Farewell Switzerland

10th and 11th June Holiday Inn Zurich Airport
For our last night in Zurich we decided to go to a hotel near the airport and the Holday Inn Express was a brilliant choice as it had just recently been opened and it had a free shuttle to Zurich Airport.
Found we could do a little shopping at a mall close by the hotel which was handy.
We flew out of Zurich on the 11th June at 9.30 pm and used a great lounge in Singapore where we had a 4 hour layover so that we could have a shower . It cost $SGD50 and so worth it. They were as good as any Business class lounge I have ever been to.

Swiss Air taking us to Singapore

last drinks at airport

Zurich

8th June 2019 Zurich
Jan and went by train to Zurich Bahnhofstrasse and booked into our hotel for the weekend and unfortunately it was a holiday weekend and all the shops were shut on that Monday. Very disappointing so we decided to take a bus tour around the city then a finicular to Felkenegg where there was a great restaurant with German food.

The fountain of Zurich

Jannie on top of Felkenegg

lovely beer at the Felkenegg restaurant

The finicular up to Felkenegg

Lucerne

6th June 2019 Lucerne
Returned our hire car today in Lucerne. Very sad to say goodbye to our Stans chalet house. Jan gave a huge bag of her clothes to the cleaner as she did not want to carry them home. We then checked into our very tiny and expensive apartment just off the main street of Lucerne.
Lucerne is the most populous town in Central Switzerland, and a nexus of economics, transportation, culture, and media of this region. 
 One of the city's famous landmarks is the Chapel Bridge (German: Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first erected in the 14th century. We did the tourist walk across this bridge and then went and had lunch at a lovely lake side restaurant.
The next day we took a finicular up to Hotel Chateau Gütsch. It is housed in a 19th-century fairy-tale castle, offering beautiful views of the city, Lake Lucerne and the mountains of central Switzerland.This fairytale castle was renovated and furnished in 2014 by interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard to original designs. Today, this unique luxury hotel in Switzerland offers 31 unique rooms full of historic charm and all the amenities of a 4-star city hotel.In the restaurant Chateau Gütsch you can enjoy a creative, Italian-inspired cuisine in stylish interiors or in fine weather on the large panoramic terrace from noon to dinner. The famous Gütsch Bar offers innovative creations, classic drinks and small snacks. 

That night we went to a lovely restaurant(Mike and Sue's choice) and we had a lovely farewell dinner as they were departing early the next day to go on the Bernina Rail then on to Rome.

On the Chapel Bridge

View of Chapel Bridge

The Lido Luzern on a sunny day

Luzern Town Hall

At the Lido

Lucnhing on the river

Chateau Gutsch above Lucerne

Jan with view of Chateau Gutsch in background

Mike and Sue's last night with us. They treated to a lovely meal

Couldn't resist this amazing icecream

Jan and I at Chateau Gutsch

The Famous Dying Lion Monument

Stansstad

3rd June 2019 Stansstad
Stans is the capital of the canton of Nidwalden in Switzerland. The official language of Stans is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.
We left our apartment in Basel and went by taxi to the airport where we collected our rental car. It was a black people mover and we had loads of room for all our luggage. Thanks to our GPS we arrived safely at our accomodation in Stans thanks to our great driver Mike who had never driven on the right side of the road before.
Our apartment was huge and our lovely host Reni could not have been more helpful. After unpacking we went for a drive up the mountains to the little hamlet of Burgenstock. Beauitful mountain views although I was a little afraid of the drive up the mountains as it was quite scary with so many twists and turns. 
The next day we drove to Briens and Interlaken and on the way we stopped at Brienz to change money and discovered the cog wheel train up the mountains and of course we had to ride on it. Fascinating!!!
Drove through Interlaken and stopped for lunch at a very quaint restaurant near a caravan park.

Our Stansstad AirBNB house.

Main street of Stans

Jan and I waiting for the ferry

Stans Harbour

More harbour shots 

Sue on the bar!!!

ferry ride on Lake Lucerne

Stans street

Dinner at Pizza place at the ferry terminal

Ditto

shots of the lovely lakes around Stans

Helsinki

26/5/2019 Helsinki
We arrived in Helsinki and it was our first day of rain on our cruise. There was a market at the town square that sold amazing seafood delicacies.

a very rainy day

waiting for the rain to stop

The famous bridge. Mike took this at the early hours on the mroning

City Hall

Helsinki, Finland’s southern capital, sits on a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland. Its central avenue, Mannerheimintie, is flanked by institutions including the National Museum, tracing Finnish history from the Stone Age to the present. Also on Mannerheimintie are the imposing Parliament House and Kiasma, a contemporary art museum. Ornate red-brick Uspenski Cathedral overlooks a harbor.

Basel_Mulhouse,Switzerland

31st May 2019
Our ship docked in Amsterdam quite early so we disembarked and made our way to Schipol Airport where we caught a KLM flight to Basel_Mulhouse airport. Got a taxi to our AirBNB in Mulhouse which is on the French side of this lovely city. The apartment was really lovely but is had a church next door which had bells that chimed on the hour and was very unsettling at night.
Basel is a city on the Rhine River in northwest Switzerland, close to the country’s borders with France and Germany. Its medieval old town centers around Marktplatz, dominated by the 16th-century, red-sandstone Town Hall. Its 12th-century Gothic cathedral has city views, and contains the tomb of the 16th-century Dutch scholar, Erasmus. The city’s university houses some of Erasmus’ works.
One of the strangest things that the Baselites do on a sunny day is to float down the Rhine River which is quite fast flowing. The city even has a ferry that uses the current to traverse from one side of the river to the other bank. We had a delightful lunch at a restaurant on the river bank and then went to explore the city. We spent 2 days here and then picked up our hire car and travelled to Stansstad.

Mike,Sue and Jan on a Rhine river bridge

in a Basel Street

sunbaking on the Rhine

in front of the Basel Stadhaus

Toast to a lovely meal in our apartment

the ferry carrying people across the Rhine

MIke the ever patient man 

View across the river

the church that rangs its bells all night!!!!

Lunching in Basel

picture of the veiew acress the river