Switzerland
Arriving in Switzerland at 11pm on a Friday night was not a good idea. We failed to get off the train from Zurich Flughafen (airport) at the stop in the city (Zurich HB) as we were tired and in the middle of a 'discussion' and so went half way to Bern. The conductor was kind enough to sell us tickets to go back to Zurich HB on the last train for the night.
Zurich is a beautiful little city (even Adelaide is bigger) with lots of beautiful old buildings. Switzerland is a very tidy and organised place with a strong German influence in the North and French and Italian influences in the South . The German was a little intimidating, it's not the language of the big warm welcome, but after a few days we got the hang of things and never missed another train stop.
Damian outside the company HQ (Credit Suisse building in the background not the tram).
Lunch with Damian. Eye contact when toasting is very important to the Swiss. I just like the beer.
Caroline and Damian.
Damian has been lucky enough to meet a beautiful Swiss woman called Caroline who lives in Montreux, around 2.5 hours south of Zurich by train. Caroline suggested we visit Montreux, and even helped us plan our trip south to include the classic Golden Pass railway. This turned out to be a great trip and Caroline looked after us wonderfully. She very kindly booked us a wonderful room in the Hotel she works in and even took us out to dinner.
Heidi country - near the ski resort town of Gstaad. This is the type of scenery we saw on the Golden Pass railway. The mountains are very steep, much steeper than they look in this photo. We visited in Summer so there is no snow except way up on the peaks.
Chateau de Chillon in Montreux. Byron wrote a poem about a prison kept here, and even signed one of the pillars in the dungeon. The Highway was added in the60'ss.
We returned safely to Zurich for a final couple of days of relaxing and shopping before flying to Singapore and home.
Vanessa, Damian, me andMathiass (hidden by the Grappa selection) after dinner at an Italian restaurant in Zurich.Mathiass works with Damian but otherwise seems very nice.
Zurich is a beautiful little city (even Adelaide is bigger) with lots of beautiful old buildings. Switzerland is a very tidy and organised place with a strong German influence in the North and French and Italian influences in the South . The German was a little intimidating, it's not the language of the big warm welcome, but after a few days we got the hang of things and never missed another train stop.
Damian outside the company HQ (Credit Suisse building in the background not the tram).
Lunch with Damian. Eye contact when toasting is very important to the Swiss. I just like the beer.
Caroline and Damian.
Damian has been lucky enough to meet a beautiful Swiss woman called Caroline who lives in Montreux, around 2.5 hours south of Zurich by train. Caroline suggested we visit Montreux, and even helped us plan our trip south to include the classic Golden Pass railway. This turned out to be a great trip and Caroline looked after us wonderfully. She very kindly booked us a wonderful room in the Hotel she works in and even took us out to dinner.
Heidi country - near the ski resort town of Gstaad. This is the type of scenery we saw on the Golden Pass railway. The mountains are very steep, much steeper than they look in this photo. We visited in Summer so there is no snow except way up on the peaks.
Chateau de Chillon in Montreux. Byron wrote a poem about a prison kept here, and even signed one of the pillars in the dungeon. The Highway was added in the60'ss.
We returned safely to Zurich for a final couple of days of relaxing and shopping before flying to Singapore and home.
Vanessa, Damian, me andMathiass (hidden by the Grappa selection) after dinner at an Italian restaurant in Zurich.Mathiass works with Damian but otherwise seems very nice.
posted by Brian at 6:40 pm
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