For our holiday this year we wanted to avoid flying as we did a lot of that last year when we travelled to Canada and the USA. We made use of an Interrail ticket that allows for a certain number of days of travel.
Our first stop was Zurich in Switzerland. This involved an early start on the Eurostar from London so we stayed in a nearby hotel. We had to change in Lille to one of the big double-decker trains. We do not get those in the UK as our old rail network cannot handle them. We then had to get the Metro across Paris. We made it despite some issues getting the tickets for that. Then it was another big train to Basel and then a smaller one to Zurich. It took all day, but was not that stressful and we could enjoy the view
I will say the Zurich is an expensive city. Dinner for two with drinks could easily be 70 Swiss Francs (similar value to Euro and Dollar). There may be cheaper options away from the centre, but we went with what was convenient.
We stayed at the Hotel St. George which is a short walk from the station and the old town. It was nothing fancy, but perfectly adequate and quiet.
The city sits by a huge lake, so we took a boat trip. There are nicer houses around the lake, many with their own boathouse. There are also restaurants and swimming beaches. The weather was great and so lots of people were out.
I know some people like to check out the toilet facilities. Some of the free public loos were like this where you lift up the seat and wash your hands over the bowl.
The food was good and we found plenty of vegetarian options. These are very thin tarts that are like a crisp pizza. Mine had fake smoked salmon that was nice
We did not use the public transport and so walked a lot. Much of that was up and down hills, but there is a furnicular railway up one that was free. These also have hire bikes and electric scooters from various companies. We visited a couple of the churches and climbed the tower of one. If you like shopping there are lots of boutiques for clothes, chocolate and other items as well as the big luxury brands. There are obviously lots of rich people there, some driving around in Ferrari, McLaren or expensive Mercedes cars, many with loud exhausts. The nicest cars I saw were a classic Porsche and Mustang. There was a car dealer near the lake that specialised in stone cars.
These macarons were 3 Francs each, but very nice. We like to treat ourselves on holiday.
We only stayed for 2 nights, but could consider going back. I shall be reporting on other stops on our trip soon.
