June 2, 2025 Zurich, Switzerland

This has been a NO picture day! It has not been a bad day just one where we didn’t want to mess with pictures, Tomorrow will be a new day!

We left our hotel in Paris very early this morning and took an Uber to the airport (CDG). This is our first time going through this airport and we found it to be confusing. Luckily we had allowed plenty of time. It was also the first time we had used Swiss Air, got on the flight and all went smooth. Landed in Zurich mid afternoon and went to the car rental desk, I think it was a longer wait at the car rental then the flight to Zurich. The nice thing was that once we got our car it was only a 3 minute drive to our hotel. The room is nice and is located in a neighborhood with lots of little stores and restaurants! This is a good thing because when we arrived our room was not ready and we needed food and another trip to the pharmacy! Yikes our pharmacy bill has been outrageous on this trip.

Since we are still not feeling 100% we decided that we would take the rental car the short distance to get dinner. Trying to find parking was so frustrating that we drove back to the hotel and walked. Found food, but when we started to leave the rain was pouring down really hard. Once again luck was on our side, I had my raincoat and an umbrella in my purse. I gave Nick the umbrella and we headed back! The room is the largest we have had since Sicily with a couch and three French doors. The rain cooled the air so we opened one of the French doors and we are listening to the birds sing.

June 3, 2025 Steckborn, Switzerland

Oh my what a day!! This morning we had a tour scheduled at the Bernina Sewing Machine Factory in Steckborn. As many of you know I have been a lover of Bernina machines for quite a while and have several of their machines. We got on the road fairly early for the 45 minute drive to Steckborn. The drive up was beautiful. The rolling hills were bright green and they looked liked perfectly manicured lawns. When we reached Steckborn we had a little extra time so we stopped for a coffee and pastry. Wow! It was delicious and probably the best pastry I have ever had. Then we headed over to Bernina. The facility is rather large and we were not sure where to enter. When we saw the door that said “Creative Center” we thought that was a good place to start and to ask for directions. As soon as we opened the door we knew we were in the right place, there was a large screen with my name on it. It was very impressive and I was left speechless. We were given a very nice tour and really enjoyed it ….. But wait…. There is more. If you have been following our blog on May 23, Nick and I met a charming man in Ferrara, Italy while having lunch. After a bit of conversation we found out that our new found friend had done an apprenticeship at Bernina around 60 years ago. He bought us dessert and said he was still in contact with folks at Bernina and would let them know to treat us special. Well my Bernina Buddy kept his word and they had a special gift for us, a metal Bernina calendar that was hand signed by the President of Bernina and a note from my Bernina Buddy.

After our exciting trip to Bernina we decided to wander back towards our hotel. We stopped in a cute little town, Winterthur. We walked up and down several of the streets and in and out of several of the little shops.