THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, September 14 and 15
Thursday: This morning I did not know what the day would hold. I knew my goal was Zurich by Friday night, but the question was how...Looking at
alternatives the conclusion was two long, but interesting train
rides--one today and one tomorrow.
So, I am now on the last leg of a Berlin to Frankfurt day, with the
Frankfurt to Zurich segment for tomorrow.
When you embark on a train trip you never know what it will bring--and
especially who it will bring. This time a young man sat down in the
cabin I had claimed, and for the next three hours we shared
information and ideas in a delightful way. He was just returning from
a trip to Berlin to make final arrangements for a flat for himself his
"woman" (not a negative word as he used it--a wedding is in the
offing), and their one year old. He works for Rolls-Royce designing
airplane engines and his woman is finishing her med school work. I
learned his take on history, geography, faith, and politics as we sped
through former East Germany and passed the places Martin Luther had
frequented--including Wittenburg (95 theses) and Eisenach (monastery
where he translated the Bible into German. A fascinating journey.
Frankfurt was even more crowded than Berlin, and I was lucky to find any room at all--but I did. When I stepped off the train I went to the tourist office at the station (most large cities have such places) and asked for a room. The response was that there were conventions in Frankfurt all that week (there seem to be conventions all every week...) but that they could book me into a hotel some distance from the train station for only 184 euro (about $250). I said thank you and headed out of the station to look on my own. In the end I found an apartment for rent by the day, and while I did not save a great deal I did save some and the location was excellent...

Friday: Today I finished my trip to Zurich. It took several hours on the train, but I arrived in plenty of time to find a room in Kloten, the town near the airport in which I had stayed at the beginning of my trip. I picked up the things I had left at the first hotel I stopped at, and all was in order. I decided to leave my bike in Zurich so that I would have to return and do a little more cycling before completely settling in to Albania, and I was delighted to find that the hotel I was staying at would be glad to store it for me.
The only unusual event of the day was when the conductor on the train between Basel and Zurich informed me that I had to purchase another ticket for that journey, even though in Berlin I had purchased a Berlin to Zurich ticket. On the way out of Switzerland the Austrians questioned the ticket we had purchased in Switzerland--almost denying us transport with our bikes. In the process the Austrian conductor made some derogatory comments about the Swiss railways for selling us a ticket that no one else would sell. Now coming in to Switzerland the Swiss conductor was making derogatory remarks about the German railways for selling me the ticket he did... The comments reminded me of the negative comments the Swiss hotelier had made about the Italians at the beginning of my last trip to Europe...Seems like European unity is not all that it is made out to be...