EVERY VACATION COMES TO AN END!

                           It is 2 weeks before Christmas and I finally manage to blog the conclusion of my Swiss vacation. Lately I was really busy because of the holiday's with cooking, party's, football games (Luke's), concerts (Jacobs), car fixing, baby sitting and making one thousand Christmas cookies. But now I am ready again.
                         
                           Wednesday, Oct 2
The day after my birthday party, surprisingly I felt great and on top of it, the weather was fabulous. Toni and Andrea had no plans and decided to take us down town Zurich for a stroll. We boarded the train in Oberglatt and after a 30 minutes ride we arrived in Zurich Hauptbahnhof. From there we walked down the world renown Bahnhofstrasse, the shopping mecca of the rich and famous! Of course we where only looking not baying.

                             After crossing the bridge over the river Limmat and enjoying a bag of roasted chestnut from a street vendor we checked out the Opera house, the ETH (Eidgenossisch Technische Hochschule), the University of Zurich and of course the Niederdorf with all the shop's and restaurants.

                              Back at the Hauptbahnhof they had some kind of festival and I had the chance to get my beloved veal bratwurst from the grill with bread and mustard, the one you only find in Switzerland! It was great, a fantastic conclusion to another beautiful day.
                             
                              Thursday, Oct 3
The morning of our last day in Switzerland we spend time packing the suitcases. Correction, Donna did, I just took it easy. Toni drove to the Airport to meet his friend Dieter Eppler, an other Swiss pilot, to pick up a Book "Blindflug Abu Dhaby" written by Dieter when he was living with his family in Abu Dhabi. It was his gift to me for my 70 birthday. I really like to thank him for this great gift. He probably don't know, but he inspired Andrea to start a blog and she started me off. So thank you Dieter.

                              In the afternoon we traveled to Turgi, my hometown, we where invited for some afternoon beverage with some fruit, cheese and french pastry from the "Himmel" pastry shop, where I did my apprenticeship 54 years ago. We where invited by Brigit, Bene and Else to have our last get together before departure.

Brigit and Bene took care of us with a nice display of food and plenty of Beverage.

As most of the time , I am the only one with some alcohol.

Brigit and Else having a good time

Toni always has the right answers.

Bene a quiet observer

Brigit enjoying some french pastry

Donna passionately trying to understand 

the Swiss German / English mix

Else was my Jass (a card game) Partner when I was young

We went to inspect Brigit's garden

While Bene and Andrea having a quick smoke

Bene's beautiful pepper plant.

Brigite's patio chairs

A close up of Bene's clever paint job. 

You actually try to wipe the chair before sitting down

A great picture of Else. She is on the way home to her own house.

                             After that great gathering Toni and I had to return my rental car at the Airport, while Donna was finishing packing and Andrea was checking us in for our return flight to Chicago.

                           

                               Friday, Oct 4 

Toni and Andrea drove us to the airport at 10:30 am for our one o clock flight back to the States. I was a little bit depressed, I could easy use another couple week's of the fresh air of Switzerland, but I also know, every vacation comes to an end.

Waiting for boarding,

while they fill the plain full of great Swiss gourmet food.

Ready for take off

Arriving at home, my first job was baking us a Zopf

Again we had a fabulous vacation

Thank you Andrea and Toni for making all this possible.