July 6...Driving to Zurich

This was our last full day in Europe...and our last full day in beautiful Switzerland! We started the day by dividing up into groups to explore the village of Scoul. In teams of 4, our guide, Bob, took us to the first stop. Each team had a map and a quiz of photos to find throughout the town...and answer some questions. I think this was called 'Orienteering'...actually, I know that's what it was called! Bob explaining orienteering....

Our first stop...
This bra actually has some significance...this was where we told to make a sharp turn...

Bjorn and I were doing our own walk around town...we found this chocolate shop...oh my! We stopped at one little cafe and he bought me a cappucino! Thank you, Bjorn! Hey there! Some of our orienteerers came in for a bit of ice cream...we had been told it was exceptional! The winners!!!
After our lunch, we headed back to the hostel to get on the bus for our ride to Zurich...

Once this was complete we had lunch...and then it was time to head to Zurich...our last destination. The delegates bought a card for Jeanette...and one for Bjorn...and they all signed it. We gave it to her on the bus...she loved it! The front of the card said 'thank you' in many different languages...

The drive to Zurich was something you wouldn't do here in the USA...Bjorn drove the bus onto a train...yep, we were in a cattle-like car...and then the engine was turned off the bus, the vents were opened...and we rode the train through a long ... 30 minute long ... tunnel to the other side of the Alps. It was pretty awesome...but a little unnerving when Jeanette began to explain to us what to do in case of a fire in the tunnel~ I hadn't even thought about that. She told me - not the delegates, about a recent fire where ... can't remember how many.. were killed.

You can see our bus in line to load the train. We had a few minutes, so we got off the bus, went into the little store, took some pictures... You can see this car coming OFF the train...they had to empty the cars before we could get on...the little store...This truck got on ahead of us. This let us see how it was all done. Once we drove on, then we had to drive through all these cars until we were caught up with the one in front of us. Bjorn had everyone be perfectly silent so he could concentrate. I think he had something like 2 inches clearance on each side of the bus...you could have heard a pin drop in the bus...You may have heard this word .... it means 'exit'! Here we are driving on...

Once off, we began the rest of our drive to Zurich...our beautiful drive to Zurich...

Zurich is huge...1.4 million...or something like that. All of Switzerland is 8 million, and Zurich is by far the largest city. Zurich has about 1,300 fountains! I didn't see but a couple...

Something I didn't know...and I may have been the only one who didn't, but SWATCH..the watches...well, SWATCH stands for Swiss Watch...I had no idea. Some of our group....I think Genevieve and Allison, went in the actual SWATCH shop and bought...watches! I went into a big department like store and there was a HUGE section of SWATCHes...Is that how you make SWATCH plural???

Because we had not been able to see the Palace of Versailles in France, People to People wanted to put something else into our itinerary to make up for it... their choice was a cruise around Zurich Lake....(I can't remember if that's what it was called...but it was the lake that Zurich borders!) WELL...after our time shopping...we started making our way down to the shore...which took a bit longer than Jeanette had been told...plus, some of our group were late for our meeting time....


Half of us made it to the boat...and by the time the other half of us arrived...the boat was taking off...Jeanette was telling them to NOT GO and WAIT for us...
(This is NOT the boat half of us were on...and half of us missed!)


We waved good-bye...Jeanette yelled our meeting time...and that was that! The half of us that didn't get on went shopping...Louis Vuitton...chocolate shops...Prada...you get the picture! I think those on the boat enjoyed it...and those that didn't get on, enjoyed their time too!

Dinner was wonderful...both the food (spaghetti) and the company...a little bittersweet knowing it was our last together.

The Texas delegation was going to be getting up VERY early to get to the airport...so it was a teary goodnight...even though most/many ??? got up to tell their new Texas friends good-bye again....