Lucerne is SO CUTE

 

We agreed to meet ‘early’ to head to Lucerne. We’ve been super slow rolling the mornings since there wasn’t any big reason to get going early. It stayed daylight till almost 11.

We walked to the main train station- noting that every time we’ve gone, we’d taken a slightly different path, and every single time, the route is shorter. At this rate, the train station would be inside the Marriott by end of week.

We decided we would just get 2nd class tickets to Lucerne because it was a non-train changing, short ride. No big deal. Well. 9 million people got on the train and they also all bought 2nd class tickets. We did finally find seats. Some people stood. Luggage was all around. You could have broken a leg 12 different ways trying to walk between cars. Jason mouthed, “never again,” one we were seated. I mean, there is a reason why 1st class costs more.

But, before long, we arrived and OH were we NOT disappointed. Lucerne is picture-perfect cuteness in all the ways. We checked into taking a 1 hour boat ride around the lake and, again oddly, the ticket was almost $150 a person. For one hour? Dang. I’ll sit on the shore and look around for that price.

We meandered around the old town. Enjoyed the chapel bridge, the flowers, the little cafes and the tables lining the waterfront. We picked a spot to have lunch and really enjoyed the food, drinks, and scenery. What a delight. It’s still our favorite thing - the way Europeans linger at meals and maximize being outside. People weren’t nosed into their phones or talking to friends on FaceTime. They were connecting in real time, real life, and lingering over drinks. So dreamy. 

When we got back into Zurich, we were trying to find a souvenir shop. It was Ash’s last day and we were running out of time. It was comedic how long we went in circles before finding one in the train station! Sometimes, all the maps in the world don’t help. Especially when things are underground!

We ended up walking the river again and having another drink down at the cool waterfront bar where we’d enjoyed ourselves a few days ago. When Ash and I went up to order drinks, I asked the man taking our order how he was. He stopped right in his tracks and looked at me. He said, “Did you just ask me how I was?” I said, “yes.” And then he told me. In detail. lol. So easy to forget our Americanisms sometimes. Also, it clearly made his day to be asked. Also, Ash ordered some wine that I couldn’t remember the name of and kept calling, “For the Love of God Frizzante”. That wasn’t the name but obvs, something should be named that. 

And then, suddenly, just like that, our time together had run out. It was so terrific to catch up and be together again. And so fun to have accidentally created a tradition of meeting somewhere in Europe in June. It’s been a tough year for our friend but we couldn’t be more proud of her growth, her optimism, her fighting spirit, and her love for humanity. I know it’ll all work out for good, as it always does. Until next time, Ash. Cheers! 

As Jason and I walked back into our lobby, we saw our Alabama friends. We were so tired and ready to head up but we sat and chatted with them for a couple of hours. We have some many funny things in common and also so much to learn from each other. Between us, we’ve darn near been everywhere (except an African safari).

Chocolates and Cheeseburgers

  Chocolates and Cheeseburgers

The next morning, we were drinking coffee and Ash called. She suggested we go to Lindt Chocolate factory and maybe rethink Lucerne for another spot further up into the Alps. Fine with us. 

Now, the Lindt Chocolate Factory is quite the experience. All the tickets for the whole week were sold out, but you could still go see it, see the fountain, eat at the cafe, and shop. Great! We ubered down there. It was a ways down the lake, which made for a lovely drive. It is a beautiful spot. The enormous chocolate fountain was quite the sight! We snuck around a bit just seeing what we could see before hitting employees and closed doors. 

We shopped some and then went to the cafe. We weren’t all that hungry but they had some good sounding drinks. Ash mentioned one she saw that was like Coco Havana or something. We thought, for no reason whatsoever, that it would be an iced coffee sort of thing. But, oh no. It was not. It was a massive hot chocolate drink with three shots of rum, real whipped cream, and chili flakes. It was hot, spicy, creamy, decadent and delicious. After 1 sip I think I was drunk. We definitely should have split one and not ordered one each. Lessons leaned! Jason fell into some sort of diabetic coma. Good times. 

There was an outlet shop next door we wanted to hit up but it was closed that day. bummer!! The chocolate was ridiculously delicious. So many more flavors than we’ve ever seen in the US. We bought a sampler bag and planned to have a chocolate tasting later in the week. It was nuts the money they were making in there. Hundreds if not thousands of people every day, all day, buying chocolates, paying for tours, eating at the cafe. Whew. 

After somehow surviving that, we decided to walk across the street to the lake and walk along it for awhile until we found a good spot to sit or possible dip our toes in. Before long, this cute spot popped up with tables in the shade and a sort of beach entry area of the water. We grabbed some cold drinks and took a seat, enjoying the view.

About 3 minutes later, a familiar face walked up to order snacks. It was our Alabama friend from the elevator! We invited him to sit at our shady table and a few minutes later, his wife and two boys also emerged and joined us. We got to laughing and telling stories about all our of various travels. Their boys were rowdy, sweet, and fun with their southern accents. After an hour or so, they took off to go tour the soccer museum so we decided to grab an uber and head back to the hotel. 

We hadn’t yet been over to Ash’s neighborhood so we dropped stuff and walked off to  grab a street car to Ash’s hotel. She had a cool apartment style hotel with a small kitchen and table. Super cute! As we hung out there, a big thunderstorm popped up and it was awesome! It cooled everything down and was so nice to hear thunder again. 

Once the storm passed, we walked a couple of blocks to a cool looking restaurant we found. It did not disappoint! They had absolutely fabulous cheeseburgers. I know that’s a weird thing to eat maybe in Switzerland, but we were 1.5 weeks in at that point and ready to eat whatever sounded good. Man - so good!! 

While there, we were researching some recommended towns to visit to see the alps. They all seemed great but we were shocked to discover how expensive the train tickets were. Like $150+ a person. The ride was barely 2 hours. Sheesh. That seemed a bit bananas to just show up, look around, have lunch and leave. We decided to rethink Lucerne. Lucerne was a mere $28 1-hour train ride.

With that, Jason and I grabbed an uber back to our hotel to conk out for the night. Excited to see a more ‘village’ looking town. Zurich is gorgeous but a very big, cosmopolitan city. Not what you think of when you dream about Switzerland.  As we entered the hotel, we saw our Alabama friends again. They were heading to Lucerne for a few days later in the week so we promised to fill them in the next night when we got back. 

Taking the Ice Bath

On our first full day of Zurich, we thought we would just sort of bop around, do some research for the rest of the week, and figure things out. Easy peasy. 

Now, it was hot. Like super hot- mid nineties. Some places had a/c but not like we have a/c. And we were walking everywhere. Whew! The day’s events quickly revolved around how to stay cool. 

Remember we noticed people hopping into the river and I remembered I’d even heard of this - people take dry bags, hop in the river, and ride the current down to work. And here I was seeing it with my own eyes. So crazy and so fun!

Ash and I quickly decided we were definitely going in at some point. 

We walked the length of the river from the jumping bridge to the end that’s blocked off for swimmers/floaters. There were people all along the way just peacefully sitting in the sunshine. It was quiet and peaceful. No loud thumping music or partying. In fact, a lot of people were reading. Amazing.

About this time, we were sweaty and parched and a cute little bar area appeared with a table in the shade. Boom shakalaka. We enjoyed some ice water and some g&t and watched people in and out of the water. Interestingly, the bar gave money back when you turned your glasses back in. They’re paying me to drink. I love this country!

We then walked on back to the train station. Ash pointed out it’s multiple floors underground and quite cool down there. There’s full mall, bars, restaurants, etc. Sounded great! We ended up sharing a pizza at a place there and it was GREAT. One thing we noticed is that every day at the train station, there was a company/group of people giving something away. This day, it was cookies. On other days we had chocolate, and one day something super weird. Why can’t I think of it now? We skipped that one!

So, freshly pizza’d, we decided to walk back to the Marriott and get on our swimsuits and float the river. Jason was torn- the current was pretty strong. We weren’t sure when or how we would be able to get out. He wasn’t sure how well he could do if he really had to swim. He thought he better sit it out. We’re not always good at being cautious, but we also don’t normally have a brand new hip!

Ash and I were ready and we convinced Jason to come with us to hold our stuff because we wouldn’t quite figure out how to do it without our hotel key card, shoes, phone, etc, and we didn’t want to just leave that by the riverside while we tried to figure out how to get out. About this time, we also decided maybe we shouldn’t just jump in and get hair and makeup all messed up since we still had to go to dinner later.

As we headed down in the elevator, a man a bit younger than us got in and I commented on his Yankees ball cap. He laughed and said he was actually from Alabama. We all introduced ourselves and shared our favorite baseball team. Jason asked him if he was an Auburn or Alabama fan and he said Auburn. Little did we know we would end up friends!

ANYWAY, we walked back down there and scoped out where the ladders were. And then, it was time. I went up to the ladder and started climbing in. This was no US ladder in the sense that it was incredibly treacherous. You could sue for this ladder in the US. I managed to lower myself down with some semblance of grace until my feet hit the first underwater rung. MY GOD. This water was straight up glacier pee. What is wrong with these Swiss people jumping in there without one single hint of a reaction at the shocking temperature?

But, I’m not quitter so in I went. While struggling to breathe and not die of hypothermia, Ash was on her way in and asked how it was. I don’t know what I said or did but I am sure it conveyed that it was cold. Maybe my teeth even fell out. I don’t know.

Once she was in and we were both properly dying from the cold, we tried to figure out how to steer our bodies towards the most immediate way to get out possible. There are chains all along the concrete walls so you could hold on and stop if needed. The current was no joke. I saw the ladder coming and with every possible ability in my frozen body, I pushed myself towards it. There was a man just sort of casually hanging there so I screamed at him, “ARE YOU GETTING OUT RIGHT NOW OR WHAT?” He said no so then I screamed again, “INCOMING!” And i threw myself onto the ladder and scrambled up there as fast as possible without falling off or injurying some other body part. Ash was right behind me. WHEW.

Once back in the heat, we immediately decided it was so worth it and I started pondering doing it again. LOL. The circle of life - I AM DYING. Oh, I lived. Let’s do it again. I AM DYING. 

One nice thing was, it was so cold that it took my body a long time to feel hot again. 

We went back to our hotel so we could change again. Our hotel was immediately next to the jumping bridge. We just walked through a little tunnel and were at the hotel entrance. So perfect. With that, it was happy hour so we decided an espresso martini sounded right and headed to the fancy lobby bar to try one out.

Jason’s been doing such a great job walking around and keeping up. But, both of our watches died, so we were trying to figure out how far we walked that day. Between all our phone data, we think that day was about 6.5 miles. Pretty darn good on a new hip!!

After the cocktail, we were all pretty pooped so we parted ways for the night. We loosely had plans to head to Lucerne the next day- a super cute town about an hour train ride away. No doubt, sure to be an adventure.

Zurich, Again, For Real This Time!

Us three amigos decided to get on the Zurich train around 2 so we could get there around 4. Perfect for checking into hotels and all that jazz. 

The station was open today or least wasn’t surrounded by police so we hung out inside and had a light lunch/snack while waiting. It was a really hot day so it was nice to have some semblance of a/c. Meaning, it wasn’t cold at all but it was cooler than being outside.

Jason and I were paying more for the first class train tickets because we wanted extra leg room so he could be sure he could fully extend his right leg and also because we were now hyper aware of the lack of luggage space!! Ash booked a regular ticket and then, in hilarious shake up, we all ended up in different train cars. Whatever! We were mostly gazing out the windows anyway. 

Jason rounded up some G&Ts on the train and the ice came frozen in this little popsicle bag thing. I was too dumb to ponder that I might remove it from said bag and just rammed the whole thing in the glass. Even on the train, they serve them up in tiny glass containers and as always over here, let you pour the tonic in yourself. 

The train ended up being 68 minutes late. Not to get to us but with us on it. I know this because some poor lady had to come on the intercom and update us in German and English every time the delay increased. Apparently, the German trains are known for being late, cancelling, etc. Since we’d only had the one perfect train ride before, we had no idea. In fact, when I told my work team our train ride was perfect they said, “It must have been a Swiss train!” 

We didn’t really care that it was late since we didn’t have to change trains or anything. Once we all got off the train it took a moment to find each other on the platform. Jason is operating without a cell phone unless he can be on WiFi so I found him and then worked on finding Ash.

By this point, it was now fully in the happy hour/dinner range and we still needed to figure out how to get to our respective hotels. We decided to split up and go check in and then holler back later to see if we wanted to gather or not. Ash was able to jump another train over towards her hotel so she took off and left us wandering around. 

I pulled up uber but then remembered on our way out (the day of the Scottish soccer game in Lichtenstein) the uber drive pointed out they have the entirety of the train station blocked off for construction making it hard to drop people off. We tried to figure out where to go so an uber would find us and about that time we also noticed we were only 1/2 mile from the hotel. 

Hell. It was 93, sunny, and we had all our luggage but we walked it. BOOM! I was feeling so European, despite sweating a lot and not noticing a single European sweating at all.

The cobblestone sidewalks are decidedly cuter without roller bags but nevertheless, we arrived at the Marriott. Our room was a large 2 room suite with nearly panoramic views of the Limmat River, which we were shocked and delighted to see what looked to be half of Zurich jumping into and floating down. Man that sounded pretty great right then.

They left us this cute little dish of treats and a very nice note addressed to Ms. Wood. I mean, if the Swiss want me to go undercover as a woman named Ms. Wood, who am I to argue?

This room came with rights to use the swanky lounge so we went to check it out and were happy to find a nice dinner, lite bites, beer, wine, and lots of non-alcoholic drinks. We also found a lot of rude Americans. Jason and I locked eyes in our always-on agreement to personally make it up to the staff for the jerk faces they were encountering. Team Thurman is on the scene!

After all that, it was now like 8 PM or something hideous like that so we all decided we were good for the evening. Ash’s hotel had a non-staffed check-in station. These must be getting more common here because another teammate of mine stayed in one right before our offsite, too. She was able to get checked-in and even hit up a local grocery for some staples. We would rendezvous tomorrow!

Side bar - my teammate who stayed in the non-staff hotel was 4 hours into his train ride to Germany when he realized he had left his passport in the room safe. So, he hopped off the train, took another train 4 hours back. He called the hotel help line and they said they could meet him the next day. He couldn’t wait so he had to book another room so he could get access into the building and then he knocked on the door of his old room and asked if he could get into the safe!!!! They said yes!! I was like - yo, Fred. I would NEVER have even opened the door to hear that foolish request. You are so lucky. He said - believe me! I know!!! He ended up on a train for 14 hours that day just trying to get to Freiburg that night in time to be late to the meeting the next morning with me- LOL.