Zurich

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Bright and early on Thursday morning, Pam and I took the train four hours to Zurich in eastern Switzerland. Zurich is a charming city also on a lake with church towers and spires dotting the skyline and a small old town that was easy to explore on foot, which we did after checking into our hostel (we stayed in four- or six-bed rooms during our trip, which was better than the dormitory rooms I stayed in when I backpacked Europe after graduating from college, but I can now say that I am done with hostels. I'll leave them for the yutes.)

After exploring old town, in the afternoon we again rented free bikes and rode along Lake Zurich. But this was no ordinary sight-seeing ride. We were headed to the Lindt chocolate factory just outside Zurich in Kilchberg. We rode fast because it was nearing closing time. Our guidebook said the factory had closed for renovations and was reopening in May, so we had our fingers crossed that it would even be open. We could smell the chocolate as we rode up to the building, but after a quick reconnaissance mission around the facility, we confirmed our worst fear: it was closed. Then we spotted the gift shop. Even if the building was closed to tours, we figured the gift shop would be open and we could buy some fresh Swiss chocolate. It wasn't. There was a sign on the door written in German with the number 26. Did it say that it was reopening Friday, May 26, THE NEXT DAY? Twenty mintues later, after we biked back, we consoled ourselves with a chocolate bar from a souvenir stand!

That night, after spending 45 mintues walking around old town comparing restaurant prices (Switzerland isn't cheap), we finally accepted that we'd be spending $50 on dinner and stopped at a fondue restaurant. Neither of us had had fondue before. We ordered a four-cheese fondue, a side of vegetables and two big beers. It was a great meal, but in Europe I had to get used to the fact that dinner is leisurely and they don't bring the check right after your meal. We left around 11 p.m. and went to an Irish pub, where as soon as we walked in we were talking to a Scottish lad who worked at a banking firm in Zurich. We met other English-speaking foreigners and stayed out until 4 a.m. (We took pictures, but they're on Pam's disposable. I'll update my blog with bar pictures later.) I wasn't expecting a party scene in Zurich, and it turned out to be a surprisingly fun start to our trip. The only problem was waking up two hours later to catch our flight to Berlin. No need to go into great detail, but let's just say there was much running with our heavy packs, through both the train station and the airport. But we made our flight. Two minutes after take-off Pam was asleep (she slept through the free sandwiches, which bummed her out. When backpacking, there's nothing better than free food!).

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Photos

Grossmunster
The Grossmunster, a great name for a church. Geneva is a French-speaking city, but Zurich is near Germany so they speak Swiss-German. Hence, the fun names. You can see the Alps in the background.

No Chocolate For You!
We were disappointed to find the Lindt chocolate factory closed.

The Bahnhofstrasse
Zurich's street of ritzy shops. Diamond-encrusted watch anyone?

Geneva Train Station
Day 1 of Pam and Amanda's adventure. Pam with her pack at the Geneva train station, waiting for the train to Zurich.

Geneva Train Station
Me with my pack.

Augustinergasse
A quaint side street in old town.

St. Peter
In the background is the St. Peter's church tower, which has the largest clock face in Europe. It didn't look that big, but OK, I'll take a picture of it!

City View
A view of the city from the Grossmunster tower. That's the St. Peter's clock. Well, from this view it does look pretty darn big.