ZURICH

Our Airbnb in Weinegg is close to the botanical gardens and Zurichhorn where families go to picnic and test their financial future with CF9(A$13) packets of fries.  Its only a short walk to Seefeldstrasse where trams run like clockwork every 6 minutes.

"How about a snifter before we leave, the washing will take a few minutes yet.". It's making time for the minor menial tasks that make travelling a pleasure.  "Can you change the IPod to Beck?  The Bangles have finished."

OK, before we go any further, let's address the elephant in the room.  Switzerland is bloody expensive!  Anyone who says Australia is expensive hasn't been to Zurich or Singapore.  Fine if you are a diplomat or an international businessman with a charge account.  For mere mortals like us, the best thing is to just accept that a serving of sausage (1, singular) and chips will equal that of an Australian filet mignon.  As we keep telling each other, it's only money.

We're lightly lunching at Barchetta Bar Lounge Piazza adjacent to the Zurichsee inlet, where the well-heeled have their elevenses, or in our case their twelveses.  Our waitress Dora is treating us just the same as the well upholstered, bejewelled matron and banker's wife reclining at the adjacent table.  She lightly applies her napkin to her lips after each sip of her tissane - reminiscent of Hercule Poirot.  I wonder if she is Belgian?

Safe "cool" jazz accompanied my ablutions in the well appointed toiletten but not even the superior quality of the hand lotion could override the stench of moneyed urine.  I returned to our table just as our Americanos and sambuccas arrived.   Dora deposited a small ceramic salver on our table containing the required uneven number of coffee beans.  Now that's class!

A uniformed functionary was writing out a strict missive for the owner of a sleek parked Audi A5 who had exceeded his stay.  In Zurich you can have any colour car you like as long as it is black.  Almost all vehicles are European: Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Fiat, Lamborgini, Mercedes, Porsche, VW, Volvo.  If the Swiss manufactured motor vehicles instead of millionaires, they could make a motza.  Oh wait, they do....  SUV's are rare with Range Rovers holding up that end of the market.

A pair of white swans were preening themselves in the shade of the overarching Munsterbrucke as we crossed the river. A string quartet (3 violins and a cello) were riffing a superior "Stairway to Heaven" to our satisfaction.  Second violin sashayed her fringed shawl a la Daltrey.