These are our daily notes for our own benefit but may be of interest.

Romantic Rhine and Moselle with Switzerland
Our holiday began at 4am on 23/6 when the alarm sounded. Our driver, Mark, picked us up at 5 and we were comfortably in the airport by 6:15, meaning we had 3 hours to kill, including check-in, immigration etc.
The 7 hour flight to Singapore was uneventful and we arrived at around 3:15pm local time. That meant we had 10 hours to fill in. We went to the Krisflyer lounge for some refreshment but then wasted about an hour or so trying to deal with the Bendigo Bank access saga.
By about 6pm we were on the train heading downtown with the intention of seeing the Singapore Gardens at night. That didn’t quite work out as we were weary and Jenni was struggling to walk. We spent some time around Marina Bay and then headed back to the airport. That still left us 4 hours before the flight to Zurich and we spent most of it in the lounge.

Once the flight to Zurich took off, we went to sleep, skipping the meal. The time (13 hours) passed quite well and we landed in Zurich at 8:30am local time on a beautiful sunny morning. Immigration was a drag but our Scenic rep met us and drove us to our hotel – the beautiful Schweizkopf in the heart of Zurich.
We were fortunate that our room was immediately available and we were upgraded as a bonus.

The day (Sat 24th) was spent wandering around, sleeping, emailing etc before the 6pm meet and greet at the hotel.
We met the rest of the group and our Switzerland guide, Franz, and learned that there only 17 of us for the 4 days, 7 Aussies, 4 Canadians, 6 Poms. The distances are not great so each day started quite late, around 9:30, so very civilised.
Day 2
After a leisurely breakfast we went on a guided walking tour of the Zurich area which had some hilly bits that tested Jen’s knee. She made good use of her cane and got through very well.

We then boarded our bus (17 on a 46 seater) and drove to Lucerne where we spent a few hours, partly guided walking and mostly free time. The day was sunny and quite hot (32 deg by mid arvo) so it was very nice strolling along the lake shoreline and just sitting watching the world go by.
Next we drove about 1.5 hours to Bern, the capital, which is an old Germanic name for Bears. Bears remain popular in Bern and there are 3 in a sanctuary which we visited.

We checked in to our hotel and then did our own thing for dinner. We found a very nice Italian restaurant where we had a great pizza and a huge serve of fantastic procuitto. Now an early night – it’s almost 9 pm and still broad daylight – hard to adjust from the short days at home.

Day 3
A gentle walk around the beautiful city of Bern followed by a drive to Gstaad via Interlaken. Magnificent scenery as you would expect and another glorious day although it is proving a bit hot for walking. The temperature has climbed over 30 deg the last 2 days which has surprised everyone.

Next we drove to Montreaux on the banks of Lake Geneva (the Swiss Riviera). We have 2 nights in another magnificent hotel – everything has been 5 star so far. Dinner is being provided in the hotel tonight.