zürich day 4

for the last day of our trip, we went with christian to lucerne and mount pilatus. we rode the gondolas up to the peak, hiked around a bit and saw some mountain goats, listened to the swiss horns, and ate some lunch. then it was down the mountain on the cogwheel train (scary!) and dipping our feet (well, christian's were the only legs long enough to do that) in lake lucerne. we took the train back to the city of lucerne and then hiked up to the old city wall, climbing to the top of one of the towers. then it was back to zürich (with a nap on the train for all three of us). we headed over to c&k's apartment for dinner, where we finally got to see kristi (and luckily, she was on the mend). we ordered pizza in and enjoyed some yummy swiss wines.

zürich day 3

we took it a little easy today. we wandered around zürich hitting several shops. dave has wanted a freitag bag since kristi got a new one last year, so we went to the source in zürich. these bags are made from recycled truck tarpaulins and bike tires. the store is a stack of several truck containers, visible from many areas around town and with a rooftop viewing area. dave was superstoked to buy a new bag. after flitting about in the heat (it was in the mid-80s), we met up with christian for a boat ride across the lake to a restaurant at the rote fabrik community center, where a concert+circus was happening later in the evening. we got to see someone ride around on a motorcycle/bull contraption that was cool but also kind of scary. i also got a good photo of zürich's new brothel. dave and i ended the day with a snack (beer for him, ice cream for me) at the guesthouse.

zürich day 2

this morning, we had a hearty breakfast at our guesthouse before taking off to the countryside where christian grew up for some biking and twike-riding. our route started in marthalen, then through daschen to near schaffhausen, where we stopped to look at the rhine falls. we then toured on bike routes through the villages of oerlingen, ossingen, trüllikon, dätwil, andelfingen, alten and back to marthalen. there were multiple fountains in each village, and one even had a cold tap of honor-system beer! we stopped for a light lunch + beer there and later for some ice cream and a walk around marthalen. we came back to zürich for a yummy dinner at grüntal, a nighttime walk along the river, and a nightcap at a bar surrounding a swimming area of one of the rivers.

zürich day 1

we were greeted in zürich by our friend, christian, who was also on holiday and had ample time and energy to show us around for a few days. we were sad, though, because poor kristi was ill, so we only got to see her for dinner the last night we were in town.

after getting checked in to the gasthaus zum guten glück (which is just around the corner from c&k's apartment), christian took us on a quick tour of town. we then ate dinner at the oldest vegetarian restaurant in europe, hiltl, adding another to the growing list of wonderful food experiences on our trip. then we stopped for another drink along the river (i had rivella, a swiss soft drink made from milk serum). near our tram stop, kalkbreite, we watched an outdoor presentation of attack of the killer tomatoes dubbed in german. needless to say, we didn't need to know german to understand the movie.

because the weather was nice, everyone was out in zürich. there were outside bars open and large groups of people congregating outside all over the city. it was like one giant, citywide party the whole time we were there!