| Luzern | 1:07 PM |
I spent the day in Luzern and it was a perfect day! A co-worker recommended I go saying it was the most "Swiss" town in Switzerland. I didn't have a plan -- someone told me of a museum I should visit, but couldn't find it listed so I just wandered around all day. It hailed! It was on and off rainy today with bouts of sunshine breaking through. The first real bit of rain soaked my pants and included hail. It lasted for probably less than half an hour -- I should've sat in a cafe, but didn't know how long it'd last so I just kept wandering.
I love churches -- yes, the atheist in me hasn't gotten over my love of churches. So I'm naturally drawn to them when I wander and visited about 4 or 5 today, including walking into two services. I sat in one for about 15 minutes (it was in German) and left at communion (that part I understood). The Fransican church was my favorite -- very Gothic inside with the most amazing stained glass I saw all day -- the stained glass behind the altar is the most impressive. There is a gate, but they leave the door open so you can walk right up to the altar and gaze at the stained glass. I took a few photos and will post them when I have more time.
I also enjoyed the Lion monument and the Glacier Garden located just behind it. I didn't know it was there, but it was only 12 francs to get in (about $12 USD) so I did and I spent about two hours there -- I only left because they told me they were closing the watch tower which is where I ended up, overlooking the city. They have a ton of information and visulations about the glaciers melting and the pre-historical Luzern (the mediterranean oasis the site of modern day Luzern used to be -- before the ice age that is), but they also have this weird hall of mirrors in "Alhambra" style, as well as some historical rooms and furniture.
The train ride there and back was lovely -- I wanted to ride back while it was still light outside to view the other side of the country side I missed this morning. It's green and lovely. I saw some hairy and multicolored goats, and the cutest, crimp-haired, golden brown, adolescent cow. But my favorite sights were the communal gardens -- at first I thought they were cute little shanty towns with itty bitty houses. But those houses were garden sheds. A small plot of land mostly evenly divided into rectangles where people grew an assorted of vegetables and flowers -- it was lovely -- probably about 15-20 plots. I only wish I could've gotten to walk around in one.
| Spatially challenged | 2:47 PM |
I caught the right tram to go home but somehow it dropped me off somewhere and it wasn't my stop. It stopped one stop before my exit and jet lag hit me hard today so I was completely zoned out. We stopped at the last stop -- I'm sure the conductor made an announcement and I just didn't understand it. But I remember thinking to myself, gosh, a lot of people are getting off at this stop, then went back to staring out the window. It was 9pm by this point and still light outside and all I wanted was a glass of wine, then bed. The conductor came walking towards me and said something and then I finally woke up out of my daze and looked around and realized he was shooing me off :)
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So then I start walking in the direction of home. Except I clearly have no sense of direction because I went the wrong way and only after a few blocks did I have the sense to look at a map. I'm an extremely slow map reader, but I can usually figure things out.
Today was the first day the weather has been beautiful -- it's been raining and overcast since I arrived on Sunday morning. As I made my way back home, I saw tons of people filling up all the outdoor spaces, eating and drinking. When I got to the hotel just after 9:30pm, my lovely little outdoor courtyard was full of people having dinner. It wasn't the quiet peaceful retreat it was last night, but still a lovely place for a glass of wine and an email.
The saving grace of being lost in a new place, is that I don't mind :) No matter how tired I am, it's still a pleasure to see streets I haven't seen yet.
| I <3 Zurich | 2:55 PM |
I love the Swiss. There's a lock box in my closet for valuables (not that unusual), and a skeleton key to lock my closet (I've never seen that before). I used a porta-potty yesterday and it had a) a sink, b) it flushed, c) it had a trashcan and d) a toilet brush to clean the toilet (the only thing missing was soap). The bathrooms at work have (in each stall!) some sort of purifying cleanser for you to wipe the toilet seats down with. I love it when a country understands my need for cleaniness and sterility.
I'm staying at the Romantik Hotel Florhof (don't make the mistake of thinking the first two descriptive words are actually part of the hotel's name -- the shuttle driver that took me to the hotel from the airport chuckled at me when I said its full name, and all he repeated was the "Florhof" part of it). The service here is amazing. I called on Sunday night to say the LAN wasn't working for me. The guy wasn't especially helpful saying I should come to the lobby and use the public computer. But in his defense, he did say it was late and no one was around to fix it (it was near midnight), and b) at least they had a public computer for me to use should I be desperate. I did find one open wireless network with enough signal strength to do what I needed to do. The impressive thing was that the next morning, someone came up to my room to ask me about my internet connection and said she'd have someone look into it. And it was fixed when I got home.
I love the switch near the front door that turns on and off all the electricity to the room -- no fear of leaving something on all day. I love the inviting spaces in the hotel where I can have a drink at night and read. This bull is in the courtyard where I sat tonight for an hour or so after work til well after dark. The weather is a bit rainy, but it's still relatively warm.
There's something about being someplace new and realizing the things you take for granted -- like knowing how to cross at a crosswalk -- at home are things you need to relearn elsewhere. And maybe I'm simple and easily amused, but I enjoy the novelty of it all -- the feeling of not always being entirely sure of myself. I've been in other parts of Europe -- Germany, France, Czech Republic, Netherlands, but nowhere have I felt as inconspicuous as I do here. Maybe it's because I can get away with speaking English, but I think it's more than that -- it's really diverse here in terms of languages spoken and nationalities floating around -- more diverse than anywhere else I've ever been.
Everywhere I've eaten today there's been fresh, yummy, whole grain bread. It's a little bit like heaven. And the Zurich office is as good as I've been led to believe it was. The fire poles are a thrill, and the water room is luxurious and relaxing -- I slept off a little jet lag in there today :)
| First Night in Zurich | 2:15 PM |
I don't know why, but I'm completely enchanted with the bathroom -- it's so white and clean and sterile looking:
Unfortunately, I slept right through the middle of Sunday here, but I'd just arrived and gotten into my room after waiting 3 hours in the lobby (I got here pretty early) and I was dead tired. When I dragged myself out of bed, it was 8am my time.
I love new cities. I'm such an urban girl -- my first and most favorite thing to do is just walk around, wandering wherever I fancy with no destination in mind. I'm drawn to pretty alleyways, churches, architecturally interesting or historic looking buildings. Sometimes I walk towards the crowd and sometimes away. I was wishing I had my German boy with me today, but I love wandering around by myself too.
I love all the different languages. People here seem to know several and switch easily. My waiter at dinner knew German, English and Italian. The front desk here knows German, French and English. And who knows what other languages they may speak. I've heard lots of German and English, some French and Italian, and bits of Chinese and Korean just today in 4 hours of walking around.
I got a little lost coming home, but I never mind being lost in a new place. I wander around and don't pay attention to where I'm going. I used the two big churches near-ish my hotel as landmarks and finally gave in and used a map as it started to get dark around 9:30pm and I found myself walking through the quaint cobblestone streets essentially in circles :)
