Trip Report: Zürich, May 2022
Jul 29th, 2022, 11:47 AM
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Trip Report: Zürich, May 2022
This is the third part of our travels in Europe in May 2022. If interested in the basic costs of our travels, read the beginning of the first part of Trip Report: NYC and Paris, May 2022.
We took the train from Berlin to Zurich. As I stepped into the train I realized that I was not carrying my camera. that I forgot at my cousin’s, or so I thought, but it was in his car. He shipped it to me at the cheapest rate possible and it arrived in a shorter time than the postcards we sent from Europe to the States. We were at the train station two hours ahead of time because my cousins was leaving the same day to spend a couple of weeks in Greece and so as to stay out of the way we went early to the train station. We arrived just as the ticket office opened and were able to get reservations for our journey that included a train change in Munich. So no problems with the train, it arrived 5 minutes late in Lindau. And then the Swiss part of the trip took an extra hour. Fortunately our arrival was set for the central station so that our friend who was meeting us there could track the progress of the train on his i-Phone or equivalent. We had spoken to them from Berlin and warned them that once on the train my cell phone would no longer work.
They are a research couple we met when one of them received a grant to work in San Francisco and she stayed in our house until she could find an apartment; he came six months later. Five years later they moved to Switzerland, both finding employment as scientific researchers. We stayed with them, in an apartment they had moved in the week before in a brand new building in an outlying Zurich neighborhood.
We did limited tourism. A half day was spent getting a new camera, in part because our friends sent us to a couple of camera shops, the first of which was much too expensive for me as I wanted only a temporary replacement. Even the second shop which sold me a small camera was probably more than what I needed. If I had thought about it, I should have gone shopping in the train station’s shopping mall which might be catering to a more varied clientele.
For transportation around Zurich we purchased a 24 hour pass good for trams and buses. By timing them, i.e. not reloading until the afternoon, we were able to use the pass the day we left Zurich for Prague.
Two things come to mind that are worth a visit:
The police station up-river from the train station for its entrance indoor murals done by Augusto Giacometti:
https://flic.kr/p/2np189h
and the Corbusier pavilion which appears to be an empty residential house but never was intended to be one—there is a small kitchen but saw no evidence of a bathroom.
https://flic.kr/p/2nsW1Tj https://flic.kr/p/7pKT9G
We spent an afternoon in the botanical garden which was nice for the 5 year old but less interesting for us; good for conversational strolling. Our group dinner at the Rigiblick by Vreni Giger ($556 for 7, and I think that everyone held back in ordering) included our friends, one of the cousins from Berlin, the partner of her brother (he volunteered his absence when we were trying to include everyone in our travel plan) in Zurich. The food was only OK for a one-star Michelin restaurant. However, we had good service given that our group straggled in, with the Berliner arriving after the rest of us had ordered. We were sitting on the terrace and it started to rain during our dessert course so we moved indoors. To some degree we were a difficult crowd and I give the restaurant credit for that. My wife and I were on time as we arrived early and took the opportunity to stroll in the neighborhood and the nearby forest.
https://flic.kr/p/2np3yvc
During our stay in Zurich we spent one day visiting a distant relative in Aarau, which cost us about $100 round trip. Aarau is about 30 miles from Zurich.
https://flic.kr/p/7pG9Zt https://flic.kr/p/GWu6eS
It was his family who hid my father back in 1937 and he remembers being told not to mention anything to anyone especially his grade school friends. It was a heroic time for him. He is now in his nineties and has seriously gone downhill in the last year, recovering from one epileptic episode and having a second one from which he only recovered partially. The last time we saw him he was in his eighties going on sixty. He now shows his age. But he recognized us and can still converse, if sometimes repetitively, and we had a nice lunch in his retirement home in the center of Aarau. Then his daughter came to visit and we all went out for coffee. He wanted to use his walker but his daughter rightly insisted that he take a wheelchair. I doubt that we’ll see him again.
Upon leaving Aarau we got our reservations for our next train ride to Prague. By doing it in Aarau we avoided the long line at the ticket office in the Zurich main train station.
Here is the photo album of Switzerland, which covers our various visits:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjoZVJwR
On to our last chapter of this trip which is Prague.
We took the train from Berlin to Zurich. As I stepped into the train I realized that I was not carrying my camera. that I forgot at my cousin’s, or so I thought, but it was in his car. He shipped it to me at the cheapest rate possible and it arrived in a shorter time than the postcards we sent from Europe to the States. We were at the train station two hours ahead of time because my cousins was leaving the same day to spend a couple of weeks in Greece and so as to stay out of the way we went early to the train station. We arrived just as the ticket office opened and were able to get reservations for our journey that included a train change in Munich. So no problems with the train, it arrived 5 minutes late in Lindau. And then the Swiss part of the trip took an extra hour. Fortunately our arrival was set for the central station so that our friend who was meeting us there could track the progress of the train on his i-Phone or equivalent. We had spoken to them from Berlin and warned them that once on the train my cell phone would no longer work.
They are a research couple we met when one of them received a grant to work in San Francisco and she stayed in our house until she could find an apartment; he came six months later. Five years later they moved to Switzerland, both finding employment as scientific researchers. We stayed with them, in an apartment they had moved in the week before in a brand new building in an outlying Zurich neighborhood.
We did limited tourism. A half day was spent getting a new camera, in part because our friends sent us to a couple of camera shops, the first of which was much too expensive for me as I wanted only a temporary replacement. Even the second shop which sold me a small camera was probably more than what I needed. If I had thought about it, I should have gone shopping in the train station’s shopping mall which might be catering to a more varied clientele.
For transportation around Zurich we purchased a 24 hour pass good for trams and buses. By timing them, i.e. not reloading until the afternoon, we were able to use the pass the day we left Zurich for Prague.
Two things come to mind that are worth a visit:
The police station up-river from the train station for its entrance indoor murals done by Augusto Giacometti:
https://flic.kr/p/2np189h
and the Corbusier pavilion which appears to be an empty residential house but never was intended to be one—there is a small kitchen but saw no evidence of a bathroom.
https://flic.kr/p/2nsW1Tj https://flic.kr/p/7pKT9G
We spent an afternoon in the botanical garden which was nice for the 5 year old but less interesting for us; good for conversational strolling. Our group dinner at the Rigiblick by Vreni Giger ($556 for 7, and I think that everyone held back in ordering) included our friends, one of the cousins from Berlin, the partner of her brother (he volunteered his absence when we were trying to include everyone in our travel plan) in Zurich. The food was only OK for a one-star Michelin restaurant. However, we had good service given that our group straggled in, with the Berliner arriving after the rest of us had ordered. We were sitting on the terrace and it started to rain during our dessert course so we moved indoors. To some degree we were a difficult crowd and I give the restaurant credit for that. My wife and I were on time as we arrived early and took the opportunity to stroll in the neighborhood and the nearby forest.
https://flic.kr/p/2np3yvc
During our stay in Zurich we spent one day visiting a distant relative in Aarau, which cost us about $100 round trip. Aarau is about 30 miles from Zurich.
https://flic.kr/p/7pG9Zt https://flic.kr/p/GWu6eS
It was his family who hid my father back in 1937 and he remembers being told not to mention anything to anyone especially his grade school friends. It was a heroic time for him. He is now in his nineties and has seriously gone downhill in the last year, recovering from one epileptic episode and having a second one from which he only recovered partially. The last time we saw him he was in his eighties going on sixty. He now shows his age. But he recognized us and can still converse, if sometimes repetitively, and we had a nice lunch in his retirement home in the center of Aarau. Then his daughter came to visit and we all went out for coffee. He wanted to use his walker but his daughter rightly insisted that he take a wheelchair. I doubt that we’ll see him again.
Upon leaving Aarau we got our reservations for our next train ride to Prague. By doing it in Aarau we avoided the long line at the ticket office in the Zurich main train station.
Here is the photo album of Switzerland, which covers our various visits:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjoZVJwR
On to our last chapter of this trip which is Prague.
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