April 2019 – Worktime

4 April 2019; The Wrap

We touched down in Sydney just after 0720. The final sector from Dubai was just as smooth as the previous sector into Dubai – but more than twice as long at nearly fourteen hours. The plane was pretty full and we were not afforded the same luxury of blocking adjacent seats such that Chris could lie down. Consequently, she didn’t get much sleep. Me, I can sleep standing up. 🙂

Having restocked my supply of Blue Sapphire Gin at the duty free, customs and immigration were a breeze and we were soon on the underground platform waiting to catch the train to Central to connect with one bound for Newcastle. Changing at Newcastle Interchange we collected Chris’ car at Victoria Street railway station (left there by Sarah on her way to work this morning) and arrived home at 1230.

I’ve collected data on various metrics for each one of our overseas trips as a way of helping plan for future trips. Here are some items that may be of interest to you…

Data points

Metric	Value
Trip duration	43 days
Bed nights	40
Distance walked, total	403 km
Daily walking average	9.4 km
Digital photographs taken	2,546

Contrary to our current crop of inept politicians we managed to bring this project in under budget returning with a surplus this financial year. Our budget was AUD 22.8K and we under-spent it by nearly 17%.

Total Expenditure by Category

Category	Percentage
Transportation	24%
Accommodation	37%
Food & drink	25%
Entertainment	5%
Everything else	9%

From previous experience, we were expecting Switzerland to be the most expensive country to visit and as the following table clearly demonstrates, this proved to be the case.

Daily Expenditure by Country (AUD)

Country	Duration	Avg	Max	Min
Italy	14 days	$165	$341	$99
France	10 days	$170	$240	$40
Switzerland	18 days	$249	$644	$36

Traveler’s weight change

Traveler	Value
Gregory	+1 kg
Christine	undisclosed

As proof that you don’t have to travel overseas to find scenes of natural beauty, here is a picture snapped from the train today as we were passing through the Central Coast.

The backup photographer

Chris is the primary photographer using a proper camera and so is rarely seen in images as she is behind the lens. When she was otherwise distracted, I was able to grab a short series of images using my iPhone. Can you spot the theme?

And I’ll let her have the last word …

Greg and Chris Belcher. 🙂

31 March – 2 April 2019; Zurich: Walking tour, the Zoo and heading for home

We used an iPhone app for our self guided tour of the old city. We discovered this app in Geneva and found it to be a useful tool. It uses the GPS location data from your phone to guide you along a route with audio that kicks off once you reach the required destination. You can download each tour as a package when on Wi-Fi so you don’t have to use mobile data as you wander around the city. There were two walks and a run listed for Zurich. We settled for the old city walk. 🙂

The walk starts and ends at the railway station and traverses about 9 Km. Again, the weather was perfect for this activity but there was a haze that washed out the skies. Chris was sure her images from our last visit here in 2012 were a lot sharper.

A ferris wheel had been setup near the waterfront of Lake Zurich.

Chris grabbed some photos as we looped over the top of the arc that would not be possible otherwise.

When we got to the Fraumunster Church that contains the stained glass panels by Marc Chagall, we were disappointed to find it temporarily closed. We have seen these magnificent panels on our previous visit and so this was not devastating but it would have been nice to visit with them again.

We completed the walking tour and had a salad with a nice bottle of wine in our apartment watching the ABC news and pre-budget speculation on iView.

A visit to the zoo

Our final day in Zurich was spent at the zoo. We left our apartment and took the tram into the railway station and then walked to a nearby shop which was supposed to store our bags for the day while we visited the zoo. But when we got there, the proprietor refused to accept our bags. Chris had made the booking on-line but the shop keeper said he was not getting paid by the on-line system and so he was not going to take our bags. This was annoying as we had waited till the store opened and then had to drag our bags back to the railway station and store them in lockers there paying for the service – again. As we rode the tram out to the zoo, I was drafting an e-mail asking for a refund. I expect pigs may sooner fly.

The zoo was a strange mix of old and new. The site is compact, with residential housing just over the fence, and sits high on the hillside overlooking Zurich. The older sections felt like the Taronga zoo of old with cramped cages and pits with bars. The newer sections were bright and vibrant with lots of educational aspects for young children.

A recent addition to the zoo was a new enclosure for the koalas which looked like a crude facsimile of the Sydney Opera House with sail-like roofing. When we visited, the koalas were being fed and the crowd seemed transfixed by the commentary of the keeper who went on and on in Swiss German for as long as we were there. Even the koalas looked a little bored – but then again, they always seem that way to me.

We left the zoo and made our way back to the railway station, recovered our bags and then caught a train to Zurich Airport.

We checked in and then reclined for an hour or so in the Emirates lounge before departing Zurich nearly an hour behind schedule bound for Dubai and then for home. The flight was not full and we were able to block the two middle seats in the centre row (of four) and Chris was soon asleep lying across the seats. I continued with season three of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

I am writing this update in the Emirates lounge in Dubai. Our trip from Zurich was smooth as silk in an Airbus A380. Our final sector to home is also on an A380 and it is sad to see that this wonderful aircraft is being decommissioned around the world after just a little over 20 years of service (and being replaced by more fuel efficient wide body planes like the Boeing 777).

Kerrie Nolan has exceeded our expectations in organising the weather for this trip. Aside from Annecy, every stop has been blessed with perfect travelling conditions, blue skies and lots of sunshine. And she has been efficient too – as we were sitting in the lounge in Zurich waiting to board the plane, the rain started and the tarmac was soon awash with water.

I will be providing a final update once we reach home with the usual trip data points and some fun pictures.

Thanks for all your comments and interest in our travels. I hope you enjoyed our updates, which aside from our visit to CERN, I’ve tried to keep short and informative with some colour and movement.

We’re looking forward to seeing you all again very soon. 🙂

Lots of love – Chris and Greg Belcher.

31 March – 2 April 2019; Zurich: Arrival and art museum

We were unaware that Switzerland moved to daylight savings time at 2 am on Sunday morning 31 March. Fortunately, my iPad’s clock was set to the correct time zone and the alarm went off as you’d expect. However, as we were packing, we discovered our watches did not agree with our devices – which caused some consternation and mild panic. After some checking on the interwebs, we discovered the reason for the discrepancy, reset our watches and dragged our bags to the early morning bus taking us to Zurich.

The sun was just at that perfect angle and the air was still. When I started over the Rathaussteg Bridge heading to the bus, the following image jumped into my iPhone camera. Auf Wiedersehen Lucerne.

Chapel Bridge, Water Tower and Mount Pilatus

The transit to Zurich was scheduled to take an hour but for some reason it took only forty five minutes. Perhaps the traffic was thin due to sleepy headed Swiss folk getting their time change wrong. Lessons learned and opportunities for improvement – never use a cuckoo clock as an alarm clock. 🙂

We took a tram to our accommodation and then, after leaving our bags, grabbed some rental bikes and rode across the city to the Lake Zurich waterfront before riding to the Kunsthaus Zürich (Museum of Fine and Contemporary Art).

Steeple of St. Peter with the Fraumunster Church in front

We have visited Zurich before; in May 2012. We spent five nights here at that time and went on a number of day trips away from Zurich into the mountains and surrounding areas. We did the regular touristy things during that trip and so were free with our selection of things to see and do on this trip – except that we had to visit the Museum of Fine and Contemporary Art – again.

We reprised Chris’ “best painting in the room” competition and by this time I was getting pretty good at guessing what Chris would pick. It didn’t help and I still lost 37 to 23. The selection of old masters is extensive and despite the fact we’d spent a day here on our previous visit we did the same again, and it was just as good as I can recall the second time round.

Wheat field with Cypresses – Vincent van Gogh

Tomorrow, Monday, all the museums will be closed and we are planning on going on a walking tour of the old city.

28 – 30 March 2019; Lucerne: Boat cruise on Lake Lucerne

On Saturday, the principal town squares of Lucerne were packed for the weekly market. Chris went out in search shopping excitement while I was working on the blog update from Mount Pilatus. The weather was perfect and the sidewalks were choked with alfresco diners enjoying the sunshine and blue skies.

View to our accommodation from across the River Reuss

In the afternoon, we joined a boat cruise on Lake Lucerne and listened to a lively commentary (in English) while doing a lap of the lake.

As we were approaching the wharf near the end of our cruise, I was bonked on the head by a wayward selfie stick. It didn’t really hurt but it did spur me on to grab a picture of Chris and myself enjoying the last of the boat cruise and the perfect weather and stunning scenery – and it was also the first selfie of this trip. 🙂

Tomorrow we depart Lucerne by bus for Zurich; our final stop on this trip.

28 – 30 March 2019; Lucerne: Mount Pilatus

As reported in my previous post, Pilatus (Mount Pilatus) overlooks Lucerne and with the weather forecast proposing only -3 deg. C at the summit and blue skies, we set off with scarves, jackets, gloves and beanies excited to see some proper snow and ice.

Other than walking or climbing, you reach the summit (Pilatus Kulm) either via cable-car or via the world’s steepest cogwheel railway. Unfortunately, there was still too much winter ice and snow remaining and the railway was not yet open (in a few more weeks) and so we ascended via the cable-car route.

Sector,Transit between,Transit time,Difference in elevation m (feet)

1,Kriens – Krienseredd,10 min,546 (1\,793)

2,Krienseredd – Frakmuntegg,15 min,390 (1\,280)

3,Frakmuntegg – Pilatus Kulm,3.5 min,716 (2\,352)

[/table]

At the end of sector 1, Krienseredd, we left the cable-car. This is an intermediate stop with restaurants, picnic areas and numerous walking trails leading away into the forest. After having a look around and taking some photos, we rejoined the cable-car for the next sector.

At the end of sector 2, Frakmuntegg, you have to leave the cable-car and change for the fully enclosed and larger capacity “Dragon Ride” gondola which only transits sector 3 to Pilatus Kulm every fifteen minutes. Like Krienseredd, Frakmuntegg offers restaurants and wonderful views both up and down. Aside from the walking trails that lead away, there was evidence of ski lifts and toboggan runs being shutdown for maintenance at the end of another season.

The final sector to the summit is brief but breathtaking – and stepping out onto the observation deck, once leaving the gondola, was awe inspiring (given Chris and I have limited experience with snow and ice).

And so we just horsed around for a bit…

We observed a number of paragliders setting up and then launching themselves into the alpine skies after just a few steps down the slope behind Hotel Bellevue. (In the image above, you can see the canopy of a paraglider on the snow as the control wires are being sorted out.)

From Pilatus Kulm, a nearby peak called Oberhaupt can be climbed, using steps – no pitons or ropes required 🙂 other nearby peaks were still closed. From there I was able to take a panoramic photo of the 360 degree view from the top.

We enjoyed lunch with an equally attractive view while listening to a trio of alpine horns and, then later, a duo of piano-accordions. The only things missing from the cultural overload was a cow-bell medley and some Swiss folk dancing.

We decided to beat the afternoon rush and departed just before 3 pm (the last gondola leaves at 4:30 pm and there was still a lot of people at the top).

Chris was ever alert for scenic pictures on the way down too.

Sector 3 going down – view to Lake Lucerne

We arrived at Kriens and were waiting for the bus to take us back into Lucerne when I realised we hadn’t used any of our warm weather items and that it actually seemed warmer at the summit and in no way was it -3 deg. C. This just goes to show that weather forecasts are never completely reliable – except for the part about the blue skies.

PS – We had to filter more than 230 images to prepare this post – digital film is wonderful. 🙂