Something to Declare

Blogeintrag Nr. 8. Rapperswil-Jona; Markthalle IM Viadukt

September 9, 2023.

After all the driving over the past two days, we wanted something closer to home. Stef had marked down a town about a half-hour outside of Zürich, called Rapperswil-Jona, as having a lovely Schloß (castle) and a rose garden, and other charming features.

We headed south, along the eastern shore of the Zürichersee, stopping first at the Chinagarten. The Chinese Garden is located right by the lake at the Zürichhorn (a part of land sticking out into the lake on the eastern side). It is classed as a “temple garden,” and one of the highest ranking Chinese gardens outside of China proper. (Ellen, this reminded us of our wonderful trip with you.)

The garden was a gift to Zürich from its “partner” city of Kunming, out of gratitude to Zürich for having provided Kunming with technical and scientific support (related to expanding drinking water supplies and urban drainage). Quite beautiful and serene.

Then off to Rapperswil. Actually not much there besides the view of the castle and a bevy of restaurants,

marred by the construction crane (they’re ubiquitous in Switzerland). We had a nice lunch of quinoa poké bowl and tofu salad in a restaurant outside the Hotel Jakob.

Never did find the rose garden, by the way. GPS sent us in circles until we gave up. We should have known better than to consider a place that was mentioned nowhere by Rick Steves.

Then the quick way home (along the western shore of the Zürichersee) back to Zürich West, and out to find the shopping/eating area created under the the former viaduct (Markthalle IM Viadukt). On our walk over there, we saw some of the avant-garde stuff that typifies the industrial-chic Zürich West,

including Frau Gerolds Garten, containing an old Citroën auto turned into a planter (I know, Marty, I know, what a waste!), and a number of high fashion and funky shops,

and examples of creative use of shipping containers:

There was also a sign in mangled German/English that my high school German teacher (Frau Münch) would have called “gemixtes pickles.”

As best I can translate it, “Coffee makes everything better.” (This reminded me of the decorative mug on the bookshelf of a former colleague from Mount Sinai, which bore the legend, “Human Being: Just Add Coffee.”) The Viadukt market itself spans a length of several blocks under 36 arches, and puts suburban shopping malls to shame:

We stopped at a fromagerie for (what else?) more cheese. On the way back to Naphthastraße, Stef scoped out a place where they’d created an urban surfing opportunity:

In the middle of Zürich: Who’d believe this?