Īn Ceasescu's footsteps: Switzerland, Serbia and Romania via SQ346/345

[RedEyeflight]

I had about an hour to kill before heading off to the airport for a 4pm departure to ZRH.

Saw some communist era trams operating near the hotel so decided to hop on one.

These are in much better shape than in Belgrade.

[RedEyeflight]

Flight: LX1889
Aircraft: Airbus 220-300 (YL-AAW) (Operated by Air Baltic)
Origin: Bucharest-Otopeni (OTP)
Destination: Zurich (ZRH)
Class: Economy
Date: April 2024

Off to the airport in an Uber at 1.30pm. No traffic. Romanian roads are notorious for bad traffic. They have a similar culture to us in Singapore where a car is a status symbol.

Departure curbside.





Newer wing of the terminal.



Only 2 check-in counters for LX. Staff were incredibly efficient but super irate. There was virtually no queue.



After clearing security, I headed to a cafe to chill.

YL-AAW arriving from ZRH.



Gate area.



Aircraft being prepared to return to ZRH.

[RedEyeflight]

Boarding.



"Business class" cabin. Swiss-branded headrest covers but BT interior. All FAs wore BT uniforms.





Seatback.



Air Baltic safety video played. I still can't believe they're allowed to show the safety video through these small screens.



Once airborne, cabin crew came around handing out water. It was the same Swiss-themed water.



Exact same buy-on-board menu and inflight shopping.



Air Baltic safety card.



Spacious bathrooms on the A220.

[RedEyeflight]

Cabin mid-flight. Flight time was 2 hours and 10 minutes.



Mood lighting.



Moving map.







Before landing, cabin crew came around handing out swiss chocolates. But no LX-themed. Just general Lindt chocolate.



Descending into ZRH.





Arriving into gate A33.



My bag was second on the belt. All bags came with Easter treats stapled to their baggage tags. Thank you LX!

[RedEyeflight]

Welcome back to Switzerland! With one full-day left in the country, I opt to go to the French-speaking side. Particularly, the town of Montreux on Lake Geneva. A journey like this would probably take 6-7 hours in Romania. But here in Switzerland, the trains would bring me there in a quick 2 hours and 50 minutes. Short enough for a day trip.

Zurich HB in the morning.



The journey involved a switch in the town of Lausanne.

The scenery became spectacular between Fribourg and Lausanne.





Approaching Lake Geneva and Lausanne.

[RedEyeflight]

Welcome to Montreux. A French-speaking town by Lake Geneva. On the other side of the lake is France.










Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux.



A street in Montreux.

[RedEyeflight]

Lunch at La Rouvenaz.



After lunch, the weather had cleared up. So I went for a walk on the promenade.

[RedEyeflight]

Time to leave Montreux and head back to Zurich, with a stop in Bern.



Views of the lake from the train.

[RedEyeflight]

Welcome to Bern, the capital of Switzerland.



Zytglogge.









Swiss federal parliament.

[RedEyeflight]

Had dinner at Entrecōte Federal. Beef tartare.



The train from Bern to Zurich was a quick 56 minutes. I arrived in my hotel just before dark.

[RedEyeflight]

The next morning, I checked out of the Hotel St Josef.







It was a 10 minute walk to the main railway station. I bought a ticket at the machine for any train going towards the airport.

[RedEyeflight]

Flight: SQ345
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER (9V-SWR)
Origin: Zurich (ZRH)
Destination: Singapore (SIN)
Class: Economy
Date: April 2024

I arrived at Zurich Airport and followed signs for check-in 1 where all the non-schengen airlines have their check-in counters.





I was checked-in at the business class counter by a very jovial personnel.

Was through security in no time and lining up at passport control. The officer did make a small fuss about the Romanians who had stamped my passport on the wrong page. She stamped my passport on the same page as the other Swiss passport stamps from earlier, so there's a herd of them on one page in my passport.

Then I took the Skymetro to the E gate satellite concourse.



Gate today was E56.





FIDS.



9V-SWR.

[RedEyeflight]

Open-air viewing deck.

[RedEyeflight]

Boarding.











My seat 52G.



This was a full flight and it took a while to seat everybody. Flight time was announced to be 11 hours and 45 minutes. Boarding was slightly delayed and so we left the gate a few minutes behind schedule.

Safety video.

[RedEyeflight]

Once airborne, hot towels were handed out. I'm not sure why, but they were a bit lukewarm when they came.



Peas and crackers along with a choice of drink were first handed out.



Lunch was served around 1 hour and 30 minutes into the flight. It was a choice between chicken curry or pan-fried prawn pasta. The chicken curry was very popular and cabin crew ran out of options a few seats in front of me and supplemented with PEY meals. I chose the prawn pasta.







Dessert consisted of chocolate ice cream.