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.