Switzerland

Our train arrived in Como, Italy on Monday afternoon with enough time for us to make our way over the border into Switzerland. We rode around 30 km from the train station until we were near Lugano, where we found a campground for the night. As we crossed the border we were surprised by the ease it was, there was border patrol but traffic moved right through like a thru way speed pass. This is all part of the new European Schengen visa open boarders. When we checked in, we quickly realized that Switzerland is much more expensive than Italy (or most any other country) and that we may have to limit our stay in order to keep from breaking our budget.

While setting up our tent for the evening we met a British ex-pat, Adam who rode by on his bike and struck up a conversation while one of his kids was on his shoulder and the other behind on her own bike with training wheels. We chatted with him for a few minutes about taking a lift to a mountain near by and riding single track, it didn’t take much for us to give in and we agreed to go mountain biking with him the next morning.

We finished getting settled in for the night, and eventually met back up with Adam and his family for drinks and conversation. The next morning, we went riding with Adam on some of Lugano’s finest trails, which we have detailed in our latest Singletracks.com article (coming soon!). We would have loved to stay in the area longer, but we were running out of time and didn’t want to spend another 55 Francs on camping, so we packed up and rode to the train station to catch the next train to Zurich that evening.

We arrived in Zurich after dark which didn’t allow for much sight seeing, so we headed directly to home of our friends in the city. Suzanne and John are two Americans who have lived in Switzerland for just a few months, and invited us to stay with them while we were visiting. We were fortunate that their house was near one of the tram routes that a local at the station pointed out which made navigating the city pretty easy as long as we followed the tracks. We spent the remainder of the evening getting to know Suzanne and telling stories from our trip before heading to bed.

The next day we awoke to rainy weather but decided to go out anyway and explore the city. The morning was spent wandering around downtown, and when the rain picked up we would duck into one of the churches to stay dry while still playing the tourist gig.

We were also able to make our way to Zurich’s toy museum, which was filled with dolls, electric trains, and other toys some of which date back over two hundred years. While interesting, the museum was small and lacked any modern toys from our childhood, so we left and headed a couple of blocks away to an actual toy store, where we could marvel at the Lego sets and other toys that we grew up with. It was difficult to leave without buying anything, but managed to get out of the store and head back to the apartment. We arrived home shortly before John arrived from a business trip in the States. Once he made it home from long flight from California, we all set out for a restaurant to try out some traditional Swiss cuisine and get to know John and Sue better. They recommended some good hikes for us to do in the area, but the weather was not clearing up, so they recommended we visit one of Switzerland’s other cities. We decided on Lucern and the next morning headed to the train station.

We stopped by the tourist information office at the Lucern train station where we found a map that had a walking route that would lead us to all of the popular tourist sights. We followed the route, which took us by the river to see one of the oldest wooden bridges Spreuerbrucke which features a series of paintings from the Dark Ages, most show graphic paintings describing the Black Plague.

 

We also found our way to the Kapellbruckle, the oldest bridge of its kind in Europe and the Dying Lion sculpture.

While walking around noticed a mini football (soccer) stadium made of beer cans was near the bus station square. After checking it out we found out that it was a promotion for a Swiss beer company (which is not known for being a great beer in the opinion of most non Swiss). We got our picture taken and had a free beer sample.

We stumbled upon this locked up bike with an interesting note, John had mentioned that the Swiss are known for leaving notes for various reasons, especially if you are a loud neighbor, but in this case a bike purchase inquiry. John and Sue also pointed out that the Swiss don’t wait in a single file line and will often cut in front of you while walking and they always follow rules like the crosswalks and hours of operation for a recycling bin (not open on Sunday)

Near the water we saw the bikes parked of a family touring, Matt no longer could complain about the heavy trailer after seeing this family. A bike pulling gear in panniers with a trailer for toddler and mini bike.

We finished the tourist walk along the old city wall including a quick trip up a couple of the lookout towers before heading back to the train station to return to Zurich for the night.

After arriving back to Zurich we went downtown to meet up with Matt’s former roommate and his wife, who have moved to Zurich just a few weeks prior to work on his Ph.D. We met at a bar near the river where we had drinks and chatted while some of the older patrons of the bar danced to the live band, and occasional asked us to join in. We danced some and finished our drinks before heading back to rest up for our hike that we planned for the following day.

We had saved our hike for Friday since that is when the weather was the most promising which it was. We didn’t want to spend the money to travel on another long distance Swiss train, so we stayed in Zurich and hiked up one of the local mountains, the Eutliburg, to get a great view of the city from a perspective that many tourists miss out on.

Although there were some clouds that hindered the visibility from the top of the mountains there was still some impressive views of the City. After summiting the Eutliburg, we followed the ridgeline for a couple of hours before arriving at the Fellsnegg cable car station, which took us back down the mountain to the train station where we could ride back into Zurich. The excellent public transport system really showed during this hike, with a tram to bring us right to the trailhead and a cable car down the mountain all part of the public transit network, it was remarkably easy to get out of the city for some outdoor recreation.

The next morning, we left our friends in Zurich and headed north towards Germany in a hurry to get out of Switzerland and back to “normal" prices. We would have loved to stay longer and explore the country more, but with the prices being as high as they are it just was not sensible for us to stay longer.