Here is the Bar assosciation at work

"H Huntzinger" <{NOSPAM-rm_to_reply}rec-scuba2005@huntzinger.com> wrote in
message
news:{NOSPAM-rm_to_reply}rec-scuba2005-AA16E7.07555124082005@news.giganews.com...

> Probably just as well, now...looks like the train and highway into
> Grindelwald has been cut off, and the train station in Interlaken is
> half underwater, etc, etc.

The highway into the Emmenthal valley was also cut off. I forged ahead
anyway, ignoring the slashes on the road signs covering up the towns in the
direction I wanted to go, but I finally couldn't ignore the barriers across
the road. Something about a bridge being washed out. Hating the idea of
backtracking, we instead forged up the side of the mountain, on little roads
that didn't appear on my Michelin map that we here would call driveways. We
came out of the hills into Sarner, just north of Interlaken. As the road
wended through town, we again had to detour around a washed-out bridge.
This time it was a couple of nice Swiss cops yelling things like "Achtung"
that turned me around instead of a barrier and then we tried to figure out
directions to get me out of town in broken English and German. I got nice
pics of the sunken bridge from the other side. The remainder of the trip
gave us open roads - lots of road construction going on, but always a side
road to detour on in the same direction we were headed.

> The main pedestrian street in Zurich is a pleasant walk, straight from
> the train station to the lake. Shortly before you hit the lake, there's
> IIRC a triangular square where there's multiple trolly stops and a
> couple of places to grab a quick bite here. From the lake, if you
> traverse around its edge towards the left (across the river) and go a
> short distance up, there's a couple of automobile dealerships across the
> street where you can look at some of the cars that don't get imported
> into the USA . The Old Town area is quite nice.

The Limmat was running very high and fast with the stairs down to river boat
launches completely underwater. But the banks weren't breached in Zurich,
thankfully. We gave up on Luzern and Vitznau after the hotel called to tell
me our reservation "had been canceled". They had suffered a flooded lobby
and restaurant and had been forced to suspend operations, involuntarily it
sounded like from my conversation with the friendly manager.

Paradeplatz is the triangle you're talking about, I believe. We ate at one
corner at the Zeughauskeller, a restaurant housed in a 14th century armory.
Veal bratwurst, which I found a bit too mild for my taste even with mustard,
along with their house potato salad. Cafe Sprungli is across the plaza, the
chocolate mecca of town, but we put off getting our chocolates until we
reached their branch at the airport on the way home.

Definitely a different selection of cars than back home. Plenty of
Peugeots, Renaults, and even Opels. I had no idea they still made Opels.

> Sounds like some interesting areas...lot of lakes too.

We drove north to the Rhine (crossing through Germany) at Rheinfall and
followed the river to the Bodensee (Stein am Rhein is a beautiful little
town), went around much of the Zurichsee, skirted the two lakes of the
Interlaken area plus Sarnersee to the north, circled Lac Leman (Lake Geneva)
and followed the Rhone a bit, crossed through France and then Italy on the
way to Lake Maggiore, which we skirted as far as Locarno, then headed over
the San Bernardino pass toward Davos and the Davosee. Lots of lakes.

> Check your hotel room's TV set first thing each morning, and again after
> breakfast...many of them often have a morning-only TV channel that has
> live 'webcam' -like videos transmitted from the local ski resorts, and
> you can use that video feed to decide if its clear enough to be worth an
> excursion on that particular day to a scenic overlook for a view.

I missed this part, but we lucked out. Driving in the Interlaken area
provided us with great views and the Davos-Parsenn funicular up to
Weissfluhjoch was an amazing ride, terminating in a restaurant at the top
with unbelievable views, enjoyed over pommes frites and Swiss white wine
before making the grueling hike down (though less grueling than hiking all
the way up, I'm sure).

http://www.parsenn.ch/content.cfm?fu...token=38212773

The webcam doesn't do justice to the real thing.

Not bad at all for a non-diving trip. We walked by some divers off Les
Paquins in Lake Geneva and I was sorely tempted, but I contented myself with
looking out for bare-breasted Swiss girls instead through the safety of my
sunglasses.

"Alan Street" <agstreet@nonono_san.rr.com> wrote in message
news:010920051113249551%agstreet@nonono_san.rr.com ...

> And when you get back, you're never going to complain about our gas or
> food prices again

That I won't.

Gas was about 1.50 CHF per liter, about $1.20. Some of the food wasn't too
expensive. For instance, a 12" prosciutto and mushroom pizza in Locarno
only ran about 15 CHF or $12.00 and made a nice lunch for two along with a
large salad. But dinner entrees in nicer places were in the 40-60 CHF
range, or $35-50, and I got real sick of drinking 20 CHF gin martinis. A
whole loup de ligne for two fileted at tableside at La Perle du Lac in
Geneva was 130 CHF, or $105, but it was a real nice fish and a real nice
setting. I'm dreading my next credit card statement.

My next major trips are Roatan and Bali, so I'll make up for it.