Monday 17th August: Etihad Flight Brisbane to Geneva and train Geneva to Gstaad
Our Chinese Laundry Bags Arrived
Our day started Monday night when we flew Etihad direct from Brisbane to Abu Dhabi. This 13+ hr leg was business class, then economy for the shorter 7hr leg from Abu Dhabi to Geneva, arriving at 2pm. Our concern was for the safe arrival of our two chinese laundry bags stuffed with our back packs. At Brisbane airport check in, mine weighed 7kg and Ians 10kg, with only water and lunch to be added for each days hike. When we front up in the Business class queue with our striped laundry bags, we're usually asked if we're in the right queue! Despite having prioriy tags, our bags were last out in Geneva and we had to make a dash for the SBB train ticket office where it took an agonising 40 minutes to be served. My homework had worked out that it was best to get a Swiss Half Fare card, 120CHF for 30 days, so that every train/us/cable car we used was only half price.
After a maginificent rain trip around Lake Geneva, we met Graham and Jenny at Montreux station with 4 minutes to rush to a different platform for the Golden Pass train. They had already been in Switzerland for 5 days and were unlucky to have their trekking poles go missing en route from Vietnam, necessitating a trip to the sports store to buy two new sets. The clouds were low and misty rain had set in as we travelled through the alps passing through typical Swiss villages surrounded by green fields.