Well, as in the past, we have had frustrations with internetconnectivity on our trip. The hotel in Zurichkept promising it would be fixed but it never did get repaired during our stay.Therefore, I worked on my blog diligently on a Word document. We are inRothenburg ob der Tauber, Germanyright now. This morning I transferred all I had written to the blog program(took about 90 minutes to get everything formatted and the photos downloaded)and then when I pressed publish the program crashed and I lost it all! So now,several hours later, I will try again!
September 7-8, 2011
Days 1-2 - Kansas City to Zurich
We left today with the usual mixed feelings: excitementtempered by worry (fear of being so far away from loved ones). This time I feltsad too. This will be my first trip to Europewithout Werner and Susan. Each time we have traveled it seems as if Werner hadsome health emergency shortly before we were supposed to leave. He always madea quick recovery and was able to join us, even if a little late. This time, atage 93, with an unknown diagnosis of his symptoms, it was the reasonable choicefor Susan and Werner to cancel their trip. Since we don’t travel together, itwas easy to pretend that they would be meeting us at the hotel in Zurich as we had planned.My fantasy faded as we landed in Zurichand made our way by train to the Sonne.
When Rick and I learned that Susan and Werner wouldn’t bejoining us, we tried to figure out some way to have them with us in spirit. Wecame up with the idea to bring their likenesses with us. You’ll notice photosof them as we share our experiences with them. Although we did take a pictureof them in bed at their favorite hotel in Zurich,the Sonne but that one is for their eyes only!
For some reason, I couldn’t sleep on the plane. When we gotto the hotel our room wouldn’t be ready for another hour or so. It wasaround10am so we left our bags and walked around the village. Kusnacht is asuburb of Zurich on the shore the Lake Zurich.We walked to a supermarket. I love visiting supermarkets in Europe.It’s so interesting to see the different products, the prices, and how thingsare displayed. We bought a big bottle of water and a baguette and then sat onthe dock of our hotel until our room was ready.
We collapsed when we got to our room. Didn’t even get ashower. Just passed out. We woke-up periodically during the day, looked out atthe lake and then went back to sleep. One of the times I woke up was at sunsetand luckily I was able to capture it. Good timing, huh?
We dragged ourselvesout of bed around 9pm, got dressed and went out to find some dinner. Therestaurant we found served outside. The one server spoke no English and themenu was in German. The one word I could figure out was pizza. So go figure, myfirst meal in Switzerlandwas a Margherita pizza! Rick had a Greek salad and roesti (Swiss hash brownscooked in a pancake shape) that tastes better than any hash browns the US has to offer.We were both so thirsty, we ordered the biggest beers we could.
It occurred to me that I make quite a transition when Itravel to Europe. It’s as if my senses go onoverdrive. Once the thoughts of work and the voices from home fade, my eyes seethings differently, I hear more acutely, I’m even drawn to touching things tofeel their texture, smells seem more intense, and so do emotions. I also seemto have “deep thoughts” more frequently. I’m wondering if it might be themindfulness that seems to escape me at home.
September 9, 2011
Day 3 – Zurich
This morning we woke feeling much better. We slept until9:30 which may have had something to do with it. We took the train into Zurich which took about10 minutes. There we decided to try our old pal, Rick Steves, walking tour of Zurich. We started at thetrain station. This photo is of the blue angel, Zurich’s guardian angel who protects alltourists.
Rick S. suggested a trip through the Swiss National Museum. I’m glad we tookhis advice. It gave us a history of Switzerland in two hours throughexhibits that were interesting, moving, and beautiful. One of the laterexhibits depicted Swiss design. It had rooms from the 1920s to the present. Thefurniture, accessories, and art had a “coolness,” that exuded what modern wasat the time. It totally reminded me of my dad, an artist/designer whoappreciated and introduced us to whatever was new/avant-garde in design. He andmy mom went to Europe in the 50s and 60s andbrought home photos of what I saw in the museum exhibit.
After the museum we had lunch at Hiltl VegetarianRestaurant. Susan and Werner had suggested it. It was pretty hot here today andI think I was still dehydrated from the trip. I wasn’t hungry but had a largeginger lemonade. Rick had a semolina soup. We both had around eight glasses oftheir “free” tap water. Apparently in Zurichmany restaurants charge for tap water. We’re going to go back for dinnertomorrow so I’ll tell you then about their amazing vegetarian buffet.
We followed the walking tour visiting a couple of tinyparks, wandering into some incredible toy shops, taking in the Fraumunsterchurch with its Chagall stained glass windows, peered into the ruins of Romanbaths discovered in 1984, and walked down the fanciest block of theBahnhofstrasse (the Rodeo Drive of Zurich). My son, Daniel, would have lovedall the designer clothing. I loved peeking into the shops to see who wasactually buying things. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like they had manycustomers.
Those of you who read my blog last time may remember myamazement at how many strikingly tall, beautiful Italian men there were in Rome. Well, Zurich has its owncontingent of strikingly tall, Swiss men, decked out in their impeccablytailored dark suits, who were as beautiful as some of the art and design we sawin the museum! I’m thinking some of my single, women friends might beinterested in the Tour de European Men I think I’ll invent. Do I see a newcareer in my future?
We took a wonderful boat ride back to our hotel on Zurichsee(Lake Zurich). Had a fun dinner at sunset atthe cafeteria-style restaurant in the garden of our hotel at the edge of thelake. I ordered meat loaf and French fries as a departure from my usual pizza.Rick got the food from the line while I saved our table. When he arrived withmy meat loaf, it turned out to be what had the texture and taste of a hot dogin a meat loaf shape. Very interesting. It was good. Not the fancy fare that myfoodie friends would have appreciated. Everything here is incredibly expensive.My food reporting may get embarrassing.
The sunset was lovely again. Our room doesn’t haveair-conditioning so we decided to wander around Kusnacht after dark to let ourroom cool off a little. We still don’t have internet access. I’m beginning tothink it is a clever, European scam to offer wifi and then when you arrive atthe hotel, it just happens to be broken. It happened to us many times lasttrip. This doesn’t seem like such an auspicious start!
September 10, 2011
Day 4 Zurich
Woke up early today because we wanted to check out a fleamarket in Zurichthat Werner suggested and we weren’t so sure how long it lasted. It was verylarge and filled with all things that I don’t want or need. Unlike some fleamarkets at home, this one only had used/old items rather than inexpensive newthings I usually don’t want or need.
We then crossed the Limmat Riverinto the Niederdorf neighborhood. The first stop was the Grossmunster Church.Like the Fraumunster, it had its beginnings as a Catholic church but during theReformation, it was stripped of everything Catholic and to this day is verygray and austere with just its stained glass windows offering color. We werelucky to come at a time when someone was playing or practicing on its huge pipeorgan which really set the mood and was beautiful.
The Niederdorf is a much more quirky, artsy neighborhoodthan on the other side of the Limmat. It was fun wandering the narrow streets,looking into shops and galleries. It was still really hot so we decided to takea riverboat, picture a low lying city bus for a few stops to catch a breeze andrelax. It didn’t go fast enough to cool us down so we hopped off and caught atram to the tram museum. Rick was in heaven. It was a large car barn filledwith the history of trams in Zurichwith actual cars that you could climb into. I was in heaven because it wasright next to a supermarket where I got a cold Diet Coke and a frozen “softice” which is soft ice cream put in a plastic cup and sold at a supermarket.
Rick is amazing at negotiating the public transportationsystem. He is fearless and figures out quickly what we have to do to get wherewe have to go. Totally sweaty and hot we decided to get on one of the big lakeboats to see if the breeze would cool us down and it did! We also got a nice“kleine rundfahrten” which is a shorter roundtrip of the lake rather than the“grosse rundfahrten.” German is the best language to give me the giggles. Ithas lots of fahrt and gasse signs and I’m having fun taking photos of them foranyone who shares my juvenile humor.
Rick had a surprise for me at 7pm which required us to takeyet another kind of pubic transportation, a funicular—a little cable car thattakes you up a little mountain. I was amazed that it was totally run by acomputer with no sign of a human in sight. It took us to Rigiblick. The sun wasgoing down, it was cooling off, and exactly at 7pm (the Swiss are nothing butpunctual) all the church bells in Zurichstarted ringing at once! They were welcoming in the Christian Sabbath and itwas awesome. It also lasted exactly 15 minutes!
We finished the evening off at Hiltl for dinner. Mostly fortheir good food but also for their internet!
September 11, 2011
Day 5 – Zurich
Today we decided to just hangout at the hotel. We slept in,had a good breakfast, then went back to our room, opened the windows to thelake, and read and dozed for several hours.
Around 4pm we took a walk to find Carl Jung’s house. Rickhad read in a history of our hotel that he lived down the street and thatpeople from far away would stay at our hotel while they consulted with him. Thehouse is privately owned now with the Jung Institute located in Zurich. Jung lived inthis home from 1906 until is death in 1961. It was about a twenty minute walkto his house.
After we took some pictures we explored some more ofKusnacht, including two parks on the lake shore filled with families with kidsplaying in the lake and on playgrounds. It was lovely to sit on a bench andjust let the lake and the cool breeze envelop us. It’s interesting how I’vegotten used to not listening to peoples’ conversations since I don’t understandthem. Every once in a while I’ll hear a few words in English but it’s at such alow level of consciousness than I’ve noticed my other senses are so muchstronger. My eyes seem to notice more detail, color, textures. I hear peoplesounds but I’m just aware that they are there, not interested in what they aresaying or doing. I guess it's that mindfulness thing again!
Shortly after we got to back to our hotel, a storm blew in.I went back to the room to close the windows and decided to stay in. Rickstayed in the garden under a thick tree. It was nice to have 30 minutes or soby myself. One of part of the our trips that is difficult for me is not havingmuch alone time. We had some good togetherness since Wednesday. It was good tohave alone time!
It’s odd to be here during the 10th anniversaryof 9/11. The only English speaking television we get is CNN. Selfishly, Ihaven’t wanted to watch their non-stop coverage. We’re watching a Swiss stationas I am writing this. They are doing what looks like a documentary on 9/11. Iwish I could understand their spin on it.
Tomorrow we leave for Rotenburg, Germany. We’rerenting a car. The drive should take about 4 hours. Hopefully we’ll have betterinternet so I can actually post this!
September 12, 2011
Day 6 – Zurich to Rothenberg obder Tauber
After taking a few final photos of the view from our room, we left our luggage at the hotel and took an hour long boatride to Hertz in downtown Zurich.We were almost the only ones on the boat at that time in the morning and it wasdelightful!
Once there we took a tram to Hertz. I had to take a photo of howpunctual the trams are. At most stops in the downtown area they have electronicsigns that show the time the trams are to arrive. They are always on time!
After picking up our luggage we started on the way to Germany. Wedidn’t know that the Prius we rented would come with a GPS so we brought oursfrom home. Of course Rick decided to use both. We had dueling “ladies” for ourtrip on the Autobahn. I had heard that people go fast on the Autobahn. OMG, Ididn’t realize how fast! Thanks to the metric system on the speedometer, Ididn’t know how fast Rick was driving. I really missed Susan when we were inthe car. She and Rick usually take turns driving and I sit in the back seatpaying no attention to the quality or speed of the driving. Between the two“ladies,” the speed, the umleitung (detours), and the cars passing us at like150 mph, I white knuckled it for four hours!
We arrived and checked into our hotel and then got back inthe car to meet some old friends of ours who now live in Germany. We metthem at Schwabisch Hall, a town about 50 minutes away. We had a delightfuldinner with. Besides catching up with them, it was so nice to have an extendedconversation in English with someone besides ourselves.
After dinner we stopped for gelato. We asked the serverwhere he was from and he said Italy.Of course, I couldn’t resist trying out some of my Italian on him and before Iknew it, I was saying, “da le eh da me,” which means “your place or mine!” Thepoor guy blushed and started giggling. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enoughEnglish and I didn’t have enough Italian for me to explain that I was justjoking. Needless to say, we had a different server bringing us our gelato!
