September 12, 2011-Our Last Full Day In Switzerland (Monday)

Our last full day in Switzerland, and we decided to go for one last hike in the mountains above Zurich.

Fred, Ruth, Lauren, James and I loaded up in the car and headed to Adliswil to catch the Adliswil-Felsenegg LAF cable car.  The 5 minute ride took us to the top of Felsenegg in the Albis mountains, to a spectacular view of Zurich and the surrounding areas plus easy access to several hiking trails.  Ruth pointed out the house where she grew up ... as we rode the cable car.

We started hiking at Bergstation LAF and hiked through woods and farmland for about 1.5 Kilometers.  This area is so close to Zurich that it is heavily used by hikers, and we saw lots of people on the well maintained trail.  There were lots of places to stop and enjoy the scenery.  Here is a web cam showing the view ...

We found the conclusion of the planet trail we had found on our first day in Zurich.  The Planetenweg represents size of the planets and distance from each other scaled down to 1:1,000,000,000 of their actual size and distance from the sun.  On our first hike we found the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth and moon.  This day we found Pluto.

We stopped for drinks on the garden terrace at The Buchenegg, a restaurant with spectacular views of the Sihl Valley.

After a refreshing break, we hiked another 1.5 Kilometers and rode the cable car back down to Adliswil.  It was getting close to time to take Lauren to the airport, on the first leg of her trip to Berlin, so we returned to Fred and Ruth's home, loaded Lauren's suitcases, and said our goodbyes.

While Fred and Ruth took Lauren to the airport, James and I started packing our bags.  We seem to have accumulated a lot of extra items to carry home.  It's a good thing I made James pack an empty canvas bag in his suitcase.  Even though we don't have Audrey's wedding present in the suitcase any more, we still needed the extra bag.
We will be very sad to leave Switzerland and our friends.  During the past few weeks we have seen lots of new things, met lots of wonderful people and tried lots of good food.  This has been the best vacation we've ever had!  Getting on the airplane is going to be very hard.