We would have to lug the luggage to Zurich Alstetten and get a one way ticket to Zurich Airport (Flughafen) catch the noon flight to London. Would we ever return to see the Swiss Alps in its full splendour in summer?
Depending on the time we get to the station, we could take the IR31 or have a change at the main station. It is estimated to be 30 minutes of commute.
Here's the 'escape' plan:
At Heathrow, we pick up the car (brokered by Booking, Green Motion). Rental comes with 500 miles cap (so we have to be mindful of distance covered). Accoms is 3 nights in Stevenage Hotel.
The day before, the SwissAir app has prompted us to do a virtual check in ,which I did in Grindelwald!
15 December. We checked out early for the airport at 8am, aiming to reach Zurich airport at 9.30am. We took Bus 31 again, from Leizibach to the main HB, where we continued our journey out of Zurich on S16. It was a fast train to the airport. We were on schedule.
At Checkin 3 ( Swiss Air economy counter ) the Swissair folks checked us in. We were issued boarding passes and luggage tags. Then it was time for a slow breakfast at Mac in Foodland. We got into Check in 2 area, passed countless gatekeepers and boarding pass checks.
By the time we reached the departure gate at D57, we were glad to have set aside 3 hours for the flight out. The walk up and down, with its various checks took at least 1 hour.
LX332 departed on time, London bound. It was a bumpy ride but seats were more spacious so it was good to me.
We touched down on time. Immigration was smooth, using biometric entry. We took the lift that mentioned 'Hotel Hoppa' and got out on Level 1 where the bus stops are. At stop 9/10, we took the bus "H2B" . It deposited us at Green Motion, where it shared its shop space with Holiday Inn.
We were upset our insurance was not covered by GM. RentalCovers.com apparently does not work with GM so any compensation would be a reimbursement type of thing. Pat took up GM's offer of full insurance (318 GBP more), ended up with a bigger car , unlimited mileage with 0$ excess. It would be a more comfortable ride as H will be with us for 6 straight days. It works out to about 140 GBP per day for the rental car package.
We took off after some setup difficulties. M4 was shut so Google redirected us to the Orbital Road. It prolonged our commute from 50 min to 1.5 hr. It was a start stop situation on some sections of the road, from M25 to A1.
4.30pm. We reached Hotel Cromwell but did not have a place to park. Pat could not engage the car to reverse gear and I sought help from the hotel manager, who also could not figure out if the car is broken.
I called for tow service. Thankfully Pat had googled and figured out how to put the car in reverse gear. I called again to cancel the tow. Thankfully too, a parking space became available so we sorted out check in admin work with the car safely in the car park.
We went through a rabbit warren to the room, going up and down the stairs. It was most frustrating.
We quickly sorted out gifts for H and set off to her place.
Her flat at Prestatyn Close was tiny, car park poorly lit but serviceable. Her flat was in need of some serious cleaning which I intended to do before our family trip to Norfolk.
We went to Royal Oak Pub for Filipina food. Food was excellent (Adobo rice and misc, 29 GBP) but it was too noisy for me to think properly. I was concerned we would be late sending H to work, although she resisted a bit leaving earlier than expected.
For the next one week, the poor girl would have to endure our nagging about lots of nitty gritties.
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