"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Slovenia anymore".

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Sunday 17 May:



Zachary finally got to go on the playground at the hotel this morning while Heather packed. He has been dying to do this! Then we got a taxi to the airport. The driver was very nice and we had a good chat on the way. His views were very similar to those of Mr Rado’s from Bled. He told us about how he had always had a fascination with India and when he turned 30 he just quit his job, sold all his possessions, and went there for 6 months. Some people thought he was a bit crazy but he loved it. It is good to be able to engage with locals like this and you learn heaps!



Ljubljana airport is very small, similar to Hamilton, and we had some morning tea before catching our flight to Zurich, Switzerland. We flew Swiss Air and our plane was an Avro RJ-100, a plane I am unfamiliar with. It is a British made plane and looks a bit like a sausage with wings. It only seats 100 and unusually has 4 engines. Anyway, I thought it was a pretty cool little plane and the flight was very pleasant. We were served a light lunch and Zachary was given a small soft toy airplane, some pencils, a puzzle book, and a folding puzzle. Pretty good stuff for a 1 hour flight! Great views of snowy mountains on the way and in Zurich on time.



We got to the baggage return carousel which informed us they would be coming in 4 minutes. Heather commented that this is the first time she had seen this. I reminded her we were in Switzerland, which is like Germany, but more so.



Changed some euros to Swiss Francs (used to be pegged at 1.2 francs to the euro but now it is parity) and took the courtesy shuttle to our hotel: the Moevenpick Hotel five minutes from the airport. Our room wasn’t quite ready as they hadn’t put the extra bed in yet for Zachary so we were given a complimentary wine (juice for Z) while we waited in the lobby. Zachary immediately made a new friend with a Canadian boy. We got to our room and were impressed. It is a 4 star hotel with a standard room price of about $300 a night (I got it for $180 booking early on Expedia) but that doesn’t always equate to quality. However we have a very spacious room with plenty of amenities. Heather immediately checked the bathroom and was very pleased – announcing that there were plenty of soaps to steal… There was also a little rubber duck for the bath (for Zachary we presume!)



We had a bit of a rest then decided to head into the city for dinner and a bit of a look around. There is a tram station a few minutes walk from the hotel so we walked over, planning to buy a 24 hour pass. Transport costs here are high - 13.20 francs for a 24 hour pass but cheaper than buying single tickets which are 6.60 each. Buying this ticket from the machine proved to be rather tricky (there was no single push option to find it) but we got there, only to realise that the machine accepted coins and credit cards only, neither of which I had on my person! So back to the hotel to get change and then back to the stop. Got the ticket and by the time we got to town it was already just past 6pm. We attempted to find fast food or a café in the central city area but we could only find expensive restaurants and bars so we went to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Rail Station), confident we would find something. We immediately came upon a Burger King and we figured that would do. I had anticipated things being expensive in Switzerland but this was enough to nearly cause the death of this poor Dutchman! I had a chicken burger combo, Heather a beef burger combo, and Zachary 4 nuggets and chips. Total price 37 francs or about $55!!!!!! Oh well, Zachary likes the cardboard crown they gave him…



We should have walked another 30 metres as it happened. They had fish and chips for 8 francs each and 3 of those would have done us. But even that would have been $36. After the cheap prices of Slovenia and Italy and the ridiculously cheap prices of Zagreb this certainly was a shock to the system (as will be the snow in 3 days time).



We then caught a train back to the airport where we knew a supermarket was open and just ignored the prices as we bought what we wanted. Then one stop on the tram back to the hotel.



Tomorrow is our only full day in Zurich and we are going to go to the zoo. It is highly rated and the weather will be good and it is something we’ll all enjoy. After we’ll hopefully have time to check out the old city and the lake. A one hour lake cruise can be had for 9 francs each so maybe we’ll have time for this.

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