Day 19: Zurich, Switzerland - The Train in the Rain to Our Last Destination

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

St. Mortiz & Zurich Switzerland

After a short time in St. Moritz, Switzerland, it was once again time to depart for our final destination.  

We always pack the night before, so the morning can be free of stress.  So in the morning, we finished packing and checked out of our little apartment.  

We rolled our luggage down the road to the bus stop and took it to the translation.  We purchased tickets, but only had minutes to catch the train that was leaving.  We ran and made the train, that was late in leaving… this was very unusual of Swiss transportation, but this rare event would affect our next connection in Chur.  

The train took the same route we had came in via the Glacier Express, however, today, there were clouds on the horizon and very soon, we were racing through a full-blown rain storm.  Thunder rumbled outside of the rain streaked windows. 

Eventually, the weather cleared and we got closer to the city of Chur, where we would get off and catch the next train to Zurich, Switzerland.  However, our tardy train had not made up the lost time, so we would most likely miss our connection.  

While we enjoyed sunnier weather, there was a lady who told us about the play area in another train car!  So, Jonas and I walked towards the front of the train— we walked through cars and cars of people until we found the kids' car that had a play area with a toy train slide!  There were some other tables with games embedded in the tabletops and families with kids.  

The views to Chur were very pretty.  We finally approached the city of Chur, was the departure time of our connecting train had already passed— however, as we pulled up to the station, we found out the train had waited for this connection and we ran with other passengers to catch the train before it left. 

We found out seats and enjoyed our final stretch to Zurich, where we would spend our last 2 days in Switzerland. 

We arrived at the main train station in Zurich, with multiple platforms and travelers coming and going.  The electric energy of the big city was intoxicating and overwhelming after all the quiet places we had stayed in the mountains.  But we were ready for the big city life.  We found a drinking fountain and refilled our bottles.  

Since we had arrived so early in the day— close to 12:00pm, we had hours to wait before we could check into our Airbnb apartment.  So, we found luggage lockers and stowed our big luggages, leaving us with just packpacks to explore the downtown area.  

We found a tourist office and got some information about the city.  We got a map of the city and it was helpful to orient ourselves.  

We were staying in and exploring the Old Town, City Center. This main part of town was divided into different districts.  At the top of our map, was the Zurich main station, just south of that was the Bahnhofstrasse— the fashion district for high-fashion shopping.  To the West was the tech district or “silicon valley of Zurich” where Google HQ employed 3,000+ staff.

Below the fashion district was the banking district, with many business people involved in finance and stocks.  Running through the city was the large river, Limmat, on the West bank were beautiful streets and historical buildings and landmarks.  On the East side of the river, it was the restaurant district, lined with many MANY places to eat.  Nestled in that area was our Airbnb apartment.  

We started North from the train station, next to a huge museum and along the Limmat River.  At the river's edge, we enjoyed the lunch we had brought all the way from St. Mortiz.  We saw swans and fish swimming in the river.  

After we finished lunch, we walked back through the train station. We went to have coffee at a cafe across from the train station, but they took too long.  So we stopped by a toy store to get Jonas some Pokemon cards (new obsession) and then made our way to the tech district. 

We saw some Google offices and continued on until we got to a coffee shop called, “Bean Bank Coffee Co.”.  Their coffee was excellent. 

We made our way back to the train station, where we retrieved our luggage from the lockers and boarded a tram.

We got off after 2 or 3 stops and made our way up hill through old buildings and store fronts.  This was the restaurant district, so there were plenty of places to eat, but we just wanted to find our apartment.  

On cobblestone streets, our rolling luggage made incredibly loud noises.  Like, machine guns.  But this neighborhood was probably used to tourists traveling with luggage.  The tall buildings and narrow alleyways with nooks and crannies, were very charming, giving a very old town European vibe.  

The uphill climb with the heavy luggage was intense, but we wound our way through courtyards, foundations and old historical buildings marked with German writing we couldn’t read. 

We finally made it to our street and managed to find the key to our apartment in a lockbox and took the elevator up to the 2nd floor.  

While Alina was unpacking, Jonas and I gave her some space and went across the street to a small park.  It must of had special significance, because there was a statue of a cat… right next to two live male and female cats. 

After getting settled, we found out that the washer and dryer didn’t have laundry detergent, so we walked down an alley to find a market.  

We found a local market, but the owner didn’t speak English, so we asked a customer about laundry detergent.  He showed us a big expensive box, but we told him we just needed enough for one load.  So, the customer offered to bring some from his apartment after he shopped.  We waited for him and he returned with a small bag of liquid detergent.  We tried to pay him, but he wouldn’t accept our money. 

We went back to the apartment to start a load of laundry and then headed out for dinner.  We had been really diligent about keeping costs low by shopping for groceries we ate for almost all breakfasts, lunches, and many dinners.  So, I was very adamant we enjoy eating out for dinner this evening.  

Note: We didn't go to the Swiss "Spaghetti Factory", however, something tells me it would have dominated our American version... I mean, that wolf... 🐺

I found a place that was famous for its fondue.  It was called, “Adler’s Swiss Chuchi” and we were able to get a table inside.  Alina and I both got a serving of fondue, hers was a 3 cheese mix, while I got ham and garlic fondue— both were amazing.  Bites of chicken, bread, small potatoes, and pickles were the sides.  Everything was superb. 

Afterward, we walked around a bit and stopped by Coop for some groceries.  We took a tram back to our neighborhood and were making our way back to the Airbnb apartment.  

As we were walking uphill, in between the old buildings, we were some calling out behind us.  We turned around but couldn’t tell where the call had come from due to the sun blazing in our eyes.  As we looked closer, we saw a couple on a balcony a few floors up in a building we had passed next to.  It was the couple we had sat next to on the Glacier Express!  We couldn’t believe it!

Scott and Leah came down and we talked about what we had been doing.  We shared our experiences in St. Moritz, where we had said goodbye to the family of five and the trip to Zurich.  We were all surprised to run into each other again in such a large city.  We bid them goodnight and wished them a safe flight back to Maryland.  

We went back to our place and called it a night.  One thing we’ve noticed is every night we are exhausted.  Which means almost every night we sleep very well.