BMCC 2008 Switzerland Blog

Friday, June 13, 2008

(Day 15: Tour Guide – Sarah Pagan)

Chur- Zurich: Four Points Sihlcity Hotel and Excursion of Zurich – Itinerary

6:00am: (Wake-up call for everyone)

7:00- 7:20am: Breakfast

7:20am: Meet in the lobby

7:22am: Group departure for bus station

7:29am: Bus departs for Chur (Arrive at station@ 7:42am, Platform # 9)

8:16am: Departure from Chur to Zurich HB (9:47am Arrive @ Zurich HB)

Visit Tourisms Office for Information and Take bathroom break

10:05am: 7min walk from Zurich HB to Zurich, Bahnhofquai/ HB

10:16am: Departure from Zurich, Bahnhofquai/ HB by Tram 13

10:28am: Arrive @ Zurich, Sihlcity Nord

11:00am: Four Points Sihlcity Hotel site inspection with Mrs Alexia Hungerbühler

11:45am: Site inspection Finish

11:45- 12:30pm: Lunch time

12:30- 2:30pm: Zurich Excursion: Swiss National Museum

3:00- 4:15pm: Street Parade

5:37pm: Depart from Zurich main station

6:52pm: Arrive @ Chur

7:00pm: Dinner in Chur TBD

9:00pm: Take a taxi back to Swiss School

Lessons Learned

1) When I was doing my itinerary it was not easy: I put a lot of effort into organizing everything. I called the hotel to confirm the appointment and to get directions of the place.

2) As a tour guide, I learned that working as a group was productive and it helped me through my learning process.

3) My experience taught me to start work earlier, and not wait for the last minute.

Wake Up…..It’s Friday the 13th….

Written by: Sarah Pagan

Yippee – I am the tour guide of the day. I woke up really early this morning – at 5:45am. I went to a couple of peoples’ rooms to wake them up, and some I called to remind them to wake up. I also reminded everyone to bring their umbrellas and to remove their bed linens and towels from their rooms, for the weekly linen exchange. However, when I went to Sasha and Shevy’s room, I saw an interesting letter taped to the door, I thought this was very cute. It said, “wake us up last.” Then I went back to my room so I could get ready to be in the lobby by 6:55am.

At 7:00am we were suppose to meet for breakfast, but I noticed that everybody was arriving little by little, which caused me to get a little worried. Therefore, I was going to call them, but the professors told me to eat and get my energy. So Gia, my assistant, went to round up everyone and I focused on getting the packed lunches from the kitchen. I was so happy and grateful that Gia was there to help me. Sasha and Gia assisted me in getting our lunch bags from the kitchen. It was very helpful of them, because it was 15 very heavy bags that we distributed to everyone at the tables. I went to finish up my breakfast and we all met at 7:20am in the lobby so that we could reach the bus at 7:29am. I gave everybody a brief overview about the Four Points Sihlcity Hotel located in Zurich, Switzerland, which is where we were going for a site inspection.

On our way to Zurich, Switzerland

Ready for Zurich, Switzerland (Left to Right, front row: Elliott, Adrienne, Sarah, Curtis, Mark. back row: Prof. Blake-Neis, Adele, Dr. Garely, Liliana, Andy, Gia, Shevy, Katherine, and Sasha.

So the bus came on time, and we took it to Chur, to catch the train to Zurich HB, on track nine. The train arrived around 7:55am, so I thought it wasn’t our train. We asked a porter and he said yes, it was the train to Zurich. But of course, I confirmed this with another person before we entered the train. We found seats and waited for the train to leave. The train left at 8:16am on the dot. Me of course, always giving an update on the stops and time of arrival. We were on our way to Zurich!

Chur Train Station Track 9 : Bound for Zurich !

Zurich’s busy Train Station: “Switzerland’s Penn Station”

We reached the city at 9:47am and then went to the tourism office to pick up brochures and maps of Zurich. We walked to the trolley station for transport Zurich, Sihlcity – our first destination. We reached the hotel. When I entered the hotel it looked so modern and beautiful. Since I was the tour guide, I went to the front desk with Dr. Garely and told the man at the front desk that we had an appointment with Alexia Hungerbühler. He said that he didn’t know who she was, and acted like he didn’t want to help us. He wasn’t very polite. But then he found out and we waited in the lobby for her because we were early.

As a tour guide, I was kind of nervous because I didn’t know how everything was going to turn out today. In the morning I thought I was doing things wrong. But then I was thinking that this is all a learning process. Before today, I never handled a group of 15 people, especially not on a tour! This was a very new experience for me, because whenever I have traveled before it was always by myself, or just me and my mom. This tour was different, and I am glad it was because we all worked as a team and everybody cooperated. I wanted to say thank you to everybody, and I appreciate all the hard work that was put in. I am grateful and I couldn’t have done it without all the team work.

Shearton Hotel Four Points Sihlcity

So let me go back to the hotel setting. Ms. Hungerbühler arrived and presented herself in a professional manner. Then she gave us a tour of the hotel. We went in the elevator to the first floor. She showed us around a “Deluxe” room – it was very beautiful with a colorful design. I was impressed because it was so modern and up to date. This type of room would cost 460CHF per night. Following that, we went to see a “Junior Suite” – it was so fabulous. The bathroom was stocked with amenities. The suite would cost 600CHF per night. The view of the river was amazing.

Prof. Blake-Neis, Ms. Hungerbühler and Dr. Garely

Then we went to see the spa. It was gorgeous, very big, and had a lot of room for different treatments. We saw three pools. One was a whirlpool, one a jacuzzi, and one a regular pool. The aroma in the air was nice. They had a lot of equipment to exercise with. I was thinking that my body’s muscles needed a relaxation moment. After being guided through the spa we saw the bar and the restaurant. I was so delighted when Ms. Hungerbühler asked if we would like tea or coffee. I felt so honored. I was also getting worried because the time was going and I thought the site inspection was only for a half hour and had passed its limit. I kept looking at the time constantly, but realized that the tram back (number 13) was running regularly, and we were not in such a rush because our next stop was not a scheduled appointment.

Tea @ Four Points Hotel (Lt. to Rt: Dr. Garely, Sasha, Adele, Sarah, Andy, Katherine, Adrienne and Ms. Alexia Hungerbühler, Director of Sales and Marketing)

So I relaxed, enjoyed my peppermint tea, and everybody shared their background about who they were and where they came from to Ms. Hungerbühler. We left the hotel and took the tram back to Banhofstrasse. Then we went through the park and had lunch outside. We sat near the beautiful scenery of the city of Zurich, with a view of the river. After lunch (about 1:15pm), we went to the Swiss National Museum, using our trusty to get in for free. We were given tickets and pamphlets about the museum.

Swiss National Museum

I was excited because we had an opportunity to explore the Swiss National Museum and experience the cultural history of the museum.

Group at the entrance of Swiss National Museum

I was touring with Dr. Garely and she was explaining to me the translation of the Italian words in the exhibits. I was happy for that because I couldn’t understand what the descriptions were saying. We walked around the museum and saw all the interesting things they had.

We all met up at 2:15 at the entrance to the museum and headed out to see the Old Town, but all plans changed. Because of the Euro cup, it was getting very crowded in Zurich, so we compromised and took an earlier train back to Chur. Then everybody split into groups for dinner at Chur. Curtis, Katherine, Lilliana, Adrienne and I went to a restaurant to eat together. I ate a beef burrito, it was delicious and and nice change of pace. We all shared from our plates, so I got to taste other varieties. Then we went back to SSTH and I started blogging myself away!