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Zuricj
LakesideHad a slow start to the day as train to Zurich didn't leave until lunchtime, was expecting lots of tunnels and lots of mountains, got neither! Stephen kept saying I think we are going the wrong way, but we did eventually arrive in Zurich. Get off the train and find the taxi stand, get the first one in line, looks a bit grubby but ok, Stephen asks is he available, yes he says, it will be the taxifare plus 10 francs for the luggage....what???....10 francs for the luggage...well I spose we have no choice, I said, can hardly leave them at the railway station for three days can we, what a bloody rort! The taxi to our hotel was around ten minutes cost us 30 francs for trip plus 10 francs for suitcase.....40 francs all up for a ten minute trip...less than impressed!
Arrive at the hotel, it's in a nice area near the lake and we have been given another upgrade...yay....just as well because I would hate to have seen what the room was like we were upgraded from! The bed looked like two camp stretchers pushed together, the floor is old parquet and squeeks and groans with every
Zurich
Lake looking toward city step, there is no air con and it's like an oven. This hotel was not cheap this is Zurich nothing is cheap but my initial impression is that it's a level above a hostel....just! We dump our bags and get out of the oven into the fresh air ...which is still hot and muggy and go for a walk by the lake and a little way into town, there are people everywhere enjoying the sunshine, swimming in the lake, eating picnics, sunbathing, socialising, it's like the lake is the go to place for everybody after work, school etc. Gotta say I'm still grumpy, annoyed at the taxi charge and the uncomfortable hotel room and the fact I am past hot, I am a melting into a big sweaty puddle. Its now dinner time and there are lots of choices of restaurant, look at a few menus but they are all really expensive in the end we bite the bullet and just ask the next one we see if they have a table for two, seated we get our menu and realise it's Lebonese there is absolutely nothing on the menu I can eat that won't make me ill......we quietly stand
up and slink away....FAIL!
We walk a bit further and down a side street, pick another restaurant that looks more casual, ask to be seated, no problem and it's all hamburgers, by the time I take off all the stuff I can't eat......coleslaw and onion and the stuff I don't want to eat, pickle and mustard....I am left with a pattie, tomato and bun, fortunately you can add so I add cheese an egg and some avo.....we get a burger, chips and a drink each....him a beer, me a spritzer, the bill when it came .....89 francs....$130 nz dollars for a hamburger and chips.....it was a nice hamburger but really that's ridiculous. My mood isn't improving!
Back to the hotel, a cold shower, the fan going the window open and we are still beyond hot. The people at the hotel are lovely, the shower is the best we have had ( it would want to be we are having about 4 cold showers a day to survive), but we are just so uncomfortable we even considered abandoning our booking and moving on to Strasbourg early or stopping in Basel for a day or two, in the end decided
that it would just end up costing more with no way of recouping and we would have to sort out our train tickets etc and find somewhere else to stay, was all too much hassle.
Day 2
After breakfast we take our books and walk down to the lake and spend an hour in the shade reading before walking to the FIFA museum. It's not the best museum we have been to, it has some good interactive stuff but really for football fans wives fairly dull and for fans nothing there that he didn't already know or hasn't seen elsewhere. After playing the interactive referee thing we did find out that I am a better referee than him and I dont know the rules, he's hopeless!
Found a chocolate shop who also sold bakery items so bought a filled roll for lunch and went and sat in front of the lake to eat it. The problem now is it's too hot outside to be walking the streets and our hotel room is like a furnace. We settle on a cold shower and an hours nana nap before a stroll lakeside to a bar/ restaurant under big umbrellas
for a drink or two.
Thought we would spend the evening at the casino, air conditioning and with a bit of luck cheaper food. It all worked out well, I had a GOOD win within the first half hour, had a mini pizza chips and a drink each for under 50 francs and we were cool for 3 hours and we went home lots better off than we started!
Day 3
Slightly cooler today, outside anyway! Went for a walk round the old town, did a little purchasing in the wee knick knack shop with my casino winnings. There was part of the street by the river all taped off with police tape and police everywhere ....in the middle of the tram tracks was a huge puddle of fresh blood, not nice ...assume someone has been hit by the tram, pleased we missed seeing whatever happened I'm sure judging by the size of the puddle it was really unpleasant.
Grabbed lunch at the restaurant over the road from the hotel, its a lovely Italian place and looks a bit fancy, was way cheaper than hamburgers! Grabbed our togs and spent a lovely afternoon down at the
Zurich
Twin steeples lake, spent an hour on one of the peddle boats, went for a swim, sunbathed and read. Just like a real holiday, holiday!
A late dinner at a Swiss restaurant, food was pretty much the same as a nz restaurant, he had sausage and a huge potato rosti that covered half his plate and I had stuffed pork snitzel and chips found an ice cream on our way home before packing our suitcases, yet another cold shower and bed.
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