Route for Day 7:
Just as I was starting to get super comfortable with this car, today was the day we had to say goodbye. Our flight out of Zurich wasn’t until 5pm but the drop off company told us we needed to drop the car off at 1:30 to make our flight! Since Zurich was about 1 hour away from Lucerne, the plan for today was to drive to Zurich, find a car wash, and then drop off the car.
Despite the drop off company telling me that self-service car washes were nearly impossible to find in Switzerland anymore, I discovered the AutoP chain of full and self-service car washes in the Zurich area. I actually planned out the route to 3 different locations because I was worried there would be a wait or I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to operate the self-wash bays without speaking the language. Turns out that was completely unnecessary. The first AutoP location we went to had about 12 self-wash bays and there was only one other customer. The fact that it was still raining probably helped.
Google Translate really came in clutch here while using the token machine, and before long the car was sparkling clean again. I can’t overstate how much I love Estoril Blue II, it looks so different depending on the lighting and always draws stares from surrounding cars.
After washing the car we still had about an hour to kill before our drop off appointment. Being in an industrial area behind Zurich airport there weren’t a lot of food options so we ended up at a Burger King believe it or not. We ordered two burgers, two fries, and a drink, and it came out to over $30 USD!!! Did I mention food in Switzerland was crazy expensive?
The drop off appointment went smoothly and I wasn’t able to find any damage on the car that needed to be noted down so that it could be fixed before redelivery. It was time to say goodbye for the next 8-10 weeks to this beauty:
(and before anyone mentions the parking job, the sign on the wall said to park 4 cars in the 6 spots, so the M550i is the one not following instructions
)
The flight to Manchester was uneventful as was our overnight stay there. If Manchester seems like a strange stop on the way back from Zurich it was because I wanted to fly Singapore Airlines’ 5th freedom Manchester -> Houston route on the A350 and the miles redemption worked out perfectly there.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Stay tuned for updates on how long it takes for redelivery stateside.