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Me and my mum have been planning this trip for ages now! Mum went last when she was 16....long time ago and she has been desperate to get back there since. What a nice trip for a mother and daughter to take. We have done China and Egypt together so change of scenery should do us some good!
It all started with the question...should I really spending a week with this woman. We arrived at purple parking for Heathrow at about 11am after driving down from Leicester. We pulled up and the lady of the desk said, 'You must be the Johnsons,' to this my mother (that's right she is now my mother and not my mum as i refuse to have any talk that may seem like I am friendly with her) replies 'Do you know me?!?' I then go on to explain that as our car drove to the window there were several cameras and as i had typed in the model and colour of my car she had probably just typed that in and found our name. 'oh,' says my mother, 'I thought you were psychic!' arrrrggggh how embarrassing...I told her that now was a time for her to be quiet and not talk perhaps for the rest of the trip.
Checked in, boarded plane and were told we had an hour delay...quite ironic as the flight is only 1hr 15 mins. Then we were stuck in one of those moments, you know the ones where there is silence and you know you defiantly shouldn't laugh but all you can do is think of hilarious moments and because you are trying sooooo hard to keep the laugher in, it just comes out several times louder than ever first anticipated! I am almost certain that all the people around us on the plane thought we were wasted...and felt awful for the bloke next to us.
Finally we landed in Zurich and here began the week of laughs, chocolate drinking, sorbet eating or and a few slaps!
Being a well travelled person, travelling with anyone should be quite easy...sadly not when that person is your mother who talks to much and tells you pointless stories to fill the silence! I love my mum (there I said it) more than anything but dear god is she annoying!
We went down to the train information and brought our expensive Swiss passes...they seem expensive but not if used by my mother and I, let's jsut say we got our full use out of them!
We took the train to Oriklion and then has to wait for the next train to S6. If you haven't been to Switzerland the train, tram and bus are a fabulous way to get around - I should know! It is also very easy not use and navigate yourself round - Again I should know! When we arrived in Banhoff S6 we then had to wait for 50 mins for the bus...it was amazingly cold in Zurich and by this time mum had now unpacked her bag (in the street - nightmare) and was now fashioning her winter coat she had brought in Italy. When I say coat i mean sleeping bag. That's right a full length, quilted, white sleeping bag coat! I at this time was sat on the first of many benches i would be sat on over the next week... Note to the Swiss - Get wooden benches and metal benches in temperatures going down to -23 is ridiculous. Now not only was I waiting for a bus I was also worried about piles!
Finally the bus arrived and we were on there for a matter of minutes, I asked a fella where about the hotel was and he said 'Go up, find and circle and its above it!' I thought this was code but translated it to Go straight along this road and its over the roundabout!' So we did and there gleaming through the snow blistered was our hotel. We checked in mother asked several irrelevant questions stressed myself and the reception staff out and we ended up with several brochures!
Our room was delightful and we headed down to dinner, it was fantastic stir fry and I could have ate it several times over, once you see the prices in Switzerland you wonder if this dinner will have to be your last.
In the morning after a very nice breakfast and mother talking rubbish to the waitress for a while we headed into Zurich where we had the most expensive coffee and someone (guess who) made a scene in going to the loo with possible the smallest key on the biggest chain!
We headed back to the hotel which by the way was literally a 4minute walk from our hotel, so really no need for the bus or the 50 minute wait the night before. Oh well at least we found out in the end. We collected our bags and headed to the train station. We enjoyed a lovely train journey up to Luzern...Lucerne to you or me where we were looking forward to our Hostel...which was a prison....i'll explain more next!
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