Last travel day. We were retracing our route through the pass. Got up early, had a quick breakfast and packed up. It was another beautiful drive, first coming down from the mountains and into the valley, then the long, steep, stupendous climb to the pass. As we rose higher and higher, negotiating the switchbacks, fog began enveloping the peaks and pouring down the mountainsides. When we reached the summit, we were in a total whiteout. Literally, visibility was less than 10 feet.
Clay almost got run over when a car appeared out of nowhere when he was crossing the road. We had lunch at the restaurant. Unlike the previous Sunday when thousands of tourists and motorcycles mobbed the site, it was practically deserted. Had a very tasty salad- yet another good meal. Food was universally good throughout our trip. There was a bit of confusion in the translation on the menu however. The soup didn't seem very filling but I heard that the wiener sausage was pretty good...
Because of the whiteout, there was no reason to hang out so we headed down. It didn’t take long to drive out of the fog and we had a smooth ride down into the next valley.
Next stop: the gin store! We needed to load up for the trip home. Got to meet and talk to the proprietor, who hadn’t been on premises during our previous visit. He was an interesting guy. Previously he was a freelance drone operator for Hollywood movies. He showed us a picture of his equipment. His drone weighs 70 pounds but he emphasized that he was carrying cameras and lenses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He had recently been working on a “Fast and Furious” movie production. He has a small, cool distillery with his equipment and tasting room all in the same small store. He makes small batch gins using local botanicals and fruits. We sampled a few of his wares and made our purchases. Too bad I only had room for one bottle in my suitcase!
We continued our drive and only made a wrong turn once. The landscape scaled down and the rest of the way to Zurich was a series of low hills and lakeside drives. When we approached Zurich, Google routed us right through the center of the city. That meant a few snap decisions and a lot of in-town traffic. Eventually we negotiated our way to the outskirts of town towards our hotel at the airport. Of course in the process of trying to decide which way to go when the highway split in three, we inevitably took the wrong turn. Eventually we made it to the Marriott.
Checked in, registered and headed up to our rooms. Upon arrival we discovered that we had a single king bed. So back downstairs we went. The desk clerk explained that “he just assumed” that we were a couple and that it might be intrusive to ask (?!). We got that straightened out and moved our stuff in. It was now 5:30 pm or so. Eventually we would need dinner. We did a search and located a Vietnamese restaurant just a couple of miles away. That area of town was pretty cool with wide streets, three story apartment buildings and plenty of small businesses. Found a parking spot on a side street (free parking, yay!) and walked a few blocks to the restaurant, Dong Qué. The place was completely empty when we arrived which normally wouldn’t be a good sign. But the waitress was attentive and nice and the food was very good. Of course, we had to have dessert which was a couple of crispy apple filled donuts and a bowl of lychee nuts. When done, we returned to the hotel. We were pretty stuffed so Clay and I took a walk to settle the food and stretch our legs after a long day. Generally the area around an airport hotel is a wasteland, but after walking behind the hotel we were surprised to find a beautiful small tree-lined river flowing rapidly along with hiking and biking trails on both sides. The Swiss just know how to do it right.
We came upon a fly fisherman working quietly on catching fish. It felt like another world. We kept walking beside farm fields. It was quiet and still and a perfect temperature. We walked for about 20 minutes and then turned around. When we got back, it was getting late so Clay and I went to our room, showered and packed up. Lights out by 10:30.