Zurich; Monday, 20 August, 2007

The last time I visited Zurich I had real problems trying to find a left luggage locker at the main station and ended up having to go all the way out to the airport to use one there. Since then things have changed… Not a bit. I still spent 5 minutes wandering around all the luggage lockers at the station until I had confirmed what I had suspected, that every one was full and that I would once again have to trek out to the airport to dump my bags before heading back into town. All this was after the Ibis overcharged me for the room by nearly £40 and had to spend nearly 10 minutes sorting the mess out to refund the money onto my card!

On arrival back at the main station I headed to the quay by the national museum to go for a ride on the river. Boats shuttle up and down the river to lake Zurich and then on to the casino. I got out where the river meets the lake to join one of the larger ships that run up and down the length of the lake. I boarded, with five minutes to spare the next departure, which was running the entire length of the lake down to Rapperswil. The journey takes about an hour and three quarters, but the views of the lakeside towns and villages were breathtaking.

I had a brief wander around Rapperswil and decided that I had created a new long German word – Europaeschermontagelschloßen – to define the process of the whole of Europe being shut on a Monday. Even half the shops were closed! I headed back to the railway station and took the S7 train back towards Zurich. This runs, for almost the whole length of its route along the side of the lake so you can take in more views, from a slightly raised level, including watching the boat you got off of about an hour earlier still only halfway up the lake.

Back in Zurich and I had about 90 minutes before I needed to head off for the airport so I had a brief wander around the town centre, taking the Polybahn from the riverside up to the University to take in some of the views, before finally crossing the river and climbing up onto the high ground overlooking the river and old town.

I wandered down to where the river and the lake meet to have a ride on the Ferris wheel which was in town for the summer, it was quite pleasant, up until the point that the rain started, whilst I was at the top and they were loading passengers at the bottom, I got quite wet in the two minutes or so that I was dangling there. By the time I had disembarked it was time to head back out to the airport, pick up my luggage, check in and head home