Greetings from the Grand People (Final Chapter)

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.

(Greetings Chapter 2)

Easter in Zug, Switzerland

The timing could not have been better! A business meeting in Zug the day after the long Easter Week-end! So, with very little persuasion, we piled the whole family into the car and headed for the road on Saturday morning with a mere 600kms between our Zelený Dům and Zug.

What we didn't expect though, was the saturday ski traffic jams as all the resorts change over on Saturdays, so the highways and biways are jam-packed with ski rack donned vehicles. The 600 ks took us over 9 hours and we were really glad by the time we eventually got there.

Since we only arrived after 6, we persuaded the littlies to don their jackets and head out into the snowy weather to find a bite to eat. We settled on a little pizza diner - the only joint that seemingly had no smoking patrons (but that was short lived...).

George (my boss) and his family were booked into the same hotel as us. Upon meeting them in the breakfast room, they gave away all their secrets for sightseeing gems and so we set off with some options for the day. First off though, we wanted to have a look at Zug (our hotel was in Baar - a mere 5 kms from Zug). This was a very short-lived excursion however as everything was shut tighter than a badger's bottom and the town was not much larger than a postage stamp.

We soon left Zug (which flanks a large body of water aptly called Zugerzee) and carried on alongside the lake until this lookout point.
A herd of goats came ambling along as we got out of the car, and that hugely amused the girls.
There were even some Lamas in their midst - I must admit I have never seen a Lama before, but if "Emperor's New Groove" is anything to go by, they must have been Lamas.

While we were watching the goats and waiting for the photographer to get organised with his tripod and camera to take a decent family shot, the snow came belting down. It was the driest snow ever and blew off as it landed. It wasn't so funny though when it went down your collar and swiftly melted - it then became very wet indeed...
Not far from Zug in a town called Vitznau, George had informed us about a cog train that goes to the top of the Rigi mountain. We got there just as the train departed, so we had some time to look around. We came across a stunning waterfall on the hill above the town and had a great walk.
The view from the train was stunning! That is until we got to about half way up the mountain where the snow belt was.... The clouds were completely covering the berg and the visibility was 0. The only thing visible was the snow falling in front of your face.
The trip was reasonably long taking about 30 minutes to get to the top. We got off the train and ran into the little cafe /souvenir shop at the station to get out of the blizzard. Colin & Amber braved the snow to try to find some place to eat as the cafe could seat about 5 and was predictably full. I took the time to buy Saz a magnet and since the train was still stopped at the station when Colin & Amber came back with nothing to report, I made the sensible suggestion to get straight back into the train and go down a few stops to the previous village where we had spotted some restaurants.

We had a stunning stop in a cozy restaurant near the station in the village half way up the hill and then waited for the train to come past again before making the final descent. At the bottom, the weather was far more pleasant - especially since we could see further than the ground in front of our feet... So we ambled along the lake shore before heading off.

After leaving Vitznau, we continued around the lake to Luzern, had a brief walk and then packed up for the day.

Now, with Easter Monday approaching more rapidly than the speed of sound and the complete shut down of the entire town, we were getting rather frantic at our lack of Easter eggs and kicking ourselves all the harder for leaving the edible stash at the top of our cupboard back home. Eventually, out of desperation on the drive home, I made a dash into a quick-shop at a garage and secretly came out with some large bunnies and eggs for the expectant kiddies (all 4 of them). There was already much concern that the Easter Bunny would not find them here, so a no-show of chocolate would be a major let down!

Easter Monday arrived and as expected, the parents were woken up with shrieks and all variety of noises at the discovery of chocolate deposits.

Easter Monday was also the day that hosted the Easter Market in Zug. So, we set off in the morning to find out what the fuss was about and to the girls' delight, there was a whole fair!
The markets didn't hold nearly as much attention as the rides, but there was a promise of any choice of purchase up to 5 Franks, so the hunt was on. Horsies and gold jewelry purchased!
Did I mention that it was cold? Freeking cold! After lunch, the whole family crashed and had an afternoon ziz. For supper we found an enchanting old farm house, high on the hill overlooking Zug where the girls coloured pictures while we looked out onto the snowy vista and green hills of Zug.

The girls all dolled up!
On Tuesday, I had to attend my meeting at the European Hub Offices in Zug (about 1.5kms from our hotel in Baar). The day was very cold with a thick blanket of snow having fallen the night before and more falling throughout the day. Colin took the girls to Lucerne and amused them at the transport museum where they could pretend to be cargo train drivers, loading cargo and pushing their trains around (most of the time, Sarah was the Cargo and Amber the engine...). There was an Imax and extensive exhibits all aimed at kids so very interactive.
Colin arrived back in Zug just in time to pick me up after my meeting at the end of the day and we trucked off to find some supper.

Tuesday was the drive home, fortunately going quicker than the trip down....

And much to our surprise, the Easter Bunny had visited our house as well!

Easter eggs by the dozen were collected and stashed and are still being eaten nearly a month later.