Zurich

Another train journey and onto Zurich leaving St Moritz just before lunch and arriving in Zurich in a few hours.  We were not quite prepared for the change in the weather between St Moritz and Zurich.  Leaving St Moritz, the temperature was around 12 degrees, arriving in Zurich it had climbed to 33.

Even for we Australians, it was HOT.  Struggling through mid afternoon city crowds and traffic to make our way to our accommodation was quite challenging.  Nevertheless, we got there in one piece although I felt as though my brain was beginning to melt.

A cold drink of water from our lovely host (this was an air b'n'b booking) and the offer to have a cool shower were very welcome.

The journey into Zurich was a treat as the last 30 or so minutes, the train travels along the entire length of Lake Zurich.  A very picturesque journey.

The trip after leaving St Moritz was really great travelling down from the higher mountains, still lots of beautiful scenery.

Once we had recovered and cooled down some we made our way to the centre of Zurich and the  huge lake in the centre of town.  I think every resident of Zurich had also made their way to the lake after work to take a cooling swim and have a picnic dinner at the various parklands beside the lake.

Was this Daniel Craig (007) or his Aussie lookalike?

There is an extensive tram system around Zurich which makes getting around very easy.  Feeling much cooler we headed home although, as on the very hot days at home, the room still felt like an oven.

We only booked 2 nights in Zurich.  On our only full day there we fitted in as much as we could seeing the centre of the city from the river and the lake taking a ferry ride on the local transport ferry boat.

Our second day was almost as hot as the first.  After our river ferry ride and a few hours at the  Switzerland History Museum, we headed home for some down time.  Late afternoon saw us heading back to the lake to spend our last evening taking a swim in the lake again.

 Staying with a really lovely young lady at her apartment, we picked up some groceries and made good use of the kitchen to prepare some food.  Spent an hour or so enjoying the company of our host Angiie and learning about life in Zurich and Switzerland.  The one thing we learnt quite quickly when we arrived in Switzerland was how expensive the cost of living is there.  Makes Sydney seem like an inexpensive place to be.

We ordered a foot long subway in Zurich for dinner on our first night, got to the end of the counter to pay when we realised with the conversion from swiss francs, the foot long had cost us almost $21.

After our quick stop in Zurich, it was time to head off again on our journey northward.  We decided to travel into southern Germany to the Black Forest.  When we changed our direction of travel (after the flooding in Eastern Europe), the black forest had been suggested by a few people so we decided to see for ourselves.

So it was back to the station in Zurich to catch a train to a town called Titisee, pronounced Tetazeh in German.

Will post some pics of our time in the black forest soon.

Love to all, Linda and David