart man is out of hot Nestle iced tea. I'm terribly disappointed that we are in Italy and can't get a gelato!

Go fish. 

A group of four lager louts, each with a can of beer in hand, get on for the last stretch to Zurich. They are incredibly loud and obnoxious, but at least they are speaking German so we can't understand what they are saying. Between graffiti and lager louts, Switzerland is really going down hill.

We arrive in Zurich HB around 20:00. It's cloudy. It's raining. It's cold. And expensive. There is some kind of beach volleyball tournament going on in the train station. Probably meant to make people forget how cold and dreary it is outside. It doesn't work.

We unpack our raincoats for the first time this trip. We walk to the hotel, which is quite close to the station. A very business-like international chain hotel. Booking at such late notice didn't leave much choice of hotels, and I wanted to be near the station. The staff is very business-like, very efficient, very Swiss.

We ask at the desk about eating out, and are told that will have no problem finding a restaurant in the old town. Eileen really wants to introduce us to the traditional Swiss specialities that she remembers such as rostie, raclette, etc. But once in our room we realize that it's too late and Laura is too tired to go out. So we eat in hotel bar/restaurant instead. The meal is efficient and business like...