Third Time and Lucky In Switzerland This Year

It's officially autumn and with my bestie from Oz visiting, guess where we went to? Luzern! Its the third time this year for me. It's like I'm visiting at every change of the season. I was there in winter, summer (will post later) and it turns out it three really is a lucky number.

We took flights out of Stansted to Basel on a Friday evening. Traffic was horrendous and both Mel and I had delays on different routes getting to the airport. I dashed off the bus, straight to the Ryanair check in desk. Thankfully there was no queue but I was still running late. 

It turned out our flight was delayed 20 minutes which would have been good except we bought Supersaver train tickets to Luzern. They are half price but if we're not on the train booked, the tickets got to waste. We also needed to make that train because it was the last direct one from Basel to Luzern.

Our flight was an hour late from departing and by the time we landed at Basel, we only had 15 mins to make our connecting bus to the train station. Everything runs precisely on time in Switzerland so there was no chance of a convenient delay. We ran to passport control and eagerly watched the luggage carousel for Mel's checked in luggage. 

Minutes passed and the carousel was not moving. I thought we're going to miss the bus for sure. Suddenly Mel's bag was one of the first to come through. Before she could pick it up, I went off like a rocket, telling her to follow me of course. We were going to make this bus after all!

Then I learned that it REALLY does matter which of the two exits you take out of the airport. You have a choice of France/Germany or Switzerland. I though it was all connected so I took the first exit I saw but then I realised that on the French/German side, you're blocked from accessing the Swiss side. You have to go back into the terminal, go through a hallway where you pass customs. Doh! Our hopes were dashed. 

We ran through as no one was at customs. We made our bus with 30 seconds to spare and we made our train too. We finally got to breathe easy to the start of our weekend.

We inadvertedly got on the kids carriage on the train. When Mel and I first went to Switzerland together back in 2006, we were awestruck by the concept.  Swiss trains are the best in the world. At 11pm we get to "play" in this cool carriage without kids around!

The second lucky thing was that I found a Longchamp cross body bag at Caritas, the charity shop near Fabienne's flat. It could be an A+ fake but at CHF 4 (USD 4.28) I didn't care. I gave it a good check before buying and it's convincingly real. I later looked for the design and it's a Quadri-retailing at £175. 

The third lucky thing was the weather. Fabienne said the summer had been disappointing with few days of sunny weather. When we showed up, the sky was beautiful and clear. The weather was balmy and hot in the day to go swimming and paddleboarding in Lake Luzern. I've always relished the idea of bathing in the lake. The water comes from the mountains and its super clean (and cold!). Mel and I have a thing about swimming in natural places as we call them "fountains of youth".

We went to one of the town beaches and it was lovely and peaceful. We did'nt go into the water until we took out paddleboards from the local rowing club. It was my first time and although I was wobbly, I got the hang of it after learning the golden rule: keep looking straight ahead and not at your feet!

Pushing off and trying to remember capsize exercises from my kayaking training. Thankfully there was no falls into the water.

We went to the nearby beach and I really wanted to get into the water. It was cold but oh so invigorating. Here I am standing up. An even more enjoyable experience is when you're lying on your stomach and paddling with your arms. When face level with the water, gliding over the surface like the birds and boats, you feel like you're flying!