Dragon training

After the stresses of the check-in everything else would seem calm and organised.  The flight was a quick 90 minutes and I was soon at Zurich airport.

Picking up an All Zone ticket for the train journey to Marc's B&B that he'd rented to me, I paid the 20 swiss francs (£16) and received a tour guide like description from the ticket office of just what that bought me.  Not only would it take me on the trip to (and back) to Marc's house in Erlenbach, but would allow me free travel all day on the trams, buses and even boats.  There were free entries to museums and discounts at restaurants too.

The train ticket operator slipped from Swiss-German to English effortlessly and not for the last time would I be a little ashamed of my poor foreign language skills.  Ah well, I can't roll dice well and be fluent in other languages.

The train journey was smooth and efficient.  The trains (complete with two floors) arrive exactly on time, they left, on time, were clean, quiet and spacious.  The scenery was amazing, and just in time for Marc to send a text to check I was ok, I'd arrived in Erlenbach.

Settling in, I checked out the local area and then headed off to Uetliberg, a hilly-'mountain' type area.  It was another train journey that promised more opportunities of a great view of Lake Zurich and the surrounding area.

To get there, it was a more quaint journey, on a happy orange train. I felt a little guilty jumping off at the top to see pensioners walking up from the foot of the mountain, and even joggers, complete with a drenched-in-sweat t-shirt, but I tried not to let it put me off my coke and cake!

Arriving there, and walking to the summit I wasn't disappointed.  Amazing views of a spectacular area. I spent the afternoon there, and returned back to Marc's house where he, his wife Mirjana and lovely 3 year old daughter, Lynn had cooked dinner for me.

Marc's house is nearly 400 years old, and had recently had over £1m spent on it in renovations.  Its location and decor was a wonderful place to spend the evening whilst we enjoyed a chat and the delicious cheese, nut and onion flan that Mirjana had baked.

We finished the evening with a quick game of Dragonheart, a two player card game that combines trick-taking with press-your-luck. Marc beat me but of course, I'll put that down to jet lag :-)