Zurich - A Smooth Flight and Smooth Arrival - Poking Around Europe 5.0 - CycleBlaze

August 24, 2018

Zurich - A Smooth Flight and Smooth Arrival

But what is with those luggage carts?

We always relax once we are underway, and especially once the bike boxes are checked, and this year was no exception.  We get a little better at this each year, and this time we remembered to put as little tape as possible on the boxes at home as they will be reopened at the airport. The advantage of this is the necessity of using the CATSA tape for the real sealing job. 

Our flights were on time and we had bulkhead seats so were very comfortable. The only tiny glitch was just before landing when we went through very brief turbulence and the plane dropped suddenly, causing a mass gasp from everyone on the plane, followed by a relieved ripple of laughter.  Always keep your seat belt fastened!  It came out of nowhere. 

Customs was smooth and the young woman who checked us through had some hints for us. One was there may be snow on the Oberwald Pass this week. We came a week early to avoid that sort of thing! The weather in Zurich today was warm but cloudy. One of those days when the sun is out it is hot and when it goes behind a cloud it is time for a sweater. No rain though, which was nice. The rain is forecast for tomorrow when we will be riding.  

Our bikes were down the oversized luggage chute in no time and that is when we took a good look at the luggage carts. 

Why is that blue strap there? It serves no useful purpose we could figure out. We asked at baggage about a different cart for the bike boxes and their only offer was a porter at 30Chf per bike. I was prepared to drag the boxes to save 60 francs.
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Where there is a will there is a way. We used two luggage carts and put the boxes on top of the blue straps. Zurich airport has wide doorways and there were no issues moving through the airport to our shuttle bus.
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Carol DunlopI bet you were wishing for those hard cases with wheels 😝
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6 years ago

The shuttle bus towed a trailer so the bikes were easy to load. We were at the front desk befor 9 AM and they allowed us to check in immediately. Then it got even more magical. They opened a conference room which wasn’t being used today for us to assemble the bikes. We had quiet, a table for tools, comfortable chairs, a private bath and chocolate. Even a pair of scissors that came in handy slicing through all that CATSA tape.  That gesture by the Hotel Movenpick was much appreciated. 

Once assembly was complete we headed to our room for a nap. We set the alarm...we want to be able to sleep tonight. Then it was back to the airport for a Swiss SIM card. A tiny mistake there, we needed Keith’s passport for the SIM.  Back we went on the shuttle for the passport and as they run continuously we were all set up very quickly. 

We then hopped a train into Zurich and spent the rest of the day exploring. Zurich has a lovely old town and of course the lake is beautiful. 

Enjoying the scenery. The wind piped up in the afternoon.
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Looking down from a beautiful little park at the river.
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Overlooking the lake.
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The unexpected sight of the day. Totally unexpected, believe me.
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We had stumbled onto the ‘Body and Freedom Festival’. No idea what it is about really as the brochure is in German, but it certainly was a surprise. It is naked performance in urban spaces.  We watched for a few minutes and the man in the picture was constantly manipulating his belly.  My interpretation was around body image issues, but we don’t really know  

The brochure. It is always so much fun to stumble onto something completely different.
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After our brush with live theatre we had some dinner and decided it was time to head for home. We were both flagging. We hopped back on the train and I don’t remember the trip back because I promptly fell asleep. We are heading to bed after a full and fun day. 

Tomorrow the riding begins. We have a short day planned to Zug (about 50 km) because we have heard it is a lovely and because the weather forecast is for rain. We should be fine...we won’t melt 😜. 

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Comment on this entry Comment 5
Valerie BakerGlad you arrived safely and are ready to ride! About the performance art...somethings are just better covered up!!! I hope he was not going to be part of a naked bike ride 😬
My retinas have not recovered
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6 years ago
Carol DunlopCycblaze is a much better site to follow you! Have a great first day riding!
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6 years ago
Kathleen ClassenTo Valerie BakerAt least you didn’t have to see it in the flesh, three dimensional and from all angles hehe.
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6 years ago
Kathleen ClassenTo Carol DunlopWe were missing those wheeled bike boxes for sure. CycleBlaze is an easier site to post on. Just more user friendly. Once more I am glad to be doing the blog. We had so many goofy things happen today and I know I would forget if I didn’t blog.
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6 years ago
Larry CadeWho would have guessed that Zurich had such a surprise? That festival puts a whole new twist to their staid/financial reputation. Overall it sounds like you had a great 1st day.
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6 years ago