July 2nd: Train transfer Feldkirch to Zurich

 In the morning, we woke up and packed, walked down to the bikes and had the receptionist release us into the train station parking underground. I had pre-scouted the train station thoroughly the day before, and knew that there was a triplet friendly entrance directly from the next level up in the parking lot, which we proceeded to use. The elevator to the platform was too small to fit the triplet, but the staircase had built in ramps on the side so you could roll luggage or the triplet up the stairs, provided you removed the panniers first.

After that, I took apart the bike, putting all the loose pieces into ziplock bags and wrapping the cables around the water bottle cages. I also removed the GoPro mount from the e-bike, the water bottle cage from the ebike, and Xiaoqin's phone mount, packing them away so that they wouldn't get lost.

Savitha had agreed to meet us at the train station in Zurich. It felt so strange to ride the train, taking 2 hours to do what it took us a day and a half to ride on the bike. But soon we were in Zurich. I asked the kids if they wanted to ride back to the hotel, but once they realized they could visit Sprungli again for desert they declined.

We returned Xiaoqin's e-bike at the train station, since Savitha could help carry the panniers. I then proceeded to reassemble the triplet and mount the panniers onto the triplet and ride back to the hotel. I took me 2 hours to disassemble the bike and place it back into 3 cases under the United Airlines weight limit, but even after all that it was still an hour before I was allowed to checkin, so I hopped onto the tram to downtown and met up with the rest. I did find the wallet sent back to me from Lukas, and Bowen's hiking pants, so all the packages made it. I'd tried in vain to confirm with the hotel, but apparently their policy is to never reply to messages! I would discover later that during the diassembly process I somehow managed to lose my VAR tire lever, my arm warmers, and gloves. I guess the heat and the stress of the prceeding days had taken their toll!

We all had day tickets so for the first time I tried the boat transport under the bridges of Zurich and it was a lot of fun but by then we were done. Xiaoqin was worn out from buying new shoes, and Boen showed me proudly the new socks he had persuaded mommy to buy since his old socks were worn out. We made it back to Novotel only to discover a long line to checkin --- one of the staff members had called in sick from COVID and their colleagues were swamped.

When we finally checked in, we walked to dinner. We had an early morning train to catch, so I prepaid our lodging, and repacked our luggage so that all our hiking gear and everything we needed for Rosenlaui would be with us. Bowen's conditioned seemed to have improved --- he didn't need to use the toilet more than once that evening. Small mercies are a big deal, but I prepared for the next day by stuffing Bowen's hiking pants with toilet paper.