Sam Explores Germany & Switzerland Pt 11

Sam Explores Germany & Switzerland Pt 11
Mon Sept 7/09

-AUF WIEDERSEHEN, GERMANY-
Woke up at 4:22am…Pat and Margaret were already awake. I got ready in 12 minutes haahha. We were all dead tired and we dragged ourselves out for the taxi. We were a little concerned that our taxi might not show up, but it did. We had to transfer for this one, so we were a little stressed out. We barely slept in the first train as we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss our stop at Stuttgart (sp?). Luckily it wasn’t too bad, but we had to make it to 2nd class and it was a bit of a ways down the platform and these trains leave on time or even a bit before, so we were panicky. Anyway, we made our connection.

Once we arrived in Zurich, we considered heading to the tourism office or going right to the hotel. We chose the latter and went to the taxi line. The first driver was an ass, he didn’t want to take us and our luggage and tried to force us on another guy. He then pointed to the end of the line, but the other taxi driver was nice enough to take us.

Our hotel room is supernice and very comfortable. If anything, we chose a good hotel! I was so tired…after checking in, we needed to eat and explore a bit. We went to Tapas, which was a southern Italian, southern Portuguese and German restaurant. We ordered from the special menu and I had Portuguese chicken with roasted potatoes. It was HEAVEN. I also decided on a fruit juice instead of a dessert. After that we walked down the hill to the main station area. I was kind of delirious from fatigue…it just felt like too much to take in right away.

-TOURS AND FATIGUE-
We went into the tourism office and I basically told Margaret and Pat to choose whatever tours they wanted and just to tell me how much to pay. The sun is very hot in Zurich…it feels like it is so much closer than in Toronto. While we walked around, we felt like we experienced three seasons…first it was cool like autumn, then the sun would be so hot and then warm again. This is not the fake sun that appears in Toronto – you know the one that you see outside the window and think, oh it’s hot outside and then you go out and it’s freakin’ cold! I think the weather and the fatigue got to me. We booked our tours to the Top of Europe – Jungfraujoch for Wednesday and Heidiland on Saturday. We have no idea why none of us prepared clothing for the Alps, but we decided we’d have to shop a little bit. Sandeep had told us that a windbreaker over our clothes should be fine. We didn’t shop much as I told them that I wanted to go back to the hotel to rest. I told them that they could go ahead and shop, but we were all pretty zonked.

-PRICEY FRIES-
After resting I felt a bit better. We ate at the pizzeria across the street and shared a margherita pizza and a plate of French fries. The fries alone cost $7. Oh well, what could we do? We enjoyed the lovely view on the terrace where we ate and then slept early as we were all exhausted.