May 15 - Back to Zurich

We got out around 8:30 in the morning - the journey finally ready to come to an end. Frankly, I was ready, with the flu in full swing. I left a nice note for our hosts in their guest book, we ate and cleaned up the kitchenette, and then we saddled up.

The 25 miles back to Rumlang was largely uneventful and the rain held off the whole morning, which made me happy. We only had a couple minor misdirections, but otherwise stayed on course and mae it to Rumlang by about 11:30. We decided to stop by the pizzeria near the train station to refuel. We split a pizza with bacon and olives.  It was actually quite good - even with my dulled palette.

Pizza, 2 cokes, and a salad was almost 40 Swiss Francs...ahhh back to Swiss prices! After eating, we rolled across the street and downhill to the hotel.

We got our bikes down to the garage and got our bags from the front desk. Thus began the dirty and miserable task of disassembling the bikes. I made it through the packing of my bike and half of Rick's before giving up and heading back to the room. There was a problem with the keys that i had to sort out before hitting the shower and nap. I ended up watching the Giro until Rick got back.

Then, I cleaned up, threw out some clothes that were done-for, and re-packed everything. We rested and had another failed attempt to access any meaningful web sites on the hotel computer. Then, we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. I had mac n' cheese - Rick had a burger. Fortunately, our drinks were 1/2 price, leaving us with 30 Francs for breakfast.

We got a call from my parents, and I chatted with them briefly before retiring to the room. I made a poor attempt at sleep all night with the lungs and sinuses going full-boar. Finally, at 4:00 am, I gave up and got out of bed. That ensured time for a shower, which was nice.

We rolled out from the hotel at 5:00. The first assault on my respiratory system being the smoking lounge in front of the hotel. Thus began my 20 hour effort to suppress my symptoms to avoid infecting those around me.

We paid about 29 Francs for 2 coffees, 2 waters, 2 pain au chocolate and 2 bananas at the airport. Yikes! Then, we had a short flight to Paris and enjoyed watching the mustard fields of Dijon go by below. We rested in the sunny waiting area at Charles du Galle before boarding the 747. The next flight was completely full, to my dismay. It was the most miserable 11 hours ever - with my body in a full histamine reaction - coughing into my blanket and going through every paper towel and kleenex we could get our hands on. I had a good 30 minutes following the post-lunch cognac, that the rest was pure misery (I'm sure for those around me, too!).

Fortunately, we had a safe flight and a pretty painless immigration and customs at SFO and finally got home around 3:30 pm. I was surprised to find it was still winter in the Bay Area as well. I loaded up on anti-histamine, cough suppressant and nasal spray and managed to sleep fairly well for 10 hours....ahhhhhhhh.