Visiting Switzerland in 2011

In April 2011 my brother, Erik, married his Swiss wife Ariane on a wine farm in Stellenbosch, South Africa.  As part of the marriage celebrations they had a second reception in Worb, Switzerland in July 2011.  And that second reception was the reason for my holiday with my mother in Switzerland for three weeks in July 2011.
After planning and saving and discussing my mother and I decided that we want to attend the second reception and explore a bit of Switzerland.  We did a lot of reading and with help from Ariane we had a list of places to visit and where to stay.  We booked our plane tickets with Emirates and left South Africa from Cape Town 18:10 on 4 July 2011. 

This was my second trip to Europe and my mother’s first.  We were very excited but also a little bit scared about the unknown.  We arrived in Zurich about 13:20 on 5 July after stopping for about 3 hours in a very hot Dubai.  
Dubai Airport

Boarding our flight from Dubai to Zurich
After arriving we had a few administrative tasks. First we had to get some cash (Swiss Franks), and then buy a prepaid mobile phone card to contact my brother and buy a Swiss Pass to use for traveling on the trains and busses. After doing everything on our list and making a quick call to Erik we were ready to leave the airport.

We traveled by train from the airport to Zürich Hauptbahnhof.  Looking a bit lost a Swiss couple helped us to go in the right direction.  First we went to the information center.  They were very friendly, gave us a map and directions to get to the hotel.  We did one more train ride from Zurich HB to the Standelhofen station and from there we walked to the hotel.  We stayed in Hotel Otter in Oberdorfstrasse. The rooms were very comfortable and sharing a bathroom was not a problem.  

July is winter in South Africa and we were dresses warmly when leaving.  It was a lot hotter than we expected in Zurich and even after removing our jackets we were sweating on our way to the hotel.  We found the hotel quite easy and went to check in.  Our room was on the forth floor and we hand to carry our luggage up with stairs.  Safe to say we were very hot and tired when we finally got to the room.
Our room in Hotel Otter



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eyewitness Travel Guides – A Book Review

Image
  Last month I wrote a book review and I enjoyed it.   Today I want to share some more of my favourite travel books.   DK Eyewitness Travel Guides I bought my first travel guide in 2008. I was planning a trip with my friend Lelanie to London and Europe.   While planning the trip I bought the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Europe and I paid R 282.00 for it.   Except for my university textbooks, this was the most expensive book I have ever bought for myself.    We were doing a Contiki Tour and visited 7 countries.   I studied the information in guide the about the cities we would visit.    I made lists of places I want to see and then looked for more information about them.   In the end I did not take the guide with me (the 800 pages was just to heavy to carry along) but packed all my lists to use.  At Departures at Cape Town Airport in 2008 My second guide was for the same trip.   The Eyewitness Trave...
Read more

Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê

Image
   Weather vane on the VGK Church in Carnarvon    This photo made me think of a song we used to sing as kids.    It is a traditional Afrikaans song about the rooster on top of the church. The words of the song and its translation: Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Dis die haan wat op die kerktoring staan It’s the rooster standing on the church tower Dis die haan, Dis die haan It’s the rooster, It’s the rooster Dis die haan wat op die kerktoring staan It’s the rooster standing on the church tower More about all the churches and other buildings we saw in Carnarvon in the next post.
Read more

Dutch Reformed Mother Church, George

Image
One of my favourite sights in George is the white Dutch Reformed Mother Church with the beautiful Outeniqua Mountain as background.   I have many memories of visiting this church: On a history class trip when I was about 10, for a art class when I was about 13, for my cousins wedding in 2004, for her baby’s christening a few years later and many other times.   But most of all I like seeing this church every time we drive through town.   The cornerstone for the church was laid on 14 April 1832.   Slaves were used for some of the building work like the digging of the six-foot deep by five-foot wide foundations.   Due to financial problems it took 12 years to complete the church and it was consecrated in 9 October 1842.  The church is a National Heritage Site. On 13 September 1905 disaster struck when the church tower collapsed.   The wood rotted from water damage and lead to the walls weakening.   After a lot of rain for two days t...
Read more