Thursday, July 24, 2008

The road less traveled...

After what seems like an eternity, I've arrived in Switzerland. I left my house on Wednesday, July 23 at 9:30am and arrived in Switzerland on Thursday, July 24 at about 1pm (EST). That's more than 24hrs. in planes, trains, and automobiles to reach my final destination.

On my first train ride from Lancaster to Newark Airport I met a Doctor that works for the World Health Organization and lives in Geneva. He gave me his contact information in case I'm able to take a day trip to Geneva, he volunteered one of his sons to take me around. It really is a small world.

I arrived at the airport with little trouble, but leaving the airport proved to be slightly more difficult. There was a weather situation near Boston, which happened to be our route. So we sat in the plane for two hours before we were cleared for takeoff. Those two hours were the time I had to make a connecting flight in Düsseldorf, Germany. About an hour before we were supposed to land I was going to ask the flight attendant about my connecting flight, when the lady in front of us had a mini seizure. The flight crew rushed to help her doctor husband, which trapped me in my seat for a while. When they mentioned getting the IV equipment out I started to feel a little sick myself. Did I mention that these people were from New Jersey, which meant I could understand them. I was finally able to excuse myself to the bathroom to get some water and cool down, luckily the lady didn't need to get an IV.

I made a connecting flight in Düsseldorf with little problem. The only thing that I realize is that I'm not good at guessing the context of the German directed at me. That plane was delayed for about 40mins, pushing my arrival into Zürich even later. The plan was to meet up with Evan, also from Lancaster, in the Zürich airport because he was coming on a direct flight.

I couldn't find Evan anywhere in the airport, and by this time I figured he had been waiting for 5 hrs for me. My cell phone does not work to call US numbers (a problem I thought I fixed), so I tried a land line once more and no answer. I decided to hop the train, figuring that Evan got sick of waiting and continued on. Well, my assumption was wrong, because apparently not all direct flights are quicker than 2 delayed flights. Evan apparently sat on the plane in Philly for 4hrs before taking off.

Well, we finally were able to meet up in Montreux. Then we took a funicular train to Caux. Here will begin the picture portion of the trip.


Only one picture tonight because it's 10pm (Swiss) and I'm a little tired from the journey. This is a view from my bedroom. Yep we are on a mountain. They say it is about an hour walk down to the town, I think Evan and I are going to find out tomorrow. Because it costs $12 every time you want to ride the funicular train one way. Oh one more important note: it feels like fall in the evenings, I actually closed my window because I think I might get too cold. That's all for now.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great story....would have been better if you passed out on the plane!!

Glad to see Evan made it as well. Can you please ask him to start a blog.

dzlisag said...

Welcome to beautiful Switzerland. If you see Maria and the Captain, please let them know it's OK to go home now. THE WAR IS OVER.

My sypmathies to you for having to endure that view for your entire stay. Your ability to endure hardship amazes me.

Equally amazing is your apparent ability to find solace in an airplane WC. (that's german for water closet which is the english translation of the german word for bathroom which you don't even need to know cuz you're speaking french there).

Keep those notes and photos coming. This is probably as close as I'll ever get to an alp.

G.