This isn’t going to be particularly funny or interesting. I’m only writing it to square things in my mind.

All times local. London is Central Standard +6, Zurich is +7.

Nov 9

13:30 – Picked up early by Super Shuttle. No text letting us know they were near. Scrambling to make sure we got everything.

14:00 – Arrive at DFW. Check-in and security lines mercifully short. Both of us avoid getting groped by the TSA.

14:30 – Found the British Ariways lounge that our Business Class tickets get us into. Light snack.

16:00 – Head down to our gate. I forget we’re in Business Class, and will board early on from a separate line. We end up standing for no reason.

16:30 – Boarded. We will clearly be spoiled by Business class.

17:00 – Flight is 10min late leaving. Refueling issues.

17:45 – Flight finally departs. We’re likely to miss our connection, despite the tail wind.

~nebulous flight time~ – Dinner’s fine. The floor of this plane is ice cold. The book I’m reading is a lot heavier than I expected, but I’m too far into it to stop, even if I wanted to. They dim the lights and I try to sleep. I think I got 3 hours. Maybe.

Nov 10

08:00 – Flight arrives an hour late. Before landing, one of the attendants told us we’ve already been re-booked on the next flight to Zurich, but that at 13:00. Fuck me. At least we don’t have to worry about our luggage.

08:15 – Get our new boarding passes after having to ask several very nice employees just where the hell we should go. Thankfully we didn’t seem as anxious as the Germans in cowboy hats at the next desk.

08:30 – End up at Wagamama for breakfast. They make a decent eggs Benedict. Stephanie has okonomiyaki, which turns out to be huge. Have to flag someone down in order to pay, which always bothers me.

09:00 – Wander Heathrow Terminal 5 looking for a cell phone shop. None inside security, which makes some sense. But at least there’s free wi-if.

09:15 – Stephanie notices there’s a BA lounge here too. We head up, as our tickets will get us in. Turns out we could’ve had a free and decent breakfast here. Damn.

~sometime before 12:00~ – Stephanie sleeps intermittently in a chair in the lounge. I catch up on email and Twitter. At this point I’ve been up-ish (if you don’t count the “sleep” on the plane) for 22 hours.

12:00 – Head down to our gate.

12:40 – Boarding, and we again have priority. Plus we have seats A and C in this row, with B taken up by a small tray. Bonus.

16:00 – Land in Zurich. Airport feels deserted, but pretty sure this isn’t their prime tourist season. Customs merely asks us why we’re there and for how long, and stamps us through.

16:15 – Got our baggage, so that’s another worry checked off. Across from there is a shop selling SIM cards. We fork over for unlimited data, though the cards are Switzerland-only. Fuck it – that’s one less thing to worry about. And we’re both too far gone to care about comparison shopping.

16:20 – Find a train ticket kiosk and buy two for Lucerne. Cheaper than using up a day of our Eurail travel.

16:30 – Have trouble figuring out where to catch our train. Lady in the nearby travel office explains we just have to check the arrival boards above the gates. We are so fucking out of it.

16:50 – On the train to Lucerne. 3 stops between here and there. We have trouble fitting our luggage in the proper spot at first, ratcheting up my anxiety. We switch seats twice at stops, until we have two together with no one across. It’s too dark to see anything as we go by. Fucking delayed flight.

17:30 – Arrive in Lucerne. The hotel is – literally and thankfully – right across the street. Check in goes without incident. I’m now almost beyond speech.

17:35 – Up in the room finally. Only drawback – this place has no A/C, as it’s an old and protected building. But they provide a fan, and the windows open easily.

(N.B. – times later this evening are approximate. At this point I’d been up right about 24 hours, with that 3-4 hour nap on the original flight)

18:30 – Look up nearby restaurants online. A couple in the train station sound decent enough. Head over to find they’re take-away only. Well shit. Head _back_ to the hotel and ask the desk clerk. He recommends the Italian place sort-of attached to the hotel. We head out the back and to the door. Up a short flight of stairs to the elevator, as this is a rooftop place.

We take a left when we should’ve gone right, and end up in the tapas/cocktail bar on the same level. Fuck it – decide to sit anyway, and at the bar where the chefs are prepping. I get a beer (Eichhof Lager – light with a fruity finish – nice) and Stephanie gets some white wine. We have a few plates at the recommendation of one of the chefs. Everything’s excellent – hummus w/paprika, tzadtziki with goat milk yogurt, a quinoa salad, and some croquettes with shishito peppers. It’s not _enough_ food, but whatever. We pay around 20:00 and head back to the hotel.

21:30 – I finish my book.

22:00 – I can’t get to sleep, and my (now apparently usual) beginning of trip freak-out hits. This despite very, very recent snaps of the cats doing their thing on our spy cams, and the knowledge that the pet sitter should be arriving anytime.

23:45 – I give up an take nighttime cold medicine to get to sleep.

Nov 11

00:15 – The medicine finally kicks in.

10:00 – Wake up and Stephanie’s already up. We’re famished, but we both need to shower. It has been approximately 42 hours since either of us has changed our underwear.

Apparently I really don’t deal with sleep deprivation well. On our Japan trip, this wasn’t nearly as much of an issue. The flight was longer, but three was just the one, with no delay. I was a zombie while waiting for the Narita Express to take us to Tokyo, but it was mostly empty. After that it was fairly easy to find our train to Asakasubashi and our hotel.

In hindsight, we should’ve found one of those “work/sleep by the hour” places in Heathrow Terminal 5. A nap probably would’ve done both of us wonders.