Finally home for a few days

I just got back from Ottawa around lunch time today. It has been a long few weeks so it is nice to be home right now. Do not get me wrong - the weeks were long but were enjoyable. Switzerland was a great time - 8 days of enjoying small Swiss towns and then exploring the old part of Zurich. We were also treated with great hospitality by people at the hotels and Laura's colleagues. As I mentioned last time we went to an old Abbey church which was followed by a great meal at a nice Italian restaurant - some great pizza, pasta and wine. Thanks to Monika and Bernd for a great treat on our first day in Switzerland.

The rest of the first few days I spent exploring Rapperswil-Jona and doing some running to Ruti. Between doing a little shopping, exploring the castle and the old parts of the town (along with the occasional long lunch with a nice cold Carlsberg) and taking lots of pictures -  my days were full. Thursday we had what was probably the most delicious meal I have ever had in a restaurant, and it was at the hotel's restaurant overlooking Lake Zurich.

Monika and Bernd continued their hospitality Friday night when we went to Zurich for dinner. We met Andreas, another colleague of Laura's, at a wonderful old restaurant called Kaiser’s Reblaube. The upper room was once occupied by Goethe. We ate a wonderful meal in the lower dining room - very traditional with good wine and great conversation.


Saturday we hopped on the train and headed to our hotel for the weekend in Zurich. The train followed the lakeshore from Rapperswl to Zurich. A quick walk from the train station and we were in the center of old town Zurich and at our hotel. We knew we were in Switzerland when we looked across the cobblestoned street and saw the blue cow on the balcony. Saturday we did a little shopping, did some sightseeing in the old churches and of course found a great place for lunch and a nice little Italian place for dinner, It now appears to us that wherever we go we find ourselves eating pizza the first night we are there (true for Victoria, Seattle, Seaside Florida, Rapperswil and Zurich). We continued our sightseeing Sunday, visiting the Grossmunster church (climbing the 186 VERY narrow tower stairs to get the pic on the left), the Art Gallery for a Seurat exhibit, and of course exploring more of old town. Lunch today was a picnic lunch with a nice bottle of Amarone on the Lindenhof Plaza that overlooked the Limmat River. My lunch choice - Roast Beef with mustard and dark chocolate - all in the same sandwich!


Sunday evening was my turn to treat Laura to dinner and I wanted it to be special so I had reserved a table at the Kronenhalle. The Kronenhalle is one of the most famous restaurants in not only Zurich but all of Switzerland and our impression was it was deserved. From the moment you walk in you see the history - not just in the building and the fact that the restaurant has been there for almost 150 years but the artwork that is hung on the walls. It is things that you would see in a good American restaurant where they would hang prints of Matisse or Picasso except at the Kronenhalle they are Matisse and Picasso paintings. One painting in the entryway is valued at over CHF 2 Million (that is 2 million Swiss francs - about 2 million dollars). The food and wine matched the impression as did the service from a full staff. It was a meal to remember. However we did not stop there but stopped at the Terrace Restaurant on the bank of the Limmat for dessert. It was a night that made it hard to leave Zurich because one had to wonder what we had missed and in a city so beautiful you could miss things and not know. Hopefully we will be back in Zurich some day again.


For now - I am happy to be home :-)


.... cu