Day 10 – Journey to the top of Europe – Jungfraujoch

Posted on June 24, 2019 by herktrav

We have enjoyed the beauty of Switzerland in each and every place we have visited so far. Everything is just so green and natural, plus exceptionally clean. I can honestly say I have never breathed in such fresh air and I am relishing every breath.

Today we visited a mountaintop location known as Jungfraujoch. It is called the Top of Europe because it is the highest train station in all of Europe. It is located in the saddle between the peaks of the Eiger, Monsch and Jungfrau at an altitude of 3571 M or 11,782 ft. More on this later, but trust me – it’s beautiful!

So our journey began with a train ride from our home base of Interlaken to the town of Lauterbrunnen. We switched trains at Lauterbrunnen and then traveled up to Kleine Scheidegg by way of Wengen.

At Kleine Scheidegg, you board another train that takes you up to Jungfraujoch. There is some spectacular scenery, however the bulk of the trip is up through a tunnel carved into the North Face of the Eiger Mountain. When you arrive up at the station, you have a few different activities you can participate in. As for Sue and I, we were there for the views, not to play in the snow.

You take an elevator up to the observation platform where you can step outside and get some heavenly views. When we first arrived, we both could really feel the effects of the altitude. I was definitely more affected by the thin air and struggled to catch my breath more than a few times. We just took it slow and moseyed through the passages.

When we went outside, the clouds had very nearly blanketed the neighboring peaks and left us looking at a fog-like mist. Additionally, it was raining / snowing and was not as pleasant as we had hoped. However, just a few minutes later the clouds moved on and we had some gorgeous views. We made sure we took pictures and got a look from every possible angle before the clouds returned to obscure the views.

Snowy, cloudy glacier

A little snow collecting on the sign.

That black spot is actually a bird

Edge of the clouds as it clears out

A view to remember

Clouding up on one side

Still clear on the other side

I’m sure a sunny day with bright sunshine would have made for even better views, but we were both awestruck by the surrounding mountains, the views of the Aletsch Glacier and the incredible engineering feat of getting a railroad and all the facilities up to the top.

I hope the pictures give you an idea of what it was like.

After viewing the mountains and the glacier, we headed over towards the station to head back down. Along the way we walked through a couple of exhibits that told the story of the men who dug the tunnels and built the railroad, plus there was a fabulous snow globe that was all carved out of wood and with its animated characters, brought a smile to everyone’s face.

An old goat – wooden, of course!

No shaking this snow globe

Murals

High cave found while digging

Shoppers

Once on the train, we headed back down to Kleine Scheidegg, where we connected with our return train. For the ride back to Interlaken, we chose to go through the town of Grindelwald. Grindelwald is another quaint little town with charming shops and restaurants.

Once back in Interlaken, we needed a little while to take in all we had seen. That’s one of our favorite things about traveling – settling back and comparing notes, looking at the pictures we took and talking about our day.

After resting up for a little while, we cleaned up for dinner. The restaurant is called Chalet Beizli and is connected to our hotel, which is a good thing because that rain the weatherman had threatened finally arrived. We both smiled knowing that we had enjoyed a great day under the threat of rain and then got to have a romantic dinner on the restaurant’s covered terrace with the rain now falling.

We enjoyed a bottle of wine, salads and a plate of Wiener Schnitzel. The meal was delicious, the waitress was very nice and the evening was romantic. I definitely like this traveling thing.

We headed back to the room to change and relax before heading to bed a little earlier. Tomorrow we’re just going to hang around town as the weather is not suppose to be so nice. We’ll wait to go to Bern on Sunday.

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Day 9 – Moving on to Interlaken

Posted on June 21, 2019 by herktrav

Wow, that went fast. Hard to believe that we are finished with Lucerne and moving on to Interlaken.

We really enjoyed our time in Lucerne. The boat rides, the mountaintop, the riverfront and the old town were all wonderful. I had read beforehand that Lucerne was many people’s favorite town and I would be hard pressed to find fault with their thinking.

Today we are taking the Golden Pass Panoramic train from Lucerne to Interlaken. It’s the same train that everyone else takes, except there are a few cars that have bigger windows and ceiling glass. We did enjoy the fact that there were only six people in our car and everyone was pretty quiet while watching the scenery go by. There was even one gentleman who slept most of the way.

So it’s not the best thing to take photos through the windows, but I did to give you a bit of a feeling for the scenery that we saw. Forgive the quality and enjoy the ride.

When we arrived at the Interlaken OST station, it was mobbed. Apparently, another train had arrived just before us and deposited a bunch of people. Luckily, the mob thinned out a little when they got on their buses and headed out. Not sure if they are staying here or are just on their way to another destination; you can probably guess what I’m hoping.

Our hotel is less than a five minute walk from the train station. We’re staying at the Carlton-Europe Hotel and it is perfectly located. An interesting fact about the hotel is that it is adults only, though you can bring well-mannered dogs. As for the children, they say that there are many other nice hotels nearby that welcome them.

We were cheerfully greeted by the counter staff and offered a beverage while filling out the paperwork. Our room is very nice, with plenty of space to walk around, several chairs to relax, a bathroom with a tub and separate shower and a very comfortable bed.

Once settled in the room, we decided to head out and have an early dinner. The two nearby restaurants didn’t start serving until 5:30pm, so we stopped by the house bar called “Whiskeyness” for a little refreshment. Two gin and tonics later, we were ready for dinner.

Dinner was at Johnny’s Pub and Grill. The waitress was great, guiding us along using our hacked-up German. She really made things fun. Their specialties are grilled items with fries/rice and a salad bar. Sue had a grilled pork steak and I had a T-Bone steak and we both thought they were awesome. A nice bottle of red wine to go along with our meals made for a nice evening.

Since the restaurant was right next door to the hotel, it was just a short walk home and we were inside just before the rain started. Nothing terrible, just a steady rain. Hopefully tomorrow the rain will cooperate and hold off until later so we can enjoy another mountaintop excursion.

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Day 8 – Exploring Old Town Lucerne

Posted on June 21, 2019 by herktrav

After yesterday’s wonderful day in the mountains, today we explored the old town of Lucerne. Once again, we got an early start as thunderstorms were scheduled to head this way in the afternoon.

We walked over to the bus stop and hopped on a bus heading to Löwenplatz. It only took about ten minutes to get there and we certainly could have walked, but we have the Lucerne city pass that allows us to use the bus, so why not ?

From Löwenplatz it was just a short walk to our first site, the iconic “Dying Lion” Monument. As we were walking up the street, there was a large tour group coming towards us. However, when we arrived at the little grotto, it was us and just a few others – so it was peaceful.

It was carved in 1820 in memory of the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 defending the French king during the French Revolution.

There is a real emotion you feel looking at the lion. His facial expression and the way he is twisted with the spear piercing his body is very moving.

Very touching indeed…

After leaving the monument, we returned to the main street to catch the bus back to the center of the old town.

There is a very well known, but touristy restaurant in the square. It looks cute, but so far we are quite satisfied with our meals.

The Old Swiss House restaurant

I wonder if there is a place to buy souvenirs ?

The bus back dropped us off right in front of an ice cream store, but we resisted and started into the old town. As we’ve seen elsewhere, there are many fountains – all with drinkable water.

Many of the buildings have painted facades telling the story of the family or of a town event. The photo below depicts Mr. and Mrs. Fritschi and Lucerne’s annual Mardi Gras celebration, called Fasnacht.

Lots of small shops, restaurants and even fresh fruit markets can be found throughout the old town.

Next thing on the agenda – lunch! We chose a historical restaurant located right on the riverfront called Zunfthaus zu Pfistern. The building dates back to the early fifteenth century when it was a guild house for bakers and millers.

After a delightful and light meal, which finished with two scoops of ice cream each, we took a nice walk back to the hotel. We relaxed for a little while with the intention of going back out for a walk and a drink along the riverfront; however the thunderstorms that they promised arrived.

Heavy rain and some big boomers were more than enough of a sign to keep us in the hotel. Since we were able to get in everything that we wanted to see, this was the perfect time for it to rain.

We spent a nice night listening to music, reading and planning for our travel day tomorrow.

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Day 7 – A visit to Mount Pilatus

Posted on June 19, 2019 by herktrav

What a great day!

The weather this morning was gorgeous – sunny, blue skies, calm winds and warm. We definitely picked a good day to head up to the mountains. There are three popular mountain destinations from Lucerne – Mount Rigi, Mount Titlis and Mount Pilatus. Our choice to visit was Mount Pilatus.

Mount Pilatus has many legends surrounding it; my favorite is that it is infested with dragons. One of those flying by would make for a cool blog post – as long as it didn’t eat us or breath fire and toast us. I digress.

So the route we chose is called the Golden Round Trip. It was comprised of a boat ride from Lucerne to Alpnachstad. At Alpnachstad, you transfer over to take a cog wheel train up to the peak. Then on the way down, you first ride a larger cable car about half way before changing over to a smaller four-seater for the ride to the bottom. And finally, you take the bus back to Lucerne. Since we have our Swiss Passes, it was free on the boat and bus, and half-price for the train and cable cars (36 CHF each).

Ok, off we went. We decided to take the first boat over as the weatherman had predicted rain or thunderstorms for the late afternoon. We boarded and left Lucerne at 8:38 am with a scheduled arrival time of 9:25 am.

We had a beautiful ride over. The lake was calm, the sun was shining and the scenery was breath-taking: the green pastures dotted with houses, the mountains rising up from the lake and distant snow-capped mountains appearing through the morning haze. People on the boat were snapping away with their cameras, trying to get the best photos they could.

Morning beauty

Mount Pilatus beckoning us

Soon we were coming to the pier in Alpnachstad and could see just high Mount Pilatus reached up. We were warned ahead of time about the long lines to get our tickets, but when we arrived the lines were non-existent. We walked right up to the ticket window and bought our tickets with the woman encouraging us to hurry as we could catch the train directly. So instead of hours-long waits, we were heading up within fifteen minutes of disembarking. Sweet!

Our cabin mates heading up were all very nice, so we were chatting and ducking so each of us could take pictures. Three American couples and one Aussie couple and all enchanted by the views and mechanical wonder of the cog wheel train. It’s the steepest cog wheel train in the world with up to a 48% gradient and was opened in 1889, and electrified in 1937. From bottom to top it covers 2.68 miles.

The ride up takes about a half hour and some parts are not for the faint of heart. The train cuts through forest land, goes through tunnels carved out of the rock and also clings to the ledge of the mountain with just enough room for the narrow gauge track. Just before arriving at the summit we were looking out the window and saw a cow. We all looked at each other and figured he was air-lifted or took the train up, because he was not wandering up the terrain.

When we arrived at the summit, it was as though we had entered another world. Absolutely beautiful views in every direction. Snow-capped mountains stretching across the horizon on one side, the lake and the city of Lucerne on the other city – stunningly beautiful.

Through the clouds down to Lake Lucerne

We then ventured up to the observation point which is a little bit higher. Despite trying to take one for the team, Sue dropped back to the summit and I continued up. Same great views, but a wee bit higher. This time if I was to say breath-taking, it would be because of the altitude. I could definitely feel it when I was climbing up, so I decided it was time to retreat to the safety of the ground level.

I couldn’t see any of them.

View from the observation deck

There were a few clouds that came floating by, definitely cooling the temperature when they appeared, but not a big deal at all. It was decision time for us and we decided to walk over to the seating area and have a glass of wine or two.

Have to say, this could be the first time we drank wine and the cloudy feeling was caused by actual clouds.

Time to head down as there was more adventure to be had. Though we left the station in the middle of the clouds, our cable car soon dropped below them and gave us a spectacular view of the lake and city below. When we arrived at the mid-station, while many others queued for the second cable car, we made our way over to the Fräkigaudi.

The Fräkigaudi is a mountain luge run – Switzerland’s longest at nearly a mile long. You sit on a small toboggan-like sled with wheels with just a handle in front of you to brake with. You get to the starting point, release the brake and zip down the mountain course. It’s a fairly steep drop, but the track winds its way down through the meadow, past some cows, through a couple tunnels and finishes down below. They then hook you up to a tow line and you and your sled are swept back up to the top.

We had a bit of a wait, but once on the track we had a blast. The starter was wearing a Green Bay Packers hat, so we had a little chat about Aaron Rodgers and their next season Super Bowl chances before taking to the course. Sue went first and we gave her a little head start as we figured I may go a little faster. I don’t know if I looked like a daredevil or if he was a mathematician and was calculating my weight and gravity. Either way, it was fun and I did catch up to Sue right near the bottom.

Fortunately for us, it started to drizzle just a little as we were being towed up, so they had to stop the rides as the track becomes dangerous when wet. Had we gotten there ten minutes later we would have missed out on the ride.

We headed back to the station and took the cable-car down to the town of Kriens. We shared our car with a young couple from Malaysia, who were very nice. Walking to the bus stop, we caught up to our Aussie friends from the ride up. They had also taken the luge ride and loved it. Who says old people can’t have fun?

The bus appeared and ten minutes later we were back in Lucerne.

Sue and I both had the same opinion of the day – Wow!!

Someone we know needed to rest a bit so we headed back to the hotel. All things considered, it was a good day considering the climbing, mini uphill hike to the luge run and then walk to the bus stop.

There was some thunder in the air and a few raindrops falling as dinner time approached. Not wanting to be caught in a heavy downpour or thunderstorm, we made a reservation at a nearby “Pizzeria”.

Well, La Baracca turned out to be a great choice. First, it was three minutes away. Second, they had much more than pizza. And third, the food was awesome. It was a cozy place with both indoor and outdoor seating. While they did serve pizza, they also served a full menu of Italian food and had a great wine list.

So two and a half hours later, we took a nice stroll back to the hotel with full tummies. We had enjoyed a couple of salads with an order of foccacia (that was really like a full pizza, not just the bread we expected), a large order of lasagne and a bottle of Tassinaia. Truly delicious, but truly too much!

As for the rain, it stopped long ago. Our waitress told us not to worry, all the rain falls “Upstairs”. Her meaning – it only rains in the mountains.

Back at the hotel, we rested and digested while looking at the photos from the day before turning in for the night.

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Day 6 – Moving on to Lucerne

Posted on June 19, 2019 by herktrav

Hard to believe our time in Zürich is over. We really enjoyed exploring the city and neighboring areas.

As Zürich is our entry to Switzerland, we could not be happier with our choice. Our favorite things about Zürich are easy to list: very organized, very clean, very friendly people and a little something for everyone. We had a little sticker shock when it came to prices, but we knew it was an expensive city and country.

As we move on, we have fond memories from Zürich and hope to have even more as we go forward.

We were ready to go way earlier than expected, so we checked out and decided to catch an earlier train to Lucerne. We walked over to the train station and waited about a half hour for our train to arrive. The station was pretty busy this morning, but not enough to delay us.

We boarded the train and took our seats in a nearly empty first class car. It’s only a forty-five minute journey through some very scenic country-side and in a blink of an eye we arrived. We have found that first class is not full very often. For the difference in price for our Swiss Pass, it has been well worth not having to search out seats when we board.

Arriving in Lucerne, we easily made our way out of the station and to our hotel – it is literally right next door to the station. We are staying at the Hotel Monopol Luzern -it was built in 1898 and is a beautiful, historically protected building.

Hotel Monopol Luzern

Since we arrived early, our room was not available, so we checked our luggage, grabbed the camera and went down to the lake for a boat ride.

We found a boat that was making a round trip journey that would take about an hour and climbed aboard. The boat was heading to Burgenstock and at that moment, so were we!

It was a beautiful day on the lake. Temperatures in the mid 70’s, light winds, bright sunshine and just a few clouds. It was a great way to be introduced to the Lucerne area. The water, just like in Zürich, was clean and clear. We were in awe of the scenery as we sailed on. Snow-capped mountains, green meadows, fairy tale houses and big, fluffy clouds.

Lake Lucerne scenery

Beautiful lake houses

When we returned to Lucerne, we were still too early to check in, so we took a walk around the old town and the waterfront to see some of Lucerne’s treasured sites. We started at the Chapel Bridge. It’s a covered wooden bridge that spans the river. It was originally built in 1500 and has been rebuilt a couple of times due to damage and fire. It certainly seemed to be the center of everyone’s attention today.

Under the roof of the bridge, there are paintings depicting various historical scenes – some of which were pretty macabre, as they reflected the plague-filled times in which the paintings were completed.

We next zig-zagged our way across the other three bridges that span the river, enjoying the views and getting our bearings for places to see over the next few days.

Walking along the riverfront.

Upstream to the Jesuit Church.

Since the clock was showing 3:00 pm, we headed back to the hotel to claim our room. It was ready and they had already taken our luggage up to the room – Swiss efficiency.

Our room is a nice size with a large bathroom and, much to Sue’s delight, has two big windows that can be opened. Lots of storage space, free Wi-Fi and big fluffy pillows.

We rested up a little before cleaning up for dinner. Tonight we went to a Spanish restaurant that sounded delightful and was close by. The restaurant was called “Bolero” and we had a wonderful meal. A glass of Sangria to get us going, then a bowl of gazpacho followed by a pork dish for Sue and a veal dish for me. We had a bottle of Spanish wine and delicious desserts.

Afterwards we toddled back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow’s excursion to Mount Pilatus.

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Day 5 – Last day in Zürich

Posted on June 17, 2019 by herktrav

Our last day in Zürich was a lazy one.

We went out for a walk in the morning, mostly to let the maid clean up our room. The hotel lobby was bustling with people checking out and others trying to check in early. We had no particular plans and my back was a little sore, so we decided to just hang out in our room for a while.

We made 3:00 pm dinner reservations for today, plus booked reservations for tomorrow in Lucerne and for a restaurant in St Moritz later in the trip.

Checking the weather for Lucerne, it looks like we will be dodging thunderstorms again. It appears that they pop up later in the afternoon when the temps rise, so we’ll probably have to visit the mountains early.

Checked the train schedules and then put the tootsies up for a little bit.

Dinner today is at a seafood restaurant called Bianchi. It’s just a five minute walk from the hotel and as we were getting ready to leave, the sun came out. Looks like it will be a nice afternoon and evening.

The restaurant is really nice and since it is early, it’s also fairly empty. Lots of great choices on the menu – it’s gonna be hard to decide. Our waitress is Wunderbar!

We ended up choosing a starter of pasta – mine was pappardelle with salmon in a cream sauce, Sue’s was ravioli filled with veal in a butter sage sauce. Both were delicious. The second course was sea bass with black rice and spinach. Again, both were delicious.

We truly could have stopped after the first course and been happy. There was also breadsticks and a nice bottle of Swiss wine – Les Claives Petite Arvine. I do wish this wine was available in the US; it was wonderful.

We took a nice stroll along the river before heading to the hotel.

We packed, updated our paperwork and then settled in for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we travel to Lucerne.

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Day 4 – Day trip to Rapperswil and Schaffhausen

Posted on June 17, 2019 by herktrav

With the weather defying the odds, we decided to go exploring again today. Our journey this morning was to Rapperswil at the far end of Lake Zurich. We had originally planned to take a boat ride to get there, but instead we took the train to get an earlier start.

We left on the 8:09 am train and it only took 35 minutes to get to Rapperswil. This weekend they are having a Jazz & Blues Festival, but since the weather forecast was ominous, we decided not to get tickets. Instead, we’ll just take a walk and see what we find.

Rapperswil did not get its name from the music genre, nor is it home to Snoop Dog or Lil Wayne; rather it is a quiet little town that has been called the town of 15,000 roses. We started out with a walk around the lakefront and then finished up with a stroll through the old lanes of the Alstadt (old town).

The lake was so calm and peaceful

The lake is so clear, but we were told the water is chilly until July or August. That’s because the water comes from the melting glaciers. While we weren’t planning to take a dip anyway, we remembered Seinfeld and stayed away.

There were a few people walking about, but our walk around the lake was serene.

After absorbing some of that tranquility, we headed to the old town. It’s just a small area and was not busy at all. We started by heading up to the church area, where I happened to notice some vineyards. It proved to be a good choice as we also came upon one of those beautiful rose gardens that they are famed for. We found the garden by just following our noses, as they were so fragrant. Again, nobody was there and me quietly sing Bobby Vinton songs had nothing to do with that — Really!

Heading to the main town square, we came across a couple in the middle of a photo session. They seemed pretty lovey-dovey, so I expect that they were shooting engagement pictures.

Like we’ve seen in some of the other cities, there were some beautiful art scenes painted on the facades of the buildings. Really beautiful art, not graffiti.

One last photo by the roses before we headed on.

Since it was still early and the weather was looking good, we decided to head back to Zurich and then catch a train to Schaffhausen. We had skipped it yesterday when my back started hurting, so why not go today.

Checking the schedule, we could catch a train to Schaffhausen twenty minutes after we arrived in Zurich – that would be perfect. Just a couple days in town and we are owning the train station. We know the basic layout, found a couple short cuts and don’t have to use the ticket machines anymore.

An on-time arrival, a short walk and an earlier train that was just getting ready to leave and we were on our way.

Schaffhausen is another of the Medieval towns up near the German border and close to Lake Constance. Since it was Saturday, it was their market day, so we were able to walk amongst the various stalls before they closed up for the day. Pretty little town, lots of fountains and very pleasant people. So glad we decided to visit.

Another cheesy Sue pic

The only thing missing from the day was something to eat and the restaurant in the background of the fountain was our choice – Santa Lucia. We split a pizza, some pasta and a bottle of Rose – otherwise known as a perfect lunch – before heading back to Zurich.

As you can see in the pictures, we would have been sad if we had stayed in Zurich fearing the rain. A relaxing train ride back and we were back in the hotel for a little rest before the storms arrived — and they did arrive!

We decided we could use a little rest and then enjoyed watching the people scurrying in the pouring rain from our window. Later, we went down to the hotel restaurant and had a couple of drinks. The restaurant is their fancy restaurant, with fancy prices that we were not going to partake in. The bartender insisted on bringing us a little bite to go with our drinks – marinated octopus, cucumber and fresh dill. La de dah, we still didn’t go for dinner, but it was very nice of him.

Afterwards, all that fresh air caught up with us, so it was time for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow is another day.

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Day 3 – Day-tripping to Stein Am Rhein and Rheinfalls

Posted on June 15, 2019 by herktrav

Another rainy day prediction goes down the drain. Thank you once again to the weatherman for getting it wrong. Sunny with a few clouds means we are heading out to explore.

Today we are heading north to visit the area near the German border. There are two gorgeous medieval towns – Stein Am Rhein and Schaffhausen and the largest waterfall in Europe – Rheinfalls.

We are literally a block away from the train station and using the SBB’s app, we found the train we wanted and headed over to the station. Once we arrived at our platform, we boarded the train and grabbed a seat. That’s it – no fuss, no muss.

Eventually the conductor came around, verified our passes and that was it. Such an easy way to travel. We decided to start in Stein Am Rhein, so our journey took a little over an hour.

Arriving at the train station in Stein Am Rhein, you walk about 800 meters to reach the old town. On the way there, you cross over a bridge and get your first view of the Rhein River. Along the banks are beautiful buildings that beckon you to the town that celebrated 1000 years of existence in 2007.

Most of the buildings are from the medieval period and there has been some rebuilding over the years due to fires and even some bomb damage during WWII.

The painted facades of the buildings are incredible. They really do give you a sense of the history you are walking through. Of course, gone are the blacksmith and stables, but now you can get gelato and buy souvenirs.

One of my favorite things to see are some of the old signs on the buildings. I’m told the signs were created because many people were not able to read, but could tell what the business was by the sign. I am gullible and that might just be a story, but I’m sticking with it.

Our next stop will surprise nobody – lunch! We found a small restaurant called Restaurant Ilge and decided that the owner should be our next contestant on “Let’s Try German”. So I messed up the pronunciation, but we got a table for two in the shade, had two glasses of a delightful German Riesling and enjoyed our meals immensely. By the end of the meal, the Owner woman was even smiling – I call that a success.

Next on the agenda was a stop at the Rheinfalls. The Rheinfalls are considered Europe’s largest waterfall by volume. Us WNYers have Niagara Falls, so there might be some naysayers in the group, but by volume, the Rheinfalls were impressive. It’s also impressive as you can get within a couple feet of the falls and can really feel the power.

We met a wonderful older couple while trying to figure out the ticket machine. They were very friendly and thrilled that we were visiting their country for such a long time. They literally thanked us for being there. It was such a nice moment.

Then we pushed them into the water. Only kidding, they slipped.

We walked down to the falls area and truly were impressed. The couple suggested we take the ferry to cross and see the falls from the other side too. Looking at the boats struggling against the water, we opted to save that for “next time”.

After admiring the area, we had to make the dreaded climb back to the top. That sort of put an end to the spring in my step, so we decided to skip Schaffhausen and head back to Zurich.

Our timing was perfect as we were able to catch a train right away and within 45 minutes we were back in the Zurich train station.

We grabbed a couple beverages to take back to the room and then settled in for a nap. Since neither of us were particularly hungry, we just chilled in the room and listened to a group of rowdy, drunk Spaniards out in the street late in the night. We also planned out a course of action, as the weatherman changed the forecast for tomorrow – no thunder boomers now until later in the day. I see another day trip in our future.

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Day 2 – Walking around Zurich

Posted on June 15, 2019 by herktrav

Woke up to a gorgeous, sunny day. The weatherman had predicted rain today, but luckily they were wrong.

So on this perfect sight-seeing day, we were off.

Zurich is a pretty large city, but the old town is fairly compact and mostly flat. Our hotel is located on the Bahnhofstrasse, which is the main shopping and restaurant street that runs from the train station (Bahnhof) to the beginning of Lake Zurich, just a little over a mile long. It is the boundary on the right side of the river, with a few streets on the other side of the river making up the bulk of the old town.

We started out by walking up towards the two main churches that Zurich is known for – the Fraumunster and the Grossmunster. The Fraumunster is the church that gets visited the most due to the stained glass windows that were painted by Marc Chagall.

The Grossmunster is known by its twin bell towers.

Grossmunster

To get to the churches, we weaved our way through the various side streets to get a look at some of the architecture and colorful squares. There were even a couple small parks. Considering the cost of space in the city, it was refreshing to see a little green space and trees along the streets.

Another surprise for us were the many fountains around town. Even more surprising was that the water was drinkable and was cool and tasty. Of course, if there is a longer incubation period, I’ll take that off and tell you about Swiss Hospitals.

My one disappointment was that neither of the churches permitted photos. I would have loved to show you the stained glass windows created by Marc Chagall. There were five large panels around the altar and then a large rose window above the organ loft. The Chagall windows were created and installed when Chagall was in his 80’s.

Besides the beautiful windows, the two churches were fairly plain inside. Both were victims of the reformation in the 1500’s and stripped of most of their statues and artwork.

Crossing over the bridge to get from one to the other, we had a great view of the boats heading up towards the lake. The water is so clear it’s amazing.

We continued walk around, but we were both getting hungry. Time to find a little lunch. There are many restaurants, of all types, in the old town. If you can’t find one that you like, you’re not hungry!

We found a cool little Italian restaurant with some nice shaded seats and delicious sounding lunch specials – and everything was homemade. Ciccheteria da Rosa was the name and it was just what we wanted. Good food, good Italian Rosata wine and reasonable prices.

Since my back was telling me it needed a rest, we completed our loop through the old town. You just never know who or what you’re gonna meet. Some people thrive on celebrity sightings, we have our own favorites.

We headed back to the hotel to rest up for a while and then later in the evening went down to the outdoor bar for a nightcap. Perfect ending to a perfect day.

We’ll be watching the weather reports, but tomorrow our Travel Pass kicks in so we are heading out on a day trip. Bring on the trains!

Posted in Switzerland | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Day 1 – We have arrived in Zurich!

Posted on June 12, 2019 by herktrav

Travels went great and we have arrived in Zurich. Kudos to both JetBlue and Swiss Air for terrific flights and on-time service. Special shout out to Swiss Air for not only great flights, but for the wonderful cabin staff and delicious meals.

For a large European city, Zurich’s airport is not huge. From what I read, the train station is the central travel point with the most traffic in all of Europe. The only delay we had was the line to get through passport control as three planes landed within a few minutes of each other. That said, the delay was not long and soon we found ourselves making our first Swiss transaction – buying train tickets.

We have Swiss Travel passes that we have starting on our second full day in Switzerland, so we needed to buy tickets to get to the central station, known as Zurich HB from the airport. It’s a 10 minute ride and the cost is 6.80 CHF (Swiss francs), however the ticket machine and I did not see eye to eye at first. I knew that when the total came to 123.00 CHF. So after switching ticket machines, we were able to purchase the tickets at the right cost and head off to Zurich. I do wonder where we would have ended up with the first tickets though.

The train station in Zurich is massive. There are three levels with one being the equivalent of a mall, with shops and restaurants. We exited the train station and ended up on the back side. Bold Miss Sue found a friendly looking gentlemen and got directions for us to the main business street – Bahnhofstrasse. It runs between the train station and the lakefront, with lots of shops and restaurants along the way.

Our hotel, the Hotel St Gotthard, is just two blocks up the street and is a wonderful old building dating back to the 1890’s. Our room is on the fourth floor overlooking the Main Street and it is just what we wanted. It’s spacious, has a very comfortable bed, nice shower and a reasonable price. What else does one need?

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We were able to check in early and we both decided that a nap would do us good before dinner. It did!

Dinner tonight was at the Restaurant Haus Zum Ruden. I had been going back and forth with the owner to secure a reservation. While we initially wanted to go tomorrow, we were very happy that they could take us tonight.

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The restaurant came highly recommended by some of my online travel friends and we were not disappointed. The restaurant has two separate spaces – one on the ground level that is a more casual bistro and another in what they call the “Gothic Hall”, which is the more upscale restaurant. We ate in the Gothic Hall and couldn’t have been happier.

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We had a table with a lovely view of the Limmat River and the Fraumunster Church. No being squeezed here, they actually had a table for six set for just the two of us. (Thank you Tami!).

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While the menu had many mouth-watering choices, we went with the Chef’s Degustation menu with wine pairings. Five courses of deliciousness, with perfectly matched wines, followed by an extra treat of table-side created Tiramisu.

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I could be wrong, but I don’t think our meal was part of the Jenny Craig diet plan!

Needless to say, we enjoyed the heck out of our meal. It definitely ranked up there  as one of the best meals we have ever had while traveling.

Additionally, we had the owner, maitre’d, chef and everybody but the valet parking guy stop over to chat with us. Can’t say enough good things about this restaurant. If ever in Zurich, put the Haus zum Ruder on your list. Not cheap, but pretty darn close to perfect.

Afterwards, we took a nice walk back to our hotel. Zurich is pretty at night, especially along the river. Can’t wait to get out tomorrow to explore.

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Posted in Switzerland | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments