Dear All,
Well here we are back in good old South Africa, but not home yet. However we are safely back with all our baggage intact after a fairly pleasant flight with Emirates Airline via Dubai.
Last weekend was special as we spent Saturday exploring the quaint German town of Regensburg built alongside the Danube River. It was only about a two hour drive from Plzen so we left early and only went for the day. When we arrived we found parking in a car park which was half occupied by a type of farmers market, reminiscent of the Sedgefield Farmers Market and after looking at all the stalls we went off to explore the town. We walked along the river bank watching the river boats full of tourists as far as an old stone bridge which was well photographed and then headed into the old town with an old Roman Fort built in 179AD, which we duly photographed (from all angles!).
We then explored some very quaint old streets until we arrived opposite a very old church where we made a pitstop for Beer, Coffee, Cool Drinks and hot Chocolate, under the shade of a large umbrella. We had to go through the pub to get to the loos and I was so impressed with the pub I took a couple of photos.
From there, refreshed, we continued to explore the town, ending up back at the old stone bridge at lunch time to have sausages and sauerkraut at an open air restaurant on the bank of the Danube. However this was no ordinary Wors! It was The Historical Wurstkuchl of Regensburg! The oldest sausage tavern of the world!
"By the Danube whirlpools right next to the Old Stone Bridge you'll find the over 500 year old historical WURSTKUCHL! Little has changed since the days where in the Middle Ages Regensburger stonemasons and dockers treated themselves to refreshments at this tavern: with it's charcoal grill, homemade sausages purely of ham and pork, sauerkraut fermented in their own cellar and of course the Wurstkuchl mustard following the original recipe of Elsa Schricker." Most enjoyable, but very busy and of course there is only one item on the menu. The only variation is the number of sausages you order with your sauerkraut. We went the most economical route and ordered three plates of twelve sausages and shared between the six of us, plus beer and cooldrinks.
Suitably refreshed we continued our exploration which included a couple of very old and ornate cathedrals with very colourfully painted ceilings and lots of statues. Needless to say we used up lots of our camera memories with all the pics we took. We also found a few town squares filled with lots of people attracted by various bands and singers entertaining the crowds. The people were all very well behaved and Jolly and I'm sure the beer sales were excellent. What a pleasant vibe everywhere. We left Regensburg after five PM having had a lovely last day of exploration.
Sunday was pack up day. Hayley had found out that our bus to Zurich stopped in Plzen so we did not have to go all the way to Prague to catch it. This saved a lot of traveling and it left from Plzen an hour later than Prague, giving us more time with the family. We said our good byes to Colin and the girls at the flat and Hayley drove us to the Bus Station with all our luggage. The bus trip, starting about 22h30, did not give us much sleep. After about an hour we stopped at a Macdonald's for a 15min pitstop and then at the border the lights came on again and we all had to produce our Passports. A few hours later, possibly at the Swiss Border on came the lights again and we had to hand over our passports which were taken away and scrutinized before being handed back to us. It was about 06h00 when we got to Zurich and all got out at the bus station. Luckily there was a coffee shop and a hotel right there so we made our way there and treated ourselves to a magnificent mug of hot chocolate whilst finding out how to find our hotel, The Europe Hotel. We learned we could catch the No 4 tram nearby which would take us there, we had to get off at the Opera House stop and it was just around the corner. We reached the Hotel safely and they had an empty room which we could occupy right away, so had a bit of a ziz until near midday. The hotel organised for us to do a two and a half hour bus tour of Zurich starting at 13h00. We caught the tour from the bus station where we arrived so it was easy to find. We enjoyed the tour and the guide was good and after landing back at the bus station we decided to walk back to our hotel, taking in the sights alongside the water/river. We also found the Tourist Info Centre who suggested we do a round train, hike, cable car and train round trip by ourselves the next day. We found a pleasant restaurant for supper and then crashed quite early after a tiring night and lovely day.
Tuesday dawned fine after intermittent rain the previous day. After a good breakfast we packed our bags and left them in Reception and arranged for the airport shuttle bus to take us to the airport at 18h50, in plenty of time to catch our flight home. We caught the No 4 tram again to the main station where we caught the S10 train from Platform 2 to Uetliberg. That was the end of the line and we hiked up quite a hill to get to "The Top Of Zurich". It is the summit of the highest hill in Zurich at 869.6 meters with lovely panoramic views of Zurich and surrounds below. From there we did a super walk of approx. 6kms through forests all along the ridge with many undulations to the cable station at a place called Felsenegg. Here we had a jolly good lunch of Goulash soup and bread rolls plus a beer for me and apple drink for Mom. The cable car ride down was interesting because we stopped half way down whilst a technician in the car coming up stopped at a pylon while he climbed out and onto the top of the pylon superstructure to carry out some repairs or inspection. Anyway it added interest to the ride down to Adliswil. From there we had a short walk through the town to the railway station where we caught the S4 train back to Zurich station. It was a thoroughly enjoyable outing. We then strolled along the waterfront and stopped at a pub built out over the water for a rest in deck chairs and refreshments until it was time to go back to our hotel to catch the shuttle bus to the airport. We both loved Zurich which is a clean city and nearly everyone is smartly dressed and pleasant. They are helpful and one can normally find someone who understands the English language, so getting around is that much easier. It is a beautiful city.
Our flight back to Cape town was uneventful and quite pleasant. From Zurich we had the two seats on the side with a good window position so could see the approach to Dubai. From there ,however, in the larger plane we were not able to get seats in the centre on the isle, but had the window and centre seats of the three on the side, so had to ask the isle set passenger to let us out every time we needed to go walkabout. However it was a day time flight so the window was an advantage at times when there was no cloud cover and we could see the ground.
As you may have heard, Michelle took a tumble down the stairs at her home last week and ended up in hospital with a couple of crushed vertebrae (compression fractures) so we have broken our journey in Cape Town and will only fly back to PE on 31st July. It was so fortunate that we flew overseas from CT and not Joburg and are able to be here to help the family. Michelle is coming on nicely now. She must spend most of the time over the next month on her back, but has been given a brace to strap on to be able to get around the house a bit. She must either be on her back or she can stand or walk a bit, but cannot sit for more than 15 minutes a day! So, here we are in Cape town for a while and since we arrived on Wednesday it has been very cold and wet. Yesterday we woke to find fairly heavy snow on the mountains to the north, which we can see from their home. Today dawned clear and sunny but not very hot. All the spectacular views from the house are very clear after the rains and as it was such a nice day Pierre suggested we go and climb Lion's Head after lunch. He, Michael and I set off after lunch and had a super climb in perfect weather. Mike managed the climb extremely well and even managed the scrambles up the chains without help from Pierre. The views after the rains were clear and spectacular and we had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.
Well, that about sums up our holiday, with our very grateful thanks to Colin and Hayley for all they did for us and making it all possible. A holiday and travel experience we will never forget!!!
As I write this The Wood family are in London! Hayley learned just a few days before we left that she had to fly to Zurich and then go on to Zug on the same Monday we arrived in Zurich. She had to attend a two day meeting in Switzerland and then back home and on to London on the Thursday for more meetings until the weekend. Next week, Wednesday she has to fly to Johannesburg for more meetings, returning home to Plzen next weekend. Wow, what a busy girl! Anyway,we were surprised to get an SMS to say she was in London with the whole family for a few days, until Monday! No doubt they will have more interesting news on their Blog in a few days time and we look forward to reading all about it.
Bed calls so it's time to stop my waffling. Lots of love to you all from us all in Cape Town.
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