Buongiorno Italia

It was a lovely 6 days in Switzerland, a place we have wanted to revisit since we were here in 2012.  Zurich is culturally very similar to
Melbourne, with a mix of many nationalities and culinary flavors. The other area we were in was Appenzellerland. This on the other hand was very rich in culture and history, however once again the food is based mainly on sausage and potato.  I'm not saying we were disappointed with the food in this region of Switzerland, but we were able to confirm our assumptions.

To get to Milan we caught the train over and through the alps, on the Gotthard line. My wish was to go through the Gotthard Base Tunnel that has recently been completed, however it isn't open to public trains 'til the start of December 2016.  This line is over 57km long and totally bypassed the need to cross over the alps.  In some stages its depth is 2.3km and this new line will take about 1 hour of the 4 hour journey.

On the other hand using the old Gotthard line had benefits, there was more to see, but looking through a double glased tinted window does not provide great photos.

We arrived at the Switzerland / Italian border on time, it is amazing how every thing runs on time in Switzerland.  All prepared for the expected passport check that was announced over the P.A. we waited.  After about 10 min we took off, no passport check, no new stamp in the book.

It was now that we were in a Swiss train on the Italian network.  The train sat stationary on 2 occasions and thus in turn made arrival about 30 min late. It was of no real concern to us, but it was amazing how many people started grabbing for their bags and queued in the aisles when we weren't even close to the city.

The evening was spent in front of the enormous Duomo.  I knew it was big from all the research I have done, but being in front with the setting sun illuminating the facade truly had us both staring in amazement. Tomorrow we will be venturing inside.

 

Heading into the  Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping plaza, we passed Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Versace. All very interesting, but we were both looking for the bull.  This is a custom of the locals to spin their heel on the bull testicles, the bull is from the Turin city coat of arms.

This spinning has been done so many times there is a divet in the mosaic tiles and the bull testicles are no where to be seen.

The evening was spent with the company of the impressive waiters at A Santa Lucia. We normally try to eat away from the main piazza and this was no exception, about 500 meters from the Duomo we found this place.

It has been opened in the city since 1929 and has a hundred or so pictures in frames on the walls from all the famous guests that have eaten there. 

We trusted the advice of the waiter for entree that we shared. It was a Beef Carpaccio.

This was a plate of thin sliced raw beef with a rocket, walnut, parmesan and olive oil salad.  The plate looked great and we were amazed with how good it tasted. There was no fat on the beef and the slices were soft like ham.  The salad was a perfect topping and offset the raw beef,

Next was main, Katie selected from the spacial menu, Spaghetti with Zucchini and Calamari. There was nothing left on the plate at the end, and she said 'it was very simple but ohh so delicious'.

My main was also from the special's menu, Pesto Tagliatelle.

The pesto was so fresh it was like the basil was still growing on the plate. The pasta was cooked correctly, Al Dente.

Both meals were small enough that there was room for dessert, but i forgot to take photos before they were eaten, sorry. Katie had a Tiramisu and I had a Creme Caramel with an espresso sauce.

It is great to be blogging back in Italy. Switzerland is such a spectacular place but is a little too perfect for us, nothing seams to go wrong, it is all so clean and well organised. Please don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad thing just very hard to explain.  Italy on the other hand is a far more diverse place.  It has graffiti, some say this is a way of self expression, it has the boarded windows of deralict buildings.  Today we even had a very old drunk man wet him self while standing in the middle of the footpath!

Italy also has the food that one could die for, it has local places to eat, and it has the very expensive places too, just like Switzerland.  We are glad to be back, and I hope I can explain our love for this country further in coming weeks. 

Ciao for now, Shannon 

Tomorrow, Is that the last supper? 

das ist mein hamburger

The video says it all.

Uetliberg, a vegetarian feast and a lake cruise

Today we planned to head up one last Swiss mountain for beautiful views and then spend some time cruising Lake Zurich.

Waiting for the tram

Uetliberg sits above the city of Zurich. We reached the base via train, which took about 20 minutes. Then from the arrival point, we had a 20 minute steep walk to reach the very top. Even at 10am, it had already reached around 30 degrees. This made the walk a little more tiring (and sweaty). For our efforts, we were rewarded with lovely views of the alps, lake and city below us. Shannon chose to climb the tower to get views from an even higher point, while I sat in the shade and enjoyed some people watching.

(I promise my editing will get better in later videos - Shannon)

We sat in the shade for a little while and had a cold drink and giant pretzel, before the walk back down to the train station. Upon returning to the city, we decided it was time for some lunch and already had a spot in mind, that we had read about. Hiltl is a vegetarian restaurant that has been around since the 1800s...yes you read correctly. It was absolutely heaving with people and walking inside was quite overwhelming. Fortunately, a nice waiter came to our rescue explaining how their system works. In the centre of the restaurant was a buffet type set up full of all sorts of vegetarian dishes. You walk around with your plate and make your selections. Then you take your plate to the register and pay according to the weight of your food! Amazing! I loved the beetroot fritters, guacamole, cauliflower salad and lemonade with ginger. A great find and highly recommended to anyone visiting Zurich. Thanks Shannon.

The heat had become intense and so we headed to the lake area to seek some relief. Our Zurich card included a boat trip, so we took advantage of this and boarded a 1 and a 1/2 hour cruise around lake Zurich. It was a great way to cool off a little and enjoy some more sights, with a beer and wine.

 

 A perfect end to our last day in beautiful Switzerland. We enjoyed a great hamburger for dinner and will now pack our bags in readiness for our train journey tomorrow to Milan.

Auf Wiedersehen, Zurich

Rhine falls and Zurich tour.

One of the few times we have taken guided tours was today, we got the Zurich super special, Rhine falls and 2 hr city tour.  The Rhine falls were spectacular but the
organisation of the tour and the actual tour was of very poor quality.

The main problems with the tour was the dis-organisation, the tour guide lost four Colombian tourists only to find them later when they couldn't get into the attraction (Rhine falls). This in turn losing about 10 minutes of the time the rest of the group had to explore the falls.  We only had about 50 minutes to explore and with all the steps and the 20 minute boat ride were very limited to see pretty much anything or take in the amazing natural phenomenon.

 

Leaving the falls we ventured back to Zurich on the bus via Germany. No chance to get out and take a photo, we just speed on through the country side and back through a border checkpoint into Switzerland.  The second tour was a 2 1/4 Sights of Zurich, with no time to get lunch between tours and it was lucky we had some backup snacks in the bag. Again the tour company should have advised us of this before commencement of the tour.

The tour progressed around the city and we go off on two occasions, once beside the lake (only 10 min) and another to get a cog railway car to Bergstation Dolderbahn.

We finished the tour in Zurich and then found a bakery for some lunch, it was past 3 pm by this stage. 

The afternoon brought the travelers dreaded laundry duty. It must be of note that Zurich only has 2 laundromats. Basically all apartment complexes have laundry rooms, and every resident is scheduled a day to use them.  Because of this there is no need for the locals to use a laundromat.

 

Tomorrow, Mountains and Chocolate or Mountains of Chocolate?

Always make time to stop and smell the roses

Heading to the city of Zurich we had 2 options, return on the same path on the highway, or take a different route. We chose the second option which allowed us to discover more of
this postcard country. Katie drove most of the way and did very well, we feel we have graduated from L plate drivers to P plate drivers, still a little way to go until the driving comes natural like we are driving on the left.

Rapperswil is  about half way between Appenzell and Zurich and is on the edge of Zurichsee (Lake Zurich). The two main attractions are the castle and the Rose Garden, we visited both.

We had a lovely lunch where Katie was able to get a meal she was slightly craving for, a chicken salad and I had a Curry-wurst with pomme fritz and vegetables.

Wandering around this town was a joy, the warm sun, streets with no crowds and very friendly people.

As mentioned in the video we went to the top of town and walked around the grounds of the castle. It was a little surprise to see some Deer in the grounds.

The drive from Rapperswill to Zurich was uneventful which is a good thing, when in a rental car. It was then a matter of getting the Zurich Card which is recommended for tourists, it includes unlimited transport and many other discounts.

Post script;

While writing this blog in our hotel room I had the TV on mute with the news on, Katie went into the bathroom. To assist with privacy, I un-muted the TV to create background noise. Katie at this point yelled out 'Jesus' in shock.  It turns out the audio on the TV is connected to a speaker in the bathroom, so one never has to miss the action when using the facilities.

Tomorrow: On the bus, just don't fall.

Switzerland's National Mueseum

As it was pouring with rain this morning we continued with our plans to visit the Swiss national museum, indoors and around the corner from our hotel. We were able to check out and leave our bags in reception, and also borrow some umbrellas.

With our Zurich pass we were able to save 10 CHF (Swiss Franks) each. This pass also gave us travel from the airport and tram travel around the city. The pass came in quite handy after we toured the night before. The Museum was great, with information in German, Italian and thankfully English, but on occasion we had to search for the English.

The museum is very detailed and very interesting, it covers mainly human aspects of Switzerland with not much covering the geography of the area. 

We went thorough the Museum in about 90 min, but could have stayed much longer. We would have many more photos inside but Katie got caught by one of the stewards and that put an end to us taking photos!