Day 5: Zurich

First a couple things I forgot to write about yesterday. Ellen found herself a great gift at Thomas Sabo in Bern. She got a charm bracelet watch, with 4 charms (I remember 3 of them: an E, a boy & girl and an airplane). It looks great, and Ellen likes bracelets with “stuff.” Second little purchase we made was an 1/8” mini-plug to RCA adapter. It might not sound like much, but it allows us to use the mini-plug cord I brought and attach the adapter to fit the red/white plugs in the car. All that is a long way of saying, we can now listen to the iPod in the car. Having driven in Europe before, desperately searching for English language music, it is hugely important.

We checked out of our Bern hotel this morning and made the drive to Zurich. It was about an hour's drive, made a little longer by one rest stop. While we are used to seeing little stores, markets and restaurants at the stops along the interbahn, this was the first one we had seen that had a sex shop. Right immediately upon entering. Not sure how or why the Swiss choose to make those purchases while on the road, but more power to 'em.

We arrived in Zurich, and just had to park. I had been frustrated in Bern by seeing parking signs with a name I presumed was of a garage and a number of spaces available. You'd pass such a sign, then not see another directing you. Only after being fooled several times did I realize it was telling you how many street spaces were available in a parking district. Eventually we found a garage, carefully recording it's location, as we had some difficulty in Interlachen finding the garage we had parked at.

We did a combination of the Rick Steves and Frommers walking tours. Zurich is the most urban city we had been in so far. You could see the banking influence, and felt the residents were not quite as warm as we had found in other towns. The train station was a colossal building, quite impressive and unlike almost anything in the USA.

The highlight of the tour was probably the Fraumunster church, which houses several Chagall windows he designed late in life. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, but here is what they look like.

Maybe the highlight really was the Sprungli Cafe. They feature “Luxembergerli” macaroons fashioned to look like hamburgers. They sell them in many flavors, we tried citron and chocolate. Yum!

One of the treats of Zurich is water fountains throughout the city. These are pretty, artistic ones, but featuring drinkable water that sometimes required some agility, but nevertheless refreshed you for free.

Late in the afternoon, we made the 45 minute drive from Zurich down to our next hotel in Luzern. We are staying in a quaint hotel named the Hotel Romantik. We walked across to the other side of the river for dinner at the Rathaus Brauerei, a brewery-restaurant. I had a pilsner beer and salmon, Ellen had a glass of wine and a salad. We then split a small chocolate gelato, walked around a bit, then headed back to the hotel.