SATURDAY 24-JUL-2010 FLY LONDON TO ZURICH

Awoke early.  Very early.  Especially early for the family- 5am.  Put Wicked on my ipod to try to gee them along.  Amazingly good getting ready and out of the room.  Chris and Dan managed the big lugage into the lift and out into the lobby.  We established that a cab would cost the best part of 75GBP so decided to stick with the existing plan of taking the train. 

Trailed our bags down the lane to Picadilly circus for the last time. 

There various family members managed to have a melt down and bounce off each other.  Separately, Megan was looking after Jemma who had thrown up.  Probably mainly due to tiredness.

At Picadilly Circus, recharged some Oyster cards and a nice lady at the gate pointed us to the right platform.  Mostly escallators so bag transfer reasonably easy.  Took the tube on the Bakerloo line to Paddington.  At Padington, everyone pitched in and we had the bags off the train in double quick time in the smoothest operation.  It is so nice when everyone cooperates like a well oiled machine.  Then bought Heathrow express tickets for GBP36.  So the "To Airport" had cost us about GBP40.  

As we sat on the train waiting to depart Paddington, Jemma indicated she was about to throw up again.  A paper bag  was quickly emptied of the  crissants it contained and pushed in front of her.  I then detrained with a paper bag of vomit in search of a bin.  The paper aspect meaning that I was working against the clock.  Not a bin to be seen, a legacy of the war against terror.  So I presented my self and my ticking time bomb to two rail staff standing oyutsde a first class carrige.  One of them ducked inside and returned with a plastic bag into which the fast deteriorating paper bag and its evil contents was placed.  He confirmed that there were no bins and graciously relived me of my problem. 

At Heathrow another smooth operation to get the bags off the tran.  I would take them off the bag rack and pass them to Marus who was standing in the doorway who would pass them out of the train to Chris who moved them to the back of the platform.

Sitting here at Heathrow, there is a granny at a nearby table who has just pulled out an ipod and earphones and a middle aged couple who appear to be traveling with her have just commented "well you arn't going to be much good for conversation".

We are travelling on Swiss LX317 due to depart at 8:50.  It is now 8:50 and the monitors still shows "please wait". 

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Time passes

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Finally we arrive Zurich.  The frindly people at the railway office sell us a 3 day ticket to pretty much everywhere.  We also discover that our hotel is 5 minutes walk from the main city railway station.  Take the train to the city.  Walk to the hotel.  Deposit bags.  It is 3pm and we are starving so its back to the railway station for Breakfast and lunch in the form a a Kabab for SF10.  

Marcus and Jemma have a sleep while Megan, Frank, Chris and Dan do a ferry ride.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Earlyish bed because tomorrow we take a train to Jungfraujoch railway station at 3,454 m (11,332 ft).  Compare with Mount Kosciuszko at 2,228 metres (7,310 ft).  I am not sure how high Jungfraujoch the hill is but I suspect that it is even higher than the railway station.  Bob you should bring some rope and go climbing here.  Apparantly other notable mountains nearby at the Eiger and the Matterhorn.  You could climb those too.