Venice to Zurich

Saturday 1st September 2007 – Venice to Zurich

No sleep in today as its breakfast at 7.00am with the water taxi booked for 8.00am. We debated about which was the best way to get to the airport with the Public Vaperetto (water bus) costing 25 Euro each taking and hour and we would have to walk from our hotel to the grand canal to catch it. With 5 bags we decided to pay the extra 50 Euro and take a water taxi directly from our hotel to the air port (30 minutes and 100 Euros). As it turned out the tide was so low the water taxi could not quite reach the hotel so we still had a few minutes walk over a couple of bridges but no major problem. It’s quite usual to see people walking around Venice with suitcases because the only means of transport is the canals and not all hotels can be reached by canal.
We checked in at Marco Polo airport for our flight to Zurich and because it was a Star Alliance flight I could use my “Star Alliance Gold” pass to give us an extra 10kg of baggage, priority check in and access to the lounge. Somehow after starting with 3 bags (50 kg) and two carry on bags and having sent 10kg back to Australia we still have 3 bags (50 kg) and two carry on bags. Methinks Pammy has been shopping in Venice.
The Swiss air flight (90 minutes) was uneventful but very picturesque on descent into Zurich. On arrival we caught a shuttle bus (called the “Ben Bus”) to the Sofitel. We then waled into town and had lunch at an amazing department store which had a fabulous self serve restaurant complete with fresh juices, birchers, vegetables, hot meals etc. Then did a short walking tour by ourselves following the map we had picked up from the hotel. We the caught the tram back to our hotel and did not pay as we did not know who to pay or where to put our money! Did see the police pull over a driver and 3 armed police got out of the car and asked for his licence. Interesting that there were 3 of them – usually only 2 in Australia. Noted that one armed policeman always stayed at the back of the vehicle. After a short rest in our hotel we then walked back into town and had dinner at the barnhoff (railway station) of fresh grilled fish and salad. No shopping for Pam as it was after 4pm and a Saturday and the shops were closed. Opened Father Day cards that night as it was after midnight in Australia. These were very much appreciated as it must have taken considerable effort to get the kids to get their act together! Watched some more tennis and the English version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”.