How did I get to Zurich, you ask?

Greetings from Zurich - on a beautiful day!
I am sitting here with German translations on this computer, listening to an Italian TV station in the background broadcasting the Italy/Netherlands Euro 2008 Football game! Ah the joys of travel are great...
So how did I get here? Well, last Saturday morning at about 7:45am I said goodbye to the Arts in London students and several hours later made my way to the Eurostar fast train to Brussels. Oh, that it would have been that easy. I went back to finish my packing and found that I couldn't get everything into my suitcase. Because I am eventually coming back to London to fly home, I left two suitcases there and had already taken them to store them. So my hosts graciously volunteered to take the extra stuff (including my computer) to the place I am storing them... Then I got on the Tube to go to the Kings Cross Station. You need to understand that while my suitcase is a medium size, it is not light, so it was a chore to haul it down the steps (I'm not as young or as strong as I used to be). Well, I allowed plenty of time (always a good policy) which was good this time, as the station I needed to exit was CLOSED! So the train went on and I'm thinking...well I can't write all I was thinking but I got off at the next Tube station, lugged my suitcase up the stairs, asked those friendly gate agents what I should do and then began to lug my suitcase down the stairs when an angel, disguised as a young lady, asked if she could help. I got on the next train going back in the direction of the station I needed. I was a little flustered but found my way, and went through all the premliminaries and boarded the Eurostar. Two hours later I was in Brussels Midi train station and easily found my friends, Julianne and Michael. We took another train one stop to the Brussels Central station, nearer to where my hotel was located, and I checked in. If you ever find yourself in Brussels and need a hotel, check out the Hotel Alma! It was charming, contemporary and clean; my room was geometrically fascinating, complete with a spiral staircase down to the bathroom, a floor below (I was not as charmed in the middle of the night when I had to get there), but it was very cool! I took pictures, but given that I am not on my own computer, you will have to wait!
I got an amazing tour around Brussels, starting with the Grand Place, which was just a couple blocks away from my hotel - what a beautiful place - difficult to put into words. We walked around, saw the city from some high viewpoints including the Catholic Cathedral, walked past the Musical Instruments Museum, which I hope to see at the end of my trip, and learned a lot of interesting facts about Brussels. We had a yummy dinner at a Flemish restaurant; many of the people in Belgium are Flemish and they work hard to keep their heritage and language alive in this strongly French-influenced country. I said goodbye to my friends (I will see them again in less than a week) and I had a reasonable sleep in my cool room, watching a little CNN in English, getting caught up on the recent presidential politics. In the morning I had an amazing breakfast, which turned out to be one of the most important events in my day and then made my way to the Central train station back to Brussels Midi to catch my train to Zurich. I had way too much time on my hands, so I bought water and passed up any food as I was full and it didn't look too appealing and I thought I would just get food on the train. Well, I got on my train at 1:00, found my seat in first class - also a very good decision for an eight-hour train ride and got settled in. It was a very smooth ride and it was wonderful to see the countryside of Belgium, France, Luxembourg, France again and finally Switzerland. There was no sense of borders, except for perhaps a change of style in the housing I would see along the way. However, when the train came to Basel, the Swiss came on board and asked to see my passport, as Switzerland is not part of the European Union.
Along the way, I saw quaint little towns, gently rising hills, farmland, lots of church steeples dotting the land, rivers next to the train tracks, people working in their gardens, mountains in the distance, a variety of brightly colored houses in some French towns, a lot of sun and some rain toward the end of the trip and so much more. I stayed awake for all of the trip except for the last 30 minutes when I dozed off.
Remember when I said having a good breakfast was significant....well, about three hours into the journey I discovered that for this entire 8 hour trip, there was no food available on the train - you see I was the only person to travel the entire 8 hours from Brussels to Zurich..others got on and off and people had brought food to eat with them..So I ate three Trader Joes granola bars which were packed in my suitcase...I spaced them judiciously and drank 3 liters of water and it was fine. I also learned a lesson - make no assumptions when you travel!
My friend, Susan met me in the large, busy Zurich airport without any trouble. Right now everything is focused on Euro 2008, as Switzerland and Austria are co-hosts for this important sports event, so there was lots of activity at the main train station along with many, many Swiss police! We traveled back to her home and I settled in..
Today, the weather was gorgeous and we took a long boat trip on Lake Zurich including a visit to Rapperswil, a small medieval Swiss town that was absolutely amazing. We had a great day and will venture out again tomorrow..Pictures will appear later - for now, you will need to use your imagination!
I will stay here in Zurich until Friday, when I train back to Strasbourg where I will meet my dear friends, the Funks and the four of us (a fifth will join us on Sunday) will travel in a mini-van for two more weeks - through Alsace Lorain, back to Zurich for a day, several days in Tuscany, then Venice, and onto the Salzburg area for four days before we return to the Brussels area when I train back to London to fly back to the States. I will blog as I can!