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Published: June 30th 2009
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We got and early start to this morning, packing our stuff and cleaning the apartment before making a final run out to buy some makings of lunch for the trip. Tsetse arrived promptly and we said our final goodbye's at the station before buying our tickets.
We were quite early for our train, but unfortunately they don't post the platform until just shortly before the train arrives. This results in a crush of people all racing to the stairs when they final see where they need to go. Despite being quite early, we ended up having to do this dash and were not even sure at first if we had jumped on the right train.
This train was smaller than most of the regional ones, but was still reasonably comfortable and had power outlets for Joshua's Nintendo as well as the computer. After leaving, we called Steve in Zürich to let him know we were on our way, leaving a message for him.
Shortly after leaving Grenoble, we reached the town of Aix-les-Bains. It is a pretty lake filled region and I regret that we never got a chance to visit it.
Our tickets have us switching
trains in Grenoble, which we reached in about 2 hours. The station in Geneva had ramps, rather than just stairs or elevators to get from platform to platform. After months of hauling bags up and down train station stair or trying to wait for a crowded elevator, I thought this was a great idea and was quickly praising Swiss efficiency.
Switzerland has only had passport free borders with Europe for a few months and we passed by the now unused Xray machines on the way to our connecting train.
At the platform, there was was looked like a regional train waiting, but we were fairly certain it was not ours, so Evy went to buy us a few coffee. With no Swiss Francs, we had to pay in Euros, though the price was listed at 3.50 Swiss Francs.
With the coffees in hand, we realized that the train that was standing there was in fact ours, and hopped on board. Once settled on the train, we got a text from Steve telling us to meet them at the clock tower in the Zürich train station upon our arrival.
The train we were on was a double
decker of sorts and our seat were on the upper deck. It was incredibly smooth and silent ride, almost as if we were floating on air and nothing like what I have come to associate with train travel. We started to figure out the Swiss Francs. We had just payed more than $7 for two cups of coffee. Good thing this is a short stay.
The scenery out the window of the train looked like something out of a fairy tale illustration with black and white cows along impossibly green rolling hills filled with wild flowers and the mountains as a back drop. Our route took us along the shore of Lac Lemon which was stunning and even had the occasional castle thrown in for added effect.
On the buildings, the Swiss flag was quite visable as we passed the hillside cottages with neatly stacked woodpiles alongside them.
The Swiss are amazing tunnel builders and the train seamed to flow effortlessly around the bends and through the mountains. With the smooth ride and your ears popping with the altitude changes, it felt almost like traveling in a jet.
By 2:45 we had reached the town of
Ramont, and by 3:00 we were passing the modern looking town of Fribourg. By 3:30 we had reached the more industrial city of Bern and the weather, which had been sunny with a clear blue sky all day, was beginning to cloud over.
Shortly after Bern we crossed a high bridge that looked down to an large, turquoise coloured river. After this we got into a more industrial area passing the Lindt chocolate factory (we are in the “Land of Chocolate” as Homer Simpson would say) and shortly after, the cooling tower of a nuclear power plant.
We reached Zürich shortly after this and quickly found Steve and his wife Stephanie along with their children Zack and Anna by the station clock.
The plan was to spit up and take the luggage in the car while some of us took the tram and then the funicular up to the apartment. Benjamin and I went with Steve and the luggage to the car while Joshua and Evy joined Stephanie and Anna on the tram.
Zürich seems like a remarkably efficient city with space age looking light rail transit (streetcars) going everywhere. Steve explained that it is a
sort of bath tub shape with lake Ulrick at the bottom and all the communities built on the hillsides surrounding the lake. It looks to be a strange combination of modern and old.
The Schaller's apartment is on the third floor of their building (European second floor), but because of the angle of the land, they are on ground level with a nice backyard area. The apartment itself was huge with a wide hallway and very generous sized rooms - certainly larger than the proportions we are used to in Europe. Steve explained that because they had their dog with them when they came (who has since passed away), they needed an apartment that had garden space and ended up getting a larger place than they might otherwise have without the dog. When they took their initial trip to Switzerland to find a place, they had 2 ½ days to look in a very tight rental market.
After a tour of the apartment, Evy, Joshua, Anna, and Stephanie arrived from their trip up by transit. Zack, who had been out at a party, joined us a short time later. Joshua and Zack, who haven't seen each other in
a year and a half, quickly picked up where they left off and in no time all four children where running around having a great time.
While the kids played, Evy and I sat around the dining room table with Steve and Stephanie and talked about our various experiences with travel and leaving home as well as the trials and tribulations of getting kids adjusted to it all. Despite our different situations (they are here in Switzerland for three years and we are traveling for only one year) there were remarkable similarities to our experiences and it was a good common point and established a bond.
We had a great BBQ dinner, which the kids polished off in no time, and then had some laughs comparing the various anomalies of being immersed in a different culture with different ways of doing things. In someways it echoes Tsetse's reflections on 20 years as a Brit in France and the subtle cultural but persistent cultural differences.
Steve helped us get our computers hooked up to his network which was great, as we could check our email and Benjamin could do on line chat with his friends at home. As
it is a school day for Zack and Anna tomorrow (they go to and international school in a nearby town), we said goodnight to them as well as Stephanie, who has to fly to London and back tomorrow (seems very rock star like to be jetting off from Zürich to London and back in a day) before turning in ourselves.
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