We woke up before the alarm rang, and packed up and got the kids ready. It was just as well that we were early, as I had a snafu getting the triplet out of the garage --- the exit was locked and it took several tries to find the staff that could open the gate!
At the platform, I took apart the bike and put it back together as a triplet. But I shouldn't have bothered. When the train arrived, I discovered that the bike compartment was so narrow (unlike the German long distance trains, where the bike car would easily accommodate a full size tandem) that there was no way to get the tandem onto the bike rack.
When the conductor arrived, he told me to take apart the tandem or the Swiss would have a fit, so I accommodated him by taking everything apart. In fact, the boarding of the train was very stressful, as I barely had time to get everything on board, kids and all, before the train departed with a station agent bugging us but not helping!
Once everything was nicely stowed away, the train ride itself was 5 hours long, which caused the kids to get more antsy than any long bike ride they'd been on the entire trip. It was scenic, and granted views of the Inn river valley, and I tried to get Bowen to be interested in parts of the bike path that he'd not ridden before, but all scenery through a train window is just more TV, so he was too bored to bother.
Despite my having visited Zurich many times before, I'd never actually visited or stayed in old town before. Upon arrival, with Xiaoqin's help, I put together tha tandem and we rode to the old town hotel we were to stay in, and after we were given our rooms and moved in, we proceeded to walk along the river after lunch to visit the Sprungli cafe, which gave Boen free macaroons because he would stare at the station and keep pointing at the macaroons!
After that we were pretty stuffed, and only came out to dinner at 8:00pm for a light pizza in old town.
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