Zürich, Day Two

On day two, I still had sticker shock.  Jason found us a relatively cheap lunch location in the Zürich train station.  We were able to eat at Brasserie Federal (the site is in German, but it has pretty pictures) for 10 CHF each!  The Brasserie Federal is a pretty brew house located within the train station.  The Federal Special consisted of a housemade veal* coiled sausage, roll, and a small "side salad."  Side salads here do not quite equate with a side salad in the US (no iceberg), but I enjoyed it.  Mustard comes in tubes, and three types were delivered to our table: mild, hot, and whole kernel.  I'm a hot mustard kind of girl (I know, I know, I hated mustard as a kid, but I can't get enough of the stuff now!), but it overpowered the delicate flavor of the veal, so I went with the mild.  I piled everything into my roll, but Jason opted to eat his with a knife and fork when his coiled sausage started uncoiling and became a mess.  For the price of the meal, we also got a beverage: water, cola, or beer.  Of course, we opted for beer.  It was a standard pils, but brewed in house, so it was pretty tasty for a pils.  We noticed that the guy at the table next to us was drinking a dark beer... so we asked about it.  He was kind enough to left Jason pour a little bit into his glass, and we both feel in love with it!  

After lunch, we wandered across the street to the Swiss National Museum (German: Landesmuseum).  I had done a little bit of research before coming to Zürich, so when I had arrived the night before, we purchased a 72 hour ZürichCARD for each of us.  This card granted us free access to most museums, free public transportation, and a free drink at over 20 restaurants in town.  

The Landesmuseum was quite extensive.  It definitely had a nationalistic feel to it... it even had an room devoted to the banks.  Here they had on display a large set of safety deposit boxes with a few that were open so you could pull them out and see the contents.  Additionally, the museum had a display of the Swiss currency (they've had a five "dollar" coin for quite some time... it makes the half dollar look tiny) and an electronic display of the value of the Swiss Franc through time.  Apparently it has been one of the most stable currencies ever.  At some parts of the museum, Jason and I looked at each other with faces that clearly said, "why on earth is this in this museum?" (eg. Star Wars Legos).  But overall, the museum was lovely.  I think we went through it backwards... it was maze-like.  But, no cameras allowed inside (we even had to leave our camera in the locker with our coats).  I was looking at a cute purse in the gift shop... Jason jokingly guessed the price at 85 CHF, but no, it was 185 CHF.  Either way, the museum was fine with a widely varied collection of items from clothing to reliquaries to paintings to legos.

From the Landesmuseum, we walked down by the lake to the Grossmünster.  This Romanesque-style church is well known in Zürich and entrance is free.  It is quite beautiful, though tiny compared to the beautiful church in Cologne.  Legend has it that Charlemagne founded this church on a Roman burial ground.  You can go up to the top of the church, but they do charge 4CHF for that.  We opted not to see it. 

Across the lake from Grossmünster is the Fraumünster.  It has beautiful stained glass windows by the artist Marc Chagall.  Entrance is also free, though you are not allowed to wander as freely through this building.  It's still quite pretty (any tiny) and worth a visit if you are in Zürich.  Both churches have small gift shops with postcards and the like.  Information on the churches, specifically the stained glass windows, are available in many languages.  If you want to keep the information, a donation is requested.  

We continued our wander down the lake, then up into the streets away from the lake to find a cafe.  It took a lot more effort than expected to find a cafe.  Jason had recently been in Vienna where cafes are a dime a dozen, so we were quite shocked that we had to wander for over 20 minutes to find one.  While we rested (Zürich is quite hilly), we decided to walk back to the hotel on the other side of the lake.  We found another brewery on the way, so we made a mental note to go back there for dinner.  We wandered down a street doing a little window shopping... except it was more like window-ogling.  (Prada, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Cartiers, Gucci, and Burberry just to name a few)  Surprisingly, I wasn't at all tempted to enter the store... I guess I'm just not interested in luxury right now.  But, we did find one store that tempted us greatly... so we went into the Swiss chocolate store: Sprüngli! Yummy chocolate.  I'm so lucky to have found a partner who likes chocolate as much as I do!  It makes my cravings so much easier to deal with... mainly because he gets them too!

We read for a while back in the hotel room (Jason was reading Bourne Supremacy, I was reading American Wife).  Part of Jason's book takes place in Zürich, so we made plans to explore that part of the city on Sunday.  We were both tired by the time dinner rolled around, so we decided to go back to Brasserie Federal rather than the other brew house we had found since the train station was closer.  I had fish from the lake, and Jason had pork chops.  We each had a Schwarzer Kristall, and then Jason noticed they also had a sampler... so that was next!

Samplers are always a happy end to the day!

*I still haven't figured out my thoughts on veal (ethics wise).  I know it's not my favorite taste for meat, but it's VERY popular in Switzerland, so I went with the whole "When in Rome" thought while there.

Arriving in Zürich

When Jason was in Vienna, he found out about a workshop that was being held in Zürich in February.  He jumped at the chance to go, and this time he was taking me with him.  :)   However, he left Tuesday, and I was going down on Friday to join him once the conference was over.

Friday started out well for me.  Jason had warned me that the connection to Weimar was running late when he went on Tuesday, so I made sure to catch the earlier train to Weimar.  I arrived 30 minutes before my next connection and had the overwhelming desire to get breakfast at McDonalds in the Weimar train station.  I resisted the urge (I haven't eaten there in several years), and grabbed breakfast from the bakery, then headed back up to the platform (2, not 9 3/4).  It was COLD!  But luckily, my train was running on time, so we arrived in Frankfurt with no delays.  The Frankfurt station is much larger than those in Jena and Weimar, so I had a wide range of lunch options.  Knowing that the food wouldn't be any better than that in Jena, I settled on Asian food.  The tables were large, so I joined another woman sitting at a table for 6.  Another couple sat down next to our table, and as it turned out, we all spoke English.  The woman was from Austria, and was in Germany on business.  For the first time in her life, she had missed her connecting train, and unfortunately that also meant she would not be able to use the tickets she had for the theater that night.  Bummer.  The couple was originally from the US, but had spent the last 10 years living in Africa, most recently Namibia.  The were moving back to Washington, D.C., but having a hard time dealing with the snow in Frankfurt, which was not good since this was the same weekend as the snowpocalypse in DC.  We had a lovely lunch, and then I went to check on my train.  I still had thirty minutes before it arrived, but I wanted to make sure it was running on time.  It wasn't.

My train was listed as delayed 50 minutes.  Since train stations are open, they aren't heated, so I wandered into the book store (which was heated).  Compared to the book stores in Jena, it had a huge English section, but only in paperback, so I was unable to find Barbara Kingsolver's new book.   I couldn't actually spend 80 minutes in a book store only filled with pop fiction, so I ended up finding a nice place to stand until the train arrived.  It was an additional 15 minutes late.  That put our train running 65 minutes behind by the time we pulled out of Frankfurt.  Yuck.  But, that does mean I get 25% of the money back from my ticket to Zürich (you get 50% if your train is more than 2 hours delayed).  Small consolation, I know, but I'll take it.  About an hour into our journey, we stopped... the train just sat there for about 15 minutes.  When the conductor came over the intercom after we started moving again, we were 83 minutes delayed.  About 20 minutes before we arrived in Switzerland, the conductor come over the intercom again: the train was now 90 minutes delayed and the Zürich train station would not be able to accommodate the our train.  Our train would stop in Basel and would not go on to Zürich.  Crap.  They gave us the information for a train that would be going to Zürich, platform 9, leaving at 6:33.  We pulled into Basel around 6:05, but I noticed not everyone was getting off the train... What?  I eventually asked someone if she spoke English, and she was able to help me out.  Apparently there are two Basel train stations, but from the static and accent and mumbling, I was unable to get that from what the conductor had said.  We finally started moving again at 6:20 (how the crap was I going to catch a 6:33 train at another station)!  We pulled into the Basel stop at platform 5, and the train arrived just as I was walking down the stairs to platform 9.  I was on, and the train was off.  Phew.  

I arrived in Zürich at 7:29, which means that catching another train did not slow me down any more, which was nice.  Jason met me (thank goodness for our iPhones), and took me back to the hotel so I could put my stuff down.  By this time my lunch was long gone, so we went searching for food.  We finally found a cute little Italian place that we felt like we could afford (prices started at 20 CHF or 15EUR or $20 instead of 40CHF like many other places we saw).  After paying way too much for decent food, Jason took me to a bar he had found that served a Brooklyn IPA!  My first IPA in 6 months!  Heaven.  Smoky bar heaven, but still delicious!  So delicious, I had to take a picture... with my iPhone... in a dark smoky bar with no flash...

Tabs was kind enough to edit it for me so you can see the bottle a bit better.