Well, we had our GA travel cards which let us travel pretty much anywhere in Switzerland, other than privately owned rails, gondolas, funiculars, etc. But no one was really raring to go anywhere after our long trip. So while E went to handle administrative stuff and then work the kids and I went to Oerlikon where I had read there was a big market. That seemed perfect - a direct train for us so we could get our bearings, some lunch which we would not get at the hotel, and maybe we would find something special that we'd never see at home. It might have been a good plan, but we arrived only a half hour or so before the market closed, so maybe some stands were gone, or maybe it's better on Saturdays. We did get a few nice things for lunch, but nothing exotic. We were slightly constrained by the fact that our bank card didn't work that morning for some reason and we had only a few francs E had leftover from his last trip.
At the market was a tiny playground. It was really just a seesaw and a couple of swings, but it made the kids very happy and they mostly had it to themselves since the market was packing up. So we had a little picnic there and decided to walk through Zurich a little.
We got off at the main station and walked down Bahnhofstrasse. I mistakenly thought that was old town. It's not, really. It's just a street of insanely expensive shops. And since I am writing this weeks later, I can now identify the street as the one where Oprah Winfrey was not allowed to look at a 35,000 dollar purse. (My Swiss keyboard does not have a dollar sign, of course! Other things are moved around just enough to slow me down. Y is on the bottom row, and I am always looking for it. Also, the computer spell check is using British spelling.) Anyway, we are lead to believe that the Oprah story made the news in the US. Here the free tabloid we get on the train calls it "TaschliGate." I think it is funny that they use "-gate" here, and that this is considered a -gate worthy scandal.
We did not do much shopping, but I did think it would be a very good idea to wake up the bank card by using it as a credit card to buy chocolates at Sprungli. Later E and I were both able to make a withdrawal. I think my chocolate purchase did the trick and activated the card somehow since it was a new account. E thinks it was time. We got a mixed assortment in a tin. I thought the tin would protect them on the way back to the hotel and would be useful later. They were very good, but I think the grand cru assortment is better, and for some reason the tin has a false bottom. It is shallower on the inside. It's not to nisguide anyone. You are shown in the shop exactly what the tin has in it.
After that we went to find R's school and train stop. We did find it, but realized on our way back to the station that we had taken a private path. We agreed R would do the same on the first day of school and then figure out the right way later. This is the third day of school now, and I don't know if she is still trespassing.
Dinner was fine. There was a slight awkwardness when we ate through what we thought was an announcement to a group staying there, but was really a sermon and prayer that they give before anyone gets dessert. The whole time we were there they would forget R is vegetarian and bring her a plate then bring it back to the kitchen and take off all the meat and return whatever was left. Not much was. She was starving. There was also a waiter who was like a Swiss Nathan Lane playing a friendly waiter.
That night there was an enormous storm. As we looked out over the lake there was what looked like a very strange fog sitting like a wall parallel to our shore halfway across the lake. It came closer and closer until the storm hit very suddenly with driving rain and wind so strong I thought the flagpole would snap. Everyone ran to their rooms to close windows. We did, too, and had to mop up lots of water. It took us a while to close the windows because we had to figure out the Swiss windows which can swing like a door or tilt inward at the top. The girls has their windows set to tilt in and when I went to help R close them it took both of us to push it closed. I was afraid it would blow in on us and break. In fact, when I went to the rooms I could barely open the door from the stairs due to a vacuum effect. The storm lasted quite a while. When we went back downstairs for dessert (finally) rain was being driven in along the edges of the closed windows by our table.
No comments:
Post a Comment