Our final day in Lucerne started with a chocolate buying spree - it's amazing for how many people we have to buy chocolates and how expensive they are (expensive is a relative quality - see later on). Once that was out of the way, my wife could get on with the real business of the day - the bric'n'brac market which was set up on the banks of the Reuss river, a minute from our room.
The variety of articles was outstanding, most of it apparently being derived from house clearing sales. I could have bought any number of voltage adapters, an original Sony walkman cassette player as well as a discman player (like my first cd player). The only thing which remotely tempted me was a flute priced at 150 SFr; I don't play the flute but I would like to. But as a non-playing flautist, I don't have the ability to evalute the qualities of said flute; maybe it is a dud, bent so that it is out of tune. A shame, for the price is less than half of a new flute, if not even less.
My wife picked up a few copper items at miniscule prices but went all out with an antique paraffin lamp (with 'Helvetia' stamped on its body) for 45 SFr. We managed to get the lamp into our luggage, but this item nearly played havoc at the security check at the airport because of the smell of paraffin. Had there been a drop of paraffin in the lamp, it would have had to stay behind, at the chagrin of my wife. But soon it will be adorning our balcony, along with an antique cow bell which we bought at Trummelbach.
Once the market was completed, we set off for the train station, there to buy trousers and have lunch. After this, we set off for a side of Lucerne that we hadn't visited, in search of the glacier museum; on the way, I discovered that we were walking along the far end of the shopping street which I had last visited on the rainy day in Lucerne. The weather was now the complete opposite of that day, being sunny and very hot. With the help of a policewoman, we found the museum and had a good time inside (entrance free, courtesy of the Swiss Pass).
Outside the museum is the famous Lucerne Lion; this must be one of the most photographed objects in Lucerne, judging by the crowds who visited and photographed (most of them did not enter the museum). The museum itself is quite interesting, but not overwhelmingly so. Probably the best part was the end, which had nothing to do with glaciers whatsoever - the mirror maze. I filmed my entire stay within the maze, something which has to be seen to be appreciated. I quote: This fantastic attraction with its 90 mirrors was created in 1896 for the Swiss national exhibition in Geneva and has been at the Glacier Garden since 1899. Although the corridors appear infinitely long, they are in effect quite short - so take your time walking through!
From the museum we walked back to our hotel along the shopping street, thus completing the third side of a triangle. There was a brass band playing in one of the squares which I filmed, but the cassette was almost at its end and so I only caught a minute at most. I had wandered around that area on my own on our first evening and had heard a brass band version of 'Smoke on the water' emanating from one of the restaurants. I wonder whether it was the same band.
As time was getting on, we organised our suitcases then took them by hand to the train station - normally a brisk five minute walk, but this took about twenty minutes. Fortunately, a direct train to Zurich airport was waiting for us at the station (we seemed to be very lucky regarding trains - we didn't have to wait, nor did we have to change at Zurich) and we got to the airport at about 7:15pm. The check-in procedure is totally different from that at Ben Gurion, but we were helped by a helpful lady from Swiss Airlines.
Dining in a self-service restaurant, we finally ate rösti, a traditional Swiss dish made from potatoes. I had been aware of this dish from who else but John Le Carre and his novel, 'The night manager', where the eponymous manager offers it to newly arrived guests. After that, I wandered around the shops, where I discovered that the gift shops were selling goods at a price at least 10% higher than shops in Lucerne; it's just as well that we bought the 'expensive' chocolates in a shop by our hotel for had we waited until the airport, those chocolates really would have been expensive.
It transpires that there were two flights leaving to Tel Aviv with only a fifteen minute difference between their departure times. We naturally went to the wrong gate (apparently we were not the only people to make the same mistake) only to be sent to the other gate; unfortunately the first gate was at one end of the huge Zurich terminal E building and the second gate was at the other end. It took at least twenty minutes to walk from one end to the other, so it's just as well that we arrived early.
There was internet access available at the airport, only it wasn't free, and the time which I had purchased whilst in Locarno had expired that morning. Thus I was unable to write nor post this blog from Zurich. The flight was non-eventful, although I suffered terribly from restless leg syndrome (this got me during some of our train journeys as well) and discovered that the most 'comfortable' position for me was to stand in the aisle. Eventually we landed, got through passport control, luggage and customs and thence to a queue for taxis (at least three flights landed within a twenty minute period).
Into bed at 5am, up again at around 10am, but terribly woozy. Only now do I seem to be ok - but I will go to bed reasonably early tonight as I have to be up at 5am tomorrow morning - back to work.
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