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No sooner were we back and unpacked than we were off again.

With a 9.25am flight on Friday morning, we did exactly the same as we’d done four Thursdays ago and drove to LHR in the evening and stayed overnight at the Sofitel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the area outside T5 so empty - just shows what a difference a £5 charge for any stopping here has made.

It was clear our flight wasn’t going to leave on time. We sat and watched the minutes pass by and when it got to 9am and nobody had boarded at all, not even those with small children, we knew it would be delayed.

I thought this was an interesting interpretation of the signage. I guess it’s ok to stand to one side and put a bag on a reserved seat? She didn’t stay long though.

So someone came and put two bags on it instead.

Anyway, the reason for the delay was soon apparent when we finally started boarding. Not only was the incoming flight late but the forward air bridge wasn’t working. That meant we had the unusual situation of walking across the tarmac to the back door this time.

An interesting view of the terminal too.

So it was one hour late that we arrived in Zürich, where similar scenes to airports worldwide were to be seen. Lots and lots of baggage piled everywhere - this being just a part of it, parked in between two carousels.

Just as we were both getting anxious about the non-appearance of our suitcase, there was a sighting of the familiar ribboned handle and here it came. Phew!

On collecting our rental car, we noted the many highlighted points on the paperwork showing reported “dings” in the bodywork. Yet when we came to identify (and record them for ourselves, as we usually do) we couldn’t find a single one. Huh? In Spain, there were more obvious dings than we could count and in the US we were told that “anything smaller than your arm” isn’t worth recording. So, what’s going on here then!? We said nothing but accepted the situation and got on with our day!

But what a day it was! Friday afternoon on one of the busiest trans-Alpine routes in pouring rain was far from ideal, but as we passed a sign warning of 6km traffic jams for the Gotthard tunnel we counted our blessings, I can tell you.

The traffic eased a little from time to time but the weather…well, ugh!

We made it to Lachen by mid afternoon, checked into our hotel and looked forward to a fun weekend.

The car said goodbye and offered a warning or two.

And before we left it, we took another look around to see if there really were dings here and there that we hadn’t spotted. We still couldn’t see any!

We were ready for a little refreshment too, so pottered over to the Cafe-Conditorei across the car park where I suspect someone thought Jan and Dave were with us and it was Trivia Time?

But anyway, here we are in a beautiful lakeside setting. Maybe we’ll be able to see it tomorrow?