Zurich

After several months of lost opportunity and after 7 transits and a day spent at its zoo, I finally got to eat authentic classic Swiss Fondue and Raclette... oh yes, and also spend an entire night in Zürich last weekend. My cousin, the same one I was trying to call in the Heathrow incident, was visiting Zürich with his friend, so it was quite logical that I got my fat ass to Zürich :)

If you have seen the Bangalore International Airport, then you have pretty much know what to expect at the Zürich Airport. Zürich Airport is part of the consortium running BIAL. And like namma bengaluru airport the public transport connectivity from Zürich Airport to the city is funkastic. You have a choice of the train (SBB), which will take you to the main railway station (no prizes for guessing! its called Zürich Haputbhanhof) for 6 CHF, or the tram line number 10 which will also get you to the main railway station in a few extra minutes. You can also buy a 24 hrs pass for 8 CHF. Pssst... I did not know this.

Anyways, a trip to the information center at the main railway station is worth the 10 odd calories spent. You can find out just about every thing you need to know for your short visit from the friendly people manning (O.K. Womanning) the center. We spotted a brochure advertising an interesting city walk here – The Ghost walk of Zurich. You are promised goosebumps and hair raising stories. Alas it was only available in spring or fall. It is something I would like to try the next time I am in Zürich.

By the time we guys reached Zürich it was 6 pm in the evening. Time for dinner you'd say huh, but we were a bit full with some junk food we had had, a little stroll in the city was in order to build up an appetite. So, we walked around the city, nearly froze in temperatures of below -4°C; soaked in the magnificent and charming sights of a city by night, which European cities seem so adept at exuding; and occasionally broke our zombie state walk to click some photographs.

What you see above is a view of the river Limmat, with the Zürich main railway station in the left edge and the Zürich Museum of something something. There are way too many museums to remember in this city!

The above is a view of the Grossmunster (i.e. big church) across the river Limmat.

The above the view of the city library (Zentralbibliothek)

And this is the view of the Kantonsrat (or Canton advice?? must be some sarkari office)

Oh well, so we were semi frozen, and had built up an appetite, so we headed to the world famous in Zürich restaurant for Original Swiss Fondue and raclette – Restaurant Swiss Chuchi. A cloud of aromatic cheese overwhelms the vicinity of the restaurant, so you cannot miss it. Apparently this is some sort of dandy place where folks need to make a reservation, so the waiter gave us some serious attitude for not making one in advance and warned us that nothing was available until 10.30 in the night. But Fondue we wanted, so we put our names on the list and made our way to the bar with the propeller. I remembered this place on the corner of Zähringerplatz from a previous trip.

It really was funky visiting this place with my cousin (a PhD) his two friends, both PhDs. hehe. It sure was fun. Oh, btw, for all the gay people out there, Zurich has a mind boggling number of gay bars and pubs, and not to mention exotic dance bars (you know what I euphemistically mean)

Anyhoo, the food at the Swiss Chuchi was not all that great. First they force you to buy one dish per person (??), first time i ever saw that on a menu by the way, and then the service was.. hmmm.. well.. flaky at best. I think it was because we got a waiter from the neighbourhood of our motherland, who was intent on getting his revenge for an imaginary crime we had committed by feeding us some “desi” Reisling. Yes, he said - “Original Desi”. I am no wine expert, but I have my doubts about “Original desi” ;)

Now, I was a 110% certain that we had trains every hour to Konstanz, even at night. Before someone gets all ecstatic, no. That is far, far, far away from the truth. The last train is at 1, there is another at 3 to Kreuzlingen, and the first train in the morning is at 6am. Or so the oracle of the TV schedule bespoke. Crap! so I had to spend the night at Zurich. God bless the poor souls\ of my cousins friend, for having given shelter to an almost homeless guy that night :P

Anyways, the next morning, we had a nice stroll near the Zurich lake; got aquainted with the ka-ka-ka-kawah-ing gulls; and then walked up to the Grossmunster for a splendid view of the whole city.

A hazy morning at the Zurich lake.

It costs 4 CHF to climb up the 70 meters and 187 steps up to see this view. Unfortunately for us, it was a rather hazy morning, but not too hazy :)

We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around the city buying some swiss army knives at Teddy's souvenir shop, and in the evening we made our way to Sihl city and to Vapiano’s for a super duper dinner. I realized later that Vapiano’s is a franchise operation, but the setting was spectacular, the food was good, and light on the wallet by Zurich standards. The most interesting part of the setting was the bonsai tree around which we ate. We could garnish the dish with fresh mint, basilikum, petersilie straight from the bonsai garden.

P.S. And then I took the 8.30pm train home ;)

P.P.S. The seeds of a new adventure have been sown - The Santiago de Compostella. Will I do it? Won't I do it? Will it be like the millions of other plans that i make? Muhuhahahaha....

P.P.P.S Did you notice that every shop has a website????

Zurich

Connyland!

"Seekeram va ma", shouted someone behind me. The ears perked up. What was it that I heard? Could it be right? Were my ears playing tricks on me again? Then the nose perked up. What was that odour?

Ah... that was "Dabur Amla Kesh taila". Where had it last encountered that smell? And why was I petrified? Mentally the offending odour me teleported back to the early 1990's - when that smell meant a forced head bath! And how I hated it ;)

But, what the heck? Where was I? Connyland. So the mind did a quick double take. Something didn't quite match. But after a while it kinda did. There is a sizeable Sri Lankan population in Switzerland after all. But today, in Connyland, it seemed as is all of them had congregated by design. Every second face was Sri Lankan, or south Asian :) It looked like a take over!

Anyways, the dope on Conney Land - the dolphin shows are interesting and are definately watchable. The sea lions shows are good too. They have a couple of sea lions which are supposed to be over 40 years. It also has a few rides - starting from the toy train, you can graduate to the wasserbhan - which threatens to get you wet, but not quite. Then there is the Dino attack which emulates Jurisic park on a microscopic and not quite as dramtic a scale. And don't forget to pose for the picture at the end! Then there is Star Trip - which, yes, it is supposed to be Star Trek. It feels like a flight simulator gone out of control - so be careful about that weak back and whiplash prone neck. And if you are less than 120 centimeters forget it - they don't like you in Star Trip :) If you fancy an adrenaline rush - you have the swinging ship where you swing like a pendulum, the only difference being the scary 190 degree of SHM! And there was one more ride - the name eludes me though - maybe "Free fall" or something similar.

I never thought I'd have a Eureka moment in an amusement park, but that is exactly what happened - maybe material for my other blog. muhuhahaha!!!

And food - a pizzeria, a cafe and a resteraunt provide sufficient variety, and you can also find an enclosure where you can eat your picnic.

Getting there - We took a train from Konstanz to Ermatingen and from there the bus to Conneyland. Trip time: approximately 30 minutes. The Day ticket for bus and train, Tageskarte, cost us 12.80 CHF, the tickets for Conneyland 28CHF. And we spent around 4 and a 1/2 hours there. A fun day trip, and oh for the record - I did think that it was rather cruel for those dolphins to be confined to only 13 million liters of water, ditto for those sea lions.

No pics were clicked on this trip - und das ist egal!

Connyland!

The Lägern

So, I did some trekking (or maybe just walking) today near Zurich. A place called the the Lägern. I started in a village called Stienmaur in Switzerland - where i met a some friendly Swiss people who understood my German and replied in English :) and was done with the trek at Baden - a decent sized city.


Approximately 11 kilometers in around 3.5 hours. Hardly stopped in between and no 20-20 either :P The best part - I seemed to have stumbled on a non-touristy kinda thing! Unlike the last trip, hardly had any traffic on my route :)

Unfortunately I do not have the GPS tracks for this trek, as the GPS unit gaveup on me at little after Rengensburg, about an hour before the Lägern. The route is fairly easy though. Take a train on the S5 line from Zurich HB (Main railway station) towards Oberglatt and Niederweningen. Get off at Stienmaur - approximately 25 minutes from Zurich HB. You will find
Lägernstrasse towards the left of the station. Climb up the Lägernstrasse and about 200 meters or so, you'll see a main road. Across the main road, you will find a gravel road with a fairly steep gradient. A few boards around this road should advertise a certain Sculpture joint. Now carefully cross the road and yippee!!! you are on you way to the Lägern. So, my trek started at 1325.

The Sculpture joint is about 50 meters from the main road, don't know what goes on here, but looked like an interesting place. A few hundred meters from the Sculpture place, you will be accosted but three Yaks. Ahem! Ahem! Yes sir. Yaks. Ok I will repeat this one more time. Y.A.K.S. The kinds you find roaming around in Tibet. (ah ha)



Apprently this dude, Manuel Bauer, imported some Yak from Tibet in 1998 and well the rest, as they say, is history. I wonder if the Yak cheese tastes better in Switzerland than it does in Leh... hmmm... hmmm....

Anyways, these Yak seemed quite surprised to see me. I don't know why? I could see the curiosity oozing from those twinking bovine eyes. Maybe something in their genes told them that we were from the same land. What-e-nice... Su's theory of genetic geographic recognition. wah wah. I was obvoisuly thrilled. And right next to this kutti farm where these poor citters were fenced was the Kindergarten of Rengensburg. (btw.. did you know Kindergarten is a German word which we have hijacked??)

After Rengensburg, there is a potential for confusion, but remember - the Lägern is a climb, so take the steepest route. When ever in confusion take the steepest road/path :) I tried my pathetic German on many people today.

"Entschuldigung..... Welcher richtung ist Lägern??" - Excuse me... what is the direction to Lägern?

The younger ladies, rather strangely, thought I was trying to hit on them. The elder ones would reply with "Ja ja.. theses richtung" with a rather bemused smile. The outsiders would be like "Keine Ahnung!". And some replied in English - "It is five minutes down this path, then take a right turn, it is difficult to miss". Yay! God bless their souls!

The whole time it seemed like it would rain the next second, but then that dew point - current temperature caluclation prooved to be more than trustworthy. Caught some drizzle at the end of the trek at Baden.

I crossed a handful of people returning from the Lägern at 1420 pm - two men hurtling down the slopes on their mountain bikes, three women leading their horses down the slope, five or six families with their dogs, some with prams etc etc... but no one going up. Wtf? I know.

At the Lägern you will find this Alien artifact - even worse than MIT's portal to hell in Manipal - a round, maybe footballish shaped thingy which humans have converted into a radar station for the Zurich Airport. A few cafes below the radar station serve as the boundary between those you walked across the Lägern and those who didn't. I was rather tempeted to sit, drink some hot coffee, and eat some Spetzle, but then it did seem like it would rain any minute, so I plodded on.



The next stretch is the part to remember - soon you are walking along a ledge - with just vegitation on either side preventing you from rolling down 100 feet at 75 degrees. I must say, if these trees weren't there then vertigo may have just kicked in. But there were trees, so no vertigo or any such shit. For nearly an 1/2 hour of walking it was like this. At the top of the ridge types, and you can see these ancient walls - crumbling at some palces; and not crumbling at others... hehe... owersmarat blogger kaun?

Any historical significance? I still do not know the cultural or historical significance of the Lägern, but it looked like a fort from the Middle Ages. Google unfortunately has been least bit helpful - mostly in part because a search for "Lägern + history" returns "Lager - Beeripedia the Beer Wiki" and other such links :)

At the end of the Lägern began the decent down to Baden for nearly 1 hour and 30 minutes, you kept climbing down and climbing down and climbing down. Under the canopy of the protective trees there was a hidden medow of white flowers. What-e-nice it was. There were plenty of camp sites - imagine a night party... aie aie aye ya! I like. Must do it some time.

At 1700 hrs I was out of the woods and in the city of Baden! Baden is another 25 minutes by train from Zurich, and there is a train every 1/2 hour heading towards Zurich, so it really is easy come - easy go, with easy climb thrown in for free.

The trek in so many ways reminded me of the slopes of Coorg and Chickmagalur. Compared to Kumara Parvatha, this was a piece of cake. If you are arthritic it isn't easy either!

I also realized how much i miss the big city! all because of Zurich! I was there for a fleeting moment, but heck I was bowled over. If only there was a cheaper way to get there and back :D If only... if only...

anyways... I learnt of this trek at 1800 on Saturday from this website - http://www.theswitzerlandtraveler.com/walks-near-zrich-the-lgern/. The day tickets to Steinmaur and back from Baden to Konstanz was 68 Franks. The perils of last minute travel. I must reform myself to save some moolah... (imagine how many bar-lee juice that money could have bought huh... now makes sense no... bladdeee)

Switzerland, so far, seems to be a cultural melting pot. Why? I saw people from different ethnicities here - who seemed to be living here, as opposed to just visiing. Much more than I've ever seen before. You see, some of us have never been to New York before ;) But then some of us have never been to Zurich either! Wtf... most of us never went to Timmies either.

The Lägern