One of the great ways to remember a holiday or plan another one is to use Googlemaps and especially the now 'Street view' where you can view most big cities street by street. For example before booking a hotel you may be able to locate it exactly before you go and check out the local area. See how easy it is to get to, local shops. A couple of Summers ago we went to Zurich and stayed in a Bed and breakfast Apartment. Staying anywhere in switzerland is normally expensive but theres an organisation there who have a website WWW.Bnb.ch. We booked a week in Zurich and the Apartments turned out to be only about 10 minutes by tram. the Owner actually gave very good directions at the time and we had no difficulty finding the Apartment block. He told us to look out for the big concrete frog right outside and the tram stop was nearby too.
Checking back today using googlemaps you can do a search of the Apartments address and googlemaps brings you a map and the street view shows the frog and even a tram stopping right outside. You can also check to see if theres any local small shops and cafes etc.
Hopefully next year we may go back to Zurich for another holiday. Probably not the most interesting City for some people but its a good point for further travel around Switzerland, most towns and cities are no more than 2 hours by train. Switzerland has the reputation of being rather expensive but I didnt really think it made much difference to the holiday. Expensive up market hotels and restaurants are not our cup of tea anyhow. In the mornings our Apartment owner delighted in offering us various home made breads, fresh orange and coffee. Actually the bread was a bit on the tough to eat side but our host seemed very happy to offer us more bread and kept asking us if we liked the bread. We then set out for the day and got the tram to the train station and got fresh rolls and drinks in the local Co-op. If anything fresh food is cheaper in Switzerland than in Ireland. The train station had the usual collection of cafes and convenience stores as well as a Swiss food produce market in the middle of the old central hall. You could taste free samples of cheese and bread and take in the different flavours and smells. The Swiss certainly know how to run an efficient train service and also how to develop a proper train station and look after its customers. Some evenings they had wine tasting, music most nights and of course the trains run on time!
