Getting soaked in Switzerland

Rain soaked Zurich.

Switzerland is one of those places where there seems to be no-one around, but there's heaps of traffic on the freeway.

We set up camp next to the lake in Zurich. The ground was soaked. It was not raining, and we picked up some things for dinner. When we got back it was raining steadily. Dinner was sandwiches squeezing in  under the picnic shelter, watching the bench seats which were not.

The impossi-puzzle, tent, blankets, clothes, food.

A small leak hit the bedding in the middle. About a 30cm patch formed. At that rate, we'd all have to go to the hospital with the flu. Ollie insisted on dancing in the puddles to increase my horror. We put a plastic bag and the silvery windscreen sun cover on top. We settled in for an uneasy night wondering if we'd have to spend half the night in the car. Marie woke up at 3am. Luckily she saw that the windscreen cover has slipped off the top. I slipped it back up again. The walls were wet, but ok.

Jump in the lake - the water was warm.

We met up with Allison, Estelle and Camille for a tour of beautiful downtown Zurich. Marie knew them from the local park in Australia. The kids played on the swings, and ran around. People here are not allowed to drive to school at all. From the age of about 8, the kids all must make their own way to school. The kids have a little fluro vest so people can look out for them. Estelle gets worried when she sees kids wandering around by themselves. Big difference between Aus and Switzerland.

You can't go wrong in this supermarket.

It rained all afternoon and night.Caught the polybahn/funiculare. Nice view. Rain is depressing. We caught trams around wandering if the holiday would get any better. Bought a tarp to put over the tent and slept much better! We went to Allison, Allistair, Estelle and Camille's place. The boys jumped on the beds, spun tops, danced in front of the TV, and had a good time.Allistair works for Siemens weirdly, and was there when I was there in Siemens Building Technologies. He's in the Landis and Gyr head office as a product manager.

Heaps of chocolate at the factory shop.

On the last day, the rain eased off. We even went for a swim in the lake after we'd packed up things. Drove off. Stopped at the Lindt chocolate factory and picked up a couple of kilos. Stopped at Rheinfelden close to the border; very pretty and bikes everywhere. It's a land of Mercs, Jags and bikes with mudguards. Lunch is 3 nice sandwiches in a very nice cafe. The average price of places here is 1 to 2 million euros. The muesli eating hippies are doing something right.

Rheinfelden - another perfect village.