Day 33. Off to the supermarket to buy breakfast, plus lunch for the train. Sort everything out. By 0830, we're heading up the road to the station again.

Today's journey really shifted us a good chunk westwards.

The first train takes 3.5 hours, and transports you as far as Zurich. The second takes just shy of three hours, and delivers you all the way to Geneva.


The first half of the journey was less than fabulous. We were in an enormous open carriage; it was full, with every seat taken; and it somehow felt cramped. We generously but stupidly gave up our window seats to a young couple who wanted to use the table to play cards, and they turned out to be Mr and Ms Weird... Across the aisle from us was the Germ family (three out of four of them sick); we sat there fervently hoping our masks would do their job. Both Mr Weird and Mr Germ (who also had his oddities) talked incessantly (not to us, but intrusively enough to make you want to put your earphones in).

Sigh...

We didn't realize it before we embarked on this leg, but we actually transited Austria yet again (for the third time on this trip). You're not there for long (just 15 minutes), but still -- another three-country trip.

You leave Germany as you cross the Leiblach River, and head along the edge of Lake Constance. Bregenz is the only Austrian station you stop at. And then you cross the Rhine, which brings you into Switzerland. The first Swiss station is St Margrethen.

Switzerland has a certain nostalgic status for me. England was "abroad" if you lived on the Isle of Man, but my first "abroad abroad" was a school skiing trip to Switzerland (we stayed in Kandersteg, but also visited Bern). I rapidly realized that I totally hated skiing, but loved -- LOVED -- being in an unfamiliar place, eating unfamiliar food, and hearing an unfamiliar language. My travel bug was implanted... In 1979, I visited Zurich with a friend, another of those jaunts from our base in Erlangen. And in 1981 I did a wonderful solo trip down through Germany to Basle. If you don't count changing planes in Zurich (I don't), I haven't been here since...

Anyway, we weren't on the right side of the train for the Lake Constance scenery, and -- as usual -- we had a fairly streaky window. But these pics give you a bit of an idea:




I wouldn't eat my lunch on the train because I didn't want to take my mask off. So once in Zurich, we headed for the station exit, and sat on a bench outside to fuel up.

Half an hour later, we were boarding our second train.

This was such a wholly different trip. An open carriage again, but not full to the scuppers this time, and in any case somehow roomier -- more legroom, wider aisles. And tilty. I like tilty trains. They make you feel you're really flying along.

And the route was nothing if not scenic:












We're staying this time in the Novotel's apartment wing. It's nice to have a kitchen again, tiny though it is.



We set out to explore a bit, and do a bit of shopping. A quick glance at the prices as we were going along made it clear that we will not be eating out here, not yet indulging our cafe habit... But it is a stunning place:







We celebrated our arrival, as is our wont, with a bottle of wine from the new country:



Looking forward to a couple of days of modest explorations.