We slept well during our night in Zurich, and took the opportunity to sleep in until about 9am. This was fantastic for us because the week prior was filled with overnight train travel - making our sleep erratic. When we awoke, our hostess Evelyn made coffee and talked with us a bit while we were getting ready for the day. She has traveled quite extensively as she works for Swiss Air and has been fortunate enough to get significant discounts on airline tickets. She gave us a few pointers on where to go while we were exploring Zurich (locals always know more than the tour books can tell you!). Her instructions included stopping at the Migros store to get some Swiss chocolate. After showering and using the free wifi for a bit, we were on our way.
Below, our host Evelyn and her friends, introduced Tabith to Zurich - in three different languages! (German, Swiss-German, and English).
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| Arriving at the train station via our local Zurich bus. |
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| James demonstrating the proper way to travel with too much luggage. |
We very quickly realized that we would not need heavy jackets today as the temperature was nearly 65 degrees. The weather was absolutely perfect, which always makes our impression of a city significantly better. We headed to the train station to put our luggage in the lockers before exploring the city for the day. We were a bit shocked to find out that the lockers were going to cost us 8 Francs. We looked up the conversion rate yesterday, and each US dollar in Switzerland is worth about .99 Francs – making the conversion very easy. So, our locker for the day cost a bit more than $8. (Zurich is the one of the most expensive cities in Europe: a Big Mac costs 6.50 Francs – and that is just for the sandwich!). After securing our belongings, we left the train station, passing the Platz-Promenade (a castle-like building) and crossing the Limmat River via the Watche-Brucke. Our next stop took us to the main tourist attraction in Zurich, the Grossmunster Platz. The two towers of the Church are picturesque, however, the church itself was very barren aside from the beautiful stained-glass windows. After the church, we stopped at a McDonald's restaurant to try to use the bathrooms. Erin ran up to the 3rd floor, where the bathrooms were, only to discover that you needed a digital code to enter the bathroom. When she returned to the main floor, where James was waiting, he had made friends with some American students eating at McDonald's who provided Erin with the code to use the bathrooms. We thanked the fellow-Americans and continued exploring the Northern part of Zurich. We decided to walk up one of the hills a bit and came across a small park and a theater before heading back down the hill and heading for Northern shore of Lake Zurich. Because the weather was so perfect, the walk along the lake was amazing. We stopped a few times to take pictures and to people-watch. While walking along the lake, we discussed the fact that Zurich seemed like a very safe, clean, and wealthy place to live.
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| Another of Zurich's waterside clocks. |
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| Erin and James by water's edge. |
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| A stroll along the park demonstrates that Erin and James have been following fall south. |
From there, we walked back to the other side of the river, crossing the Munster-Brucke (the bridge) and stopping in the Fraumunster Church, which was incredibly old – it was created in the 9
th century. We passed by Lindenhof, a small town square, and headed to the shopping district along Bahnofhofstrasse before returning the train station. We made a pit stop at the Migros to buy snacks for the train (including chocolate), grabbed our luggage and headed to Platform 4, where our train to Milan would be arriving shortly.
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| Tabitha, Erin, and much of the Swiss Army! |
Once we boarded the train, we were a bit surprised by how full it was. Nearly every seat was taken, and we were sandwiched in between a group of Italians and Germans. We couldn't really understand anything that anyone was saying around us, which was fine because we both took to our usual train ride entertainment: reading on the Kindle, playing on the computer, or watching movies on our ipods. We were both sitting across from one another on the train and had window seats. The views on the train ride from Zurich to Milan were truly breathtaking – by far, the most scenic train ride we have experienced so far. We passed lakes, streams, waterfalls, mountains with snowcaps, as well as mountains with different colored leaves. About halfway through the ride we began talking with some of the Italian gentlemen sitting next to us. They were very friendly and gave us some tips for our time in Italy. Unfortunately, one of the men told us a story about his friends who visited the US recently. Apparently, the friends were walking home from the grocery store with bags and the police stopped them and wondered why they were walking and not driving because everyone in the US drives. James and I wondered where this story took place, but the gentleman could not recall. Soon it was dark, and we were arriving in Milan.
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| Some of the awe-inspiring mountains we saw during our train ride to Milan. |
