Something to Declare

Post No. 2: Arrival in Zürich

September 2-3, 2023

Well, kudos to “Bunny:” The seats on the TAP flight went totally flat. Which gets us 2-3 hours of fitful sleep before we landed in Lisbon, where it was about 6 am local time and about 1 am for your body. Melatonin gummies did help (thanks, Rachel!).

When the previous blog post came out, one of the subscribers noted that we were flying TAP Air Portugal. She reminded me that TAP is an acronym for “Take Another Plane.” I responded, “Cute.” Actually, however, TAP was fairly okay. Some expected amenities were missing, but the airline kept to its schedule; we arrived safely in Zürich, and our baggage arrived unharmed too.

We’d been informed that there was an easy, relatively cheap way to get from ZRH to our rental on Naphthastraße, by train. All we had to do was find the airport train station, and get off at the “Hardbrücke” Bahnhof (station). Oh…kay. There were a few mishaps, e.g., going up to some ticket machines and dealing with instructions in German, and asking for help, and being informed that these were the machines for tickets to airport parking. Oops.

More walking around and asking got us to the right ticket machines, where a nice lady in a yellow vest showed us how to buy tickets for the S16 local train that stops at Hardbrücke. They work on the honor system here, like the New York City buses, where you buy a ticket before boarding. Same idea. You can sneak on, but risk a fine if you’re accosted by an MTA employee and don’t have a ticket. BTW, no one asked for our train ticket.

Some more confusion regarding which level to exit the Hardbrücke Bahnhof. We got off at street level, while Tom (our Air B&B host) was waiting for us at the lower level. Thank God for Google Maps and What’s-App. The apartment is lovely, minimalist Industrial-Chic (as noted).

Tom and his wife Martina took us through the apartment’s supplies and infrastructure (TV, light switches, stove, washing machine, etc.). Check out the array of some of the switches to control lights, sunscreens and media.

It was clear that these instructions ware going in one ear and out the other (we were jet-lagged and brain-dead), and that we’d have to learn to use the apartment by trial-and-error (like past Air B&Bs abroad). In other words, we’d eventually have all the systems down pat by the time we are ready to go home.

The nabe is sort of like Long Island City/Meat Packing District. Industrial and business buildings, but peppered with restaurants, a bakery, a unisex hair dresser, a nice supermarket. Also hotels, and the tallest building in Zürich (11 stories high!).

Nice view of the Zurich hills and the local peak (“Üetliberg”) from the outdoor deck.

Yeah, I know, I know: It’s not “the Alps!”

As you can see, we’re practically on top of the Bahnhof, including an array of graffiti (sort of surprising to see this in such an ostensibly fastidious country).

Decided to stock up on essentials, walking to the “Co-op” market, and dealing with the nuances of reading labels in German and figuring out how to work self-checkout machines. This also involved finding out that you first had to have weighed the produce in the Produce section, and then affix a printed out label on the item, and only then present it to the bar-code scanner. I found myself sympathizing with the first President Bush, who was mocked when he marveled with surprise at a supermarket bar-code scanner. It ain’t easy if you haven’t done it before!

Too tired to cook dinner. Just grazed on hummus, cheese, local bread and Riesling, and writing up blog post notes, and trying to stay awake until it’s local bed-time. Good luck with that, right? Tomorrow, we venture into Beautiful Downtown Zürich.