After a nice breakfast this morning (although my all-time favourite breakfasts are still the Helsinki ones), I went off to the local Ulla Popken shop. This might seem like a weird thing to do, but the one in Paris doesn't have underwear, and I desperately needed bras. I now have two new ones, plus a nightdress and a swimsuit, all desperately needed. It's really hard to buy these in Paris if you are not small, or exceedingly rich. The last bra I bought in Paris was 125€, and it was great, but that is really expensive. The swimsuit was reduced a bit, and it is really cute, black with pink and blue piping and a racing back so it won't fall off in the water.

Then I headed up the Uetliberg, a mountain railway from which there would have been a great view if it had been fine (you would also have had a picture, but taking photos in the rain is no fun). I walked from the station to the summit and back again, it was marked as 15 mins up and 10 mins down, I think it took me about forty minutes all up, which is not bad. My Asian friends complain madly about the times given on the walking trails in Europe - one guy, who works in the Netherlands, tells me he always doubles the time, as the Dutch are all twice his height. I normally come in somewhere between his time and the European time. I'd forgotten how nice it was not to walk on hard pavements, so I'm looking forward to a week in Austria with some more walking.

Then I came down again and found a bookshop, where I bought two books on knitting socks, perfectly normal to find those here, and I caught a tram back to the Old Town, where I just happened upon a wool shop, so bought a couple of balls of coloured sock yarn. I have a sock with me that I should finish this week.

I've just had another Swiss meal, this time Zurich veal with roesti, and I'm back in my hotel room. It is the big street parade, so outside it is fairly noisy, but I can't hear much from my room - in fact, I've got it on tv, as the view is better than it is outside anyway. There are people dressed up everywhere, of all ages and sizes, and a lot of drinking going on, and all this techno music, of course, but it all seems fairly harmless, everyone is having a good time.

Tomorrow it is the train into Austria, I just called the hotel there and they are sending me a taxi to the station at Langen am Arlberg to meet the train, so that is very helpful. It's quite a long way up the mountains and there's no bus on Sundays. Even the weather forecast is set to improve, so I am hopeful of a good week for resting and walking - I didn't bring walking shoes, but only my Ecco sandals that are just as good for anything except mountaineering. Actually speaking of shoes, I saw about fifty pairs I would like to buy today, there are heaps of shoes shops here with wider fittings, and really good ones as well. I saw a brand that I liked in Melbourne, that cost 250AUD there for about 125SF - if you just look at the exchange rate, they still seem expensive, but it's better value if you consider the time you take to earn 125SF as opposed to the time you take to earn 250AUD. However I resisted, I just thought how heavy my case would become!