On our way. Connecting in SFO. Polaris lounge. Decent mimosa. Wines list pleasant. Inoffensive.
Restaurant food variable.Shrimp cake good. Miso cod dry and rather tasteless, Blackened chicken dry. Chocolate cookie skillet terrific

Yay! Look forward to hearing about your trip.

Arrived ZUR 1010 on time. Flight uneventful Zurich airport little confusing as you go downstairs to get to baggage and immigration but the signs point horizontally rather than down. Walk across to train station quite close and the SBB office efficient. Bought Swiss 50% discount card then First class Oberland pass for 6 days starting in three days. Also bought first class train tickets to Luzern. Cost 11 CHF more than second. Train tracks right downstairs. Large crowd for second class part of train near escalator. First class further down and much less crowded. 2 small areas large enough for five large suitcases at end of cabin for storage. Rain set up one seat on one side and two on the other side. Train from airport goes through main Zurich station to Luzern. Trains appear to run about every 20 minutes on this route and if you miss your train you can just take the next one with same ticket. Luzern about a 40 minute train. Raining.

Arrived in Lucerne. Radisson a 5 minute flat walk from train station. Typical class 4- hotel tourist style hotel. Decent size room overlooking lake. Clean and modern. Plenty of electrical/usb c ports. Don’t usually stay at Radisson, I think the only one I have ever stayed at was in Bergen. Decent acceptable hotel. breakfast 35 CHF an easy pass. Cloudy to partly cloudy. Walked around the town for the afternoon and had an early dinner sharing veal schnitzel with fries 32CHF with a beer. Costs here approximately double typical US. Early to bed.

Yeah, definitely not cheap, and the poor exchange rate doesn't help. I'm cringing thinking about what our four weeks in Switzerland is going to cost come September. Looks like 1 CHF is currently $1.26 - and that's the bank rate.

Look forward to hearing more about your trip.

Yes, the cost of food and meals is quite shocking. We were told it was because everyone involved is assured a "fair wage" which means a pricey meal. We rarely ate for less than $100 per meal for the two of us, even with a modest choice off the menu and before drinks. No tipping, however. Have fun!

I wonder ... if this is now a trip report, perhaps you should ask the moderators to flag it as one.

It's kind of a real time, as we go deal. Whatever it is I wish I was there.

I will try to write a little bit every day as I never have time when I return home. Slept 12 hours last night despite getting some decent sleep on the plane. Probably due to averaging less then 5 for the last several nights before our trip. Awoke to rain. Went to Bucherer and while they sell many second hand watches no Pateks. They did refer me to another store but they had none either. Had an early lunch at the nearby Italian restaurant with one shared pizza and a bottle of aqua pana. Decided on doing a boat tour and went to Vitznou. Rain then heavy rain. Returned to Lucerne for early dinner at Romantic hotel Wilden Mann. Pleasant meal. We had pike and a perch followed by a cheese course and blueberry cream brûlée along with a half bottle of Swiss Sauvignon Blanc. Pleasant meal 170CHF.
notable was an extremely clean bathroom worth of a good 5 star hotel. Back to Radisson to sleep. Decent hotel but skimpiest bath towels.

I’m enjoying the updates and apologize for putting that song in your head.

I've stayed at that Radisson for business reasons; it's ok. Its best feature is the proximity to the train station.

As for restaurant prices, we got used to them. Our dinner tonight at the Bohemia restaurant in Basel cost us 190 francs, which is actually a little less than dinner at a good restaurant usually costs. One lesson we learned pretty quickly after moving here was that the mediocre restaurants charge just as much as the good ones, so you might as well pick a good one. Sorry about the rain; Vitznau can be lovely. We've stayed at the Vitznauerhof and had a beautiful lake view room with breakfast and an excellent dinner. If you take the Vitznau train trip to Rigi one tip for those with wonky knees: when you get off the train at Rigi, you can walk down a hallway to an elevator that take you straight up to the restaurant with viewing platforms.

For Pateks, you could try this store: https://theswisscollector.com/en/49-patek-philippe or in Lugano, https://watchcenter.ch/categoria-pro...atek-philippe/ (their store is located on Via Nassa)

Posts pulled from the original planning thread to create this Trip Report.

Awoke and looked at weather report. Meteoswiss Ap and it appears cloudy to partly cloudy until 1500 so we head off to Mt Pilitis. Walk to train station to pick up some sandwiches at Bachman then on to a kiosk near Pier one to buy our golden round tickets. Bus to mountain then first class boat return 138 CHF for two with 50% off card.
Sun is out! Hope springs eternal. Bus 1 leaves A position across street and leaves every 10 minutes to base of mountain where the the cog wheel train starts.

Bus ride short. Less than 10 minutes but we arrive and there are no direction signs to the Gondola station. We wonder around a bit and a car stops at a stop light and the driver asks us if we were lost. We replied yes and that we were looking for the gondola station. He’s asks us to get in and drives us to the gondola station. Very nice! We then had to go to ticket office and use our pass to get tickets for the gondola up the mountain.

Mel - USD is worth .80frs right now. But the bank rate is about .78frs...

We do tip. Not at the rate in the US though. Around here (Valais) right now most people leave 5% or so tip. Or on a coffee which costs about 5frs - .50c

Here's hoping for a wonderful trip. We had thought about going ourselves this month, but the poor exchange rate put us off.

Trip up Mt Pitalus foggy and cloudy. No view whatsoever from the top. Cog wheel train down the mountain interesting. Unfortunately we are only here for a few days so no real chance to wait for good weather to do things. Lots of rain, sometimes quite heavy. Ferry back to Luzern during which we ate the sandwiches we picked up at Bachman. Dropped our stuff off at our hotel then took the 6 bus to the Swiss Transportation museum. Entry 24 CHF after 4pm. Interesting museum. It’s not the National Aerospace museum but still worth the visit. Bus back into town. Dinner at Cafe Fritschi. Bratwurst and a beer for 35CHF.
Ate better for a lot less in Berlin last year visiting the Christmas markets. The exchange rate vs the dollar is not good. The dollar is down over 11% last I looked vs a bucket of foreign currencies due to our new administration. Expect it to continue to get worse so waiting may not be helpful for those of us who travel with the dollar.

Yeah, glad we paid for most of our accommodation when we did. It's going to be an expensive (six week) trip. Thanks for nothing, you-know-who.

SIgh. You're probably right on the exchange rates between USD and CHF. Just have to put Switzerland off for a few more years I suppose. Hoping the weather improves for you.