March 07: arrive in Zurich

Open air smoking room

The smoking section

Smart: by Mercedes-Swatch

Our flight landed in Zurich and the first thing we noticed was the smell of cigarette smoke. There were NO SMOKING signs everywhere. Yet we smell the cigarette smoke. As we walked with our luggage, we discovered the source of the scent was a room at the junction of several hallways and stairs. See pictures above. We walked for a while and eventually we found our way through the Zurich airport to the car rental area. The clerk offered us a low cost Smart, one of the smallest cars in Europe. We declined the offer and took an Opal-Vectra that would hold both of us and our luggage.

Display case of cobblers tools

A high profile brand of shoes

Different sizes of shoe shapers

Switzerland is known for it's watch and shoe making.

The shoe thing!  After picking up our baggage, Leslie was delighted to find a series of display cases devoted to the history of shoe making. Me, I wear them. Les, he's into shoes. He's interested in every aspect of how they are made. Chuckle, I guess the "old cobbler" has been making his presence known.  (our great-great-great grandfather, Sebastian Studer, was a cobbler).

Where's the exit!  We've made it to Switzerland, selected a rental car and have a small AVIS road map. Sitting in our rental car, looking around for the exit and realize... we can't read the Swiss parking ramp signs. How do we find our way out! We weren't alone in this, as we saw a few other confused drivers, wondering which turn to take and when. Eventually, we figured out that we had to 'take a ticket' to leave. No one every asked for that ticket.