Avis' Genealogy reseach tour through
Alsace-Lorraine - 4 Rixheim to Weggis

Day Seven - Rixheim to Weggis

This was written looking over the VierWaldStatterSee from the Hotel Seehof (or duLac) at Weggis on a beautiful evening. What are we doing here? The purpose of the trip had been fulfilled. We now had two spare days, so we drove on the old road (D201 but D66 on the map), to Basel, had a bit of difficulty parking but then, a short walk to the Kunstmuseum. There were no Cubists!!! after I had promised them to Avis but, serendipity, there was a Paul Klee show which Avis said far eclipsed the one at the Hayward Gallery in London. It was certainly good. I showed Avis the view from the Minster across her beloved Rhine & we had a heavy lunch in a Country-Life vegetarian restaurant just off the Marktplatz for Sfr50.60. I found I had some difficulty with foot navigation in the Basel I thought I knew, but I have not been here for 28 years. We picked up the car & took the motorway to Luzern, filling up halfway & more trouble with my credit card but they used an old-fashioned machine in the end. It was very easy to get through Luzern & round via Küssnacht to Weggis, where we settled in (hotel was Sfr185, ouch! but included extra for the lake view) & then, caught the boat back to Luzern, Avis having been promised a boat trip. We did the sights, over the Kapellbrücke, apricot cake (Sfr 7 for two) under the arches near my Hotel Schiff, through the Old Town, down to the wall, over the Spreuerbrücke (very fast stream running) & back by the Jesuit Church. Back over the Kapellbrücke for the view up the lake from the Seebrücke & boat back. We had a good view of Triebschen both ways. It was now 7, so we had dinner, large salads, in the café opposite the boat station for Sfr65.60. Great Abendrot across the lake. Avis thought it paradisical.

Luzern - Spreuerbrücke	Luzern - Minster
Weggis	Pilatus Abendrot

Day Eight - Weggis to London

We started out at about nine along the lake to the East at a crawl, as it was another lovely day, stopping several times & ending up at the Brüsti cable car station. However, it was not running. I took Avis up the Schäschental (the Klausen Pass was blocked higher) & up the 'secret' Brunnital, which she found suitably adorable. We had coffee at Spiringen on the way back & a chat to a Swiss guy having a very early lunch, who said he would 'hit' our web site. The Oberalp Pass was open (rather to my surprise), so we went on up the Reuss Valley all the way to Andermatt, which was largely closed but a nice place & had dinner-at-lunch in the Gasthof zum Sternen. I had a thonsalat & Avis, a 'Fitness-teller' or pork steak, Sfr50.50 with beer & Henniez. The waitresses seemed to be sisters of varying diameters, with the largest actually being the most attractive. 58 Japanese tourists from two coaches invaded the place but they were expected. The Oberalp was very snowy at the top but not, fortunately, the road. Avis has this attraction for the Rhine, presumably because a lot must have flowed through her genes & we parked when the snow stopped blocking it for me to tell her what the stream was & be photoed next to the first un-snow-filled gorge.

The Source of the Rhine on that day	Tschamut - the first Rhine village
Churfirsten above the Walensee	Walensee looking back to Walenstadt

We followed it down the very long way to Chur, picking up the motorway just before the city & getting off it at Walenstadt for vast ice creams by the lake (Sfr 18). (Link to Walenstadt on my Cross-Swiss Walk). Then, we trickled past it on the old road, putting in more fuel after Netsthal but neither of my cards worked, coming up 'Fremde Karte', so I had to pay cash. Then, along the not-very-interesting Lake Zürich, getting back on the motorway at Horgen (which is much nicer than I thought it would be). In Zürich itself, we hit a half-hour traffic jam, as the motorway system does not work yet but they are cutting one through the hill to complete half a ring road, which will solve the problem. Fortunately, we had plenty of contingency time & dumped the car & checked in at about 1945, although the labelling at the airport does not help one find the right terminal. We had a coffee & joined the hanging about outside the lounge at the time requested (2030) because the 'plane was about half an hour late. The pilot told us that Luton Airport had been closed for 40 minutes because on an unexplained 'technical' problem, which bodes ill. At Luton, I picked up the truck quite quickly & we were home before midnight, just. There are prices on everything this trip, as I kept the receipts. We were not on a budget. There were ¤7.50 of parking fees & ¤28 + Sfr 51 for petrol as well & £60 for parking at Luton.

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