Category: Uncategorized
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Swiss-ful Thinking
Post No. 9: Beautiful Downtown Zürich September 11, 2023. Yesterday, Sunday, was a day of rest for this writer and his editor. Today, we followed Rick Steves’ walking tour of the Altstadt (Old Town). But first lunch. Son-in-law Neil had given us a tip regarding the restaurant Haus Hiltl. In 1898, so we’re told, Ambrosius…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
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…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
Septième Poste. Turckheim et le retour à Zürich. Le 8 Septembre, 2023. The morning was fairly leisurely: breakfast and packing up for the 20-minute drive westward into Alsatian wine country. Of the many towns on the Route des Vins (some say Route du Vin), we picked Turckheim. The Route runs for 90 miles; the region’s…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
Sixième Poste. Strasbourg Le 7 Septembre, 2023. We left the car in Colmar today. Walked to the Gare Colmar-Saint-Joseph and took the train to Strasbourg, easy-peasy 30-minute ride. Strasbourg feels like a giant Colmar, but less touristy and more authentic. There are lots of canals with bridges festooned with flowers: We walked from the Gare…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
Poste No. 5. Bienvenue en France (Colmar) Le 6 Septembre, 2023. This morning, our GPS got us from Zürich to Colmar in an hour and a half. After checking into the Hotel Mercure Unterlinden, out to find lunch. They have an interesting way of serving salad in this town, i.e., by depositing pieces of toasted…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
Post No. 4. (Gemütlich) Sein in Stein September 5, 2023 Translated roughly, “Be happy in Stein,” referring to Stein-am-Rhein, today’s adventure. Drove off this morning and headed first to the Rheinfall (Rhine waterfall), northeast of Zürich, near the above-mentioned town of Stein-am-Rhein. The waterfall was formed by tectonic shifts during the last ice age (about…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
Post No. 3. Luzern September 4, 2023 Today was our first real “vacation day.” We picked up our rental car at Sixt about a block away, turned out to be a Ford Focus automatic, instead of a Peugeot manual, but hey, you gotta be flexible on vacay. In going to the garage to get the…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
Post No. 2 (part 2) : Downtown Zürich September 3, 2023 (later) Awoke still somewhat jet-lagged. But figured out how to use the Nespresso machine and the toaster. When it’s toasted, Zopf, the local challah/brioche, is damned fine with strawberry jam. Needed to go online to find out how to get to the Zürich CBD.…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
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,…
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Swiss-ful Thinking
August 30, 2023: Prelude, Auftakt, Preludio Sorry, I couldn’t find the Romansh word for “Prelude.” And that’s the next-to-last time I’m putting notes in three-part harmony to accommodate Switzerland’s three major languages. When we last left Stef and Stan, they were returning from Southeast Asia (described in a previous series of blogs: Bali, Borneo and…
Something to Declare 