That Time We Had a Twelve Hour Layover in Zurich

Before I get into the juicy details of how I got here... I'm here! I'm in Jerusalem, with the other instructors in our lovely flat.

After being pumped full of Independence Day BBQ food (hotdogs, hamburgers, watermelon, lemonade), my journey commenced with a cab ride on White Star Taxi and a cab driver whose children yelled at him from the street as we passed his apartment. Twas relatively smooth sailing through security, and quite festive. Especially the woman dressed in a white shirt, blue gloves, and a red statue of liberty foam hat:

Mike and I shuffled seats on the flight to Zurich so that we were able to sit together. I must say, flying Swiss air was perhaps the most positive airline experience I've had. Our flights took off on time, and arrived on time or early; no lost luggage, no annoying neighbors elbowing me in the stomach; individual TV screens with menus for dozens of movies, TV shows, audio selections, games; and as much wine as one could wish to drink.

We took off at 9:35pm EDT, and arrived in Zurich at 10:30 CEST, a little disoriented and tired.

After meeting up with Bo, another team member who flew into Zurich from New York City rather than Boston, we locked our non-essential carry-on items in an airport locker for 8 CHF. We quickly found out that CHF was secret code for "Swiss Francs", but were really unsure of what the CH meant. Later when walking around the city, we stumbled across websites that ended in ".ch", which further intrigued us. Now that I'm back to unlimited, free internet access, wikipedia can help with the explanation: "Confoederatio Helvetica" is Latin for the Swiss Confederation, which is the official name of Switzerland.

Following luggage storage, we suffered a bit of a fiasco trying to get subway tickets. Partially because we had no idea where we were or where we were going, and partially because one of the first person to use the ticket machine failed to select "English" and was instead fumbling around with German and tapping random buttons. Nevertheless, we eventually bought tickets to "Zurich HB", which turned out to be kind of the Grand Central Station of Zurich. (Hauptbahnhof, shortened to HB for convenience and to intentionally confuse tourists, means "main station" in German.) We bought the cheaper "2nd class" tickets, but upon boarding, the lack of signs and the comfort of seats lured us into the first class seats. Eventually we relocated to our proper seats.

After setting up a meeting time (7pm, track 14 of HB), our group split up to explore the city. Ted, Bo, Kim, Froy, and Humberto headed off to a "must-see" museum, Zack boarded another train to visit his girlfriend who was in a cycling competition in Switzerland, and the rest of us decided to "walk by the river, towards the lake." Mikes (we have two!), Jon, Sam, and I were quickly joined by a jogging Humberto who apparently didn't want to pay 10 CHF to see a silly museum. So off we wandered.

Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland (population: 376,815), is cut through the center by the Limmat River. Along this river, we discovered what must be the main touristy area. Even a combo meal from McDonalds was 10 CHF, and as the exchange rate is close to 1 for 1, obviously this was unsatistfactory. But high prices aside, we were pleasantly surprised by the scenery, the friendliness of the people, and the signs which were either poorly translated to English or simply meant to humor us.

When we got tired, we followed Humberto's lead and rode on swans.

Not really, but he seemed to be really interested in doing so. Despite not riding them, we discovered that swans find brownies just as delicious as we do. Also, some swans like to fake leg injuries to get our bread-filled sympathy. Merely a trick, nothing more.

We did find our way to the lake, and to the pseudo-beach, and also to the "arboritorium". Arboritorium is not a word, as confirmed by the red underline in my text editor, and by wikipedia (accessed from a free wifi point with one of MEET's N95s that we more or less smuggled into the country.) Half of us swam, and half of us looked longingly at the lovely blue water. The Limmat River and Lake Zurich have the type of water we always wished for; it is crystal clear and probably drinkable, unlike the nasty water of the Charles River.

One of my favorite pictures of the day is this one:

The boys were drying in the sun post-swim, and this little girl was running all around. At one point she sat between them, then she got off to shake her hair dry.

I was also fascinated by this man:

Post swim, we wandered down to a fountain, but I am still not convinced that it isn't a dozen captive whales being forced to entertain the crowds. Eventually, we turned around, and crossed back over the river. We discovered a group dancing in a circle around some colorful stuffed creatures, chanting "Hare Krishna" and being excessively happy. More wandering led to beautiful moments on side streets, of which I have far too many stories to post.

Eventually, we found ourselves a place to eat, and settled down for some very large beers:

We discovered we were much too tired to carry on conversation, or in Jon's case, to even stay awake. But we found that a man in leather armor kept us entertained. He attempted to sell candy or something, but only to attractive girls or couples. Everytime he succeeded in getting a customer interested, a group of men in lunch-lady-esque hats a few tables over would yell out to him.

Following food-induced happiness, we wandered toward a large, important-looking church. Some random woman on the street had a conversation with Mike (she was curious why he took a picture of the bathroom sign which said "Pisser") suggested we visit it, as it gave a great view of the city. The Grossmünster (great minister) was constructed in the 12th century, and apparently played a large role in the Protestant Reformation. Unfortunately, it cost 2 CHF to ascend one of the towers. And perhaps even more unfortunately, we arrived 3 minutes before the tower tours closed. Oh well! We were still able to go inside and enjoy the organ music, and wander around, and I even managed to grab a program and sign the guestbook.

Our last main Zurich-exploration stop was the top of some large wall. It looked important, and in fact, it was. The Lindenhof is the historical site of a Roman castle which became a Carolingian Kaiserpfalz (another name for castle, really. Kaiser = emperor and Pfalz = palace.) Now, it's really just an elevated, gravel-filled park with an excellent view, giant chess boards, a fountain, and a lot of groups playing bocce. Unlike the ancient bocce players I saw when I visited Paris, the Zurich players were middle-aged. (This may also be related to the fact that I saw bocce in Paris on a weekday afternoon, while this was a weekend.)

From the top of the Lindenhof, we got an epic view of the city, and we also got to see what looked kind of like water jousting. Two boats(the looked kind of like large canoes) paddled toward each other, while a person holding a large pole stood on a platform at the stern. As the boats crossed paths, one of the jousters successfully held his ground while the other tumbled into the Limmat with a splash. Unfortunately, our view of the exact collision was blocked by a tree, but we got to enjoy the set-up and the aftermath.

Following the excitement of the Lindenhof (including a lot of swinging from my end), we briefly visited an adjacent park. And then, collapse. That is, passing out in a grassy "napzone" as Sam might say.

We slept pretty soundly for at least an hour, before slowly waking up and realizing we needed to be back at the HB to meet up with others. I think the highlight might have been Jon's pillow: a bottle of water. I'll spare the obvious picture of that, and instead show some of the foliage that we encountered.

We met back up at the train station, but then decided we had a little bit more time. In fact, we had time enough to capture this stunning parallel image. MEET has one backward E, as did this sign:

Most of the group left, but Mike, Froy, and I stayed behind for another half hour of wandering. We all easily made the next meet-up time: 8:15pm at the airport lockers. Following retrieval o' stuff, Mike and I went to get some cheese and crackers at the Stop & Shop upstairs. We're pretty sure this Stop & Shop has absolutely nothing to do with the American Stop & Shops, but that didn't stop Mike from being a "Cool American":

Yes, apparently when "Cooler Ranch" is translated to German than back to English, it ends up as "Cool American". What can you do? Eventually we made our way to the gate. En route, we passed the first security gate. The sign said "You must have a valid ticket and passport to enter", but what this really meant was, "If you plop down a folded ticket and a passport, the security guard will look at neither and hand wave you on." The real security gate was a little less lax, but still, I had expected more.

Another Swiss Air flight ensued. Before take-off, I remember idly napping and wondering why the captain was talking so much. Apparently, we had some problems with one of our engines on the right side, and were delayed on the tarmac for some time. My idle napping was actually me sleeping for at least half the flight, waking only for dinner and an episode of "That 70s Show".

At 4am, we were walking toward the passport checkpoint in the Tel Aviv. The line was slow moving, and hoards of people stood looking longingly toward the land beyond the "Foreign Passports" booths. It took an hour to get through and collect our luggage, but we made it after all.

We had no choice but to listen to this airport sign: Smile.

Max and Mustafa met us at the exit and led us to our transportation. We suddenly encountered our first dilema: 13 people, luggage for 11 for two months, one minivan, one car. The details need not be explained, but let's just say that those of us in the back seats were unable to move, and were completely smothered by luggage.

Next post: The Middle East.