Monday, March 17, 2008 (St. Patrick's Day)

Waking to a ringing cellphone alarm clock on the day of heavy travel at the end of a fabulous vacation is never a fun thing. Especially when it's so early.

On Sunday, during our visit to the shops at the train station in Zürich, we had checked on the times and gates for the train we needed to take to the airport train station in the city. We wanted to ensure we allotted plenty of time to arrive at the airport, get through security, and not have to rush through a crowded airport.

Being a Monday morning trains left every few minutes from the main station in Zürich bound for the airport substation. After showering, checking and re-checking the room for any floundering items that wanted to be left behind, and walking the short five minutes to the main station from the hotel, we were off.

As we walked through the main Zürich station things were starting to bustle with activity. Shops were preparing to open, cafes were readying for the breakfast rush, and people were already briskly on their way to catch trains. We soon were aboard ours and destined for a short ride to the airport.

Arriving at the airport substation was very sad. It seemed like it was only yesterday that we first arrived in Switzerland after an exhausting travel day and now we were soon to say goodbye to it all. Not fun!

We headed to the Continental check in counter and found lines that moved swiftly. Since we had no computer access we had to check in the old fashioned way. The ticket clerks expressed concern regarding our connecting flight in Newark as we only had about 50 minutes between flights. (I had booked the two legs on my own and separately.) Despite their reluctance they went ahead and check us in on the Newark flight as well and the ticketing supervisor suggested we "run" when we get to EWR in order to make the connection. I wasn't too worried, although, if we had had any checked bags this would never have worked.

Off we headed to our gate and security. In walking past a shop that seemed to have recently opened we spotted our true love, Champagne. Having allowed for plenty of time we decided to take a look around even though we knew we wouldn't be able to purchase anything. What a wonderful selection of Champagne and, alas, caviar! Vintage Krugs, Bollinger RDs, and more abounded along with huge tins of true Russian and Iranian caviar. A beautiful shop indeed! I was astounded to find Les Impitoyables Champagne flutes readily available for purchase. Hand-blown and etched in France, these crystal glasses are supposedly the best of the best when it comes to enjoying Champagne. Unique carvings on the inside of the flutes elevate and accentuate the nose and moose of the Champagne. I have thought about ordering two of them online before but have yet to do so. To actually get to see them was neat as they're not readily available outside of France. The Champagnes, flutes and caviar certainly made this a fun shopping experience even if we didn't actually purchase anything.

At the security check the lines, again, moved quickly and efficiently despite the fact that the level of inspection here seemed much more intense than what we had encountered at Tampa and Atlanta. They brushed my laptop and camera lenses with some type of equipment (my guess is to check for explosives) and actually made us remove all of the liquids from our carry ons for a hand inspection. We were soon cleared and headed toward our gate.

Having still a little over an hour or so to wait before the plane departed I opted to leave the luggage with Travis and look around the few shops that were open in this part of the airport. I decided I wanted at least one non-magnet souvenir and checked out the wide range of chocolates, shirts, coffee mugs and other bric-a-brack that lined the shelves of the various shops. I definitely wanted something I would use so a coffee mug seemed a good choice. (As Travis would tell you, I am notorious for being indecisive. Almost to a crippling level.)

I left the shop without the mug and started looking at some watches in the store next door. I spotted one that was designed to look like the numerous identical clocks located in all of the Swiss train stations. Swiss made watch on one hand and coffee mug on the other. I really liked the watch but couldn't decide if I wanted to spend the money after having spent a significant amount on the trip already. I decided to ask Travis his opinion and walked back to the gate to get him.

Close up of my new watch!

After showing him the watch I made up my mind to take it. When else would I have the chance to purchase a Swiss time piece in Switzerland? And, to boot, it would be very reminiscent of our trip seeing as how the trains and stations, and those very clocks, played such a large part in the trip itself.

Close up of the rail clocks found throughout Switzerland's train and bus stations. Notice the resemblance?

Happy with my purchase we headed back to the gate and were soon aboard the plane. We were scheduled to leave Switzerland at 9:20 AM (Switzerland time) and arrive in Newark at 1:40 PM (Eastern time). The flight left a little late and fought a strong head wind the entire way extending the trip to nearly 10.5 hours. (In comparison, the tail wind on the way over helped to shorten our trip to about six hours.)

Since we were moving against the clock and gaining hours on the return flight we needed to stay away instead of attempt to sleep. It wasn't difficult as we can't sleep on planes anyway but passing ten hours in a cramped space isn't fun. During the flight I amused myself by reading, working on puzzles, listening to MP3s, and watching one of the movies they had on board, August Rush. It also bears to note here that the flight would have been a bit better had Continental not managed to misplace our request for vegetarian meals as they did on the flight over. Having nothing to eat but a salad did little to make the trip more bearable.

On a positive note, we can actually say we've seen Ireland on St. Patrick's Day as we were able to catch views of the island as we flew overhead.

Landing in Newark we did indeed have to sprint to the other side of the airport to catch our connection. And, as the idiots in EWR obviously made no effort to make the airport easy to navigate, we had to clear security again due to a change in arrival and departure terminals. We ended up fine however and our connecting flight left nearly and hour late.

Having to sit through another flight after one that is ten hours long is very unpleasant. Thankfully, I was able to finally see Enchanted on the flight which ended up being almost precisely the length of the trip from EWR to TIA.

Glo picked us up at TIA and forty-five minutes later we were back home giving massive amounts of attention to our much-missed cats.

The trip was truly nothing short of amazing and provided us with memories that are sure to last a lifetime. I think we both hope to return to Switzerland at some point in our lives but with so many places in the world to see it may take a bit to make that return journey happen.

Alas! With the events and happenings of nine, too-short days, and with some degree of bitter sweetness, Switzerland moves from the list of "Must Sees" to the one of "Amazing Experiences."