Our last morning in Switzerland, Monday September 2, started early. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:30am, and the airlines recommends arriving 3 hours befor departure. So with us having to be there at 8:30 I thought it was safest for us to wake up at 7am, leaving the hotel by 7:45am. Since we do not check bags during our travels I figured we could arrive at the airport by 8:45-9 without pushing our luck.
We woke up, quickly dressed in the clothes I laid out the night before. We took our bags with us to breakfast so we could check out immediately and head to then hauptbahnhof (train station). After eating we said our goodbyes tonthenrecwption Ladina and she was gracious enough to let me take a picture with her and a picture of her looooong beautiful dreadlocks.
Once again we opted to walk to the hauptbahnhof instead of taking the bus. On our walk the boys said good bye to their favorite German word, einfahrt, that we saw everyday on the McDonald's sign. I'm pretty sure it means drive-thru but the kids could care less they loves that the word ended in "fahrt". What am I going to do with these kids?!
Zane also insisted that intake pictures of he giant slugs scattered all over the sidewalk. Unlike anything he's seen in Atlanta, they totally creeped him out and he spend mostbofbthebwalk hopping from foot to foot in an attempt to avoid stepping on them.
With the help of some kind strangers I bought our train tickets from the machine. I was hoping that on the last day I would be able to do it independently but even with the instructions in English I couldn't find the option to buy a ticket to the flughafen (airport) from winterthur. Once in the train we stared out the window for our last glimpses of beautiful Switzerland and took usies.
As planned we arrived very early to the flughafen. As soon as I arrived I found the airport post office and sent off postcards to loved ones in the US. Our postcards took 2 months to arrive to the US from Guatemala so I wonder how long it will take get to us from Swtizerland? How long do you think?
Once don't with the postcards, we didn't check bags but had to through two layers of security, and take a train in order to get to the terminal. In Switzerland before boarding the plane you must have a face-to-face exit interview. This is something is never experienced before with international travel. This questioning happens with the adjacent gate at a booth with an airport agent. Her questions included: did anybody give you anything here in the airport? Who used your electronic devices while in Switzerland? Are you carrying anything that can be used as a weapon? Once I was answered all the questions the agent places stickers on or passports and we were allowed to board. Non-coincidentally our return seats were the exact seats we sat in on our way to Zurich.
It was the perfect weekend getaway and I look forward tonreturninng to switzerland in the future hopefully to Geneva, on the French side.
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