Zurich - Trip to Glarus and Liechtenstein

Vaduz, Liechtenstein

I did two further trips while Geraldine was visiting. One was to Glarus. This was supposed to be for our birthdays and I’d read that the nearby Sadona Geopark was a world heritage site. Since Geraldine is trying to work through all of these sites (well, I think she mentioned it as something she could maybe do, and I’ve now assumed she is doing it), it seemed like a good birthday plan. It was not the most successful trip.

We boarded the train, Geraldine checked that she had her ticket with her, only to find she hadn’t got it. I checked in my purse, and I also didn’t have mine. We had to leap off the train and we stood on the platform puzzling over how each of us had managed to lose our tickets. It was bizarre. In the end Geraldine found hers in the bin at my place; she’d thrown it away by accident. I think I must have left mine on the train the night before when we bought them. I rather liked the idea that it wasn’t our fault and it was an evil demon or some mysterious force whisking them away from us, but I guess the pedestrian explanations are more likely. Anyway, we had to buy our tickets all over again. Grr. On the plus side, we had time for a coffee and a chocolate croissant at the station, so it wasn’t all bad. And we shared the blame, so it was all very equitable.

I’d read that Expedition Tschinglen was the most popular walk, so that’s what I’d planned we’d do; I hoped that it would be obvious as to how to get to it when we got there, as I couldn’t find any information online. However, we arrived at Glarus only to find that the Tourist Information place didn’t open until 2pm. So, it didn’t matter that we arrived later than planned anyway. None of the maps in the town showed the planned walk.

We walked about a bit aimlessly, although it was picturesque, so no great hardship, had a bit of lunch, and by then it was past 2pm. We went to the Information centre to ask about the walk and it turned out that we had to get a train to somewhere else first. We popped over to the station ticketing booth, but they said the next train to the destination wasn’t for another hour. We deliberated, but felt it was really too late, since we didn’t want to rush the walk or end up lost on the mountains in the dark. We returned to the woman in the information centre and she kindly suggested another walk; this too required a train. Once again, we popped over to the ticket office, but that train too would not be arriving for quite some time. At this point, we didn’t feel we could go back to either the information place or the ticket office again, so we slunk out the side door.

In the end, we did a 15-minute walk (only I think it took us 30 minutes) up a mountain to get to a restaurant where we had some wine. We were able to see snow in the distance. But it was quite a long way to go for the day just to have a glass of wine (or two..).

The final trip was to Liechtenstein. I was a bit luke-warm about this as many people find Vaduz boring, but I’d heard that Feldkirch in Austria wasn’t so far away and was very pretty, so we could do both Liechtenstein and Feldkirch and thus do three countries in one day. That’s pretty cool.

Our travels all went well this time (we were one year older and therefore wiser, perhaps?). To my surprise, the bus to Vaduz, Liechtenstein was also the bus to Feldkirch, Austria so it would be very easy to do both. We awaited eagerly for the announcement on the bus or even by the roadside that we were arriving in Liechtenstein, but it never came. It turned out that once we crossed the Rhine, we were there, but apparently they’d made some agreement years ago not to have borders.

Liechtenstein felt orderly and clean and, to my surprise, its currency was Swiss Francs. The whole country has only 38,000 people, with Vaduz holding just over 5000, so I decided it would be good to live there as it would be relatively easy to be one of the country’s best – for example, I’m pretty sure I could present myself as the country’s foremost expert on Schelling if I lived there.

We ended up spending the whole day there and we never got to Feldkirch. Liechtenstein is dominated by its castle, seated dramatically on the top of a hill among a backdrop of mountains. There was some pretty interesting modern architecture, too. We started off visiting the cathedral. The weather was glorious, so we did a long climb up to the castle, taking in some wonderful views along the way. At one point, we stopped by an interesting fountain representing all the different parts of Liechtenstein through the use of stone and the flow of water. Finally, we arrived at the castle only to find that you can’t actually go in, since it’s the Prince’s residence. But the walk alone was worth it.

All in all, we had a great day, and it leaves me still with Feldkirch on my list of places to go!

Zurich - Flat Viewings

Lounge

As I’ve mentioned before, the rental market in Zurich is completely different from the UK as there’s a shortage of properties and people are competing to get a flat (at least on the lower end of the scale). In the UK, you want to leave your rental property? Well, you hand in your month’s notice and then leave. Easy. In Zurich, you usually have only one or two days a year where you are allowed to leave your flat (end of March and end of September, or maybe end of September only, depending on your rental contract). From my UK perspective, this is madness, since everyone then needs cleaners, removal people, electricians, etc at the same time and they are always fully booked.

It is possible to leave your flat outside of the two dates (and many do), but then you are responsible for finding the next tenant. Well, you have to find three potential tenants and then the rental agent has to decide if they are suitable or not and which one they will take. You are obliged to keep on paying rent until a new tenant moves in.

Anyway, I was planning to leave my flat at the end of September, so I gave my three months’ notice (which you still have to give) and got the letting agency to do all the advertising. In retrospect, it seems almost as easy to leave outside of the two standard dates as in my case it appeared that if you leave at another time, the letting agency simply asks you to pay for the advertising but they still put it up on the website for you. However, at least I knew I wouldn’t have to pay rent beyond September this way.

Two viewing dates were duly organized (I was allowed to choose the date and time, but I had to be there for the viewings). Obviously, I tidied up and cleaned beforehand (always a chore!) and I also got a price list ready of all the furniture I wanted to sell. I asked the agency if they could put in the advertisement that I would give away all the light fittings to the next tenant (this would save me from having to block up all the light fittings only for the new tenant to pay to have them all reinstated), but they refused, since this was basically my property and they weren’t advertising anything that wasn’t theirs. I thought this was a bit crazy as it would surely help rent the flat out more easily, but hey ho.

One evening, a couple came round asking to view the flat outside of the given hours since they were going to be on vacation at the time of the viewing. I let them in, but wasn’t too sure of the rules. The Swiss can be quite strict at times. Moreover, I wasn’t really quite ready as I didn’t have my price list available yet and hadn’t decided what was going and what was staying. After they viewed it, I gave them an application form, they thanked me, and left. I have no idea if they’re allowed to apply before the first official viewing has even taken place.

On the day of the first viewing, five minutes before the allocated time, I opened my door ready for people to come. To my astonishment, there was a queue of people from my door, down the stairs, and out the front door waiting to come in. I told them to come in and within 5 minutes all 20 application forms were already gone.

It was a confusion of people and I was like the light to the moth as people clung to me asking questions – twice I was asked if there was mould (? I think they must have got confused with another property?), could I put a word in for them so that they could get the property, was the flat going to be renovated, could I put in a word for them for the property, was the building going to be torn down soon, what were the neighbours like, could I put a word in for them for the property, how long had I lived there, was there a basement…

One thing I hadn’t thought about doing was finding a secure place for my valuables. With so many people everywhere in my flat, it was impossible for me to keep an eye on everyone; besides, people were grabbing me to ask questions and taking my attention away. And then they wanted to see the basement, but if I showed them the basement, there was nobody at all in my flat and anything could happen. I got quite stressed, but I had to show the rest of the building. Fortunately, people are generally honest in Switzerland, so I didn’t have any bad repercussions, but it was a lesson learned for my next viewing.

One couple explained that they’d already failed to get several properties and they’d tried applying for my apartment before seeing it. Apparently, they were told it wasn’t possible to apply for a flat without seeing it first. They showed me their completed application form and asked if I could put a word in for them. Another girl explained that she was pregnant and getting married soon. She wanted to buy all of my furniture, the flat was just round the corner from her family, so the flat was ideal. Could I please put in a word for her? Another woman said she’d let me stay in the flat until I left (I’d booked an airbnb studio flat for my last week) if I would put in a word for her and let her have it.

It was exhausting. A few days later, the pregnant girl came round with her fiancé asking if her fiancé could see it quickly. Again, I wasn’t sure of the rules (and was not really prepared for it), but I let her in. She asked if I could put a word in for her. Then I bumped into her at the bus stop and she asked again. At this point, I was desperate to get rid of my furniture, so I asked the agency if I really needed a second viewing and could I recommend the pregnant woman since she would take my stuff.

To my surprise, they made a note of this and noted that I must have had quite a lot of people round already (so I assume quite a lot of applications were on their system). However, they said the second viewing still had to take place. Ugh.

The second viewing (two weeks’ later) wasn’t quite so busy, but all application forms were taken. One guy tried to buy my laptop, which wasn’t for sale, and wanted to take the TV with him straight away (which I wasn’t prepared for). One woman came round and passed judgement on each room (“typical Glattbrugg” to my spare room, which I think was not a compliment, and “now this is a pretty room” to my lounge…), another guy wanted me to start up my printer and print him out some application forms.

It was a bit of culture shock and I was glad when it was all over!

Zurich - Swimming Lesson in Basel

Me at Start of Insel-Ligerz Swim (No Basel Photo Available!)

I’m actually already back in Egypt, but I have a backlog of things to talk about and sooner or later I will be in a dry period where I’m struggling to think what to write, so I’ll just pretend I’m still in Switzerland for now.

In addition, I thought I’d take a break from describing all my trips before this becomes a travelogue.

Anyway, as well as doing the lake swims, I’d also taken some swimming lessons. There are two main online swimming schools with different philosophies – Swim Smooth and Total Immersion. I can’t quite remember what got me interested in Total Immersion (TI), despite my initial interest in Swim Smooth. I think maybe I’d seen it mentioned here and there on the internet; I was initially a bit put off because it seemed rather evangelical in its approach.

However, the more I looked into it, the more attractive it sounded. I was drawn to the claim that it focused on efficiency rather than effort and that you shouldn’t practice struggle. I had given up trying to do better at one point simply because I found I wasn’t enjoying swimming once I pushed myself all the time to go faster; in retrospect, it seemed more sensible to focus on efficiency and streamlining rather than to thrash my arms about more quickly. Also, the videos made the TI swimming style for freestyle look very elegant and effortless; as time went on, I decided I wanted to look good while I swam as well rather than it being obvious when you see me that I'm struggling.

After a lot of time thinking about it and watching videos on YouTube, I finally bought the TI book and accompanying videos online. I got so far with the videos and managed to decrease the number of strokes I needed for each length and finally managed to establish a bit of a glide. However, I was still slow, and I couldn’t get the recovery arm right (ie, the arm's position when it is out of the water); this wasn’t helped by the fact that I can’t see what my recovery arm is doing (because my head is down in the water and my arm is up in the air). I posted a video of my swimming (from my May trip to Egypt) on the TI facebook page and got some helpful feedback from coaches all telling me to improve my recovery. I tried my best, but my speed got slower and slower the more and more I tried. It was dispiriting.

I finally decided to take a lesson and decided it should be with someone qualified to teach TI. There’s only one person in Switzerland, and she is based in Basel. Eventually, we agreed on a date and she sent me directions to the pool where we would meet. I was a bit dismayed when I saw that the bus didn’t stop just outside; that spells trouble.

Anyway, I managed to walk in the wrong direction when I got off the bus (it was confusing because the map seemed to indicate I should go one way and a street sign indicated another way). It was a very hot day, and after a while of wandering and wondering, I needed to phone the coach to say I was on my way but lost.

However, I wasn’t too sure of her phone number and needed to check emails and websites to see if I could find out what it was. I couldn’t read the phone in the bright sunshine so I had to find a bit of shade. I stood by a car to try and look at my phone, but a man asked me what I was doing because I was on his property. Whoops. I asked for directions to the pool, he helped me, and I went on my way and had to wait until I could find another bit of shade before I could phone. By this time, I was already quite late. Stress!

When I finally found her number and called, she didn’t seem to understand how I could have possibly got lost. She said she’d wait for me at the entrance. When I got there, I looked around, and decided she must be inside the entrance. I wanted to pay for my ticket using my debit card, but for some reason it wouldn’t work. I got a bit flustered and starting digging around for some spare cash at which point the woman standing behind the cashier asked me if I was Fiona. It turned out to be my coach. So, there I was caught in the act of abject failure yet again!

My coach showed me the way to the changing rooms and I proudly showed her my padlock that I could use on the lockers, but when I came to use it, it was too thick to go through the hole for the lock. It wasn’t my day. She directed me to the lockers by the cashier's desk to store my valuables, but they required 1 CHF and for some reason I had only 1 EUR. Fortunately, my coach was able to persuade the person at the front desk to trade it for me. I felt I was being a nuisance. Then, while changing, I asked how to get to the toilets (first door on the right – how hard can that be?), but I ended up in the showers instead. I hope my coach didn’t see me. I must have looked like a complete idiot.

The lesson itself was good, although I think I didn’t really give the responses she was expecting ("can you feel your leg moving down? no? well it is is! Try again"). She videoed me before my swim and then we focused on the two-beat kick. I knew my kicking was bad as I can never be bothered with it. I don’t know why I didn’t try to learn the kick before; I think it just looked too daunting as you have to time it properly with the correct arm, so it was good to have someone to teach it to me. I was also surprised to learn that I was over-rotating (having previously not rotated at all). 

TI has a philosophy of hands-on help, so at one point, my coach grabbed my legs and moved them how they were supposed to go - it felt really bizarre, but after a number of repeats and further explanations I could sort of see what she was trying to get at. It just didn't come naturally to me, so it was all a bit of an eye opener.

I’ll write more later on my progress, but despite looking like a complete idiot, I did find that having a teacher is invaluable.

Zurich - Trip to Appenzell

Appenzell - Main Street

Another day was taken up visiting Appenzell, often called Heidiland by the tourist industry. It was quite an expensive train fare (if you don’t have half tax, the card that gets you half-price rail fares for a year).

I didn’t know much about Appenzell before I went other than it had a pedestrian centre and the houses were all traditional Swiss chalets. On arrival, it already felt quite rural because we had to cross the rail tracks, whereas before we’d seen and talked about all the signs you usually see warning you always to use the underpass and not to cross the tracks.

Our journey, and around Appenzell itself, was very pretty with scenery replete with rolling hills that looked so green and smooth in the autumn light that they could have been fake. Given that it had been stressed to me that Appenzell was pedestrian, there were more cars than I was expecting. Although the main street was indeed closed to vehicles, traffic flowed either side of it, so it didn’t seem any less open to traffic than many other towns.

Nevertheless, the town centre was worth seeing. The chalet-type buildings for the shops were huge. We looked round the church and from there saw a little picnic table and chairs by the river, which seemed like a nice spot to have lunch if you had something with you. But, as we gazed out, the chair reared up on its back two legs and spurted water into the river from the front two! Just as well we didn’t sit ourselves down there. This repeated every ten minutes or so – it was equally fun to watch other tourists gasping when they saw it for the first time. Appenzell also had something that looked like the top of a pothole where you could stand and it would turn round very slowly so that you could eventually get a 360 degree view. It was in the middle of the road and not in the pedestrianised bit, so it felt a bit risky!

We stopped for a bite to eat and found a bakery selling yesterday’s “fresh” cakes for half price. I can’t resist a bargain (or a cake, come to that). So, we sat outside to look at the menu. The waitress came up and asked if we were ready to order, so I asked if it was possible to reserve two cakes before they sold. However, I wasn’t entirely sure she’d understood, as she asked us to order. We ordered, and I said again that I’d like a cake. She didn’t ask me what cake I wanted, so I explained again that we wanted one of the half-price ones. She gave me a quizzical look and said “cake is very important to you, isn’t it?”

We laughed and by this time I was too embarrassed to ask again about reserving a cake, but fortunately she volunteered the idea that we look at them and set aside the ones we wanted. When it came to the time to have the cakes, she brought them with a big flourish of “Ta da! Here are the cakes!”

Meanwhile, a man walked past with a monster dog, causing many people to stop and chat to him. I’ve seen a few people recently with remarkable dogs and they always get accosted by onlookers. If you want to gain attention, it’s a good method. It must be difficult for the owners to ever get anywhere, though. It’s like in Egypt, only in Egypt, you don’t need a dog; you just can’t go anywhere for people asking you to come in for a cup of tea.

After our cakes, we went for a walk along the river that had been recommended by Tourist Information. It started off badly as we had the map upside down and so we walked in the wrong direction and up towards a busy road. Eventually, we managed to get on the path, but we decided to deviate as the scenery looked more interesting up the hill. There was the occasional chalet dotted about here and there and we stopped for some time to watch the red squirrels (only they looked black) playing in the trees. As we progressed, we weren’t too sure where we were, so we strode across a field where we could see the railway line and then the town on the other side. On arriving at the other side, we were confronted by a notice to the entrance of the field saying “no entry”. Whoops.

After that, we walked a little way up the other side of the river, visited the small chapel, and then ate in Appenzell in a bar/restaurant in a small, leafy courtyard. And we got home with no further incident.

Zurich - Trip to Stein am Rhein

Painted Buildings in Stein am Rhein

Our first day trip when Geraldine was here was to Stein am Rhein. I wasn’t even sure whether this was in Switzerland, but it was. The last time I went there was when I was working in Freiburg im Breisgau back in the year 2000, and Emil very kindly spent a day with me and Julie taking us round some beautiful places nearby. That’s almost 20 years ago now - time flies!

When I went to Schaffhausen to look at the house to buy, I noticed that one of the banks was offering people free trips on the boat for a year to Stein am Rhein from Schaffhausen if they became customers with them, so that’s what reminded me. Having said that, it was also an itinerary item from last time that Geraldine was over that we hadn’t yet done.

For some weird reason, we both thought we wouldn’t need our coats. Our plan was to go to Stein am Rhein, sail along the Rhine for 2 hours and then explore the town afterwards. I’d bought the train tickets the day before so that we didn’t have to worry about it in the morning.

We got there just fine and after a little confusion about which boat it was, we bought our tickets just in time. There was a Japanese couple in front of us who had lots of questions and didn’t seem at all worried that the boat was leaving in 5 minutes. Maybe they didn’t understand Swiss punctuality? Having said that, the person serving also seemed very relaxed, so perhaps it’s just me that gets in a tizzy about getting to places on time.

Everyone else on the boat was wearing a coat, and although the day was fine, it was definitely autumnal, and the extra breeze from floating along the river made it quite chilly. It was the first day of the winter timetable. Fortunately, the boat had some blankets, so we were fine to sit outside

The Japanese couple asked us to take a photograph of them and they seemed to be having a whale of a time. They got off half-way to explore, whereas we changed boats (as you had to do) and went back. I hadn’t noticed that there were several boats as the times were (to me at least) quite confusing on the internet. The Japanese couple had asked several times at the counter whether they could stop off and come back later (with an affirmative answer).

The second boat didn’t have any blankets, which was strange as it was the same company, as far as I know. Anyway, we still sat outside to get the best view and were just about OK! We didn’t come down with colds afterwards, at any rate.

Stein am Rhein is famous for its painted houses; it’s an old town and is well worth a visit. We dithered a while about where to eat and ended up at a waffle place. It turned out that a lot of places were closed on Monday (eg, the cloister, and quite a few shops), so bear that in mind if you are planning a visit.

There were quite a few quirky shops, including one selling items (eg, handbags, rucksacks, flipflops, etc) made out of cork. If I hadn’t been moving and need to reduce the amount of things I have rather than increase them, I would have been very tempted to buy something. They also had a barrier with a carved wooden hand holding it, which was another unusual touch to an everyday thing.

On the way back, we stopped off at Winterthur to have dinner. It was maybe not such a good idea since after Stein am Rhein, Winterthur looked less impressive, even though the Old Town is quite pretty. Many people commute from Winterthur to Zurich as it’s only 15 minutes away by train and is itself a big town with lots of facilities (like Zurich city, Winterthur counts as two zones for the rail fares, since it’s so large and has so many transportation options). We ended up in a packed Italian restaurant and then made our way home. All in all, a great day.

Zurich - Bruno Weber Park

Into the Dragon's Mouth!

My life continues to be busy (which is always the case as I’m about to leave!), and this last week has been taken up with a visit from Geraldine, since we share the same birthday. Astonishingly, I managed to find quite a few things for us to do that I had either never done before or done only many years ago. I believed I’d been everywhere by now!

I thought I’d start off by talking about the trip we did to the Bruno Weber Park, even if it's not the first thing we did, since it’s open only between April and October. Thus, if in the next few weeks you are in Zurich and are looking for somewhere to go, you still have a chance to give this a try!

I’d never heard of this park before, even though I’ve been in and out of Switzerland for the last 14 years or so; I found out about it through a leaflet on a tram. The Park is in Dietikon, which is also somewhere I’ve never been, although I don’t think it has a reputation for being a hot spot for tourists. Dietikon is still in Kanton Zurich, so I regard it as local (we also have a place called Dietlikon, with an L in the middle, which is very confusing). 

I originally planned for us to go here on Wednesday. However, we were invited round to a friend’s for dinner on Thursday and it seemed sensible to go on Thursday instead, so that we wouldn’t have too much stress about getting back to Zurich in time.

This turned out to be a mistake. We managed to get to Dietikon without a problem; once there, the bus stops indicated which buses went to the Bruno Weber Park, but they did not include the bus I’d planned to use (from the Park’s leaflet). Nevertheless, we got on the bus I'd planned and hoped for the best.

The Park was signposted when we got off the bus. In fact, we could see it in the distance. It was a very hot day, we were in the middle of the countryside, and it was very quiet given that a public park was in sight. As we went up to the entrance, there were only a few cars in the car park. At the gates, a notice proclaimed that it’s open only on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays. Doh! I’d forgotten that this was why I’d originally planned the trip for Wednesday. I had no Plan B.

A group of people arrived and stood there while I poked my nose through the gate to look at what I was missing, wondering what on earth we could do. I made a point of looking at the notice again and mentioning to the group that it was closed and that Geraldine and I had come on the wrong day. I probably also made a few sounds of anguished frustration and I noticed the group talking among themselves as I made a bit of a fuss. Somehow, we found out that they had a booked private tour of the park, so I asked if there was any chance we could join them. There was more discussion and they said we could (as long as we paid our share, of course)! What a stroke of luck. If we’d arrived any earlier or later we would have missed them.

It turned out to be a work trip. They’d arrived at work that morning to find that a surprise outing had been organized for them and this was it! There were only around ten of them, and they were all Swiss, so everything was in Swiss German. But we got to see round the park and also got a little information on various parts of the park (not all of which I could understand) from the tour guide.

The park was the work of an artist and is itself supposed to be a work of art. It’s a fantasy world with dragons and Alpine spirits; it has a water section, a forest section, and I think maybe the third was a love section, but wasn’t available? It is still a work in progress as the artist has died, but they don’t have the monies to further it (so do go and help support them!). I believe it closed down entirely at one point, but there was public outcry, and so they re-opened.

It is really pretty amazing. You can walk along a dragon’s back and into its mouth; you can blow life into an Alpine spirit; you can sit on thrones. There’s a dining hall where they serve brunch on the last Sunday of every month (which I think includes entrance into the Park); the toilets were adorned with a peacock. The grand finale was the house (or should I say palace) of residence; so much detail you cannot take it all in.

We were lucky also to be part of such a small group and to have the park relatively to ourselves. The group was very friendly (one woman kept on stressing to Geraldine how hard you have to work in Switzerland!), and we tried to be as accommodating as possible given that we’d just tagged on to their event.

Anyway, I’d recommend it as a place to go. I even fantasized about getting a job where I could market the place for them, because it seems to be so neglected and unknown. The Swiss people were also saying that they had no idea it was there and they were born and bred in Zurich!

Zurich - Trip to Cinque Terre

Corniglia

Although I knew I wanted to visit Cinque Terre before I left Switzerland, I somehow ended up booking it in a bit of a rush. I couldn’t buy the ticket online because it was an international trip. So, I went to the main station with all my times planned out. However, the man serving me didn’t think the route I’d chosen would give me enough time to make the connection (even though it was a recommended route online), so I had to get an earlier ticket. Ugh.

As it turned out, his recommendation was golden. Every single train I entered was jam-packed. I was a bit tired as I sat down in my reserved seat, but I was opposite a very chatty (and pleasant) Swiss couple, so sleep or reading my book wasn’t going to happen. I mentioned to them that first class had already been fully booked when I reserved (as a Brit, I find this astonishing, since I’m sure in the UK first-class would not be fully booked before second class), but the couple’s reaction was to say that they had also wanted to travel first class but had been unable (but I hadn’t wanted first class, I had just thought it was extraordinary!). I pretended that I too was the sort of person who travels first class, but my pretence fell flat since they kindly said that second class had actually been better due to superior company.

After discovering I was English, the Australian guy opposite me also started talking. He didn’t speak any German, but I think he understood more than he was letting on. He communicated by gesticulating, which, weirdly, I needed the Swiss people to translate to me in German. At one point, the Australian asked me about Brexit (it’s what everyone wants to talk about but I’d really rather not; it’s such an emotional topic and I can’t be doing with the stress). The Swiss guy turned to me with surprise, commenting that he didn’t know that I spoke the same language as they do in Australia. His wife (I assume that’s what she was) asked him if he hadn’t grasped that I was English, and he said no, but still seemed extremely surprised that the Australian and I could converse.

After that, we (the Swiss couple and I) had the obligatory conversation about me living in Egypt, and then they started to complain about how stressful it was that in Italy, you never know which platform your train is going to leave from and you have to look on the boards. They couldn’t understand how it couldn’t be as organized as it is in Switzerland. I agreed, but found it amusing, since in the UK, at least when I was living there, you also never knew in advance which platforms trains would come in on (indeed, if they would even arrive at all). In Switzerland, the platforms for arrival are planned for the entire season or maybe even year(s), so you always know which platform to go to even if you book months ahead. To me, it’s this organization that is more astonishing.

Anyway, I arrived safely. My initial aim was to go on a sunset tour by boat, so I tried to rush to wherever the boats might be, but I was unable to see any. Online, it said the tours started at 1730 and it was now about 1720. I asked at the Tourist Information and they told me just to look by the harbor if there was a tour. That wasn’t very helpful, but I decided the lack of boats meant that no trips were available. I later saw that the boats can leave at 5pm later in the season, so maybe that was it.

My hotel was further from the station than I thought, so I felt a bit grumpy when I arrived. Then I found that my room was three floors up and there was no lift, which made me more grumpy. Steps became a general feature of my trip but I’d got used to it by the end. And they had no water or fridge in the room and no air conditioning, just a fan. However, it turned out that the fan was fine, so I became less grumpy the longer I stayed.

I did immediately feel like I was in another country, though. It was hotter than in Zurich and the air somehow felt different. Since I couldn’t do a boat trip, I went for a swim. The sea was beautiful and warm and underfoot it was a bit like fine pebbles and rather dark in colour, which made your feet look dirty!

Finding somewhere to eat turned out to be more difficult than I expected. My first problem was that although there were hundreds of restaurants, almost all of them served only fish or cheese dishes; I don’t eat cheese and I don’t eat a lot of fish. My second problem was that they were all heavily over-booked, so although some would offer a single meat option (always steak) or a pasta non-main dish without cheese, I would feel hesitant to go in and take up their only remaining table for four. In the end, I realized I had to eat even if I was just one person and so at 9pm hunger overtook my sense of morality.

For the next day, I’d planned to follow the itinerary suggested in someone else’s blog. I purchased my Cinque Terre day pass, which included all transport and access to the hiking paths in the region (I hadn’t realized that you had to pay to use the hiking paths) and set upon the hike. In the blog, it says that she did it with her children without any problem. It sounded great!

In reality, it turned out that the blogger and her family were a lot fitter than I am. It was extremely hot (around 28 degrees) and I hadn't fully taken on board that the first bit was all uphill on stony ground with lots of steps. I guess, since Cinque Terre is basically 5 mountain villages, I should have taken it for granted, but it just hadn’t dawned on me that you had to climb up and down mountains to get there. The paths were narrow, so sometimes you had to wait for people coming down (or vice versa). I took plenty of rests as I climbed up for what seemed like forever. I sweat very easily and a couple of people asked me if I was OK when I stopped! The views were beautiful.

Anyway, I was exhausted by the time I got to Vernazza (but did feel a sense of achievement), and the walk had taken me 30 minutes longer than the suggested two hours. The original plan was to do another 90 minute walk to the next village, but now there was no way I was going to do this. I had a milk shake and wandered round the village (beautiful!) and decided to take the train to Riomaggiore, which was the village that was the furthest away and so would allow me more time to sit on the train.

Waiting for the train was an experience. The stations at midday were full of tourists (trains were easier after 5pm) and much of the station was a tunnel. Most people were standing in the open air, but they continually announced that you should wait further down (in addition to announcing delays of 10-20 minutes). About half the breadth of the platform under the tunnel was was taken up by the area past the yellow line, where you weren’t allowed to stand. I went as far down the tunnel as I thought wise, hoping to get an emptier carriage when the train eventually came. A passing train was like the coming of the holocaust. Long before the train arrived, a wind whipped up in the tunnel; suddenly I felt cold instead of hot, my dress flapped around my legs and I didn’t feel particularly stable. There was a handrail, which I grabbed with both hands. And then the train charged through. It was quite scary!

After looking round Riomaggiore (and another milk shake and an iced coffee; I was on a liquid lunch, but a non-alcoholic one!), I took the train to Corniglia, planning on visiting Manarola last for sunset as suggested in the blog. By this time, I’d forgotten that the blog had mentioned impossibly many steps from the station at Corniglia. I remembered once I started climbing, though. However, my initial climb from Monterosso on the way to Vernazza was worse, I think. Or maybe I’d just loosened up by that point. Someone coming down the steps grunted when he suddenly realized how many there were – and I was going UP them! If I’d thought more about it, I would have got the bus (which does exist, as I got it going back down), but, alas, I simply didn't think on this vacation.

This activity earned me a crepe with chocolate gelato on arrival. Corniglia was the village situated most in the countryside. I walked down a bit of the path that I decided against walking from Vernazza and the town looked beautiful in the late afternoon sunlight. As in all the towns, the narrow cobbled roads gave an atmosphere of times gone by (if you ignore the tourists). Finally, I took the train to get to Manarola by sunset.

On getting off at Manarola, I dashed up the hill, not really knowing where the best view would be, but thinking maybe up was a good idea (see how much I’d changed from the beginning of my stay where I was cursing the word “up”!). The church looked beautiful against the backdrop of the golden countryside in the setting sun; on the other side, the town of manarola perched by the sea glowed pink. I took some photos, feeling happy.

I made my way to the harbor and then realized that actually this was the place to take my photographs. Doh! There were lots of people on the path on the other side of the harbor armed with their cameras. I made my way to join them. Sunset lasts quite a long time and the camera doesn’t really pick up on it until it’s quite dark; in fact, those photographs look more like daylight ones than the ones I took from the church, so it must depend on the direction of the light.

My original plan was to visit Porto Venere the next day before I left, but I was too tired. If you go to Cinque Terre, I recommend doing it over two days (then I would have done both walks, one on each day, and a boat trip), a  third day at Porto Venere, and then a fourth day at Pisa. But, of course, it all depends on how much time you have available. I would also have brought a change of dress for my second day as I was drenched in sweat after the first day and possibly getting a bit smelly!

I was too late to book a boat trip for my final morning (which I quite fancied), so went swimming instead on the longer beach closer to the station (so no hardship there!). The sea was wonderful, but I got stung twice by jellyfish before I’d swum 500m, so had to give up. Looking out onto the sea from the beach, it seemed that no-one else was getting stung at all. Children and families were playing happily in the sea, another swimmer was going back and forth, people were standing and chatting or just drifting in the water.

I searched the internet afterwards to determine whether some people attract jellyfish. Apparently, you can buy jellyfish repellent which makes you smell safe to the jellyfish so that they don’t sting. So maybe I sweat more than most people also when I swim and thus seem more like a danger to the jellyfish?

At 3pm I had equally busy trains home as on my journey there, but arrived back safely, albeit tired. It was a busy, but great trip, and I would fully recommend it. The area is stunning.