Touching down in Switzerland

Going back a couple of days: At around half six, 30 July 2006 we touched down at the Zurich International Airport (Flughafen Zürich) greeted by what seemingly a nice, warm European summer weather albeit early morning. With excessive luggage with us (I paid RM 4200 for the excess weight!), we didn't waste a single second and went straight to catch a taxi to the city in Aargau where I'd be based for at least the next two years. The baby was in happy mood, which was good - thanked to the 11 hour she had had in the plane. The taxi ride took about 20 minutes, and costed 115 Swiss Francs (CHF in abbreviation)!. Forget about conversion to Ringgit. The value of 115 against 20 minute already sounds atrocious. It's probably the most expensive 20-minute taxi ride you can ever find in the world. Our first introduction to the renown extravagant Swiss life.

Who doesn't know about Switzerland being THE place with excellent courses for hotel and catering management. Ask anyone who in the hotel industry and they will tell you exactly this. We arrived at the hotel with the expectation that there would be a concierge ready to help us with the luggage; after all this hotel was supposed to be the best in the town and the favourite among the top guys in the company. But, as saying goes in Malay "jauh panggang dari api". The only staff on duty were the receptionist and another girl whose appearence suggested that she's probably in the housekeeping department. They had no choice but to give us a hand with the luggage although from the body language I could see they weren't happy. The remark "What do you have in this bag? A stone?" was enough to convince me so. We didn't care. We were tired. We needed a bath. We pay for the service. So shut up! And just do it.

Albeit the shortcomings in the service, the hotel is really nice is a really nice hotel, housed in a newly renovated old building located on the bank of river Limmat.