Thank you, glad to be here.
Finally we
have arrived in Zurich! And what a difference it is compared to Geneva. Geneva airport was very up to date, even
modern, in the 1960’s. Anyone who flies to Switzerland for the first time in his life
should fly directly to Zurich airport. Here you are truly
welcomed to Switzerland. Although I have to admit, at Geneva airport you instantly know you have
arrived in ‘La Suisse’ because no matter which direction you look, a watch
advertisement is shouting at you.
You know you're in Switzerland
However, Zurich airport is a beautiful, truly modern
day airport where a well-paid crew of architects really came up with something
good, both aesthetically and logistically. They combined it with the famous
Swiss Efficiency; it is only a short walk from the plane to the luggage belt
but as soon as we reached it, our suitcases came rolling by. No more then
twelve minutes passed by between the moment we landed and the moment we got in
to a taxi to take us to our hotel.
We checked
in to ‘hotel du theatre’ Seilergraben 69, Centralplatz CH-8001 Zurich and asked for three quiet rooms.
All of our rooms were on the main street side, however. Although double-glazed, we could still hear the sounds of the
street.
The famous warehouse Globus
We decided not to make a big fuss about it since it was only for one
night. We freshened up and met twenty minutes later in the lobby. We went for a
walk through the town centre. As you may know from previous my blogs, I’m an
architecture lover and a bit of a photographer. I also like to take life at a
slow pace. I walk a bit, stop, have a good look around and maybe take a
picture. I talk to people I meet in the street and I really take the time to
take in life as it comes, in the moment. My sister, whom I love dearly,
couldn’t be more different from me. She walks in a high pace. Only glances at
building, says “that’s nice” and than hurries along. My sister also has other
interests than I do. In her high pace, she went straight for the main shopping
street ‘Bahnhofstrasse’ to gaze at the windows. Walking around through the
centre, my sister also found it necessary to go shopping in Globus, a famous
local warehouse. It is the Harrods of Zurich and ‘not my cup of tea’. The
abundance, the extreme wealth, the ‘over the top’ while elsewhere in the world
people murder for a slice of moulded bread… Nevertheless, as it is late
November, the city prepares for Christmas.
the food at Cantina
There are lights everywhere and shop
windows are decorated glamorously.
By the
fresh air and all of this walking around, we worked up an appetite. In surge of
a place to eat, we walked in a street parallel to the river on the “grossemünster”
side. The street (Niederdorfstrasse) housed a lot of Italian restaurants. So
many in fact, it looked like we were in the Italian quarter. In the end, we
picked ‘la Cantina’. I can recommend this restaurant to anyone who goes to Zurich. We were treated to effective and
very friendly service. Our waiter spoke three languages. The quality of the
food was excellent, honest Italian kitchen. After dinner we walked back to the
hotel for an early night in. It had been early morning and an eventful day so
enough was enough. It was time for bed.
