TUESDAY
Marco bought us all day tickets. we could travel anywhere in zone 10, which covers all of the inner city of Zurich
We took the train from the airport to the main train station (the Hauptbahnhof, commonly called the HB). Marco's apartment is literally a five minute walk from the train station, even pulling two large suitcases. We met his roommates (Andre, Jonas and Max) and unpacked a bit. Marco had work to do on a paper. Jonas was going to the University so took us with him. We saw a bit of the university and had a good look over the city. We left Jonas to get some of his own work done and walked down into the Niederdorf (the older part of time).
This is mostly a "what we did" journal entry, so I won't have to capture how i felt about walking about in this beautiful place. We ambled about a bit, then decided we needed some dollars and lunch. we successfully used our debit card to get swiss francs and then headed to migros.
Migros is a bit like Fred Meyer or Target, only more pervasive. Migros is one of the two grocery store chains. Migros Express is the 7-11 equivalent. There are severals types of Migros restaurants - generally cafeteria/buffet, but also "take-away". They are also a bank and a large Migros store will also have household items such as toasters, coffeemakers, raclette grills (an essential for every newly married couple we discovered). We had been clued in to Migros by Rick Steves and had lunch. Then we jumped on the #4 tram and went to the end of the line and back.
We then went on the Rick Steves walking tour of Zurich, only we did not follow the directions well. We would be captivated by an oriole window or something and veer off the path. We did end up covering most of it, just not quite in the order of the guidebook. we did walk down most of the bahnhofstrasse (fancy shopping street), and saw st. peter's kirke (from the outside only). we walked along the shipke and saw the ruins of the roman baths and went into the fraumunster, with the stained glass windows by chagall.
We headed back to the apartment, met Marco, then headed over to Isabel's apartment (soon to be Marco and Isabel's apartment). Marco and Isabel made us raclette, a Swiss specialty. By t his time, we were fading fast and headed back to the student apartment. We crashed by 10 o'clock. so ended our first day in switzerland.
We took the train from the airport to the main train station (the Hauptbahnhof, commonly called the HB). Marco's apartment is literally a five minute walk from the train station, even pulling two large suitcases. We met his roommates (Andre, Jonas and Max) and unpacked a bit. Marco had work to do on a paper. Jonas was going to the University so took us with him. We saw a bit of the university and had a good look over the city. We left Jonas to get some of his own work done and walked down into the Niederdorf (the older part of time).
This is mostly a "what we did" journal entry, so I won't have to capture how i felt about walking about in this beautiful place. We ambled about a bit, then decided we needed some dollars and lunch. we successfully used our debit card to get swiss francs and then headed to migros.
Migros is a bit like Fred Meyer or Target, only more pervasive. Migros is one of the two grocery store chains. Migros Express is the 7-11 equivalent. There are severals types of Migros restaurants - generally cafeteria/buffet, but also "take-away". They are also a bank and a large Migros store will also have household items such as toasters, coffeemakers, raclette grills (an essential for every newly married couple we discovered). We had been clued in to Migros by Rick Steves and had lunch. Then we jumped on the #4 tram and went to the end of the line and back.
We then went on the Rick Steves walking tour of Zurich, only we did not follow the directions well. We would be captivated by an oriole window or something and veer off the path. We did end up covering most of it, just not quite in the order of the guidebook. we did walk down most of the bahnhofstrasse (fancy shopping street), and saw st. peter's kirke (from the outside only). we walked along the shipke and saw the ruins of the roman baths and went into the fraumunster, with the stained glass windows by chagall.
We headed back to the apartment, met Marco, then headed over to Isabel's apartment (soon to be Marco and Isabel's apartment). Marco and Isabel made us raclette, a Swiss specialty. By t his time, we were fading fast and headed back to the student apartment. We crashed by 10 o'clock. so ended our first day in switzerland.