Lovely and hot here (about 25 deg I think)
I was looking at train prices today – fancying a trip – and I stumbled upon a reference to a travel pass called a General Abandonment. For the princely sum of about £110 per month, this allows you to travel anywhere in Switzerland by train, bus, tram, ferry etc. Since my monthly Zurich two zone travel pass was about £45 and I am hoping to get around a bit, it seemed worth paying the extra. So I did, and got a refund of the Zurich pass. I know it seems a lot of money, but this will set me up with things to do and places to see every weekend that I am not coming home. I would easily pay that much in fares if I did it piecemeal and the flexibility of being able to hop on any train and know I don’t have to worry about getting tickets seems worthwhile.
So today, I hopped on a train and went to Luzerne. A lovely ride of just under 1 hour. Down the western shore of Lake Zurich first. Luzerne (or Lucerne) is a nice little touristy resort and they had a street carnival on today with live bands playing on makeshift stages in the shopping streets. There is also a lovely lake there and I saw a dog swimming after some swans…. Quite funny. When I have more time, I plan to go back and get a boat trip across the lake and then return to Zurich by a different rail route. There’s loads of options.
I am also dieing to get up in the mountains some time, so that might be my trip next weekend. Duncan told me about a trip he did once and it sounded lovely – over the Gotthard Pass on a post bus. About 2500m up! Wow sounds lovely.
Heard on CNN last night about 2 unsuccessful car bombs in London. Glad they didn’t go off!
I am a bit nervous about starting work on Monday. It’s a bit of an unknown, but I am pretty sure the job will be relatively straightforward and rewarding once I get stuck in. They know I am a few versions behind on the Brio software, so they’ll have to make allowances for that.