Wrapping up

Saturday we had a flight out around 2PM, which meant we had plenty of time to pack, and check out of our hotel in the morning. We stayed the night at the Hotel St Gotthard, which is very close to the train station and is very nice. I thought it was quite luxurious at the price, at least compared to Swiss prices overall.  I would recommend it if one is staying in Zurich.

Our flight from Zurich left about 30 minutes late, but still managed to get us to Reykjavik with plenty of time to make our connection to Boston. That flight was on time, and we made it home in one piece.  I think we might fly Icelandair again some time. It was really a very pleasant flight, and the scheduling worked well for us. I think it did aid us both in recovering from jetlag and made for a more comfortable trip.

Finally, a few bests and worsts from our trip...

Best Hotel: the hotel Baeren in Wengen. Confirming once again, that we prefer smaller, low key, more casual places to the spiffier city hotels.  We loved the view, ands the hotel had character. We were more comfortable there than anywhere else.

Best dish: the cheese fondue we had in Gruyere.  All 3 fondue's we had were wonderful, but this one...in the heart of cheese country....juat seemed the best.

Best meal overall: this was really a tough choice. We had wonderful fondue in Zurich, we had a terrific French dinner at Brasserie Bodu in Luzern, we enjoyed the first dinner at the 45 in Montreux, and all the meals served at the Hotel Baeren. But we decided our favorite was the very first night in Luzern at the Hotel Stern Restaurant. That's the one from my early post where the appetizers were served in shotglasses. That meal was a lot of fun, very Swiss but with contemporary flair, and just felt more original than any of the others.  In general, Switzerland is not a great foody place, and meals were very expensive. But we still ate well as always.

Best view: Have to go with the Jungfraujoch, although the Matterhorn was pretty awesome.

Best discovery: Swiss wines...in particular the Carnelin, the red that we had several different bottles of. Its very nice, kind of reminds me of a pinot noir...maybe a little more fruit and less of the herbal notes...say its more like an Oregon pino than a french one.   We'll have to look for it here.

Worst discovery: that the Swiss can't make coffee. Ugh. Everybody uses machines that spew out weak espresso. Ordering Cafe Americano usually got you weak espresso mixed with water to make it weaker.  Caffe Latte was hot milk with almost no cafe.  Capuccino was indistinguishable from the latte.  The best coffee we had was unfortunately, from Starbucks. And I don't particularly like Starbucks.

I hope I haven't bored you all with this. Fewer food pictures than my past blogs I think :) I will be adding a few more pics to some of the postings as I go through them and edit. I have over 2000 photos, so it will take a while to sort through everything. I'll be enjoying dwelling on the memories for a few more months as I do so.