I finally got an answer back from the transport company about the bus driver who wanted to charge me last weekend. Sure enough, there is a “Z” note on that route in their timetable, which means there is a surcharge. At least I know to look out for that going forward!
Got up late this morning after my late night last night. I had been thinking of going to Geneva today – a 2½ hour train journey, but hadn’t made any plans or looked at the timetable – silly me! Anyway, when I looked they have two trains an hour departing from Zurich, so I decided to go for it.
It was another lovely journey down. The sun was shining and we saw lots of mountains and lakes. It was funny as we crossed from German speaking Switzerland into French Speaking Switzerland. Suddenly the digital signs on the train started to say prochain arret instead of nächsterhalt!
In Geneva, I went on a boat cruise on the lake for about an hour. The most interesting thing there is a fountain called the jet d’eau. It’s literally a spout in the pavement which shoots water straight up into the air for 140m! It uses 500 L of water every second and the water is shot at 200KPH. Each drop apparently takes 16 seconds from launch to landing! It’s quite impressive. You can also get a view of Mont Blanc from Geneva. It’s about 80Km away, but unmistakable for being covered in snow. There is a train journey up into the foothills of Mont Blanc which sounds nice. Have to see if I can fit that in one week! It’s not included in my pass, so I will have to see how much it costs and whether it’s worth it.
After a wander round the shops I walked up to the United Nations HQ and took some photos there. There is another lovely water feature in the square in front of the UN building. Lots of little jets of water in which children were playing. Looked lovely and refreshing, but I didn’t have my trunks with me to join them. There is also a huge wooden chair – must be 100ft high and it has one leg broken. I guess there’s a story, but I couldn’t see any signs about it!
Took a tram back to the main train station and found that the next train to Zurich was at 6:45 from platform 4. Went to platform 4 and the signs only mentioned the 6:45 to Zurich, so I assumed that the next train to arrive at platform 4 would be the 6:45 to Zurich. Wrong! I got on the train which departed at 6:36 and was headed for Brig which is way South of Zurich – fairly close to where I was last Sunday. Fortunately it stopped at Lausanne and I was able to get off there and meet up with the right train! (Which I had remembered was going to be stopping at Lausanne also)
Got back to Zurich to find the place still swarming with party-goers there for the celebrations, but decided not to stay for fireworks tonight. My train to Kloten was delayed by 12 minutes, presumably due to the busyness of the day.