Country Roads of Switzerland – Travel Day

Country Roads of Switzerland

Travel Day/Day One

12 July 2015

Initially, that was supposed to be July 11th not July 12th. I made the mistake of relying on Air Canada’s new app for flight updates, and on the way to the airport, we drove into a dense fog bank This usually wouldn’t be a problem, but I checked the airport departures just to see if there was a delay.

Worse. My flight had been cancelled!

Which was a bit strange. I had landed in thicker fog only weeks earlier. I went into the airport anyway to see what was on the go and they said everything for the day was cancelled. Turned out that the airport was doing renovations on one of the runways. They picked July to do this because it meant the Instrument Landing System was down and July is generally a fog-free month in the foggiest city on earth.

Yeah. Right.

So, I called Air Canada and got the same flights the next day. The best part is the tour director, Vincenzo, had emailed everyone earlier and I was able to email him. I told him I’d miss the transfer and arrive early morning on the first day of the tour. He gave me precise directions on how to take the train from Zurich to Lucerne and gave me a copy of the first days’ activities so I would know where they would be when I got in.

That really made it easy and stress-free.

So, I went home and cleaned up my home office and watched the weather. The fog had cleared by late afternoon and stayed clear through to the next day. I got the noon flight to Toronto and sat next to a flight attendant and one of Rod Stewarts’ technical guys and part-time drummers.

My first question to the flight attendant – how do you know everyone has their seat belt on?

Well, they don’t, really. They look for the hanging belt on the aisle seat and guess for the rest.

But for those who think they can get away with not wearing it, remember that you’re barreling through the air at eight hundred kilometres an hour.

I was able to use my lounge pass at Pearson, so I had a snack and hung out until my flight to Zurich which left just after six. It’s on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the cost of premium economy was actually cheaper than economy when I booked.

Well, twist my rubber arm.

I ate a great meal of ravioli and tiramisu.

And then managed to get a few hours sleep knowing that we were actually going to get in a little early tomorrow.

 

 

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