I have been to busy doing "touristy" things to get time to write anything. We leave tomorrow morning on Iceandair for Reykjavik, Iceland where we will spend two days and then head for home on Thursday, May 28th. Yesterday we went into Zurich and spent the day just walking around Old Town. Shirl has been "singing the blues" recently as it seems each time we have had a trip into a town it has either been on a Sunday or it has been some type of holiday and the stores have all been closed.
We did enjoy a very nice 2 1/2 hour dinner boat ride on Lake Zurich last night. The trip ended at Rapperswil, a little town at the end of the lake. Today we took the train, which is a short bus ride from our hotel which sets high on a hill overlooking the lake, and went to the town. It actually ended up being an adventure as our Swiss Rail Pass expired the other day so we purchased what we thought was the correct ticket at a machine at the local Ruschlikon train station. After being on the train for about 20 minutes I got a little suspicious as we suddenly lost the view of the lake that we had been following. Sure enough, we had failed to transfer to another train three stations back. Upon getting back to the correct station we transferred and finally arrived in Rapperswil. Being a little curious if the ticket we had purchased was the correct one I went into the local train station and asked the agent if this ticket would get us back to Ruschlikon. He looked at the ticket, then at me, and sternly stated not only can you can not get back to Ruschlikon but you can not get where you are with this ticket....
He finally relented and allowed us to purchase the correct ticket and gave us credit for the wrong one. I am just glad we did not get the ticket checked on the train as apparently it is a 100 CHF fine for trying to cheat the railway system... The Swiss Rail Pass has been very friendly to use, no purchasing tickets ahead of time, you just jump on the boat, tram, or train and show them the pass.
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| Road repair using the small cobble stones |
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| We stopped at a beer garden and listened to the music and watched the dancers. |
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| The entire time we have been in Zurich there has been a blimp floating over the lake. Not sure what the activity they are celebrating is. |
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| Getting ready for our lake cruise with dinner. |
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| Lake Zurich, with Zurich at the bottom and Rapperswil at the top left. Our hotel in Ruschlikon is located up the right side of the lake about 1/4 of the way up from Zurich. |
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| Beautiful evening sunset with threating clouds |
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| As we were coming back into town the lights from the Lindt Factory. We were looking forward to visiting the factory the next day but a holiday saved us about 5 lbs... |
Rapperswil is a little town with a fairly large stone structure which apparently use to be a defensive castle but is now a museum, but again, unfortunately closed for a holiday. We did have a nice walk through a lovely rose garden and toured the town.
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| Two men swimming in Lake Zurich |
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| The castle of the Counts of Rapperswil dates back to the late 12th century. |
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| I tried to talk Shirl into peddling us around the lakefront but she nixed that idea. |
Shirl and me since that is what we had in our wedding ceremony.
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| Roger and Shirl viewing our rose garden when we get old! |
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| The catholic church next to the castle has stood there since the parish of St. Johann was established in 1253. It burned down in 1882 but was rebuilt in 1885. Still a beautiful structure today. |
After our hassle with train tickets today we purchased our ticket for our train ride tomorrow morning to go from Ruschlikon to Zurich airport from the agent in
Rapperswi. Just when we thought we were getting the hang of things it is time to move on to another country. I have been fairly close on the purchasing of Euro's and Swiss Francs so now we will see how we do with buying some Krona's.
Off to dinner, then packing and sitting out on the deck to listen to the rain....
Good Night all,
Shirl and Roger,
The Traveling Huntley's
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