On Tuesday, 6 February, we left Lucerne and went back to Zurich, where the trip had started. We stayed at the Ibis Zurich City West again, the hotel we had come to on our first day.
It was our last day travelling together. My wife would fly home the next morning, and I would stay on for two more days.
A last afternoon together
The afternoon was bright and sunny. We went to the Grossmünster, the church with two towers in the old town.
Near the lake, in the big open square in front of the opera house, people were out in the sunshine.
Later, we came to the Swiss National Museum, a building like a castle, with towers and turrets around a courtyard near the main station.
Rhine Falls
On the morning of Wednesday, 7 February, my wife made her own way to the airport and flew home. I was on my own again.
I had booked a half-day tour from Zurich to the Rhine Falls through Klook. By about ten o’clock, I was there.
Above the falls stood an old castle, with a stone gate tower carrying a painted coat of arms.
From the paths among the trees, I could see a railway bridge crossing the river just above the falls, with the water already white and fast underneath it.
From above, the river spread out into a wide, calm pool below the falls, with the water still churning where it landed.
In the middle of the falls stood a tall rock with a flag on top. The river poured around it on both sides.
Across the pool, boats waited at the landing stages on the other side.
Then I went down the steps to the viewing platforms close to the water. Down there, the falls were loud, and the spray hung in the air like mist. One small platform stuck out right over the water, with a red and white flag on it.
By half past eleven, we were on the road again. From the window, I saw a border post with a German flag beside it, and later a small old town along a misty river.
A long ride to Grindelwald
When the tour was over, I still had the afternoon, so I took the train towards the mountains, to Grindelwald. It was a long way to go for a short visit.
By two o’clock, the train was running beside a lake, with the mountains on the far side hidden in low cloud.
Later, the train climbed up a valley, past wooden chalets on snowy meadows.
Grindelwald
By about five past three, I was at Grindelwald station. From the station, the mountains rose straight up behind the village, with their tops in the cloud.
The main street was lined with wooden chalets, shops and hotels, with snow piled along the edges of the road.
I walked along the street for a while. Some of the buildings were painted in bright colours.
Away from the shops, the houses were older, dark wooden chalets with green shutters and snow on their roofs, under tall trees.
I followed a road out along the edge of the village, between banks of snow, with the valley opening out ahead.
I did not stay long, and soon I was on my way back.
The last day
Thursday, 8 February, was my last day in Switzerland. My flight was late in the evening, so in the morning I went out to Zurich Airport first, checked in my luggage, and then came back into the city without it.
There was a little fresh snow on the ground. Up on the hill above the old town, the university buildings had snow on their roofs.
A museum of ancient sculpture
Nearby, I visited a museum full of copies of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. The statues stood around the rooms in rows, under big windows, with carved friezes on the walls above them.
I also went to the university’s Zoological Museum, in a grand old building nearby.
Later, from the hill, I looked down over the roofs of the old town, with a church spire rising above them.
Back to the airport
By twenty past four, I was back at the airport, up on the viewing terrace, watching the planes on the stands.
The light was going, and the big windows on the terrace had turned dark, like mirrors.
I had arrived at this airport less than two weeks earlier, on my way to meet my wife. Now I was leaving from it on my own.