Switzerland

Popping off the overnight train from Amsterdam, I purchased a SIM card for my phone at the hauptbahnhof in Zurich, called Andrea, and headed off to meet her. Andrea and I met each other on Whistler Mountain in Jasper three years ago then tagged along with each other on Indian Ridge – which can be found in Alan Kane’s Scrambles book. If there was a trail, we certainly hadn’t been on it for a good portion of our trip. After Jasper we stayed in touch and Andrea told me if I was ever in Zurich to stay with her for a few days – so there I was.

Andrea had a few days off – we had breakfast with her friends then I booked some train tickets and caught up on some e-mails. Later in the afternoon I had a nap that lasted until the next morning – perhaps my sleep on the overnight train wasn’t as good as I had first believed.

The next day I explored Zurich for a while, walking down Bahnhof Strasse, through some parks, visiting the Grossmünster and beginning to realize just how expensive things are in Switzerland – paying 6.50 Swiss francs for a bratwurst and 9.00 francs for a slice of pizza with a franc worth about 10% more than a Canadian dollar. Later I would see a lakeside ice cream vendor offering a triple scoop cone for a mere 9.50 francs.

Saturday morning we set out to a small town for some hiking. With snow still at higher elevations this trail held fairly close to a lake and didn’t climb too high. There were some good views, beautiful mountains, and really cute animals – though I felt sorry for the cows with bells on their necks… it seems it would get annoying to have the thing constantly ringing away.

Later we caught a bus to a train station, split directions so Andrea could grab our things while I took a shower, I bought some groceries, cleaned up, then headed out to catch a series of three trains (one overnight) to meander to Leipzig through Basel and Hannover.