Zürich Weekend - Part 1

Zürich

Friday after Shelby got home from work we headed to Zürich, Switzerland for a few days. The drive was about 3.5 hours and beautiful as usual. Shelby slept while I drove and when we got close to the border he suggested switching places since I do not have an international drivers license (only because I've been too lazy to take the paper to the proper office to get one) and I can only drive in Germany. I said not to worry, we'd be fine, because entering different countries around Europe is like driving from one state to the next back in the US...no dramatic gates and searches like when you enter the US. So we cross the border and shortly after we approach a toll, either you have a sticker or you don't, I did not so therefore I had to go in the line to buy an autobahn sticker, which just so happened to have the police selling them. Crap. I was worried they would ask for my passport and license, I worry too much. All they wanted was my money and the little man was delighted to see I already had Swiss money and he didn't have to take Euro. 40 CHF (Franks) later...you'll soon read how expensive Switzerland is, and we were off. I promptly pulled over and switched seats with Shelby who drove the rest of the way to Zürich, lol.

We got to the hotel and settled in. Definitely the smallest hotel room we've had so far, but also possibly one of the nicest. We decided to eat at the restaurant in the hotel since we were there and it was late. It was delicious, we had the house specialty, fresh homemade cappelletti. It's like ravioli sort of, I had mine stuffed with spinach and Shel had his stuffed with mushrooms, veal and spinach. It was delcious! It was also very expensive! We'd been warned that Switzerland was pricey...turns out it is actually one of the most expenisive places in the world and the city of Zürich is up near the top of the list of most expensive cities worldwide.

The next morning we woke up early and google mapped the closest Starbucks to the hotel and started walking. We don't get it very often, not even one on base :( so when we have the opportunity we take advantage. In true Zürich fashion, the bill for two venti coffees and two muffins...30 Franks! That's about $26 for coffee, lol. Once we had coffee we started walking to the city, which was about 2km from our hotel. The forecast was calling for 60% chance of rain all weekend but the sky was smiling on us Saturday. No rain at all and even some blue skies and sunshine peeking through here and there. We took full advantage of the weather and walked our butts off to see as much as we possibly could in nice weather.

We saw the outside of the Swiss Land Museum, the Altstadt (where we spent another 17 Franks on coffee at Starbucks), the Fraumünster church with beautiful stained glass windows by Marc Chagall. It was rather annoying that they don't allow photography of any kind inside the church. At first I thought this was maybe due to attempts to maintain the sanctity of the church. However, I doubt this as historic churches all over Germany allow you to photograph them. The main dead giveaway as to why no photographs was the souvenier shop set up INSIDE the church where you could by photographs and postcards of the church interior from every angle...and you know they were a bargain since we are in Switzerland! So I coughed up 3 Franks to buy a stupid picture of the stupid Chagall windows that I could have taken better myself. We walked the lakes and up the famous Bahnhofstrasse shopping street. We saw a flea market full of junk, and various other markets set up in little squares around the city. We went to the Grossmünster church where again you could not take pictures. It has two huge towers that they allow you to climb for 4 Franks a person. The steps are narrow, tight and treacherous...you are literally climbing a stone tower spiral staircase, then you come to an area above the church where the tower opens up some. You then start climbing up steep wooden stairs, and you climb and climb and climb. I read somewhere it's 187 steps but it sure felt like more than that! The view from the balcony is incredible, worth the climb for sure.

For lunch we decided to catch one of the lake cruises that run all day long. The boat ride goes around the northern end of Lake Zürich and lasts about 2 hours. We had lunch on the dining area and then moved to a seat outside on the deck for a better view. After the boat ride we walked around and did more sightseeing and then found a huge park we had seen from the boat. We let Colin run and play for a while on the playground. He had a blast being around other kids and playing in the sand. Then he discovered the jumping water fountains and he was in heaven. He was soaked and full of sand from head to toe...so glad we had a clean change of clothes still this late in the day. After letting Colin unwind we walked over to a Swiss restaurant called Terroir for some authentic swiss cuisine. Their entire menu consists of products and dishes only from Switzerland. The very friendly (and English speaking) manager told us the only thing not from Switzerland in their restaurant is the ketchup, which comes from America. LOL I had a veal meatloaf with mashed potatoes and Shelby ate pike with risotto. After dinner it was time to walk back to the hotel and get some rest. Loooong but awesome day and the weather was great compared to what we were expecting. On the walk back you could see the storm clouds rolling in though, rain was on the way.