Monday, May 25, 2015

Night and Day - Zürich, Switzerland


After crossing "the Pond" once again on a C-5 to Ramstein Air Force Base and cleared customs at around noon, I made my way to the Exchange to grab some much needed German style coffee and rhubarb pastries!  Once my appetite was satisfied, I crossed the atrium over to the travel center to book the fastest train south with Zürich in my scope!  After sitting down with my ever so helpful travel agent, we got my ticket squared away via mixed German-English dialogue and I was out the door tickets in hand!  Stepped out into the perfect autumn Rhineland weather with perfect timing as an available taxi pulled up in front of me.  I wish I could recall her name, but my driver and I had a fantastic drive into K-Town whilst I warmed up my German and she practiced her English skills talking about this and that, and of course travel.  Soon enough, I was at the familiar doors to the Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof and ready to board by train!  Continuing into the beautiful autumn day was a tremendous train ride through the German countryside next to the Rhein.  Adding to the already great first day, I watched the sun set over France from Germany as I neared the Swiss border to the city of Basel where I would depart my comfort zone of the DeutscheBahn to SNCF lines to what the locals call "Downtown Switzerland".
I arrived to the city after dark which made for an interesting trek up to where I was staying for night as my first AirBNB experience.  According to Google Maps, the walk looked like "cross the bridge, make a left, and go a few blocks" easy, but little did I know that Zürich was built on near ski-worthy slopes.  After arriving to Marti's top floor apartment on Winterthurerstrasse, quite the handle for a street name, I asked for recommendations for the best view of town and she immediately lit up with excitement as she explained the view from the ETH Library.  ETH is short for Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, long name, but great school with a ranking of third in the world for engineering and also the alma mater of Albert Einstein.  Once I rounded the corner of the library to the plaza I understood why Marti was so eager to tell me of this spot!  If you ever find yourself in Züri, take in the view from this heavenly vantage point at night and during the day, especially for a sunset over Zürichsee and northern Alps of beautiful Schweiz!

1 comment:

  1. I am an event photographer, I love this venue, and I will revisit this venue in a heartbeat. They have really great staff and pretty decent drinks. The halls and rooms at Los Angeles event venues are absolutely gorgeous.

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