The parts we saw of Zurich were very Swiss \u2013 lots of Swiss flags everywhere, typical Swiss architecture \u2013 very interesting. Walking along the river, looking at all the old buildings was great, and when the church bells started ringing from all the surrounding churches, it was a cacophony of sound! We finished our walking tours, and still had some time, so found the Lindt shop \u2013 sadly the Lindt Factory was too far for a visit. However the Lindt shop was a real treat \u2013 all sorts of Lindt choccies that we don\u2019t get in SA. We only bought a choccie to share and a BIG bag to little Lindt chocs. Very disciplined we were!<\/p>\n\n\n\n At lunchtime we caught our double decker high speed train to Paris. My word, but these trains moved \u2013 they tell you your speed and the fastest we saw was 312km per hour, but it can go as high as 360 km per hour. It was a pretty route via Basel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On arrival in Paris we needed to find the Metro and head for Monte Matre where we are staying.\u00a0 There were stairs everywhere and very few escalators, so we carried our cases uphill and down dale.\u00a0 We were pooped!\u00a0 Anyhow, we got to our apartment and followed the instructions we had been sent to get the key out of the key safe.\u00a0 Only problem was that the key safe is in the back of a postbox so is very dark!\u00a0 We tried and tried, but could not get this safe to open.\u00a0 William tried to whats app the owner, but she did not respond.\u00a0 Eventually we realised that she had given us 1 digit wrong in the code and we got it open.\u00a0 We followed the rest of the instructions, which ended with \u201cyou need to climb the steps to the apartment on the top floor\u201d.\u00a0 Well, there are 129 worn, narrow, spiral wooden steps to our apartment.\u00a0 Nowhere was this declared.\u00a0 We battled to get our suitcase up the stairs, let alone 129 of them.\u00a0 William carried both part of the way, as I was battling with the weight and being a little height challenged, my huge suitcase was a little too much.\u00a0 After much heaving and huffing and puffing, we got to our tiny apartment, and both collapsed on our bed to catch our breath.\u00a0 (We have subsequently checked our booking papers and nowhere was this disclosed!)\u00a0 The apartment does have a beautiful view of Sacre Coeur \u2013 a beautiful church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once we had settled in and revived a little we climbed all the way down the steps and walked around Monte Matre. We did not have the energy to head up the steps to Sacre Couer, as there were many steps, so we walked on the flat, and found the Moulin Rouge, and bought supper just across the road while we waited for it to get a little darker, to see Moulin Rouge by night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We then wandered home \u2013 and climbed our steps and fell into bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We left a chilly Chur and caught a train to Zurich \u2013 what a scenic trip it was. We passed some huge lakes and then came in past the Zurich Lake \u2013 beautiful! Finding the place to leave our luggage in Zurich Station which is apparently the biggest and busiest station in Europe proved to<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/taylorcpt.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/20240414_105530.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1\")
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