Today was a travel day. Our flight out of Heathrow was at lunchtime but we were uncertain about how long everything would take so of course we left too early. We said goodbye to Liz and Mat at 8.30am.

It turned out to be somewhat congested on the A331, less so on the M3 and not at all on the M25. Twenty years ago this was my daily experience as I commuted from Frimley to Uxbridge so I wasn't concerned about driving in the congestion, just the time it might take.

In the end, it took less than an hour to get to the rental car drop off, no time at all to return the car, five minutes on the shuttle to the terminal, two attempts to find a check in kiosk that actually worked, another five minutes in the queue for security and there we were, in the midst of the heaving mass of humanity that is Heathrow Terminal 5, with two and a half hours to wait for our flight to Zurich.

This was all valuable information, however, as we will be repeating this journey from Farnham to Heathrow in a fortnight, only this time for a breakfast flight and we'll be able to plan our departure time better.

Our plane was sitting on a remote stand on the far side of the airport so we were bussed to it. It was on the bus that we first noticed High Maintenance Manic American Woman. She had apparently been pulled aside in Security for extra screening and Hubby, who obviously had experience with this, had gone on ahead and she had only just now caught up with him to tell him all about it, loudly.

At the plane we debussed and then waited before climbing the boarding stairs while HMMAW organised selfies with Hubby on the stairs.

The plane was only half full so we anticipated a smooth boarding but no, we waited for another couple of minutes while HMMAW left Hubby and her cabin bag in the middle of the aisle and walked all the way to the back to try - unsuccessfully - to negotiate a better seat with the flight attendant.

It was a short, smooth flight and we both snoozed for most of it. About 20 minutes before we landed in Zurich I took a photo of a river we flew over. For the purposes of this blog, I am identifying it as the river Rhine.

Arriving in Zurich we faced a long walk the length of the terminal, an automated underground train ride to the other terminal and then another walk to Immigration. We joined the long "All other passports" line and admired their Disney-style hidden loops in the queue. As we got closer to the front we could see a woman in the area past Immigration walking up and down in an agitated fashion, peering desperately at the queue. Yes, it was HMMAW and, turning around, we caught a glimpse of Hubby two queue loops back. He had presumably stopped for a toilet break and she had carried on regardless.

It was 20 minutes before we reached the front of the queue. A couple of questions about where and how long we were staying and we were through to Baggage Collection where, miracle of miracles, both of our bags were waiting. As we marched to the exit we had one last encounter with HMMAW as she stood at one end of the baggage hall loudly hailing Hubby at the other end with, I couldn't help but notice, what looked like only her luggage at her feet. I do so hope we see them again on our travels.

The rental car pick up was painless and in no time at all I found myself at the wheel of an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar city, in rush hour, where they drive on the wrong side of the road and sit on the wrong side of the car. What could possibly go wrong?

As it happens, nothing went wrong and as we got further out of Zurich the traffic settled down and I got more comfortable driving and even ventured out of the slow lane from time to time. I never quite lost the habit of gripping the steering wheel too hard.

The last five kilometres of the trip were off the motorway and up a typical Swiss mountain road, twisty with a hill on one side and a vertical drop of unknown dimensions on the other. This brought us to the village of Obstalden where our Airbnb for the next two nights is located. The particular drawcard of this place is its views, perched as it is several hundred metres above the Walensee, directly across from Seerenbach Falls.

This waterfall falls nearly 600m over its three steps and can be heard here, several kilometres away. We also have other great views up and down the lake.

The village shop was due to close in half an hour so after being shown around our apartment we walked down to the shop and picked up some supplies. As we were walking back, the sky was getting darker.

Sure enough, we finished the walk in a torrential downpour (and our rain jackets). Below is what our view of the waterfall looked like now.

The rain - and thunder - went as quickly as it had arrived and our view was restored but there would be several more thunderstorms throughout the evening and night.

We cooked ourselves scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner, using the supplies we picked up at the village store.

The local Reformed Church has bells that chime every quarter hour and at 8pm another church joined in with a seven minute performance, presumably calling the faithful to prayer. We hope the bells get turned off overnight.