Trip Report: VLC-ZRH-IAD-SAN Part I

It was time to go back to California for the holidays, and the only itineraries on united.com had overnight connections in ZRH. So overnight in ZRH it was!

My first leg was typical a Swiss flight, with chocolates, sandwich, and beverage. I asked for lemon with my water as I often do, and I was surprised to be given a shelf stable single use package of lemon juice! It did not taste good at all, not surprisingly.

On this flight, there was a choice of three sandwiches! All on exactly the same bread: cheese, chicken, and bologna. There weren't very many people on this flight, and a very friendly flight attendant came around to each passenger individually - in Economy Class - and asked if she could provide anything else. I asked for another glass of water and she exclaimed, "Of course!!." She came back and offered me a second sandwich - this time I took bologna.

I decided to try to "leave" the Schengen zone the same night, so that I wouldn't have another day count towards the Schengen time limit. Luckily, there was one immigration officer on staff for entry into the non-Schengen zone, and I went straight through. ZRH isn't really an airport like SIN where there are a lot of transit passengers waiting airside. After all, I suppose most people who do have overnight connections would just leave the airport. So there I was with the Africans and Pakistanis in this little waiting area.

The benches were not bad to sleep on: no armrests to prevent you from lying across, and they're padded too. The only drawbacks were the bright lights and the fact that it got a little cold.

There was also a prayer room; I was interested to see that no one took advantage of the low light and quiet (no air conditioning or cleaning staff moving about) in this room to go to sleep.

Finally, 6am rolled around, and the Swiss lounge opened! This was a smaller one than the main one in the Schengen zone. There is one shower room available, and you have to leave the lounge and enter a door with a key you get at the lounge reception. The door is unmarked; you just have to look for the numbers above the door according to what the receptionist tells you.

This shower room is so much nicer than the ones in the main lounge! First, there's actually a little space to put your belongings while you shower, not just hang them up on a hook. Second, there's a rain shower head, with a good volume of water coming out! Third, there's a clothes rack in front of a heater, so you can warm up your towel and fresh clothes.

And finally, instead of dispensers in the wall for combo hair/body wash, you get a Swiss-branded Bulgari toiletries kit, with Colgate toothpaste, razor, etc.!

After a refreshing shower and change of clothes, I returned to the lounge.

I like the subdued atmosphere of Swiss lounges. The lounge guests even talk with very low voices, unlike US lounges which have the atmosphere of a cafeteria.

For Christmas, there was a special offering of chocolates and these cookies which the woman standing next to me highly recommended. She said I must try them because they are a German specialty! The one I tried seemed to have a lot of egg white in it, since it was a bit meringue-y / macaron-y, a good deal of spice, but not a lot of sugar.