At around 11am we left our place in Thalwil and caught the train back to Zurich main station. There we activated our Eurail pass. We should have activated it when we arrived the first day because I think it counts for local trains, so we could have saved a few francs on the train from Thalwil. We couldn't activate it in Thalwil because it is an automated station, there is no ticket agent. The agent has to stamp the pass to activate it.
We have 10 day global passes, which covers most of Europe. The way it works is we pick 10 days in a two month period and we get unlimited travel on those days. You have to write the days you use it on the ticket (in ink) and the places you travel. For some trains you need to reserve a seat, which costs extra and isn't covered by the pass, but for Zurich to Geneva we could just jump on the train. We just missed the 12:32pm train, so we stored our luggage in a locker and walked back to Hiltl for another veggie buffet lunch. Yanmei wants to open a restaurant like this in the US now.
We leisurely came back and got on the 2:32pm train. The ride was very pleasant. There were stops at Bern, Fribourg, and Lausanne along the way. If we'd planned better we could have got on an earlier train and then got off and looked around in each of those towns, and then got on the next hourly train. Something to keep in mind when we plan our future train rides.
The countryside was the idyllic Swiss countryside you read about. Green fields and rolling hills spotted with small towns, with a backdrop of the Alps.
-David
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