Days 4 & 5, 18-19th April Zurich & Lucerne, Basel

Walked 11.5 km's - 15,020 steps today!

We woke up after a great sleep catching up with our 1st full night of sleep after 2 days of travel. Our body clocks were a bit up the wop with waking at 1am, but then went back to sleep.

Ive decided to post costs as we go along, for interest & people have asked & it's always so hard to remember when you are moving around countries!

Brekky at the hotel, then we walked back to the train station to go to Lucerne today- it’s a 1 hr trip. Tickets for 2nd class were 110CHF = $236 for 2 !!! An easy ride there, then we wandered around town. We loved the vibe of Lucerne- preferred it to Zurich which is more grungy. We walked over the Chapel Bridge which dates back to The 14th century. It was adorned with a set of paintings from the 17th century and is beautifully cool to walk under its roof while crossing the water.

I have a photo of Mum & Dad when they came here in 1984 & visited the Lion of Lucerne monument, which always fascinated me as a teenager of 16. I had done some research and we decided it was worthwhile to go to Lucerne to visit and it was definitely worth it. It was only about a 10 min walk to the monument, with a little pond in front of it. It always flips my mind that you visit places where people you know have been and the only thing separating you is time! Its like our family have photos of my Grandfather standing in front of Stone Henge (touching it), then a generation later my Mum standing in front of it, then another generation later, me doing the same but it was then roped off- but we are all in the same place. Only 66 years separating us all from each other.....

Anyway, we spent quite a while at the monument, just sitting on a bench watching all the visitors (& Graeme having a bird shit on his shoulder! Isn't that meant to be lucky?!), then we walked back to town- not much open as its Easter Friday, but we did go into an open chocolate store & bought a small bag of little chocolate eggs $40! And then went to a great little pub along the waterfront with a really friendly waitress. She suggested beers which we really nice and we had lunch. Graeme had a spicy sausage in a bun & 2 beers while I had a Brie burger with sweet potato fries a beer & a coke. The burger was insanely good! Total was $175 , the waitress was saying the Switzerland is the most expensive country in Europe & she isnt wrong, its more than double the NZD- pretty much what it is in CHF, it literally translates to the figure it is at home eg/ a burger thought would be $28 NZD is 28 CHF. Unfortunately, it isn't the same at the bank end haha 😜, but it is what it is & you just have to suck it up.

We wandered back over the chapel bridge and onto the train back to Zurich. We decided not to go out for dinner tonight as it will be too much after lunch, so bought a couple of salad rolls & a bottle of coke- $50 nzd. Back to our hotel, so much easier to find today now we know our way! Its been chilly but nice today & it has warmed up to 20C this afternoon. A lovely day & just fighting a bit of jet lag later in the afternoon, so off for a walk around the river to stay awake to an appropriate hour. 

There are bars across the road - although last night it was just people outside drinking & talking unti 1am, so hopefully it will be ok tonight. The hotel leave ear plugs in your room which is a first! We are off tomorrow afternoon to the airport for pick up to our river cruise anyway, so it’s all good.

Day 5, 19th April Zürich – Basel

We both woke at 2 am again this morning, must be to do with the time difference! But went back to sleep and got up at our leisure this morning, down to breakfast and spoke to reception who said we can check out at 12pm instead of 11am. It's great here that checkouts are later than in NZ. 

Mooched around and repacked properly, then we walked over to Zürich train station and got tickets to the airport. Allowed ourselves plenty of time to get there and find the right place for our river cruise pick up with Emerald cruises. This is a 7 day 'Rhine &the Tulips' cruise.

Bought some fruit at the airport for lunch and asked for directions to the terminal ( my motto, if in doubt - ask!), found the cruise information desk and settled down to wait for the pick up an hour later. it's interesting in Zurich airport, you can use the free wi-fi if you scan your passport or boarding pass, it gives you a code and then you can get online!

We got picked up about 2 pm and all onto the coach for a 1 hr 20 drive to Basel. It's funny we were passing signs to turn off to go to Karlsruhe which we drove through and stayed, when we did a road trip down the Rhine with our friends Rudy and Anna, some years ago – what a great adventure that was! 

Where we are going now– Basel, has a French side and a German side and you can literally stand on one side of the bridge where we docked and you are in Germany and walk to the other side and you are in France!

Got on board and into our room, very nice with floor to ceiling glass windows – you can press a button in the top half comes down like a french balcony, now that would be a good idea for a home :-).

We unpacked our bags – love that, as I really hate living out of a suitcase! It's been really hot today after cold days previously, it was 23°! Got our info and they went round everyone on board once we all got into the lounge – very surprised that we are the only Kiwis onward!😳😊, There are a few Aussies lots of Americans, a Jamaican, some people from Brazil, Ireland, UK, Wales and Canadians, so a very diverse group.

The last river cruise we did was predominantly Australians so it was a surprise that there were no other New Zealanders and so many Americans here today.

We sat by a couple of ladies from Australia while we were having a drink and turns out they live in Albion Park where Graeme used to work in New South Wales!! And then we sat next to some Americans from Utah for dinner and they had mutual acquaintances with friends we've had for a long time – they are all members of the Mormon church; so it is such a small world out there!

Back to the room early as we are starting to feel pretty tired any will be on the go every day this week. Surprised how fast the river boat moves too. – it is much bigger than the one we did years ago, And it's great watching it go into the lochs and the water rise and then fall as we go out. We are really chugging along too – almost sets off my vertigo! We are contemplating a guided bike tour tomorrow as they have E bikes on board which spoils you! Either that or a walking tour – we are off to Breisach pronounced “Bry- sahik”. 

On the way from Zürich airport to Basel for the river cruise with Emerald

Emerald destiny

Breisach - on the border between Germany & France