Switzerland (2018) - Training Switzerland
Day Zero:
“Of The Impromptu Vacation”
Sometime around the end of August, both Cynthia and I wanted to get away; go where we didn't need to do anything. I checked the usual cruises, and of course, flights to Ireland. During this research, I came across flights to Zurich that were a great deal. The thing is, we had both been talking about going to Switzerland for our tenth anniversary, but our anniversary being in January put going to Switzerland at that time of year as an impossibility. After a lengthy bit of discussion of timing and finances, we booked the flights.
That's when I had to go into trip planning mode. Researching which cities to visit, if we should get a car, should we do hotels or AirBnBs, etc. In the end, we chose a package deal from Swiss Travel Centre called "The Grand Train Tour of Switzerland." This tour would take us to seven cities, all by train, with hotels booked. We had essentially booked our tenth anniversary trip for September.
Having gone to Iceland earlier this year, and Ireland the year before, we didn't really need to buy anything else. So prep time was spent creating a detailed itinerary for ourselves, including food, things to do, times and train schedules, etc. I also began researching hikes. We also packed most of our stuff early, so that when the time came, it would take us a relatively short amount of time to be ready to go.
I say this trip is impromptu because we usually plan trips way in advance. We planned the Vietnam trip nearly ten months ahead of time, Ireland was about five to six months, and Iceland was about three months. This trip only had a lead time of about three and a half weeks.
We are now only a few days away and ready to go. This is a journal of our Grand Train Tour of Switzerland.
Day One:
“Of Planes and Zurich”
Since our mishap going to Ireland last year, we continue to worry about connections and things going wrong on our way to a destination. Thankfully, aside from some rude American Airlines flight attendants, everything went smoothly. We arrived in Zurich around 8:00AM, making our way to the train station. Having studied the train system, with its icons, phrases, and quirks, I was able to determine where we needed to go.
Our first train was an Intercity train or IC train. It was a short ride, but we made it into Zurich, where we were greeted with the monstrosity that is Zurich HB, the central transportation hub in the city. This is a sprawling, multi-level facility that centralizes trains, trams, buses, taxis, etc. We got a little lost, but eventually found our way to our Hotel: Hotel Walhalla. Unfortunately, we arrived too early and had to leave the luggage in a storage room. Before venturing out into the city, we did what we always do (where available) to kick off an overseas trip, we went to a Starbucks.
From there, we began making our way into the bustling metropolis, one of the financial capitals of the world. I was struck by how similar this city was to other modern European cities, such as Dublin, Galway, Barcelona, Belfast, Paris, even Bangkok (I realize Bangkok isn't European, but you get the point). Zurich is very clean, and people seem to mind their own business; I don't remember seeing any beggars.
At 11:00AM, we met our guide, Daniel, for the Chocolate Walk. Booked on TripAdvisor, this walk would take us around the old city, explaining some of the histories of Zurich, while visiting some small chocolate shops. A lot of Zurich's history seems to link in some form or another to the Reformation from Catholicism: Once a convent is now a church on one side, and city hall on the other. Once a church is now a warehouse. An interesting piece of history about Zurich is that for a long while, a group of nuns ran the city. That is until Guilds came around, and they eventually pushed the nuns out. These guilds ran the city for a long while.
Every fountain in Zurich, except for a small few, flow with drinkable water. Take a bottle to any of these fountains, and fill up. Just, you know, don't fill up from the basin itself; get it from the spout.
We visited three chocolate shops, Sprungli, Teuscher, and Max Chocolate. Sprungli is the most commercial of the three, but are experts at creating little Macaroons. In Swiss-German, the diminutive of any word ends in "Li." These macaroons were delicious, a beautiful mix of texture and flavor. Teuscher was our a second stop, a tiny shop exclusive to Switzerland. Here they focus on truffles; these too were also delicious. Lastly, Max Chocolate - the story behind this shop is pretty neat. The owner was a businessman, and whenever he'd go away on business, he'd bring back chocolates for his son Max, who has Down Syndrome. Max's face would light up. The businessman decided to open a shop where his family could make the very best chocolate. Chocolate where nothing is added that would take away from the chocolate's natural flavor. What is produced is true to taste chocolate, each type being single origin cocoa. They only have two stores, and the entire company is only fifteen people. This is where Cynthia and I bought some chocolate for ourselves.
Once the chocolate tour was over, we made a bee-line to Raclette Factory. Let me paint you a picture: A plate, with homemade mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes where you can see the person making them. They then take those mashed potatoes to your plate and lay over them a half-inch thick layer of garlic-infused Raclette cheese that covers the majority of the plate. Writing this now makes me want to run out into the night and go get some more. Other dishes include cubes of bread or potato cubes.
From here we strolled back to our hotel, meandering around the small streets and shops, enjoying our time in Zurich while exhaustion and sleep began to overwhelm us.
Tomorrow we are taking our first panoramic train from Zurich to Interlaken.
Day Two:
“Of Bridges and Chocolate Workshops”
Neither of us slept well. Outside of our window, which we needed to keep open to remain cool, at all hours of the night were either hooligans playing French hip-hop, guys playing drums, yelling, or cars with loud mufflers. Nevertheless, we got up and quickly packed, because today we were headed to Interlaken!
Before boarding the train, an old married couple and their daughter from Mumbai asked us about the trains. We told them what we knew about the platforms, then the daughter and her father left the non-English speaking mother with us while they got coffee. Cool?
Once boarding the train, Cynthia and I realized that we were the only ones in our car. We had the entire car to ourselves! This was our first long ride of the trip. A one hour ride to Luzern, where we would stay for about two hours, waiting for our Panoramic train to Interlaken. Once arriving in Luzern, we were greeted by a beautiful city with a beautiful mix of architecture, art, water, mountains, and sun. Everywhere we turned we wanted to take a picture. Since we had two hours to kill, we meandered around the waterfront areas and walked across the Chapel Bridge, which is Europe's oldest wooden covered bridge. I overheard a tour guide saying that the reason it's called Chapel Bridge is that this was the bridge that linked one side of the city directly to St. Peter's church on the other side of the river. As we continued our walk-about, we could hear live music across the bay, only adding to the already fantastic atmosphere of the city. We'll be back to Luzern soon.
Our next train had panoramic windows; unfortunately, we were not the only ones. Another couple was in the car with us. I have to say though, Swiss trains run on time, don't have issues, and the people who operate them seem to be pretty friendly. The views from our panoramic window were stunning: snow-capped alps, mixed with sun-drenched shores and little villages. The water is pristine and blue - idyllic.
Once arriving in Interlaken, we made a long walk to our hotel. As we did so, we noticed a large field with people paragliding, kids playing, people taking pictures, and folks just laying around. This was enhanced by the sounds of live music and the general din of people having a good time. The town is surrounded by mountains, and most prominent is Eiger Mountain, where you can still see the remnants of glacier ice. Interlaken gets its name because it is situated between two lakes, Thunersee & Brienzersee. It's known for its outdoor activities and extreme sports.
We then made our way to Funky Chocolate Club, where we had signed up to make our own chocolate bars. Ivan, our instructor, guided us through what goes into making a chocolate bar, we did a taste test of different kinds, then we got into the process of melting, tempering, and decorating our own bars. It was a ton of fun, and our group was from all over the place: Singapore, Qatar, NYC, Philadelphia, and Miami. Once the class was over, we needed to wait two hours before we could pick up our cooled off bars. In the meantime, we walked down some side streets and ate at an excellent Thai restaurant. Cynthia wasn't too happy with her noodle dish, but I was floored by how good my Panang Curry was.
Once done, we picked up our bars, and did some small groceries, because tomorrow will be a long day; an Excursion to Jungfraujoch, and a ride to Montreux.
As a side note, unlike many European cities where most signs are in the native language and then English, most stuff in Switzerland is just German, and then maybe followed by French. Only about 20% of the time will something also be in English. You'll also come across people in the service industry who don't speak much English but will speak German, French, Italian, and so forth. It's a big difference from Iceland, where although very European, just about everyone readily spoke English. We don't mind it, we feel that it adds to the immersion of the trip.
Day Three:
“Of The Top of Europe, and a House of Gnomes”
Day three was a long one. We woke up at 5AM because the journey to Jungfraujoch is about 2 hours going and another 2 hours coming back, all in time to be able to catch the 1:00PM train out of Interlaken and on our way to Montreux. So here goes:
We made the fifteen-minute walk through Interlaken, watching the restaurants, and small shops beginning to open up around 6:10AM. Dropping off our luggage in a convenient locker, we boarded the first train of many. One can take one of two routes to Jungfraujoch, one through Lauterbrunnen, or one through Grindelwald. We took Lauterbrunnen to Jungfraujoch, and Grindelwald back to Interlaken; this allows you to get a glimpse of the entire area from the train. Jung Frau means 'Young Lady,' it was a name given to the mountain by the nuns of Interlaken when they ran the area (refer back to the Zurich post in regards to women running things back-in-the-day). In the mid-1800s, a man decided to build a tunnel to reach this point. I am still hazy on the details and still wondering why people chose to make a rail to a mountain peak.
Nevertheless, the views going up were stunning, and once we reached Kleine Sheidegg, it began to snow hard. Jungfraujoch is a mini Disneyland. There are attractions, things to do, shops, restaurants, an ice palace(!), and so forth. They really need to make it worth your while to go all the way up there. The views though were stunning. When we reached the Sphinx Tower, we took a bunch of pictures of the surrounding mountains, and even though the wind was kicking, and it was cold, we felt okay - It's when we went to the snow and ice plateau that things got crazy. The wind picked up, and it was probably in the low single digits in temperature. So much so that we could only stay outside for only a few minutes before our faces and hands passed being painful and just turned numb. It was a worthwhile trip, and we were glad we got to see it.
We made the return rides back to Interlaken, where we walked around town until our journey shifted to Montreux. To get there, we would take a train from Interlaken to Zweisman. We had a two-hour wait in Zweisman, so we once again put our luggage in lockers and walked around town. Zswiesman was a ghost town. A cute, charming, very swiss ghost town. As we walked around, we did see a backyard full of gnomes. It appears that this town is a big deal during the winter, but right now in between summer and fall, we probably only saw fifteen people in total. Once again, no one really speaks English here, everyone assumes you speak German, and they speak little English in return.
Once we arrived in Montreux, we were greeted by a slumbering French city. We attribute its drowsiness to it being a Monday evening, but most of the people we saw were residents and minimal tourists. The town isn't as clean or maintained as the more German towns in Switzerland. Graffiti litters many of the walls, and there is construction around many corners. We walked along a promenade that circled lake Geneva. Here we enjoyed watching the sunset on the beautiful bay. This was the highlight of Montreux. The city itself reminded me a lot of downtown Miami, but French. We weren't impressed, and glad we are heading to Zermatt tomorrow! Aside from the amazing sunset, we did enjoy a fantastic Swiss meal at Caveau des Vignerons. This French/Swiss restaurant treated us to two excellent dishes. Cynthia declared it her favorite meal of the trip so far (more than Raclettes!). I had a Croute Tradicionalle - It's basically thick-crust bread baked with garlic and a thick layer of cheese on top. Yeah, it's a fancy grilled cheese, and I loved it. Cynthia had a Rosti, which are super fancy hash browns, with eggs, ham, tomato and a thick layer of cheese. Fantastic.
Tomorrow we head to Zermatt where we will spend two nights. Below are some thoughts thus far about Switzerland:
Switzerland is beautiful, probably the most beautiful country I've been to. More so than Ireland and more so than Iceland, and I'll explain. As I noted in my Iceland blog, Iceland was staggeringly beautiful but was infused with a sense of loneliness and isolation that was hard to shake. Ireland, although incredibly friendly, green, and gorgeous, does not have the majesty of the towering mountains and deep valleys that Switzerland has thus far displayed, although one can argue that the Cliffs of Moher fit that bill. Even Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand had its unique beauty in their deltas, rice farms, bays, and sunsets. Each country thus far has had its key points. But as a total package, the majesty, the greenery, the villages spread across the valleys and hills, the sheer breadth and variety that it has to offer; Switzerland is an awe-inspiring place.
Day Four:
“Of Gornergrat and Jovanni Von Matterhorn”
We hightailed it out of Montreux; originally our itinerary had us leaving in the afternoon, but we were gone by 9:00AM. The two trains required to reach Zermatt were a mix of verdant valleys, mixed with farmland, orchards and grazing pastures. After two hours, we finally reached Zermatt, and almost immediately, this became my favorite city so far on our trip.
In the central part of the town, cars are not allowed, so what you see are long streets filled with people flanked by wood buildings housing shops, restaurants, and bars. Yes, it's touristy, but I don't care because the tourists its attracting are hikers, outdoorsmen, cyclists, athletes, etc. It's a town that is geared to the active. I love outdoor gear, a hobby of mine is looking at and researching all sorts of backpacks and gear. Although at this point I have all the backpacks I could need, I am always looking. As a side note, the Wanaka Adapt backpack Cynthia and I got on Kickstarter has been amazing, totally worth the price and the wait.
We quickly dropped off our stuff at the Hotel Excelsior, a cozy and rustic hotel with rooms that fit that same description. It's much better than the hotel from last night, and up there in terms of comfort. Our balcony faces Matterhorn Mountain. Quickly we made our way back to the station where we took a train to Gornergrat that is a large observatory that faces Matterhorn and several other mountains in the area. Gornergrat has shops, restaurants, and even a hotel. The plan was for us to simply visit Gornergrat, take some pictures and then maybe do a small 30-minute hike. But as we made our way up, we saw all the people hiking back down; we would do the same.
The hiking trails in Switzerland, or at least in this part are all clearly marked and easy to understand. It is possible to hike all the way from Gornergrat back to Zermatt. We decided to take it one trail at a time. With the Matterhorn directly in front of us, we made our way down, headed towards the Rotenbotten train station. The trail was rocky, which made it slightly more difficult, but more fun. Eventually we made our way passed Rotenbotten, and towards Riffelberg. Near Riffelberg there is a lake called Riffelsee (super creative). The claim to fame for this lake is that you can see the reflection of Matterhorn in the water.
As we walked we took in the beautiful and breathtaking sights, we spoke about how we never thought we'd be hiking in the Swiss alps, and how a chance meeting at UM lead us here. At one point we found a lake whose name I don't know, and sat on a large boulder and ate some bread and cured meat.
From there we continued down to the next train station, Riffelalp, at this point we had been hiking for a little over two hours. So we called it quits, not wanting to tire out our legs for tomorrow's hike. We made our way down back to Zermatt where we checked out a bunch of stores. The leading contenders for stores that caught my attention, despite the amount of gear and bags I've researched, are Salewa, an Italian outdoor gear company who makes stupendous hiking, trail running, and mountaineering shoes among other things. I seriously wanted to get a pair of their hiking sneakers. The other one was Mammut, another outdoor gear company, but this one is actually Swiss.
We ended the night quietly, eating some food from the grocery store and snuggling in with a movie on the Surface. Tomorrow we hike the 5-Seenweg, or rather the 5 Lakes Hikes.
Day Five:
“Of the 5 Seenweg & Fondue”
The day had finally arrived, the day that had been giving me anxiety since we first booked this trip, and I started researching things to do; today, we hiked the 5-Seenweg hiking trail. This trail begins in Blauherd, which is about 8200 ft above sea level and winds its way around five separate lakes, finally depositing us in Sunnegga which is about 5300 ft above sea level. The trail itself has large fluctuations in elevation gain and loss; sometimes you'll be ascending for a while, only to plateau for a bit, then a descent.
The five lakes, in order: Stellisee, a pretty lake with reflections of Matterhorn on its surface. Grindjisee, a small lake that buts up against the mountain side, blink and you'll miss it. Grünsee, you can tell this lake is usually much bigger, but with lack of rain it's shrunk; it actually looked a little like a small beach. Moosjiesee, the turquoise color reminded us of the blue lagoon in Reykjavik, we figured it was in large part due to the sediment in the area and the flow from the falls above. Lastly, Leisee where the people who run this area have turned it into a little beach and a space for families.
We started the hike at 10:30AM and ended around 3:30PM stopping at each lake for some water and a snack. It was a total of about 10 miles, and our Fitbits recorded about 25,000 steps.
Once finished we walked around a greater portion of Zermatt itself, checking out little stores. I wanted a shirt from that cool Italian outdoor store, Salewa, but I decided to get something from a Swiss brand, Mammut. We also did a bit of gift shopping, walking into a few "tchotchkes" (As Josh Reyes would say) stores.
At the end of the day we had dinner at a small little Swiss restaurant called Le Mazot, where we had our first fondue. It was so good, but oh so heavy! Once again I perceive that the locals are a little disappointed that we don't speak German or French. Maybe it's their body language or a momentary look in their eyes. Cynthia says it's because they have to process the English which they're not familiar with. That could probably be the case, I just think it's because Americans as tourists have a terrible reputation.
Tomorrow we take an eight-hour train ride aboard the Glacier Express, heading to St. Moritz.
Day Six:
“Of the Glacier Express & French Fry Pizza part 2”
Today we spent a little over eight hours on the Glacier Express, a panoramic window train that took us from Zermatt all the way to St. Moritz. Unlike our other train rides, which were virtually empty, this ride was at capacity. It was a little jarring at first, but we got used to all the noise.
It's hard to take pictures from a train, period. But unfortunately we were assigned the left-hand side of the train, whereas the right-hand side had better scenes. Additionally, we had the sun beating down on our side of the train for the majority of the ride. At one point, some of the folks asked to have the air conditioning brought down because we were baking in there. This unfortunate circumstance made taking photos of our surroundings increasingly difficult because of the sun and the glare coming off the windows. Nevertheless, we tried our best.
The train took us through several beautiful and stunning areas; some were pastures and farmland, others were towering mountains, and some were deep valleys and gorges. This country never ceases to amaze.
The train offered full restaurant service, but we had gone to Migros (grocery store chain), and a bakery. The total price for what we bought was 19 Swiss Francs. Just one bottle of soda on the train was 6 Swiss Francs, not to mention 35+ CHF for most of the food. We saved a lot of money.
The train eventually dropped us off at St. Moritz, considered Europe's oldest holiday resort. We took a cab to our hotel, and we were glad we did, the path to our hotel was winding, and steep! The facility itself is cozy and definitely harkens back to designs of old alpine ski resorts, with lots of wood, and wooden accents. This hotel offers free tea and cake from 4:00PM to 7:00PM!
Once we dropped off our luggage, we made our way to Pizzeria Caruzo, where we ordered a pizza with French fries on top, thinking it would be kind of like the pizza from Iceland; we were wrong. It was still delicious, and the fries were super crunchy. When we first arrived, we were the only ones in the place for a good fifteen minutes. Eventually more and more people shuffled in.
We made our way back to the hotel via the lake and meandered our way around town. Everything here closes at 6:00PM, everything but restaurants, and even then a lot of them were closed. We tend to visit places when it's low-season, which causes a bit of a dilemma for me, because it means we end up seeing lots of closed and shuttered hotels, shops, restaurants, etc. But on the flip side, we really hate crowds; I suppose we need to find that sweet spot when things open and before the flood of people arrive.
We are not sure what we will do tomorrow, it's supposed to be our "relax day" but there are a few mountain peaks we can check out; since we are staying two nights here, the hotel gave us a free pass to use the gondolas up to different peaks. We can also walk around some lakes. We'll see!
Day Seven:
“Of Corvatsch 3303 & The Great Wall of Whiskey”
Today was supposed to be our "easy" day; relatively it was, but we still did quite a bit. The day began by going to Hanselmann Conditorei, which is world-renowned for their walnut tart pastry, or as they call it here Engadiner Nusstorte - Engadiner being the area, and nusstorte as far as I can tell means "nut tart" in German. Cynthia was not a huge fan, but I loved it.
There is a funny thing that the Swiss do when you walk into a bakery or café where there is a massive assortment of goods to choose from: they just stare at you. Picture this in your mind's eye: You walk into a bakery, and there are two whole sections filled with different types of pastries, chocolates, candies, etc. The person behind the counter greets you and asks what you'd like, you respond with "there's so much to choose from, give me a minute." They then proceed to stare at you blankly waiting for you to choose. Maybe this is just outstanding customer service, but man, it makes me really anxious and causes me to choose something quickly just so they stop staring at me.
From there we took the bus for the first time and boarded the gondolas to Corvatsch which is 3303 meters above sea level. It was a nice little trip, and we were able to see hundreds of peaks along the swiss alps. It was also lovely because this particular peak allows you views of two separate valleys. One thing we did notice on our way up and down is that people bring their dogs everywhere; restaurants, gondolas, grocery stores, etc.
Before leaving we decided to get a snack, just to say that we got a snack at Corvatsch. Now, as we walked into the restaurant, there on a table are plates, tongs, baskets of pastries and price tags. We figured this was a self-serve type place. After we grabbed what we wanted we took it to the only register there was. The man behind it looked up at us with frustration and annoyance. Nevertheless, he let us pay him directly. It turns out that the restaurant wants you to pick up the pastries, but then take them to a table where you will be charged by a waiter. And this is a thing that we've noticed in a lot of places in Switzerland; there's no clear direction as to what they expect of you - in some places you wait to be seated, in others you sit yourself. In some places you grab the food and take it to a register, in others you're waited upon. In some grocery stores there are bags after you pay, in others they expect you to bring a bag. There's very little telling you which situation you just walked in on.
Once finished in Corvatsch, we came down the gondola and proceeded to walk all around Lake Moritz, making our way to Hotel Waldhaus am See, which houses The Devil's Place, a whiskey bar with over 2500 whiskeys to choose from. They hold the Guinness book of records for the most extensive collection. We sat at the bar and enjoyed a flight of Swiss Whiskeys. Their menu was vast, obviously, including whiskeys from countries I didn't even know made whiskey. Nevertheless, the Swiss Whiskeys were actually excellent, especially one called The St. Moritzer 15 year. What's cool about this one is that they'd only finally bottled it three weeks ago, so it was an original bottle of their first run of 15-year-old aged whiskey, made with organic barley and water from St. Moritz.
Afterward, we went back to our hotel, where we got ready for a Swiss dinner at Hauser Restaurant, where we split a Rosti (hashbrowns with cheese and dried meat), and we also split a dish called a Bundner Capuns, a regional specialty of spaetzli dough, wrapped in bacon and chard leaf in a vegetable sauce. Dy-No-Mite!
Tomorrow we make our way to Lugano, Switzerland's largest town in the south. It's also very Italian. Ciao.
Day Eight:
“Of The Bernina Express, Reservations, & All.The.Carbs”
We've taken several modes of transportation on our trip: planes, trains, funiculars, cable car, taxi, and now add bus to the collection. The Bernina Express whisked us off from St. Moritz, taking us up a mountain at about 2500 meters above sea level, and steeply back down again, depositing us in Ticino, in Italy after a little over two hours. We went through that whirly section of the train that goes in a circle to descend. But before that, a word on hygiene - Cynthia and I have smelled some smells on this trip, and poor Cynthia was sitting behind a woman whose B.O. I could smell in wafting clouds every so often. The issue is that this isn't uncommon - In all our travels in Europe, we've come to notice that regardless of country, basic hygiene isn't a huge concern.
Back to traveling: when we arrived in Ticino, we found our spiritual brother and sister manning a literature cart right outside of the train station. They didn't speak a lick of English or Spanish, so I whipped out Google Translator. With that in hand and a smattering of broken Italian mixed in with some Spanish, we were able to have a conversation with them. Ricardo and Teresa were their names, and they said that whenever we are in Ticino, we can stay with them. We admired the worldwide brotherhood, leaving them with hugs and kisses.
In Ticino, we had two hours, and our sister showed us a great little bistro where we had lots of carbs. We'd been waiting to arrive in Italy to have a proper Italian meal, and this was it. Cynthia had a delicious pasta Pomodoro, while I had an excellent seafood risotto! On our train ride to Ticino, I brushed up on some Italian, so I was able to greet the waitress and order in Italian for the most part. Afterward, Cynthia had what she was jonesing for, Italian gelato.
From Ticino, we boarded a bus to Lugano, and guess who was on the bus with us? The gigantic group who was on the Glacier Express, loud Australian tour guide and all. What was worst is that half of them were coughing up a storm. Yuck. For the first bit of the trip, we both slept. But once we began passing by Lake Como, we perked up and started taking in the views. The side we drove by is not the side George Clooney lives, nor is it the side where the tourists go, but from where we were, we could see it, and it was magnificent. In the waters, there were people on paddleboards, people para-surfing, people wind-surfing, people swimming, people sailing.
Eventually we got back into Switzerland and into Lugano, which wasn't very different from Italy. It's interesting because 98% of our trip has been in Switzerland, but we feel that we've visited three separate countries; we feel we've been in Germany, France, and now Italy - thankfully all with the precision of the Swiss when it comes to transportation.
Once we arrived at our hotel, Hotel Delfino, we dropped off our bags and made our way to Ristorante Trattoria Galleria, an authentic and highly rated Italian restaurant. Cynthia had a Penne Arriabata while I'd been looking forward to a Gnocchi. Both were amazing! We started the meal though with a rosemary flatbread and finished the meal with a small tiramisu. Oh so good. All the carbs. I'll be honest though, I miss the simplicity and the feeling of being keto though.
By the way, the bus system in Lugano is pretty great.
There is something I feel compelled to talk about, reservations. In just about every restaurant we've gone to for dinner, except the Raclette Factory, they've asked us if we had a reservation. The thing is, here when you make a reservation, they actually reserve you a table, it's unlike in the States where a reservation just means they'll bump you to the top of the waiting list. At the Trattoria Galleria, they actually put little name tags and reservation times on the table along with the person's name! Each time we've said we didn't have a reservation, you could tell that they were annoyed or disappointed. That could be my perception, but as I said, every restaurant asked for a reservation. Next time we know that we need to make reservation before showing up.
Tomorrow is our last destination, back to Luzern via train and boat, for a night before we take a train to Zurich and fly back home.
Day Nine:
“Of The Coughing Dead & Lake Luzern”
A bit of background, since our train ride from Zermatt to St. Moritz, we've been traveling along with a tour group. I believe I mentioned them in an earlier post. They're a group from the tour company TravelRite International, they're the ones with the loud Australian tour guide.
Well, as we waited for our train to leave Lugano, we began to hear a faint rumbling, it was quiet at first, just a whisper in the air. As time progressed, the rumbling got louder; it was the sounds of 60 roller luggage wheels moving slowly, grinding across the floor. The sound was accompanied by loud hacking coughs, and the ambient noise of people complaining. That's when we spotted them, the tour group, shambling slowly up the ramp towards our platform, slow and steady. There was no escape, there was nowhere to go - they were going to overwhelm us.
In fact, it wasn't too bad. The group was a bit away from us in the train car. Today we were taking the Gotthard Express to Fluelen. Once we boarded we were greeted by a train guide named Eric, he was awesome. He narrated large portions of the two and a half-hour ride, pointing out things of interest, which side of the train to take pictures from, history about the things we were passing, and a lot of history about the importance of this particular line and how it came to be. The Gotthard tunnel, from which this train line gets its name, connected North Europe from Southern Europe, which back then was a big deal. It cuts about 50 some odd kilometers through the mountain. A tremendous feat of engineering.
Once we arrived in Fluelen, we boarded the steamboat to Luzern, another two and a half hour journey. It was pleasant and relaxing, sitting up at the top deck, enjoying the sites and sounds. Cynthia YouTubed the Steamboat Willy song, which got me whistling it the entire time. Lake Luzern was beautiful, with tons of sailboats, and windsurfers. The boat itself stopped several times in smaller ports, a few of these ports had funiculars associated with them or hikes - Made me want to give them a visit.
Eventually we arrived in beautiful Luzern, where we quickly dropped off our luggage at the hotel and proceeded to do the last-minute gift shopping we needed to do. Lastly, we ate at Fritsche Restaurant, where we had our final authentic Swiss meal. I had a Raclette and Cynthia had Rosti. We were both super satisfied. Afterward, we met up with an old friend of Cynthia's from South Miami High, and now from work, Giselle, and her Husband. We talked for a bit about travel and Switzerland in general. Unfortunately it started raining on us, the only rain of the entire trip, so we had to bid farewell.
Now back in the hotel, we are finishing up our packing and placing of gifts to make sure they don't get damaged. Fun times.
Tonight is our last night here, tomorrow we board a plane at 11:00AM back home.What a great trip!
