Baden Baden to Zurich

Baden Baden - Zurich Day 5
Another early start to the day. A nice cool night with some rain. Slept with the door to the balcony open all night and still slept with no covers. Andy did some early morning blogging while sat around. Decided to go for a ride. Sleepy head Bob, who had his own room wouldn't get up so it was Andy and myself who headed off to towns unknown. Rode out the way we drove in. The first 1.8km was interesting. Started at 6%, didn't take long to get to 11% and peaked at 14%. the majority was around the 11%. Got to the bottom and rode through Selbach, another nice town and then onto Gernsbach. A nice 10km ride there and 10km back. The ride back down the hill was sensational. Top speed of 79.79km/hr on a wet and winding road. A nice shower was followed by a beautiful breakfast. The cereal was great. It tasted just like Specula's the Dutch spiced biscuits. So yuuuummmmmmm. Muesli , fruit and yogurt was nice as was the rolls with scrambled eggs, Swiss and Edam cheese with ham and 2 different types of sausage. Some nice bread and cake with coffee ended a very large breakfast. 9.30am and we are on our way zurIch with Andy in the pilots seat. An interesting trip with Andy's driving skills shown to be deficient when the trip was well underway. Andy has been happy to deride driving skills due to stalling etc by Bob and myself ( mainly myself) but Bob and I are happy to not have stalled while driving down a hill and running up the gutter. A stop at the Swiss border seen the purchase of a travel pass which allows us to use all main roads. We stopped at a quaint Swiss village and had morning tea. Coffee and walnut pastry was very nice as was the highly pierced and tattooed young woman who served us.
Memory from last night: a guy walking up to eat looking like a Mafia boss. Super slick, short and sooooo up himself. By his side was a very trashy looking blonde with tattoos. They were a very odd
Looking couple.
We arrived in Zurich and found the hotel after a few detours which tested our female navigator to the max. To her credit she remained calm at all times.
After checking in we exchanged euros for franks and purchasing a 24hr tram ticket. Franks are about the same value as aussie dollars. We headed into the city and i don't believe I will be able fully describe the afternoon that we had, it was so amazing.
We arrived at central and walked into a crowd of people that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. There were hundreds of stalls and many rides. There were at least three claw rides, a very large ferris wheel and lots of side show stalls. We had the pleasure of being at the top of the ferris wheel when there was a very loud clap of thunder. Yiiikes.
There were approximate 15 stages with people singing, with one of them being very large and a large area for the crowd to gather and bars all around. Many of them were behind large bars with the purpose of getting the people in to drink. The music and singing was very diverse and very good. The food was amazing with so many stalls it is hard to believe. They were selling every type of food you could think of.The crowds filled the streets on both sides of the river with each side being at least 2 streets wide. Kilometres of crowded streets with such a diverse range of people it was a real treat to stand and watch them. We walked a very long way an enjoyed every step of it. This was one extremely sensational day that include a stunt plane show which was something i have never seen before. The plane was very fast and would scream towards the water of the lake, fly in a loop and then straight up till it stalled. It would just sit there going flat out but not moving until it would fall down and start spinning in all directions for a long time till it would straighten out and once again head to the water only to do it again. The guys skiing down a long ramp with a jump at the end was another new thing to see. They would do their acrobatics and then land with the skis in their normal position. Must be hard on the knees! Lunch was a very yummy schnitzel burger (I can't remember the correct name. Mine had Sweet Chilli sauce with Bob and Andy having mustard. Andy bight himself a man bag. Very nice and now makes a good pair with Bob.
The whole city is very beautiful with so many large old buildings that have been restored to their former glory. Many pictures were taken from the ferris wheel so check out the blog for a view once we get them uploaded. I estimate there was at least 150,000 people there and that is probable un major under estimate.
with a beer in a cafe and a slow walk back to the tram listening to singers as we went. This is one expensive city as the prices were much higher than in Germany.
As a bins to the end of our afternoon we got to our room with 20kms to go in the tour and witnessed the amazing finish with so many crashing out in the final moments. Well down Renshaw for getting second. Aussie aussie aussie oui oui oui.
Now it is time to get cleaned up and head back for dinner.
We went back to the festival for dinner and had Italian with a bottle of good Italian red. Nice meal of pasta for all. We walked around again and realised it was all a lot bigger than we first thought.
The music is so loud and some of the stages around the corner from each other so you walk through a wall of sound only to have it mingle with different sounds and then become a new sound. Fantastic.
The end of the day. My legs are sore from walking. Looking forward to driving to Altdorf and riding up the Alps in the morning. Altdorf to Linthal or when ever we stop on the way.