Sunday, June 6, 2010

Run Like the Swiss!

Well, another weekend has passed which means that another weekend trip has already come and gone. This trip is going by so, so quickly; I really can’t believe that I will be home again in a matter of three weeks – in fact (as much as I love all of you at home) the thought makes me a little sad. However, Istanbul feels like it was decades ago. Anyway...Zurich is the topic of conversation, so let’s talk about all of those Swiss banks accounts, mountains, and nonsense that I have been alluding to.

Friday morning, at 6:00 am, Kristy, Austin, Cody and I took a cab from Residence all’Adige to the Verona train station to set off for Zurich, Switzerland. For most of the train ride we found ourselves glued to the windows…getting a glimpse of the Alps for the first time is a pretty remarkable experience. You make a big deal when you see a waterfall, and then you realize that every mountain has a couple of them. Or you paint furiously at the snow gracing one of the peaks when seconds later the train curves around a line of trees and you are faced with an entire horizon of similarly clad mountains. Bottom line is, the weekend was off to a wonderful start even from the window of our train.

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland, and it sits in the midst of the Alps. The city is really lovely, albeit expensive. Zurich is the most affluent city in Europe and one of the most expensive to visit. Luckily, the four of us had a place to stay, thanks to a friend that Kristy had that goes to college in a nearby city.

Our first day in Switzerland, we spent the day wondering around Zurich. We had an awesome lunch at a Mexican restaurant just inside the city. Then we walked around and took pictures, typical tourist stuff, you know? We did climb one of the church towers and got to see a beautiful view of Zurich from above.

My favorite part of day one though was probably the art museum that we went to near the end of the day. After realizing that the Swiss Toy Museum that we were planning on visiting was closed, we decided to go to The Kunsthaus art museum. Thanks to the expert map directing of the others in my group, we made it to the museum with plenty of time to see all of the art. I was excited the minute we walked up. The Gates of Hell by Rodin, one of the pieces that I studied in my Art History class, stood next to the entrance to the museum. The rest of the museum was filled with treasures from Degas, Picasso, Manet, Monet and countless others. We spent about an hour and a half wandering through the museum, sneaking pictures while the attendants weren’t watching, and giggling at how we looked with our phone-like audio guides.

Eventually we left and went to meet Kristy’s friend Felix at the train station. We spent the rest of the night eating German food and hanging out at a “beach bar” in the middle of the city. Eventually we made our way back to the train station and headed to St. Gallen (a city an hour outside of Zurich where we were staying).

The next day was devoted to the Alps, as is the next blog post.

Pictures will be up soon. – Ciao.

3 comments:

  1. I can't wait to see the photos, Emily! Now, did you open a Swiss bank account?!!

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  2. You ate Mexican in Switzerland?

    *scratches head*

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  3. No Swiss bank accounts, Ms. Parrott. Apparently I would have to open a "wealth management account," and the whole wealth thing was a little lacking.

    Mrs. Gillham, they have no Mexican food in Italy! We were excited about those nachos :)

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