To Switzerland

Friday 5 June to Saturday 6 June

We spent the morning of 5 June at Eltham College for Ash's Grandparents Day (which was great fun) then we raced home to do some final packing before catching the tram to Southern Cross station and the Skybus to the airport. (Note to self: allow an hour for the tram in future - or risk having to run with a suitcase for the bus!)

Our Emirates flight departed at 6pm for Singapore; we had a couple of hours in Singapore before our flight to Dubai and around four hours in Dubai before the last leg to Zurich. The temperature in Dubai was 34 when we landed around 5am! We landed on a runway some distance from the main runway and had a twenty-minute bus ride to our terminal. The scale of the airport development is amazing, with huge areas for cargo services, maintenance, security and other less obvious services.

Singapore airport

Dubai airport 

The plane from Dubai was an Airbus 380, with much more spacious seating, so the final leg was definitely the best one. After another six hours or so in the air, we arrived in Zurich around 1.30pm on Saturday. We took the train from the airport to the city and navigated the short walk from the Bahnhoff to our apartment at Limmatquai 70, where we met the owner, Christian. The apartment is in a wonderful location: in the Old Town, with a lovely view across the Limmat River to the Lindenhof terrace and the spire of St Peter's church.

The view from our window

After doing some quick supermarket shopping, we caught the no.46 trolley bus to the north of the city where we were met by our friend, Britta. The short walk to Britta's home was through leafy lanes and gardens. She and her family (husband Frank, 7 year old David and 4 year old Lia) live in a very spacious 3 bedroom ground floor apartment with a lovely private garden. We spent a most enjoyable evening with them, including a BBQ and a Swiss dessert which involved crumbling a meringue in a bowl then sprinkling it with raspberries and Gruyere cream (very delicious!). It was eleven years since we had caught up with them in Aachen, Germany and we had some interesting discussions about life in Switzerland and in Australia since then.

Then home to bed and some much needed sleep!