Asha’s Swiss Miss Tour 2008

I got up early after a wake up call from Sarah around 6:15am. I waited for the shower then bolted in when it was my turn. I got ready then went down for the breakfast. Everyone met in the lobby for the walk to the bus. Once on the bus I could hear our tour guide, Sarah, tell everyone that the time we expect to be in Chur for our train. I was a little groggy but stil in a good mood for today’s tour. I connected with Sarah from the time we met in New York in the class meetings so I really wanted her tour to be excellent, and I told her that I would help for anything she needed.

After a rushed breakfast we headed down to the bus stop. Once at the bus stop, Sarah gave us assignments to do for the tour. I was one of the camera persons. Gia was her assistant and Mark was a note taker. We got to the station on time to catch our 8:16am train to Zurich. Once in Zurich, we headed to the tourist office for information and maps of the town. Once we had what we needed, we headed to the tram to reach Bahnofquai/HB. While on the tram, I noticed how many Starbucks coffee shops I passed and realized how much this was like New York City.

The tram hit our stop on time at Sihlcity Nord at 10:28am for the hotel inspection at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel. Someone must have got the entrance wrongg because I noticed that we walked in through the dining room area by accident. Then waited in the lobby while Sarah and Prof. Garely dealt with arranging the site visit. Later on, Mrs. Alexia Hungerbühler introduced herself. 

She showed us a few rooms as the junior suite executive suite, and standard room. The standard room was very comfortable with modern style with an Asian flair to the furniture. despite the small window view of the street that runs through the city, it had all the comforts of home, plus a flat screen t.v. Most of the rooms had similar furniture setups except the suites had a office area and dry bar included. She showed us a suite that had a view from the back of the hotel into the city life of Zurich.

After the rooms, she took us through a couple of conference rooms. One of the was sound proof and seated 14 people comfortably. The next room was being set up for a conference. As I passed a table a paper coaster nearly fall off. I placed it back – then saw Prof. Blake-Neis stormed towards me asking what was I doing (quite angrily). She sent me outside the room then came after to watch me. I thought it best not to react to a silly misunderstanding in front of the my classmates. 

We went back downstairs to get a formal introduction of the dining area. It serves mostly business men from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain, and the occasional American group. The cuisine is is a wide variety of Swiss and French delights.

The next part was the Asia Spa which is apart of the Four Points Sheraton. They gave us blue shower caps shaped for shoes (of course) to reduce dirt and noise for clients inside. The aroma gave me a very deep perfume that gave the spa an even relaxing atmosphere. They had a lounge and sitting area with the latest magazine available. A big and wide fish tank in the other part of the room gave the dark wooden room a blue ambiance. There gym had it seemed to have a machine to work every single part of the body and specialized in massages including Thai massage therapy. 

After the tour, both groups met downstairs for coffee and tea in the lounge near the entrance. We had a talk with Ms. Hungerbühler about where were from and how we felt about Switzerland. All of us had positive raves about being here and what we appreciated about the trip. 

After the tour, we went back to the rail station – but not before taking a picture near the hotel. We took the tram back then walked to a park on the side of the museum to enjoy our packed lunch. We sat on benches near the river that ran through Zurich. All of us were watching a duckling fight against the tide trying to  reach it mommy. She was at least 20 feet away with the ducklings other siblings trying to keep up. It slowly lost the fight to keep up and was initially pushed with the the current. I felt sad about the incident but that’s the circle of life. 

After lunch we went inside the museum and enjoyed the collective cultural side of Switzerland at the Swiss National Museum. Using our swiss passes to get in for free, we saw pieces of the evolution of the Swiss family life. We all saw a 18th century female contraceptive which looked very deadly to me. The exhibits continued across the building using the a bridge several feet in the air. It saw displays of the evolution of fashion in the early centuries. We met back at the entrance round 2:15pm, then left for a little shopping in the Zurich mall areas. We were to explore the Old town but it got way to crowded because a EURO CUP fanzone was nearby. The people around us seemed very excited and Portugal fans were appearing from every corner.

So we headed back to the rail station for an earlier train back to Chur. Once back, Gia, Adele, Shevarma, and myself got some  good old fashioned McDonald’s while everyone else had dinner elsewhere. While receiving our food, And and Sasha come inside for their dinner. We initially met back on the same bus to Chur and went back to blogging for the night.