Friday, October 5, 2012

Settling In and Catching Up

At the end of August, the movers came to our old apartment, packed, loaded, and unloaded our stuff by mid-afternoon.  Definitely worth it to spring for the packing service--it would have taken me weeks to do it on my own and I'm sure C would have been distressed watching his toys get slowly boxed up.  Nice to have it all taken care of in one day.  Unpacking on my own took a little longer, but not too bad.

We had about a day and a half together in our new place amongst the boxes before Z left for about 3 weeks of international business travel.  Very glad he was able to do more traveling, but the timing was challenging.  Settling in to our new place as a family was a little delayed, but we are now all together under one roof and it is very nice.      

A little travel catch up...

In July, C and I tagged along with Z for a business trip to Zurich, Switzerland.  We found the city beautiful in parts, quite clean for such a large place, a tad boring in other parts, and very very expensive.  It is, after all, one of the top 10 most expensive cities to live in the world.  Z had meetings and work commitments the first couple of days, including in the evenings.  So C and I explored on our own (and relaxed with a couple in-room kids' movies when we grew tired).  One of the first things I did was locate a small grocery store to buy food for our meals.  It was still very expensive to buy groceries, but about 1/4 of the cost of eating out at every meal.  Even breakfast at the hotel would have been about $26 per person.  A loaf of Zopf (Swiss braided bread similar to Challah bread), a pot of yogurt and some apfelschorle was more economical and very yummy.



Tea Time in Hotel Lobby


There is a street in the city of Zurich called Bahnhofstrasse. It is one of the most famous shopping areas in the world. High end fashion designers galore! And window shopping at its best. :) "Someday maybe...someday," I thought as I peeked in to the Prada and Louis Vuitton shops.


Around the corner from Bahnhofstrasse, another favorite.


On the weekend, we took a train up from Zurich to The Uetliberg (a mountain in the Swiss plateau).  The lookout tower was impressive.  C was very brave and went about half way up the tower before the wind got to be too much for him.  Z brought C back down and then he went all the way up to the top on his own.


Lookout Tower at The Uetliberg

From The Uetliberg, we took a trail (for what we thought was a 30 minute hike) to the aerial cable car Felsenegg. Two hours later, we finally got to our destination. But it was totally worth the unexpected duration.
The signage along the trails was a little confusing. 

Z and C on the trail

The view from spots along the trails


More beauty to behold on our hike

The trails meandered through hills and private farms

An abandoned Villa in the middle of our hike

The Cable Car at Last! With view over Zurich
Our room rate for the weekend included a "Rooftop Champange" package.  A little bit plain in the accomodation (between the air conditioning units and the very small seating area), but it was nice to get a view of the city from a rooftop right on the Lake.

Rooftop Champange (for Z & A) with Olives & Peanuts (for C)
 
 
On our last evening in Zurich, we walked along the river and ate dinner at a nice outdoor restaurant, The Zeughauskeller.  It was a lovely evening with beautiful weather.


On one of the bridges over Lake Zurich. Swiss Alps in the background.

Walking through the cobblestone streets in Zurich after dinner at The Zeughauskeller 

Sunset on Lake Zurich with Grossmünster Cathedral in background.
 
 
It was nice to see another part of Europe and experience the culture of Zurich, Switzerland. 
 
Cheers.
 
 
 

3 comments:

  1. That rooftop champagne looked really neat!

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  2. That must have been just lovely! I dream of visiting Switzerland someday.

    ReplyDelete