Even though I flew into Geneva on this my very first trip to Switzerland it turned out that maybe flying into Zurich would have been a better proposition. I’m back scouring Europe with my friend Anthony and this year we are in Confederatio Helvetica to find out how this neutral home of Rolex and raclette – melted cheese over bread – ticks. We wanted to save exploring Geneva for later since we’d be there for an entire week, and with very few windows of opportunity to venture far – Zurich is a somewhat numbing three-hour train ride each way – we grabbed the opportunity to be led around by a couple of Anthony’s friends, Je and Gino, who happened to be living in the Lausanne area. Leaving Geneva by train on a somewhat late morning we got into Zurich central station at 2 p.m. for a late lunch, afterwards headed to the Swiss National Museum, strolled through old town with its impressively clean river, took a ferry ride on pretty Lake Zurich, and finally a dinner of my very first raclette before we caught the 8:30 p.m. train back.

After over 6 hours I was spent – it was a long day by any definition and it’s only been day one so far. This may turn out to be the most exhausting edition of The Amazing Race yet.