May 10, 2013

Well, here we are at the end of our trip.  Today is a rainy, blustery day in Zurich, but I’m jumping ahead.

We spent one night in Lucerne after leaving Geneva.  We walked on the very famous bridge which goes over the lake.  

And stopped to quench our thirst.

We found a nice restaurant and decided to eat in the wine cellar.  I had a chicken pot pie.  This was nothing I've ever seen before!  The crust was a huge croissant, very light and flaky and the inside was filled with a tomato type broth, with crisp vegetables, chicken and potatoes.  It was great!  Bc had a nice seafood trio with risotto.  

On Thursday morning we took a lovely 1 hour boat cruise around Lake Lucerne.  It was very relaxing and beautiful.

Then we packed up, bc found our car and drove it to our hotel where I was waiting with the bags.  This is not as easy as it seems.  The getting the car part, not the bags.  It’s quite a feat just trying to maneuver through the streets of Lucerne, or any city in Switzerland for that matter.  I saw him coming up the road and moved the barricades so he could get out of the street and park.  We didn't have too much trouble getting out of town.  We only had to go around the block once!

It was a short drive, half an hour, to Zurich.  We found our hotel “Helmhaus” and parked right in front.  Again, we weren't sure this was a street, but oh well!  A very nice young man greeted us, gave us a glass of water while we waited 10 minutes for our room to be finished.  We have a very nice room.  Very European.  The key room is way too awesome!

It was a lovely sunny day, so we set out to park the car.  We found the car park and left the car and walked back to the hotel.  By this time it was around 2pm and we found a pizza place right around the corner and sat in the shade of the trees and had a nice lunch.  The pizzas here aren't as fattening as the ones in the states.  Here they are a very thin, crisp crust with a light smattering of a delicious tomato/pizza sauce with a little cheese and Parma ham.  Delicious!  We shared a pizza and it was perfect. 

We walked to the Zurich Museum of History.  They are having the last few days of a Marc Chagall exhibition.  We bought our tickets which came with a little metal tag with the letter “A” on it.  We clipped it on our shirts though no one told us why we should wear it.  We got in the queue for the “free headsets” but the line didn’t move.  We finally figured out it was because they had no more audio headsets and people were standing in this line waiting for someone to turn in their headset!  We gave up on that and went to the exhibition.  It was very crowded, which isn’t fun.  But we did get to see all the paintings and read some of the information that was in English.  He was a very prolific artist!  We saw that there was another area of the museum where we could see Monet, Manet, Rodin, Van Gogh and etc.  We asked the lady checking for the metal letter clips where it was and she said around the corner, but first we had to stand in the shorter line to pay “a little bit more.”  So off we go to pay some more.  We waited patiently and finally we showed the lady at the money counter the place we wanted to go on the map.  She said “It’s just around the corner.”  She didn’t ask for any money so around the corner we go, to a peaceful, uncrowded area to see some wonderful art, up close.  Nice!  We finished, “recycled” our “A” pin and started to walk around the city.  Here are some pics of the museum.  There is an amazing bronze outside the museum by Rodin.  It’s called the “Gates of Hell.” 

We came back to the hotel and rested, then set out for dinner.  We found the Savoy Hotel across the river and had a very nice time.  It’s very elegant, with a great pianist.  I had tri-color Gnocchi with baby artichokes all around the outside of the plate.  Bc had Pate Maison and it was equally beautiful and great.  That with a nice bottle of Burgundy from Santenay.  Nice…. We had just been in Santenay on our barge cruise.  It was a quiet walk home through the city to our hotel. 

This morning it has been raining pretty steady.  We walked up the hill to get the car out of the car park ($48.00 francs) so we could take it to get gas.  With Francine’s help we found a gas station and filled up ($92 US!) .  Then another twisty trip back to the car park to leave the car again.

We walked around and went to the Cathedral with Swiss Art, but it was closed.  But here is the sign for something.  We just don’t know what. 

Then across the bridge to the Fraumunster Church.  This church has windows that Marc Chagall designed.  They are incredible.  We couldn’t take pictures inside, but bc took pictures of the bookmarks and magnet we bought. 

We stopped to have a cappuccino and hot chocolate and now are back at the room repacking everything for the trip home.  We are hoping the weather clears a little this afternoon so we can walk about later. 

Tomorrow we will fly from Zurich to Paris.  Overnight in Paris.  Sunday fly from Paris to JFK.  Overnight in JFK.  Monday we fly from JFK to LAX and onto Sacramento where my mom will pick us up.  So please send a good thought for smooth travels for us. 

This has been a wonderful vacation.  So many different experiences.  I would like to say that I am very lucky to have a traveling partner and husband, who plans the entire itinerary for each vacation.  There is a confirmation for every plane, car, hotel, boat, even the Anne Frank Museum! Traveling and seeing new things is such a great education and experience.  However, traveling can be tough sometimes.  Like when plans change because of something beyond your control, you get lost (a lot), a marathon is in the way of finding your hotel, one of you gets the sniffles or something worse, you are in very small quarters for a month straight, or you just get plain old tired.  And there is the whole luggage thing.  Dragging your “life” around can be wearisome.  Bc and I have made it through all this, with a smile for each other and for that I am grateful.

Here’s how awesome he is.  Yesterday we were driving from Lucerne to Zurich when he asked me to reset his watch.  Evidently the stem caught on his pants pocket and changed the time.  Since I don’t wear a watch (and don’t have access to my phone for the time) it is important that his watch be correct.  I played around with it for a bit, trying to get the stem to pull out, finally got it set to 12:45 (after much discussion between us as to what time it was) and gave it back to him.  He looked at it and said very nicely, “No, that’s time we arrive in Zurich.  It’s 12:15 now.”  I took the watch back laughed and said “You need a new wife!”  bc said “No I’ve almost got you broken in!”  Whatta guy….

We will be glad to be home and to see all of you.  We hope you have enjoyed our blog. 

Love you!  Bc and gc

PS.  I have failed to mention this, but at every opportunity we have searched for the Big Ball of Yarn.  But it isn’t in Fullerton, Claremont, Marlton, JFK, Paris, the French Countryside, Amsterdam, the Rhine River, Germany, or Switzerland.  We will keep looking and let you know when we find it!