Sunday 24th September
It was a glorious morning for our departure from Orvieto which was pleasing as we’d had a bit of rain over the last two days and I did not want more of the same for our 2 hour drive to Rome airport.
We had a strange coincidence when we got to Rome and to the car rental company to drop off the car. The agent mentioned that they would drop us back over to the airport but they were just waiting on one more client to arrive. And who should that client be but Neil Scalone, from Salon Scalone, and his lovely wife, Natalie. Mark and I have been getting our hair cut at their salon for over 30 years. What a small world! As it turns out, they weren’t heading to the airport with us as they had another five days in Rome but it was lovely to catch up and have a quick chat.
Dagwood proved to be a challenge again at the airport check in and I’m already thinking of alternatives for any future travel so that he doesn’t join us. This is a work in progress. Our two hour wait at the airport passed rather quickly thanks to an older American couple sitting near us who were on the way home after celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. They’d had a meeting with the Pope and were happily telling anyone nearby who would listen. To add to this particular story line, there just happened to be an independent journalist sitting opposite the couple and he ended up doing an interview and video segment of them and their holiday and Papal visit experience. He later told me he’d been looking for a scoop to add to a story he was preparing on the secrets of longevity and there it was he said, right in front of him, just as he was leaving the country after traveling through Sicily working on this project! He was a very happy man indeed. This was proving to be an eventful day and we hadn’t even made it to Zurich yet.
We had just one night in Zurich and we stayed at Boutique Hotel Wellenberg that I had sourced through Booking.com. The hotel was in a great location, right in the middle of the Old Town area, and our room was a good size, well appointed and very comfortable. We were later than expected with our hotel check-in though as our flight had been quite delayed so it was near 7.30 pm before we stepped back outside to find somewhere to have dinner. Luckily for us our hotel was located on a cute little square, and along the main restaurant and main road hub for this side of the Old Town, with about 6 different restaurants to choose from but we settled on a sushi place that was quite good. After 5 months of American, English, French and Italian fare it was nice to get back to some Asian cuisine.
We had a walking tour booked for 11 am the next morning, before heading to the airport for our early evening flight to Bangkok, so it was just back to the hotel for us after dinner.
Monday 25th September
It was a fresh but sunny morning so we set out at sunrise for a walk along the Limmat River / Canal that runs through the middle of Zurich. The early morning glow made for the most beautiful reflection photos so apologies in advance for the large number of scenery shots.
Our guide for our 11 am 90 minute walking tour with Free Walks Zurich was a local girl, Maria, and she was excellent. We picked up lots of bits of information, some of it useful some of it not but here is what resonated with me:
- The population of Switzerland is 8 million and Zurich is about 400,000
- There was a mediaeval wall around the city but this not defensive at all; it was simply to keep wild animals out
- The city was modernised when the train station was built and the mediaeval wall was completely taken down. The stones were used to fill a ditch that surrounded the wall
- The are 1,200 fountains in Zurich
- Women only got the right to vote in Swiss elections in 1971
- Zurich is mostly Protestant
- There are a few remains of Roman baths in Zurich but little else from that period. This area was a trade route for the Romans
- University is subsidised and only costs about 800 CHF per semester
- ETH is a technical college in Zurich that has turned out 22 Nobel winners. Einstein was kicked out though as he could not pass Physics!
- In the 1960 the Swiss started to build bunkers and they have enough for 8.5 million. It is a condition for any new construction to incorporate a bunker into the building plans. Otherwise levies must be paid to a neighbor for bunker access. There are public bunkers for those living in the 13th, 14th and 15th Century homes of the Old Town
- There is a 9 month compulsory military service requirement but this is mostly for men
- Switzerland was a poor country prior to WW2 but became wealthy afterwards as banks etc moved their money and operations there with greater confidence given that they had not been invaded during the war
- As a rule, the Swiss don’t like surprises. Don’t organize a surprise party for any Swiss person; they won’t like it at all!
- Zurich developed on both sides of the Limmat River because a community grew around the Fraumunster Convent on one side of the river and another grew around the Grossmunster Monastery that was on the other side of the river; hence the two semi-circles either side of the river
It was 12.30 by the time our tour finished so we went back to check out a Lululemon shop that I had spied along our walk. The prices there were quite horrific though and we noted that a top that cost 68 CHF, or $113 AUD, was only $79 back in Australia. There clearly was no price equity for Lululemon across its stores.
We had some time to kill before leaving for the airport so we decided to see if we could get a table at the popular Swiss restaurant, Adlers Swiss Chuchi, that was opposite our hotel and had a very long queue the night before. The place was pretty busy but we managed to get a table and we shared a cheese fondue that was delicious. After lunch we went for a bit more of a walk and then headed back to the hotel to collect our bags before catching a taxi out to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. We’d enjoyed our short visit to Zurich and it was probably long enough to get a feel for the place.
