Yesterday, I spent the day in Zurich -- which really is a beautiful city! I caught the 9:09am train from Schaffhausen to Zurich and got there just before 10. The whole Bahnhof (train station) is completely under construction and so I finally found my way to the tourist information center -- where I had to actually wait in a line, unlike at St. Gallen. I got a map and was pointed in general direction of interesting things -- and then headed out! I lucked out with the weather once again -- beautiful and sunny and not too chilly.
I basically wandered around the old city for the entire morning -- it wasn't very busy, and so it was pretty peaceful! The old town was a wonderful mix of old architecture but really modern shops and restaurants -- very cool vibe. After the old city (or old town?), I walked down towards the lake which was absolutely gorgeous. Wonderful views, and again, I couldn't have asked for nicer weather! I did a little exploring in the Bellevue area which is an area that's a bit newer and down by the water by the opera house- still a very neat area!
By this point, it was nearing lunchtime and so I tried to keep a look out for an interesting restaurant! Zurich certainly didn't help disprove my theory that Switzerland is one of the most expensive places in the world...It was hard to find anything but street food for under 20 francs (approx. 1 fr = $1 -- sort of...). After making a few circles, I settled on an older looking restaurant -- which seemed to be full of locals, which was perfect. I was given an English menu (given that I really do not understand German at all) -- and I ordered the pork sausage with Rosti (which is hashbrowns) and then the sausage was covered in a delicious onion gravy. The whole meal was delicious! And the atmosphere was perfect as well.
Feeling re-energized, I made my way to see St. Peter's Church and then back up past the Bahnoff to go to the Landesmuseum which is the Swiss National Museum. I spent about an hour wandering through -- interesting exhibits on Swiss history and then a whole other section about the history of Swiss home and furnishings and how they have changed over time.
By this time, I was growing a bit tired, and so I took the next train back to Schaffhausen and go in around 5pm. It was, luckily, still light out, and so I took the opportunity to walk around the town a little bit. It's definitely quite a charming place.
This morning, I took the bus about 20 minutes to the Rheinfalls (thanks for your comment Mrs. Savage!!). Absolutely breathtaking. I started by looking at them from across the river on the Neuhausen am Rheinfall side and then walked across the railroad bridge to the touristy side. I caved and bought a ticket (I couldn't really not have gotten one at that point!) which allowed me access to all of the paths that went down right up close to the falls. Lots of water moving very very quickly!! But it was very cool to be literally right up next to the falls. Hard to describe it in words -- so I'll just move on to some pictures. OH -- and a picture of the cat, Guiness, this morning finishing the milk in my cereal bowl...too funny. He gives Pastel a run for his money...
And now back to Paris!
A bientot!
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