Sunday, 12 July, 2015

It is a Sunday which means most of the shops in Zurich are closed. We wanted to buy a baguette last night but the girl said that the ones for sale were a couple of days old. She suggested that we go to the shops underneath the train station to get a fresh one tomorrow. So Julie does that and also purchases some travel tickets.

It is our last full day on this extended holiday so we decided we would just do the standard Tourist stuff – the activities are listed as BT .

BT1 – after a nice breakfast from the purchases from last night, which naturally included Smoked Salmon, and purchases from this morning, we go out to the train station. It is a short enough walk, but like all good tourists we take the tram.

BT2 – we catch a train up to the peak behind Zurich.

Note once again how quiet the station is. Tomorrow this will be packed with people. Any way we find the train and it is a smooth ride up to the top albeit with lots of stops and occasional delays as trains from the other direction go by on the mostly single track.

We are still a ways to the summit so we decide to walk up to it. Once we start it is clear to me that it is virtually straight uphill and my legs will not be able to handle it. Julie goes up on her own and takes a few photos.

Julie comes down just in time to catch a train down the hill. Which brings us to:

BT3 – a Boat Cruise around the Lake

From the train station we take a Tram to the lake. There is not a long wait for a cruise albeit there are a lot of people in the queue. What this means is that the “premium” seats up top and outside are all taken but that does not really matter.

There are a number of stops along the way and at each of them there a lot of bathers luxuriating in the beautiful weather.

We cross the lake to the other side and a few stops on get off at a place where there is supposed to be a good restaurant. Instead, there is a large waterside pub where we settle in for a while.

After 90 minutes, our original boat shows up so we hop onto it to return to the main dock.

We were just about the last people off the boat. This meant that there were long queues to catch the tram back. It was only a couple of stops and it was a beautiful day so it was no problem at all to walk back.

BT4 – A German Beer Hall

What a way to finish our touristy day. We go to the German (claimed to be Swiss) restaurant just up from our apartment. We are sitting outside so it is not formally a beer hall although inside would definitely be.

http://www.zeughauskeller.ch/home

The menu had a few interesting thing such as:

Whole pork shank (skinned) marinated with fresh herbs and oven-roasted, simmered in dark draught beer and served with fresh potato salad; or

Mayor’s sword: 400 gr of marinated baby-beef steaks, pounded thin, wrapped around the sword blade and grilled lean, served with a bowl of mixed salad or Rösti (hash brown potatoes “Swiss style”) or French fries; served with a curry-garlic and barbecue sauce To share for 2 persons.

No, we did not order that. A waiter kindly took a photo of one ordered at another table. It actually looked a lot more impressive in person than in the photo.

Julie really enjoyed that dish. The menu had a number of sausages and after the success from the previous night I decided to go with:

Zeughauskeller Wurstspiess: a selection of our finest grilled sausage specialities on a skewer (300 gr), served with our famous homemade potato salad and onion sauce

Note that I ordered it with “Rösti” (hash brown potatoes “Swiss style”) instead of the Potato salad.

Julie convinced me to take home some of the leftover sausages et al for breakfast tomorrow.

Enough of the BTs, I think we did well with our touristy day, it is time for bed.