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Post by Boop on Jul 30, 2015 16:51:48 GMT
Nice to see there was no sign of a "Coke" sitting on that dinner tray!
Too bad you missed your flight but taking the train from Zurich to Lucerne more than made up for it I'm sure. It sounds like you really lucked out with your TD, well done. I just might have to do a repeat tour............but, with my luck........?
Looking forward to day 2!!
(I actually bought a cuckoo clock with Heidi sitting on a (working) swing which I had to carry around in a shopping bag the whole tour. The entire coach thought it was quite amusing every time I got on the coach to shouts of "here comes the shopaholic!!) lolol! Jokesters............)
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Post by chech on Jul 31, 2015 0:16:48 GMT
Heh. If you wait to book it about a month in advance, you'd be able to find out who the TD is beforehand. Vincenzo was excellent and I loved his daily itinerary sheets - they had everything on it from morning timings to hotel wifi to restaurant suggestions/directions for meals not included. Never once did I hear anyone say "when is wake-up?" "what time is luggage out?" "Is dinner included tonight?" "Where are we going today?" etc It was all on the sheet. Day two is a bit delayed. I just got Windows 10 and I'm playing with it...
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Post by bet on Jul 31, 2015 1:18:59 GMT
Liking your photos Chech and what a difference a good TD makes, we didn't get anything in the way of a spoken daily itinerary etc let alone one on a sheet. People did ask but he got noticeably uncomfortable and would either brush people off or refused to say. His actions were very questionable and very disappointing coming from Insight. Even in your photos I can tell your TD was proffessional, engaging and fun. Looking forward to your tale
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Post by chech on Jul 31, 2015 1:30:15 GMT
I asked him about other TDs and he mentioned Carl and Sue (which other tales said were good) and I said "Is Philip still doing this tour?" and you could see his expression change. He said he was doing another tour (Bavaria or Austria I think). I mentioned that I read about him and that the traveler wasn't impressed and he said it was probably time for him to retire. I remember you said that you didn't understand the 3 night stop in Montreux. Vincenzo followed the itinerary so we had only two of the three evenings in Montreux free from about 5-6 pm onwards. The rest of our time was filled nicely. The tour following us did Gruyeres on the way to Montreux from Lucerne and I was floored. They got almost no time there - none of them saw the inside of the Gruyeres castle or visited the Alien museum. Instead, they were going to see Chillon on their first full day in Montreux (which is when we went to Gruyeres). That would take them all of two hours and the rest of the day would be free....with (as you noted, I believe) not a lot to do in Monreux. The only saving grace was that the Montreux Jazz Festival was on the go...but that could only occupy so much time. Vincenzo also had some late departures. Some mornings, we didn't leave till 9:30 - which made breakfast a very leisurely affair.
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Post by bet on Jul 31, 2015 8:37:12 GMT
How disappointing to hear my TD is still doing the rounds, hopefully he's picked up his act.
You seemed to have followed the same itinerary as myself but we had from 4pm free each day in Montreux and I didn't do the dinner optional there, so there were only so many lakeside walks & a trip to McDonalds one can do before wanting to move on. I would have preferred 3 nights in the Grindelwald region.
Have to agree, makes no sense to do Gruyere on arrival day in Montreux, not when Bern is included. We did both Chillon and Gruyere on our 2nd day on Montreux, but only had only 90mins in Gruyere. I wished I had more time there as with Geneva . I did enjoy the later starts to the day as well and the 2nd half of the tour was great. But i’ll stick with doing Switzerland independently like Ive done before Insight. I’ll be back for New Years and looking forward to it.
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Post by Boop on Jul 31, 2015 18:54:31 GMT
Heh. If you wait to book it about a month in advance, you'd be able to find out who the TD is beforehand. Vincenzo was excellent and I loved his daily itinerary sheets - they had everything on it from morning timings to hotel wifi to restaurant suggestions/directions for meals not included. Never once did I hear anyone say "when is wake-up?" "what time is luggage out?" "Is dinner included tonight?" "Where are we going today?" etc It was all on the sheet. Day two is a bit delayed. I just got Windows 10 and I'm playing with it... You play...........we wait......sigh
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Post by chech on Aug 1, 2015 19:27:30 GMT
Windows 10 is playing with me! It keeps cutting off my internet connection on my desktop. Diagnosing....diagnosing...diagnosing...
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Post by Boop on Aug 1, 2015 21:07:05 GMT
Windows 10 is playing with me! It keeps cutting off my internet connection on my desktop. Diagnosing....diagnosing...diagnosing... Did you try disconnecting and reconnecting the internet?
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Post by chech on Aug 2, 2015 0:49:11 GMT
Well beyond that! At the network adapter disabling and device driver suddenly not being installed stage. But my wifi works so I'm on the Surface now working on Day 1 for tomorrow.
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Post by chech on Aug 2, 2015 20:10:59 GMT
Finally....the long Day One is done. wp.me/P4wi9z-1IjLet me know if there are any typos or problems with the videos.
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Post by bet on Aug 2, 2015 22:27:01 GMT
All good Chech, what a busy day 1 you had. A shame you didn't see the old town or the lion monument but at least you did Pilatus. You must have walked the dragons path up there. Nice to see you had 2 hours on Pilatus a lot better than our allowed 20mins my TD gave, just as well I had been before. I've only ever done Pilatus with the cogwheel going up so have to do it going down one day.
We were offered the Lake Lucerne cruise but it didn't go ahead due to lack of numbers. I've always enjoyed the cruise in the past but didn't sign up for it this time. I loved both the carriage ride and Stadtkeller dinner and couldn't pick between them.
I'm looking forward to the rest of your tale especially the days when your driving over the passes and of course Zermatt and Grindelwald. I hope you did the Jungfraujoch. Keep it coming.
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Post by chech on Aug 3, 2015 16:56:34 GMT
Oh yeah....Jungfrau was a must. If I had my time back, I would have skipped the carriage optional for some down time and a chance to visit the old town and the lion monument.
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Post by 1jhwks on Aug 3, 2015 21:13:11 GMT
When we went to China in 2001 with Grand Circle Tours, they provided us with list of names and city on the tour when they sent tour documentation. Thought that was kind of nice touch at the time. Met another tour mate from our area at the airport. That was the only one that provided a list like that.
Glad you got Windows 10 to work.
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Post by chech on Aug 3, 2015 22:39:53 GMT
It's not working now....it still cuts off the internet on my desktop. I've been having to use my tablet and that slows me down. I have the number to Microsoft but I need a couple hours for that...
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Post by chech on Aug 4, 2015 1:38:22 GMT
Ah ha...seems I'm not the only one having the ethernet problem...now there's directions on how to fix it out there but I'm too tired to see straight now. Tomorrow!
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Post by tiffany on Aug 4, 2015 11:37:32 GMT
I’m looking forward to reading about this tour Chech. I just got back to work after a 4 day weekend, so it will have to wait a few days. I need to get caught up!
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Post by chech on Aug 4, 2015 12:04:50 GMT
You're only two days behind. I've been dealing with W10 internet issues but so far this morning, it seems to be working. Microsoft must have issued a patch overnight. ....oops...spoke too soon.....grrrrr
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Post by chech on Aug 4, 2015 17:52:25 GMT
Okay, I surrendered and reverted to Windows 7, so I have my internet back on my desktop....so the lesson here is that if you have an older computer (this one is 6 years old) then W10 will not support the network adapter. I imagine they'll issue a patch for this before long.
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Post by 1jhwks on Aug 4, 2015 21:31:30 GMT
That's too bad. If they see enough people having this issue it should be a priority fix before they let the next batch to upgrade.
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Post by chech on Aug 4, 2015 22:46:22 GMT
W7 is okay. Gets the job done. I do like W10. It's wicked on my tablet.
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Post by Boop on Aug 5, 2015 0:23:24 GMT
W7 is okay. Gets the job done. I do like W10. It's wicked on my tablet. Wicked indeed! I love it!!
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Post by tiffany on Aug 5, 2015 11:41:27 GMT
You're only two days behind. I've been dealing with W10 internet issues but so far this morning, it seems to be working. Microsoft must have issued a patch overnight. ....oops...spoke too soon.....grrrrr I just read day one, but I’m not seeing the link for day 2. Is it posted here?
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Post by chech on Aug 5, 2015 11:50:49 GMT
Not yet....just the travel day and day one. Working on day two now.
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Post by chech on Aug 6, 2015 12:10:16 GMT
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Post by chech on Aug 8, 2015 1:29:32 GMT
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Post by marielouise on Aug 8, 2015 5:03:05 GMT
I am enjoying your tales so much, Chech. I really want to take this tour one day.
When I was 11 years old, we spent 2 months during the summer holidays in Geneva. We travelled over the Grand St Bernhard pass when it was a narrow, winding road, often my mother had to back up our small VW bug when we met a bus. We were ok with VW since it was air cooled but many cars had problems with their radiators overheating. We visited France and Italy during that time too. My father was working in Geneva, and was planning to move us there but had problems finding an apartment for us foreigners. Somehow we would have been allowed to buy land and have a house built, above Nyon. In the end the simplest way would have been to move to Annecy in France and for my father to commute. But instead, he got a temporary job (he worked free lance before that) in Montreal and we ended up staying. I remember a lot from that for me very exciting trip but of course it has changed a lot. Just after I got my first job, I also went skiing at St Moritz, which was very enjoyable and my first time skiing above the tree line. I remember buying some souvenirs in a shop, where I spoke French to the sales lady and she answered me back in German, we managed to understand each other quite well. (That area is Romansh speaking.)
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Post by chech on Aug 8, 2015 14:38:25 GMT
Wow...that must have been a great experience at 11. Vincenzo said there were a lot of pendulum workers from France...swing in, make lots of money, swing back, pay less to live. Vincenzo told us that the tour wouldn't be able to stay the night in Geneva because it has close to 100% occupancy and the costs are exorbitant to give us an Insight quality hotel. And with the mega-rich going there to visit their money, the hotels can charge what they want. I think that explains the extra night in Montreux.
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Post by chech on Aug 8, 2015 23:37:10 GMT
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Post by bet on Aug 9, 2015 9:03:45 GMT
Wow...that must have been a great experience at 11. Vincenzo said there were a lot of pendulum workers from France...swing in, make lots of money, swing back, pay less to live. Same goes with the Italians as well, work in one live in the other, the best of both worlds. I love reading your tale Chech, when I was at uni many moons ago my German lecturer was Swiss, he never understood my fascination with Switzerland and said despite the high standard of living the grass is never greener on the other side. Daily life in Switzerland is full of rules, rules and more rules, but as a tourist I just love the place. If your interested you should read 'Swiss Watching' by Diccon Bewes it's a good read and a good insight into Switzerland and the Swiss.
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Post by chech on Aug 9, 2015 12:14:48 GMT
LOL...that's a good way of putting it. The rules make it so much better for the tourists too. I didn't note it yet in the tale, but the Swiss are able to keep the organized Roma from entering the country, so pickpocketing is unheard of. I walked around with my wallet in my back pocket with no worry.
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