Visit to Zurich

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Woken by rain on the roof and in a motorhome that is not a noise which you can ignore as it tends to be pretty loud. A few claps of thunder and a check of the weather forecast said it wouldn't last long and it didn't.

We set off in the Smart car for Zurich once it had dried up. The roads are pretty fantastic but we took the motorway most of the way as easier to find the way into a city and the motorways do tend to dominate. Lots of tunnels later and we were approaching the centre and the lake. Searched for car park signs and followed them to one but when we got there it said it was full. Round the block slowly as half the road was closed off where they appear to be building an athletics stadium right in the busiest part of the city near the lake. We followed more signs to the Promenade car park which said there were lots of spaces and did a tour of a couple of bridges across the river at the top end of the lake but ended up turning round as we were on a cul-de-sac for anything other than trams and you don't argue with a tram. The traffic system in this city is just downright confusing.

Gave up on the car park idea and found a 2 hour (2 std) parking metred spot instead. Managed to download yet another parking app and paid for my 2 hours. 7.50 swiss francs... a steal 😊 😊 Had to use the app as the machine seemed to only take cash and we don’’t have that much in change.

Had a lovely wander through the streets. Very easy just to window shop as most shops are high end designer and for example, I just have no use for a 2.5k fluffy handbag and Bob refused to buy me the 4.5k rather gorgeous diamond ring as he says I already have one 😊
Some super buildings to photograph and had to remember to look up .. to find coloured balconies and paintings under the window overhangs as well as backward as the combination of interesting buildings can make such a pretty picture.

We ended up back at the MunsterHof which was behind where we parked the car so stopped for lunch. Two delicious Tarte Flambees but honestly they were so big neither of us managed to finish them and next time we will share one and ask for two plates. It was Not cheap but Zurich is an exceedingly expensive city and we were in a prime eating area.

Had to hurry to pay as the sky, which had been nicely blue, had darkened and thunder was rumbling away behind the roof tops. Made it back to the car and then along to the lake for a quick photo before the rain started up properly.

Decided to move on as not the best of weather for a lakeside walk and a swim in one of the lakeside swimming Bads was definitely not going to happen. Bob drove us out to the East to the next lake along (Greifensee) and we drove right round it. We didn’t get to the water’s edge anywhere though presumably there were roads down but we didn’t find them. Managed to navigate our way round a supermarket to get a few essentials. Nothing familiar, no brands that we know and all signs and labels are in German only so sometimes we have to keep our fingers crossed that we haven’t accidentally bought curdled milk (as we did once 😊 yukky ).

Delighted to find my favourite ‘foreign’ delicacy, nut mustard, which I love to add to savoury sauces but have up to now only found in Normandy delicatessans. Grabbed 3 jars and to my delight found they were on half price offer and all three cost me half of the last single jar I bought in France. That made me feel Good 😊 😊

Spotted two large storks in a field as we drove along to the bottom of the lake which was lovely and then headed West hopefully in the direction of the campsite. Bob put Reussbrucke into the satnav as he said I wasn’t giving him directions in time when I was using my phone maps app. My app did though identify the correct location of our campsite at Reussbrucke. It was only when I saw we were passing mountains which shouldn’t’ be there and going along a totally different lake which was not on my route, the Zugersee, that I realised we had totally shot past where we were supposed to be and were well on the way to Lucerne !
Sat Nav smacked and redirected and we set off back towards the correct Reussbrucke. A far more pleasant route through rolling hills and fields with a few mountain views than the busy motorway south we had been following.

All of that called for a drink in the campsite bar before dinner outside before retreating inside when the rain came again. Not sure how long the rain can hold off as the weather forecasts are showing quite a few days of quite a lot of showers.

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