Zurich

We are headed through some pretty impressive mountains from Switzerland into Italy, which means alternating between amazing scenery and total darkness as we go through tunnels. We made our connection at Bern, even though our train was late getting in and we had to run up and down stairs to catch it. Kyle’s had his daily morning sugar rush, and he and Neil are now playing Pokemon on their gameboys, as they usually are on these train rides. It’s a good time for me catch up.

            Yesterday was our last day in Switzerland, so we’re leaving behind a country that I found clean, classy, organized, and expensive (We’re also leaving behind the German language, which we’re pretty happy about. After spending so much time with Slovak/Czech, German sounds very harsh).

            Yesterday, we took a day trip from Lucerne to Zurich. As the forecast called for pouring rain, the first thing we decided to do was go up into Uetliberg to see the mountains and the view, as hiking in the rain did not sound like fun. We took a tram up and then had a short hike before reaching a good vantage point (for some reason, the path up has these large moose creature lamps). Kyle and I (and Neil up to the 1^st platform) climbed a tower for a fantastic view. We worried that it might be foggy, but it wasn’t too bad.

            We descend the mountain and walk along the water to see the Ganymede statue and the flower clock. We see the Swiss National Museum and walk down the famous Bahnhofstrasse (or “shopping mile”, with Prada, Chanel, etc.) to the historic section that lines the river, which includes Stadthaus, Rathaus, Munsterhof, and the 4 churches along the water: Wasserkirche, Fraumunster (with a tall steeple and unremarkable interior excepting the Chagall stained windows), St. Peter’s (with the giant clock in its steeple), and Grossmunster (which is gigantic and impressive and interesting because of its modern stained glass, including geode windows, and its illuminated Bible from the 1500s).

            It is about this time that Neil sees a weird bird and identifies it with a guide. I’m only including this because they made a big deal about “this is the kind of thing your readers want to hear about.”

            A final place we saw was Grossestadt Kleiner Hafner, which used to have prehistoric dwellings in the water, and is now a park with yellow buoys in the river to mark where they used to be.

            We lunch at Café Odeon, and have fried cheese salad (Neil), a swiss-style burger with egg and a hash brown patty instead of a bun (Kyle-who declared it one of the best burgers he’s ever had and started carrying around the little Swiss flag that it came with), and steak tartar (me). While there, we saw a guy drive into a trolley (no kidding) and reminisced about the trip (“Remember that time I had to buy you something that cost one pound, but only had a 20? So then I had pockets of change that I had to keep emptying again and again when I changed money in Belgium. And you were just laughing and laughing…”).

            We have a little trouble getting the check (“maybe if I wear this bread bowl on my head…”), but eventually do, and it’s about this time that the rain really breaks. Neil and Kyle share my umbrella, and I have my slicker from Liverpool. At one point, Kyle ducks into a phone booth for cover (“They’re playing creepy music in here!”)

            Getting back to Lucerne, we decide to get ice cream for dinner (they didn’t seem to be serving real food). Kyle and I get big sundaes called Swiss Chocolate Doodles. Then we wander back to our hostel through deserted streets as everyone is watching the Eurocup final between Spain and Italy. Spain won, which somehow translated into falling asleep to cars honking for 2 hours in Switzerland.

            P.S. Random notes about our hostel in Lucerne: The elevator makes alarming sounds like it’s going to break down every time you use it. The front door looks antique and wooden, but lacks a doorknob, and automatically slowly opens up for you. It is both cool and creepy.