One of the great things about Switzerland is the cities are small. Geneva has a population of only about 200,000, which means you can walk around and see a lot of the city on foot. This is basically impossible for the massive metropolises we've been visiting so far (Cairo, Seoul, Beijing, Taipei).
Some people will be glad to hear that one of my missions today was to get some Swiss chocolates to send back to Veeva. If you don't get any blame Abhay. 🙂
Local chocolatierSmall farmers market downtownFamous watch brands all over downtownJet d'Eau, if you zoom in you can see people walking underneath itLittle boy taking a family photoI went a little closer, but you get drenched in a hurry if there is a gust of wind. It shoots 132 gallons of water per second.Kids in a park
As the sun goes lower it makes a rainbow in the Jet d'Eau.
Hard to see but there is a rainbow in the background
We didn't go to the UN office, it doesn't seem all that interesting to be honest. Actually a place I was interested in which is nearby is CERN. They do high energy physics experiments with the Large Hadron Collider there that might destroy the world. Just kidding, but if you are worried you can check the status here. It is also a birthplace of the World Wide Web (link to first page on the web). Unfortunately they are not currently offering tours to individuals, although they used to. Oh well.
At around 11am we left our place in Thalwil and caught the train back to Zurich main station. There we activated our Eurail pass. We should have activated it when we arrived the first day because I think it counts for local trains, so we could have saved a few francs on the train from Thalwil. We couldn't activate it in Thalwil because it is an automated station, there is no ticket agent. The agent has to stamp the pass to activate it.
We have 10 day global passes, which covers most of Europe. The way it works is we pick 10 days in a two month period and we get unlimited travel on those days. You have to write the days you use it on the ticket (in ink) and the places you travel. For some trains you need to reserve a seat, which costs extra and isn't covered by the pass, but for Zurich to Geneva we could just jump on the train. We just missed the 12:32pm train, so we stored our luggage in a locker and walked back to Hiltl for another veggie buffet lunch. Yanmei wants to open a restaurant like this in the US now.
We leisurely came back and got on the 2:32pm train. The ride was very pleasant. There were stops at Bern, Fribourg, and Lausanne along the way. If we'd planned better we could have got on an earlier train and then got off and looked around in each of those towns, and then got on the next hourly train. Something to keep in mind when we plan our future train rides.
The countryside was the idyllic Swiss countryside you read about. Green fields and rolling hills spotted with small towns, with a backdrop of the Alps.
We were going to take it easy today, to relax after Egypt, but we ended doing quite a lot. We're staying in a town called Thalwil, which is a suburb of Zurich located on the west bank of Lake Zurich. Zurich downtown is located at the northern tip of the lake. The house we are in has a great view.
View from the house of Lake Zurich
I seem to have lost my ability to sleep in because I woke up early as usual even though I was very tired from the previous day of travel. First we went to a nearby grocery store to get a few supplies. The morning weather was lovely, clear, cool fresh air and sunny.
After breakfast we decided to take the ferry to Zurich. The ferry was scheduled for 9:50am and we planned to leave the house at 9:20am, but somehow ended up leaving at 9:30am. This resulted in us running a good portion of the way to the dock, luckily it was all downhill. We made it with about 30 seconds to spare, and fortunately you buy your ticket on board.
View from the ferry
When we got to Zurich we headed a few blocks in to where there was a free city walking tour at 11am. There ended up being a large crowd of people for the tour. I guess that is what happens when you are one of the top ranked things to do in Zurich on tripadvisor.com and free.
Walking tour group
The tour was pretty informative. I like this more than just wandering around ourselves because you get little tidbits and anecdotes about the locations that otherwise you wouldn't necessarily know about. One thing that surprised me was our guide said women only got the right to vote in Switzerland in 1971. Seems a little late for a country that is supposed to be a human rights advocate.
Zurich was actually governed by women in the 11th to 14th centuries when the abbess of Fraumünster abbey was the ruler. She was overthrown by an alliance of trade guilds when they became powerful. The 13 guilds and their guild houses remain today, and although they no longer have monopolies the guild families remain wealthy and influential.
Clock tower on St. Peter's church from Lindenhof hillOverlooking Zurich from Lindenhof hillA guild house with guild flag, opposite Starbucks
After the tour we went to a restaurant called Hiltl for lunch. It was recommended by our Bnb host as well as the tour guide. It is a vegetarian restaurant that has been in business since 1898. They have a buffet or a la carte, and we decided on the buffet, which was quite extensive. The food was very good.
After lunch we decided to go up Uetliberg mountain, which is a small mountain overlooking Zurich. It was about a 20 minute train ride and then a 15 minute hike to the top. The view was pretty spectacular.
Above Lake ZurichSnow topped alps in the distancePanorama of Lake Zurich, tap to enlarge
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