Following the Dream

Christian October 19th, 2008

A quick 50 minute train ride took us to Zurich. Known to most as home of swiss bank accounts it is Switzerland’s largest city and considered by most to have Europe’s highest standard of living. Getting off the train we navigated our way through the huge station to the main entrance.  The walk to the hostel was not far, just a few blocks into the old town district, but then up 3 very narrow winding flights of stairs.  On the way up we passed a kitchen for one of the restaurants that shared our building.  The door to it was open, the cooks were hard at work and it smelled so good.  Our hostel was the cheapest we could find in all of Zurich for a huge $100, our most expensive hostel in all of Europe.  We were immediately disappointed to find it cramped and old.

Our room consisted of 2 twin beds and a sink along with a window. Luckily, or unluckily the shared bathrooms(girls and guys share) were right across the hall.  It is uncomfortable having to take care of the morning business when there are two girls on the other side of the stall wall brushing their teeth.  It was apparent that this place needed some TLC.  The “Fully Equipped” kitchen advertised on the flyer for the place, was a couple of burners, a fridge, and no utensils.  The last hostel had two kitchens, complete with microwaves, ovens, burners, and anything else you could need or want for half the price.  Maybe some of the profits should be reinvested for upgrades. On the upside the linen was clean, we got fluffy towels to use and the mattresses and pillows were comfortable and newer.  Our room was not immediately available so we had about 3 hours to walk around town.  We went to tourist info and collected a bunch of brochures on Zurich and found out some very disappointing information.  We had come to Zurich to visit the Lindt Chocolate Factory, we had heard it was quite nice, complete with a chocolate “river” and some free samples. I thought Casey might cry when we were told it was closed for renovations.  We headed out to explore a little ending up in the shopping district. It was a nice fall afternoon and everyone was out enjoying it. After wandering around in some crowded and high priced shops we ended up in the biggest English bookstore we had seen in Europe. It was 2 floors of English books, too bad they were also 2 to 3 times more expensive then they would cost back home. One thing is for sure about Switzerland, its expensive! Most restaurants we checked out were minimum $30 a plate.  To give you a comparison a single cheeseburger at McDonald’s would cost about $.89 in the U.S., while in Zurich it was $3.85!!

We checked out the grocery store but we couldn’t agree on anything to eat for dinner and opted to go out to dinner after cooking for the last 3 nights.  We went back to the tourist office once again trying to figure out a day trip either to Liechtenstein or to the swiss alps. After looking at the brochures, Liechtenstein didn’t seem too exciting even if it would have been cool to say we had been there.  (Did you know that their main export is Dentures?) After heading back to the hostel and getting the keys to our room, we just relaxed a little. Internet access is about a consistant rate of $12 an hour, and being the budget travellers we are, we headed to McDonald’s where you can not only get a cheap meal, but also a half hour of free wi-fi.  Just enough time to check our email and find out a little more about the Swiss Alps. Dinner was a not so cheap $15 but we enjoyed and headed back to our hostel to watch a movie on our computer.

We woke up early and caught the train out of Zurich. In order to visit the Swiss Alps, we had to return to Luzern and from there catch a train to Engleburg.  Engleburg is a wonderful small town nestled in a valley, which had endless outdoor sport possibilities. Hiking, skiing, biking, and climbing are all easily accessible.  We bought our tickets at the train station for the ride up the Titlus mountain to the glacier park located 10,000 feet up. It takes a series of 3 stages on cable cars to reach the summit. The first car was a 15 minute ride spent with 3 Germans and thier dog. The dog was playful and tried to eat my my leg and then hand on the ride up. The second stage is spent mostly in the clouds.

The last car is the first rotating cable car in the world and gives you amazing views of the swiss alps. As you ascend you are greeted with views of year round snow capped mountains and glaciers.  Even though you are rotating around 360 degrees the other tourists are pushing you against the glass trying to get the best view with their video cameras.  Titlus is the highest view point in central Switzerland overlooking the alps. Once arriving at a very chilly 10,000 feet you walk into a 5 story building containing restaurants, souvenir shops, apparrel, and spectacular views.  Your first stop is to the “glacier excursion” which is a series of tunnels carved through the middle of a glacier with neat lighting and music effects. 

Next we headed up to the observation deck which offers stunning views over the alps. Words cannot describe it, you are standing up at 10,000 feet, the cold wind blowing against you, the purity of the air, the beauty you see in every direction that you turn to look.  Next, we walked about 200 meters to the “ice glider” which is a chair lift that takes you over the glacier to their year round “snow park” which offers sledding, and other snow toys for free.  It was by far the highest chair lift I have been on in my life.

I waited for a free “snow bike” and hoped on for a ride down the slope.  It was hoky, but very fun none the less.  Also waiting were some monks dressed in traditional robes, and wearing sandals! It was cold and I couldn’t imagine walking in the snow in sandals! After my quick ride down I jogged quickly up the hill back to Casey, only to realize to late that at the high altitude I was out of breath and light headed. I passed my snow toy off to one of the guys at the top of the hill who was waiting for his turn.  When I handed him the snow bike toy, his face lit up like it was Christmas morning. 

After a moment (or several) to catch my breath we headed back up the chair lift and inside to warm up with some hot chocolate.  We then went back outside to take some pics of the beautiful alps. You could see snow capped mountains for miles around. The feeling was absolutely incredible standing on top of the mountain.  We then went inside and found a wonderful lounge full of sun and it was very nice to warm up sitting in the sun looking out floor to ceiling windows with views of the alps. On the way back to the ground floor we stopped at the souvenir shop and found a postcard of a Bernese Mountain Dog that looked like our Daisy.  After that we were ready for the trip back down the mountain. We waited in line about 5 minutes and grabbed the rotating gondola down. At the last stage you catch a four person cable car, but the fat indian guy in line in front of us would not let us in his car and insisted on riding by himself in his car. He just stood in front of the doors, blocking our entry.  What a bastard.  We simply caught the next one and shared it with a woman whom we thought had been traveling with the weirdo in front of us.  His cable car was moving a bit, so maybe he wanted some ”special time” with himself and his right hand man.  We grabbed a train back to Luzern.  I suggested we stop at the grocery store in Luzern for dinner, because we knew it was open on Sundays. It turned out to be a good call because once back in Zurich we found the grocery store was closed on our walk back to the hostel. For dinner we cooked up some pork schwien Bratwurst and some good ol’ Uncle Ben’s Mexican Rice.  Several people commented on how good it smelled.  Gotta love Uncle Ben!  After that we relaxed and once again were packing up for our next train to Germany.

Switzerland turned out to be one of our favorite places we visited. It was a little expensive for our budget but their were definitely some reasonable deals if you looked.  The natural beauty of the country is astounding, the people welcoming, and the cities clean and modern.  We would love to come back in the winter and enjoy some playtime in the alps.

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