Lauterbrunnen

Lake Zürich from ferry wharf

After four days of being well hosted by Mary and William we left to go to Lauterbrunnen which is deep in the Swiss Alps.  Finally the weather cleared and Zurich looked a treat although it was still very cold.  Nonetheless in the sun and there being no breeze we decided that we were wrapped up enough to sit in the sun and have a coffee on the Bahnhofstrasse (the main street of Zurich with every designer shop you could imagine). 

Bahnhofstrasse - where we had our coffee

Our train ride to Lauterbrunnen involved three changes of train.  One at Olten and another at Interlaken Ost.  The amount of time we had at the latter was about five minutes.  I had thought myself very smart when I bought some half price tickets but found out on the first leg that I did not have half price card and therefore the ability to purchase the tickets.  It resulted in me having to fork out a rather large sum for the full price of the ticket.  I had not properly read the fine print.  So what I had thought were very good priced tickets were in fact very expensive. 

View of Lauterbrunnen from our hotel balconey

The Swiss railway system runs like clockwork.  Trains arrive and leave on time.  The trains are comfortable but there is nowhere to put bags easily.  On the second leg we found a little compartment and were able to put our bags on the seats.  The final train to Lauterbrunnen took us into the alps on a less comfortable train but as it was only 20 minutes or so it was easy. 

Cheese honesty box! Who could resist the cheese?

Hotel Oberland was about 200 metres from the station although slightly uphill.  It was a cute hotel which gave me a workout with weights having to carry two 19kg bags up three flights of stairs. 

Lauterbrunnen is a very small alpine village deep in a glacial valley overlooked by mountains.  It is almost chocolate box Swiss!!  It was suggested that we go for a walk to some falls that are inside a mountain; the result of the water from glaciers. Not having had a great deal of exercise that is what we did.

It is quintessentially Swiss;  cows with cowbells munching the verdant grass in this

The farm

mountainous region.  On the way we came across some cheese that I guess had been made locally. One cheese was 2 years old and the other a year old. It was there to purchase and taste with an honesty box system for payment.  It was so nice to see.

Rest area and local vegetation

After our walk (incidentally we got to the cave too late to go in) we found a place to have a wine and a beer.  The man who served us ran a base jumpers outfit and had spent 9 months in New Zealand.  He remarked that he wanted to end his life there as he loved it (NZ) so much (I don't think he meant suicide or some other premature way).  He was French from the Savoie area.  He recommended a local dark beer that I decided to try and it was actually  very good. He said this beer was made by the last independent brewery in the area. 

We ate at our hotel.  We both had a traditional Swiss meal of rosti, mine with a Swiss sausage and onion gravy.  It was quite nice but I am really missing vegetables. 

Our hotel

Rapperswil et plus la neige/ Rapperswill and more snow

Nous nous sommes réveillé à tomber de la neige.  Il a couverté les voitures et la pelouse.  Heureusement il a arrêté à le matin midi.

Steps to the church

Après le déjeuner Mary nous a pris à Rapperswil qui est un petit ville à haut du lac Zürich.  Il a fait très froid dehors.  Nous sommes allé sans se presser.  Nous avons trouvé un magasin que vendait les choses Australien.  Elle avait habité en Australie avant elle a déplacée en Suisse.

Après nous nous avions promené autour le ancienne ville nous avons trouvé un bar où nous avons eu un vin. Il était bien être dans la chaleur.

Maintenant, c'est anglais.

We awoke to snow.  Large amounts of it falling! However by the time we ventured outside it was just the odd flurry. But, there had been enough to cover cars and the lawn.

Snowy hills close to Rapperswil

As I was cooking that evening I found that I needed to get some cream so we wandered to the local grocery store where we got the cream.  Bev also wanted to go to the Lindt factory again, so we went there where  she got a few more goodies.

After lunch Mary took us to a village (more like a large town) at the south end of the Lake Zurich called Rapperswil. It had an old part to the town which was well preserved with lots of cobblestones and with

We know how to deal with cold

interesting but expensive shops.  One of the surprises was to see a shop that sold all things Australian.

Mary and Bev had a chat with the woman owner who said she had set it up after moving there with her English husband.  She had gone to Sydney many years before with another husband from whom she had separated eventually.  Apparently the current husband had pursued her with considerable persistence until she relented to go out with him.  Eventually they moved to Rapperswil. 

Avenue of Linden Trees (we think)

After wandering around Rapperswil we found a nice restaurant where we had a lovely glass of red wine. It was so nice to be out of the biting cold.  Snow was down very low on the hills around us which despite the cold made it very picturesque. 

That night I cooked a meal for Mary, William and their son Alex .  I had cooked a potato gratin using the gruyere with some roast vegetables with balsamic vinegar and white and green asparagus.  It was very delicious.   

We then had a bit of the cheese that we had bought at the market.  They were very nice, particularly the gorgonzola which was creamy with a the right amount tang.  

Some people will play chess no matter what the weather is

Local art

Centreville/CBD

Zurich Market

It was a grey day and an opportunity to try out the public transport system.  The bus stop is 100 metres from William and Mary’s and the bendy bus was very good to ride in. The information inside about where it was going to stop next was superb.  It even had the time it would arrive at a stop.   

Mary said that every thing ran like clockwork.  If a bus or train was scheduled to leave at a specific time that is when it left.  No planning on the bus being three minutes late or something like that.  The buses feel new and they are clearly used by people, despite being mouth wateringly expensive. 

There are also a number of tram or light rail lines.  We did not get to try them out as the trams all seemed packed. 

Sitting on the bridge over the Limmat

The main purpose of going to into Zürich was to visit a farmers type market as I was going to be cooking for William and Mary.  It was damp and freezing cold.  It is always interesting to see what is available at these markets.  The vegetables were not local.  They had white and green asparagus, and then a lot of what we would regard as winter vegetables.  There were a number of people selling cheese and we got some gruyere, emmental, gorganzola and another one I did not get the name of.  The gruyere was for a pommes de terre dauphinois.

We wandered around the old city for a while and had an almost nice coffee in a cute café. The coffees cost around 4.50SF or about $6. 

Another view of the Limmat - Cathedral towers on left

As it was so cold and it was starting to rain we decided that going to the National Museum of Switzerland might be a good idea.  While not a museum I would rave over it was interesting. 

Later Mary took us to a wine shop associated with a supermarket chain called Co-op.  The selection was quite good but the wines were rather expensive.  I got a Chablis, a local Pinot Noir, and a Cabernet Merlot from Chile made by Chateau Lafite Rothschild.  We drank these over two nights.  The Chablis and Cabernet Merlot were very good but the Pinot Noir was not very good.  Just drinkable.

 

La neige/Snow

La neige/snow

Aujourd’hui (actuellement, lundi), ce faisait tres froid,  la neige est tombé pendant le matin.  Il était très beau !

Nous sommes allé avec Mary pour une promenade aux magasins et puis le lac qui est prés chez Mary et William.  Aussi ils habitent près du Lindt, le chocolatier.  Nous avons visité le magasin et, bien sûr, elle a acheté beaucoup des chocolats.    

Pendant le matin la neige à tombé de temps à autre.  

A place for chocoholics

Après midi Mary nous a pris à Lucerne qui est 52 kilomètres de Zürich.  Anglais maintenant. 

The weather has been cold to say the least, I don’t think the temperature has got much higher than about 8 degrees.   Today we had snow although it did not settle on the ground.  Later we saw it on the higher ground. 

Street scene Lucerne

We went for a walk with Mary to deposit her recyclables, then a visit to her local park and finally on the way back to Mary’s place we called into the Lindt Chocolate factory shop.  The Lindt factory is almost next door to Mary and William.  The area is primarily residential apart from the factory.  Apparently it is where all the chocolate is manufactured.

The Reuss

After an early lunch Mary took us to Lucerne which is about fifty kilometres away.  The weather improved significantly as we travelled toward the town.  By the time we got there the sun had come out and the sky was a washed out blue.

Street scene

The town was the one which put Switzerland on the map as a tourist destination with the English going there in the 19^th century.  It is very beautiful and the town is centred around the outlet of the lake.  The old part is a maze of narrow streets.  One of the interesting features are two covered bridges across the outflow from the lake.  The oldest one , which was reputedly built in 1333, was mostly burnt down in 1993 but was rebuilt almost immediately.   The inside of the bridges have pictures that depict the saints and history of Lucerne.  Also many of the older buildings have pictures painted on them.  Creeping up a ridge behind the town are remparts from what must have been part of a walled town at some point in Lucerne's history.  We wandered the streets and enjoyed the warmth of the sun when we were in it, although there was very cold wind blowing off the mountains.

The lake is surrounded by mountains and we were

Covered bridge

lucky enough to see them covered with lots of snow.  Behind the town is Mt Pilatus which while not high has the steepest cog railway going up it, along with a cable car.  We explored the option of going up but by the time we got there it was due to finish and the cost would have been around $200 for the two of us.

After a few hours of snapping pictures and taking in the vistas we returned to Zurich. 

Later that night for some reason I was overcome by tiredness and ended up in bed very early.

Lakefront

Pictures in the bridge

Lake Zurich

Le printemps à Zürich/Spring in Zürich

Le printemps à Zürich est comme l’hiver à Wellington.  Nous sommes parti de Londres hier. Nous avons commencé très tôt par prendre le bus pour Heathrow.  Nous avons passé la sécurité très vite et puis nous avons essayé de trouver un salon pour Star Alliance, comme le Koru Lounge.  Nous avons découvert qu'il y avait trois salons que nous pouvions utiliser,  après beaucoup de reflexisons nous avons décidé d'aller au salon de Singapore mais je m’ai rendu compte qu'après une longue marche que ce n'était pas le bon salon.  Nous sommes allés au salon de Lufthansa qui était près de la porte d’embarquement. 

The old city around the lake outlet

À l’aéroport de Zürich nos hotes, William,  nous ont accueilli et il nous ont emporté chez eux.  À cause d’un marathon de Zürich beaucoup des rues a été  fermées donc 
il a pris plus de temps que celui pour l'envolée à Zurich. 

Il fait très froid à Zurich à cause de la neige.  

Je suis sûr que quelqu’un sera corriger ma grammaire, s’il vous plait.

 L’anglais maintenant !

We are now in Zürich.  So far spring in London and Zürich is much like that in Wellington at its worst and in Zürich it is even colder.  At least we have enough clothes to keep us warm.

Here we are - the flag is the canton of Zürich

It was an early start.  I had planned for us to get on an early bus because of Bev’s concern that we would be late if we did not get there at the time the ticket said,  so just in case we did not make the first bus I had a backup bus. 

As is usual the backup bus was used and despite being a little early we were through the system quickly even though I had not used Bev’s full name on her ticket which did not match her passport. 

Once through we had to decide on a lounge to go to.  As a Star Alliance member Swiss Air uses one of the other Star Alliance members lounges.  I thought that the Singapore Air one would be best and so we followed the signs to it.  However it was a fifteen minutes walk and after have walked most of that distance I realised that it might be a long way from the gate so we back tracked and went to the Lufthansa lounge which was very nice.  We had our breakfast there and a good one it was too, much better than the expensive one we had at Premier Inn.

The flight to Zürich was uneventful and despite leaving half an hour late we were 10 minutes early. Zürich is the financial centre of Switzerland so I was very interested to see what it was like.  Unfortunately there was lots of cloud and we we broke through we were over some very green fields. So no overall view of Zürich.

William, our host, was waiting for us at the arrivals area to take us to his place.  He said we would be there in 20 minutes but the Zürich Marathon was on, despite 8 degree temperatures, and meant many road closures.  As a result it took us longer to get to William and Mary’s placeh

This sign took my fancy - read the fine print

longer than it took us to fly from London. 

After lunch we went for a walk around the old part of Zürich which is built around the outlet of Lake Zürich.  It is very pretty.  We had a coffee and cake during the walk and both Bev and I were stunned at how expensive that was. 

While we were walking back sleet rained down on us and it was very wet and cold.  So much for spring!!