Going Home - Torbole to Manchester

Saturday:
Josef's Ford Transit Estate Van proved an ideal way of transporting us and the bikes to Dornbirn, being rather more convenient than the 'Bike Bus', and cheaper even after paying all his expenses.
It took around 7 hours, then there was the Cleaning of the Bike.
Markus's remains dirty!
A trip back to the pub/restaurant by the Rolls Royce museum yielded an excellent meal of spetzl and salad, then Markus and I were picked up by Jutta (just returned from Thailand) and driven around for a while whilst Wolfie (just returned from his own Transalp crossing and the successful summiting of Gran Paradiso and Castor) pondered the nature of his birthday/wedding anniversary surprise.
Unfortunately he turned out to be not quite as skilled at ten-pin bowling as he is at climbing 4000 metre Alpine summits, but, joined by Ange and Dominic we all enjoyed Jutta's excellent choice of venue.
A very jolly evening.
Sunday:
Leaving Markus to luxuriate in his own company at his flat (ie for a change he didn't have to put up with my snoring), I also enjoyed a good sleep in W+J's spare room. Markus joined us for breakfast and a slide show from Wolfie, then The Tank was returned, shiny but used, to its generous owner.
After 11 days of my non-stop company, it was probably to his great relief that there remained no further impediment to Markus dropping me into Switzerland to enable me to resume my journey at St. Margrethen railway station.
It was a smooth ride to Zurich on a sunny day. Just one minor difficulty - I was nearly two days early for my flight home.
Whilst a stroll around Zurich on a holiday Sunday in the sunshine did pleasantly pass some of that time, 48 hours of such strolling could inevitably prove to be something of an endurance test.
Until very recently, a visit to Nick and Daniela would have involved a trip to Shanghai. Luckily, they have returned to Europe thanks to Nick's success in getting a job with SKINS, who make compression base layer garments and bikewear,
and are based in Zug, just south of Zurich. They live temporarily in nearby Knonau, so I headed out there, armed usefully with Nick's email and mobile contact details. The inconvenience of my arriving just after they had returned from five days at Eurobike didn't show, and we enjoyed an evening of leisure and catching up.
Monday:
No further progress towards Manchester was achieved today. A delightful country walk to Cham and Zug in lovely warm, sunny weather occupied most of my day (see separate posting if I get around to it), before spending another pleasant evening with the Workers, Nick and Daniela.
Tuesday:
A leisurely departure from Knonau in deteriorating weather has returned me to Zurich, and onwards to the airport, where I've failed to succumb to the vigorous Volvo S60 and Honda CR-Z advertisements and am waiting at the gate for the EasyJet flight to Manchester.
I'll be home for lunch!
The images are from Zurich and Cham - I'll leave you to work out which is which...

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