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Switzerland
2022

Join us on our journey to Switzerland, we depart the UK on 10th September and head over to Zurich which will be our main base.  We will also explore the top of Europe at the place called The Jungfraujoch in the Alps...
Day 1
Friday 9th September 2022. 
Hello! Wow it's good to see you back here again,  it's a weird start to our holiday as yesterday The Queen sadly passed away and with that in mind we decide as we are going past London today we would pop over to Buckingham Palace to pay our respects to  the Queen for her long and loyal service.
It's pretty slow going as there is so many roadworks along the way but as always there's a Starbucks waiting to welcome us, we stop at Newmarket. 
So far so good....until Leon forgets to turn off the M11 towards London and we are now heading in the wrong direction! argh... The Sat Nav re-routes us but in my wisdom I then direct Leon down the wrong road and we are now heading back towards Newmarket and all the roadworks! argh, argh, arghhhh.
After wasting probably 30 mins we are on track again and heading towards London, we park up at Westfield and tube over to the Palace, upon arriving at the Palace I see these 2 beautiful faces gleeming at me through the crowds.... it's only Jas and Jenny!! Ha, ok I had clocked on Jenny's facebook she was also heading there but what are the chances of being there at the same time!
After leaving Jas and Jenny to the rest of thier evening suddenly the skys open and it buckets down with rain! We run for cover up some steps near Trafalgar Square turns out we have run into some church with was having some kind musical gig which was really good so we stayed and watched for a while, they also had an amazing basement with a massive cafe and very nice toilets.
After stopping at Ping Pong dim sum for dinner we head back to the tube (now in rush hour) and the car.
We arrive at the Holiday Inn near Gatwick and settle in for the night.
Day 2
And what a day this starts off with, Dexter decided to keep us up most of the night and it seemed just as he has gone off to sleep my alarm goes off, argh its's 3.30am and we are getting up to get ready.  Our flight is slightly delayed but not too badly we are meant to fly at 7.05 and finally flew out around 7.45am.  We are knackered! At Zurich airport its just a massive hassle to get the car we have hired and everything just seems like hard work, we get to the hotel and can't check in because its 11.30 and we have to wait until 3pm.
We take a walk around the area where are hotel is but in all honesty it seems like a mass of concrete.  We do find a river and stroll along the riverside which was nice, on the way back to the hotel we came across a Lidl shop so stocked up with snacks and drinks as we dont intend to go out again today.  Until tomorrow, it will be such a better day - we are off to the top of Europe.
Day 3
Sunday 11th September.
We are up early, down for breakfast and ready to take on the Alps! We are going to a place called Grindelwald where we will take a gondola (cable car to you and me) up to meet a train to take us to Jungfraujoch - The top of Europe. It's a 2 hour drive from Zurich to Grindelwald but its nice to see the countryside of switzerland well when we aren't going through a tunnel, lots of the roads are tunnels - very long tunnels!
Dexter is quite excited about the gondolas, he thinks we are flying through the air but the train ride was a bit disappointing because again we are in a tunnel...
Now we are at the top of Europe which is 3454 metres above sea level, I'm not sure but I think thats pretty high?! 
The tour takes us to a giant snowglobe, an ice palace with ice walls and floor and ice sculptures, we get the chance to go outside into the snow and I can tell you it's cold, very cold! Leon and Dexter walk up a hill but turn back quickly as it's very windy, I also take a quick walk up the hill (and turn back even quicker). There's a Lindt chocolate shop up there which is the highest in the world.
We head back down the mountain via the train and gondola to the car to make our way back to the hotel  but Dexter has accidently sat on his drink and his pushchair, jeans and pants are all soaked so Dexter rides free willy all the way back! - it's been a long day.
Once back at the hotel we decide to have a bite to eat before settling in for the evening however the hotel restaurant isn't open so we take a walk out and soon find out that restaurants don't open on a Sunday here :(  

OHHHHHH it's competition day!!! Here's the question -
What was the temperate differance between the bottom and the top of the mountain, the person who guess the closest degree wins a treat from the Lindt shop (YAY) 
p.s Leon made this question up
Day 4
Monday 12th September
Today starts well after breakfast we head down to the hotel pool for a early morning swim however on arrival we see that the pool doesn't actually open until 1pm - But we are there and in our swimmers so we decide that we would swim anyway! All was going well until a lady came in to set up her baby swimming class :) but that was fine as we managed to get a good 40 minutes in the pool by ourselves.
We get ready to go  out for the day, we are taking a tram into Zurich city center and to be fair it's all pretty confusing at first but we manage to buy tickets and work out which tram to get on. Leon has decided which stop he is getting off at but of course it's the wrong stop! He seemed confident he's correct but thankfully he does realise he isn't right before getting off....
Once in the city we walk around and find a flying tiger shop (we have these in Norwich) and buy some junk, who doesn't love holiday junk?
The weather here is lovely it's 21oc and just a few clouds in the sky, as we walk around there are many nice buildings including the opera house, Swiss banks and a massive lake called Lake Zurich, I said to Leon I would like to take Dexter on a boat and we find a tour boat, it's a lovely cruise which takes about an hour and 30 minutes.  After the cruise we go in search of Sturbucks as I would like to get a switzerland cup to add to my collection.
We catch the tram back to the hotel and again we navigate these with ease it's like we are locals now.
We have sushi for dinner and I do have to say that Switzerland is extremely expensive :( 
Dexter's holiday saying is 'Lets go dirty o' rather than 'Lets go daddy o' - this kid cracks me up.
Sooooo the bit you have all been waiting for..... the winner of yesterdays competition.
The answer is 23oc the temperture at the bottom of the mountain was 22oc and at the top was -1oc
The winner is Mum! 
Well done and many congratulations!!
Day 5
It's our last full day in Switzerland and in reflection it has been a good holiday and a little stressful at times, stressful because of the driving on the wrong side of the road and also travelling with a 3 year old can take it's toll :)
Today we are going to a waterfall called Rhine Falls so we have breakfast and set off there are of course plenty of tunnels to drive through along the way.  As we are driving along we come to a toll booth kinda thing but there's nothing stopping us from just driving through, we decide it's better to pull over and just check that we haven't missed paying for it, Leon walks over to the people in the booth while me and Dexter wait in the car, I look around and realise something..... Leon comes back to the car and says we don't need to pay a toll and I say back to him "We're in Germany aren't we?" he answers "YES!" he gets back in the car and we drive off in Germany.  It's a bit of a squeeky bum moment as we don't have our passports with us and we aren't sure if we should have crossed the boarder!? After about another 15 minutes of driving we go through another toll looking booth and safely arrive back in switzerland!!
We get to Rhine Fall and of course we haven't gone to the correct part of the waterfall to park, we are at the top of the waterfall although I do quickly jump out to take some pictures.  We navigate back through the roadworks and one way systems to arrive at the proper carpark.
The waterfall is magnificent, the sight, the sound and the sheer power of the water, I actually think this is one of the best places I have ever been to.  There are some boat trips you can take around the river which take you right up to the waterfall and Dexter is keen to go, we jump on a 15 minute tour which was all sorts of amazing and its easy to say Dexter really enjoyed it.
We stopped at the waterfall and had our picnic lunch made up from stolen breakfast rolls, ham, cheese and cucumber! 
We were at a bit of a loss with what to do with our last afternoon, I quite fancied heading back to Germany and the Black Forrest but Leon's not so keen so we agree to go to the Lindt chocolate factory tour back in Zurich.
It's a lovely building filled with information on how Lindt chocolate first started etc, it's does say on the website you can eat as much chocolate as you like, so we do! They have fresh warm chocolate like big chocolate fountains where you can fill spoons up, yum!
They also have huge containers filled with the round wrapped chocolates in all different favours, we literally filled my big handbag up with these, YUM YUM YUM.
Feeling very fat we drive home and later for our evening meal we went for a McDonalds its been a very fatty day :( Just for reference a McDonald's meal is around £16! 
We are flying home tomorrow at 9.40am and arrive back in the UK at 10.30am.
I might also have a little treat for Casey who did also guess the competiton question right and I went to another Lindt place today :)  This does mean no swapping of kids etc...
I'm having to put the photos on facebook now because my internet hosts aren't happy with how much space I'm taking up - I will make a private folder and add you in xx
Day 6
Wednesday 14th September
It's home time :( We are up early as our flight is at 9.40am and we want to have breakfast and get showered, we packed most of our stuff up last night so we are ahead of the game!
It's all going well... We drive over to the airport and very luckily find the correct carpark and return our car, we head off to the bag drop and even though our big suitcase is now over weight the check in lady doesn't charge us... it's all going well!
I even have time to grab a starbucks.
Then the confusion sets in, we just can't seem to work out where we are going in the airport.... it's not going so well... but that's ok because Leon thinks he's worked out where we are going and takes us to a platform.
We board the next train and I start to look at where we are going, I'm seeing plenty of names of places and then spot this train goes through Zurich City....ARGH! this REALLY isn't going well....
I say to Leon this isn't a tube around the airport this is a proper train!! A guy sitting near us confirms we are heading away from the aiport.  We jump off at the next stop and wait for another train going back to the airport.
Once there we are now pushed for time to catch our fight, we run through the airport me with Dexter in his pushchair and Leon with all our hand luggage.
Thankfully we do find our way to the gates and actually board our plane with a couple of minutes to spare, phew!
The flight is good as is the drive home and we arrive home around 1pm - Another successful holiday had.
Here are some holiday bloopers you didn't hear about and Leon insists are added -
On returning from our trip to Rhine Falls yesterday I managed to navigate us wrong twice in row, really annoying Leon.
I actually did this on our first day too when we were trying to find the hotel.
When we went to the Top of Europe I had a complete meltdown in a small ice tunnel as people weren't moving and ran back out the wrong way pushing all the people out of my way.
On the day we went on the boat trip around Zurich city I spotted some nice cutlery on the boat and thought to myself as I no longer have a full set of knifes and forks at home I would like these ones - we now have a full set of knifes and forks!
Mean while in the hotel room Dexter destroys it daily with collecting every piece of rubbish and emtpying toys everywhere, then he decided the bathroom was his firestation and took everything and I do mean everything in there! He now calls me Sam and Leon Sir as he is the commissioner.
Sad story, Dexter bought a snow globe from Rhine Falls which we managed the get home in one piece within 10 minutes of being home he accidentally dropped it and it smashed on the kitchen floor (lots of crying and big tears).

Can't wait for the next holiday (",)