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.

Cuckoos and Cathedrals

 So day three began the same way- the 7 am call for the lobby. The breakfast. The uber. All good. But this day would end differently, because we would be done at NOON!

We cruised through the 4 hours in the morning and ended with a retrospective. I love those. I operate from a non-defensive position and choose to be curious and embrace the feedback. It’s always a hilarious blend of I liked the amount of time but also want more breaks and long sessions. Well, ok. Let’s just bend time! But also, when you work with a really great team, where everyone is earnest and kind and actually just trying to do the right thing, it hits differently. We’re in this together. Can we do it better next time? Rock on! Let’s do it!

And then, just like that - I was free!!!!!! FREEDOM!

I didn’t want to eat lunch but my fellow uber riders did so I waited for them. We ubered back to the hotel and I found Jason and Ashley and experience a brand new lease on life. 

They’d been exploring but this was really my first chance. So, we went to grab lunch and drinks. Ended up in a super cute, very German little place, in which Jason sweated so profusely it was ridiculous. The server attempted to turn on a fan but a bunch of confetti started blowing out -LOL- so she turned it off again. The food was yummy but it really was stifling in there with no air movement so once done, we headed out.

Up next on the agenda - buying a cuckoo clock! If you know me, you know I ALWAYS eat the local cuisine (even when it is haggis) and I ALWAYS want to buy whatever the local thing is. Our buddies Pete and Mandy, of last year’s French Riviera yacht wedding fame, where once here and bought multiple cuckoo clocks so they sent us the name of the shop and off we went! We ended up visiting three shops, launching of our butts off, and making friends. Who here is shocked? Not us!

And finally, I decided on the clock for me. The hardest part was whether we wanted it to also play music or ‘just’ cuckoo. I mean, who knew this was such a hard decision. Dang. This was also a $1,000 price difference so worthy of consideration. We went to lunch to ponder it and I finally decided, you know, I don’t care if it plays music. I’m here for the cuckoo! also, I want it to have a dog and I don’t want to wind it every day. With the criteria in place,game on! 

On the way back to the clock shop, we wanted to stop by this gorgeous cathedral in the city center. It did NOT disappoint! We walked in and enjoyed a very slow walk around. Looking at all the stained windows and stunning craftsmanship. Also, there was an organist playing and I must say in all my world travels - I have NEVER encountered an organist who could hold a single note as long as this person. Was this good? Nein. Was it bad? Nein. It just….was. It painfully was. At one point, I was sure the organ pedal broke and we would just be hearing that one note for the rest of our lives. Sweet Lord. 

After the cathedral walk and finding the right clock, we decided to celebrate by getting ice cream. Ash told us the ice cream was delicious but also less sweet (a plus in our book) so I was up for it. Jason opted out. I decided I would order in German because, frankly, those 5 college semesters of German should actually count somewhere in this lifetime, you know? I did pretty well until it was time to say goodbye. At that point, 18 thousand languages came to mind but no German. So, after staring at the man for way too long I finally said, “well, goodbye.” I think it was a nice moment that we all enjoyed. About 5 hours later, my brain turned on and the only thing I could think for about 24 hours was AUF WIEDERSEHEN.  I MEAN, HELLO. DUH. Even without studying this language, you watched The Sound of Music and would know this. Geez. 

ANYWAY, as we ate the ice cream, Ash and I decided it was time to dip our toes into the super cute little canals running all throughout the town. Kids, dogs, adults - everyone had been walking in, dipping in, dragging boats through…and we wanted to do it, too. And OH the bliss on the hot day. The water was crystal clear snow runoff. So cold and pure. Absolute joy. Poor Jason is still struggling to put his shoes and socks on post surgery so even with our offer to help, he didn’t want to partake. 

Afterward, we realized this was really our last night in Germany and we hadn’t yet had Germany Riesling! Gesundheit! (Not the right word there but also, what do you know?) We happened by the amazing restaurant my team had eaten at so we stopped in there, grabbed a table on the back patio, and grabbed a local bottle of Riesling. It was terrific!! 

After all that, we were pretty pooped so we walked back the hotel and parted ways with Ashley. Her hotel was another 10-15 minute walk past ours. We were excited for the next day when we would take the train back to Zurich, Switzerland and get a week of vacation and freedom to explore the gorgeous country! 

Dingle, FTW

 Day 2 was much better in the sense that it wasn’t day 1, the uber came and dropped us in the right spot, and it didn’t go on until 10 PM. Things were really looking up.

We had an earlier finish from meetings to allow for a happy hour in which we invited all the local colleagues in the building. 3 of us planned a fun happy hour game that got people mingling, telling stories, and sharing photos from their phones. There was a terrific spread of food, beer, and wine to go along with the joy. Several recent students who have come through our programs showed up and it was fun to see them there on their home turf!

When we got back to the hotel, it was still early (ish) so Jason, Ashley, and I headed out to find some dinner. We ended up at this super cute Irish pub, of all things!!! and then the most spectacular, glorious thing happened. I said, “Man, if only they had Dingle gin,” which we discovered together when in Dingle, Ireland in 2019 and then THERE IT WAS ON THE MENU. We’ve never seen it anywhere but Ireland.

BAM! 3 Dingles it was. And some food. Perfect evening on a back patio! By the time we got home, it was again later than my body wanted it to be but also- Ionly had 4 more hours of work to live through before vacay and I was convinced I would make it!!!