West Sussex - early autumn

We're quietly filling in time until the wedding day and visiting some local places. The Weald and Downland open-air Museum is a quiet and pleasant place populated by retired volunteers and people from our demographic. Apparently, someone in the sixties decided it would be good to collect old buildings that were standing in the way of progress (roads, railways and those ghastly sixties abominations that Prince Charles rails about) and erect them at the museum site.
They have a fully operational flour mill, a forge, a school, a corrugated iron church and other impressive examples.

Here are the school and the flour mill. The school looks just like my kindergarten class and we did have slates.

The following day we headed for Portsmouth in search of shops but also HMS Victory and the naval museums. We immediately noticed the demographic - couples like us - which perhaps explains this choice of refreshments at one of the cafes.

Here's the polo

It's the last say of the polo season and we spent a very pleasant afternoon at the polo at Ambersham watching the players as they thundered up and down the pitch. I can see how it could become quite addictive ( especially as this sport has its own champagne sponsor -Roederer). I hope you like the snap I took...

At last I have managed to get the photos happening again! I shall go back and put some into my earlier posts if I have time.

Here's another of Nikki and Warwick in spectator mode. Spectators watch from the tailgates of their Range Rovers or from elegant tables near the clubhouse. Dogs seem to be mandatory.

Today we will collect our hire car and explore a bit. Tomorrow we go to London for the 'dress'.

Up to Jungfraujoch

We joined our bus at 8:30 am at the bus station that was conveniently across the road from the hotel. The tour comprised about 30 people, including a few Aussies, ranging from honeymooners to oldies like us - mostly the latter. We were led by an enthusiastic young, gay Asian guy called Kid who had a sort of Mohawk hairdo, and fortunately, had a very distinctive voice as he barked at us to get us where we needed to go.
We drove out through Lucerne to Interlaken past the most glorious green countryside and the bluest of lakes uphill, to the beginning of the cogwheel railway that would take us to the top. In fact there were three trains in all. They seem to run continuously with tourists from all over the world - Asians most noticeable. It took about an hour and a half to get to the top. Along the way there are vertical walls of mountains to see and tunnels that were kilometres long. (And we talk of infrastructure! The Swiss really know theirs!) At the top we took a lift up goodness knows how high to emerge on a platform just below the summit of Jungfrau. It was all covered with snow and visibility was not great but you could not fail to be impressed. We took lots of photos, including the selfie I put on facebook. according to Kid, Jungfrau means 'wirgin' and joch means 'saddle'. I think he knew plenty of jokes about that.

Then it was into the ice palace, which is a series of tunnels with ice sculptures under the glacier. Very slippery and very, very cold! It was then time for lunch - Kid suggested we take the canteen, no doubt because it would be quick and less trouble for him to round people up from the four restaurants. In the canteen, they basically sling hash and it's chips with everything, and did I mention expensive? The most forgettable meal in the most unforgettable place.
The downhill trip was a good deal quicker and we learnt that the train actually generates electricity. Clever Swiss! We took a different way down and travelled through the village of Grindelwald, where all the houses look like cuckoo clocks and the cows actually wear bells and live in wooden barns. I swear, I saw Heidi and her grandfather walking hand in hand up one of the very high cow pastures in the distance! From there it was back to Interlaken and three hours bus ride back through Lucerne.
The Swiss love their cows and their cheese. Fondue is a big deal but we didn't partake - there wasn't time and it looks bland. You can buy it premade in plastic bags. The herds of cows we saw numbered in the tens and graze on the sides of mountains at vertiginous heights. In the food hall of Globus (a big department store) we were amazed at the variety of Swiss cheeses on offer. The bakery was to die for with strudel by the slice.

Exploring Switzerland

Well, the small plane we were threatened with turned out to be an A340, which is only small if you compare it to an A380 so there was no problem with storage for us. Our business class seats were an older configuration but we could still lie completely flat, and that was all that really mattered. But food and drink options were surprisingly good. We got to try several Swiss wines and their famous Zurcher Geschnetzeltes. I didn't know Switzerland grew wine - they do but there isn't enough to export and it is easy to see why.

Despite quite a lot of sleep, we were still wrecked on arrival and had about 5 hour to kill before getting access to our hotel room. We walked down Bahnhofsstrasse, which is the main shopping drag for all your international brands, and therefore of little interest to us and decided to take a ferry trip on the lake for a cole of hours. Unfortunately, it was very overcast and very grey.

In summer the lake must be gorgeous, backed by huge mountains and dotted with little boats of all kinds. Magnificent homes and apartment buildings line the shore and every one has a boat house with sail, row or motor boats. Some have little summer pavilions in the gardens or above the boat storage. Apparently, Tina Turner is a resident and there must be lots of other rich and famous people.

Our hotel, right across from the train station has turned out well - spotless and newly renovated. I quite like the separate doonas on the bed and breakfast was good. I'm not sure what you are supposed to do with the lettuce that is served with the muesli and fruit though.

It was raining today and we are still a bit jet lagged so we decided to put in the day by taking the train to Geneva, hoping to see a bit of the countryside from the comfort of the train. We rocked up to buy our tickets and they were going to cost a small fortune (did I mention Switzerland is very expensive?). The young man at the ticket counter advised us to buy the el-cheapo tickets available online and very kindly stepped out of his kiosk to help us with the transaction - saving about $200 francs in the process.

Zurich is the German end of Switzerland and Geneva is very French. We had a very pleasant lunch with a Swiss sav blanc. It was pissing with rain so I managed a rather grey shot of the famous water spout but the sun came out on the way back. We travelled through lovely rural areas past a couple of major lakes with mountains in the background.

Tomorrow we've arranged a bus and train trip up into the mountains.

On our way

Well,we're in Hong Kong Airport wait into to join our flight to Zurich. We have some cheap business class tickets on Swiss and I'm not sure what to expect. We were just approached by a young airline person who tried to get us to check our hand luggage in because it's a very small plane. 'How small I asked?' 'Very small,' was all he would say. Are we off to Europe in a Cessna?

We've just had a very pleasant flight on a Cathay A330. At Sydney I discovered I have a very unusual power - to bring the $15 billion Customs passport control system to its knees. I scanned my passport then I thought it wanted me to do something with my boarding pass with the result that it ended up caught under the glass of the scanner thingy. More senior Customs officers had to be brought. A technician was required. No one could pass until the situation was resolved. Luckily a tech was nearby and it was all resolved quickly. But Customs need to know that a posse of short-sighted, old ladies with boarding passes and evil intent could gum up that system for hours.

All aboard for the Autumn 2015 nuptial tour...

Well, we're off to Europe again. The main purpose is to attend our daughter's wedding on 25 September but after that we will spend some time in London, catch a show and hang out with some Australian friends and rellies before taking the Eurostar to Avignon and Nice.

It all starts on Tuesday, 15 September 2015. I'll try to record anything interesting that happens along the way.