Pictures from this day can be found here.
Roger wisely arranged for a meetup on Sunday at noon, thinking that either he or we would be out late partying so it would be best to get a late start. Turned out to be a good idea. We woke up around 9 a.m. and lounged around the hotel room resting our legs (and stomaches). Outside it was sprinkling rain, but we decided to make a go of it and walk around town to do some sightseeing on our own instead of waiting around in the hotel room.
Zurich is an interesting town as it straddles a river flowing directly from Lake Zurich, and so it provides a lot of views involving water. The town is very well off, and the money shows. The financial district and shopping district are ritzy affairs, but other areas are well-maintained and very attractive to walk through. Kuniko and I spent a couple of hours walking around and exploring the town. They already had cleaned up a lot of the mess from the previous day, and sometimes I realized we were in the same spot as the previous day – I just hadn’t originally recognized it because of lack of people around.
We finished our morning walk with a breakfast at a different hotel, and enjoyed a typical Swiss breakfast – loads of bread and croissants, omelettes and cheese. I was very interested in the coffee, and our waitress was very friendly and patient with our ordering. She was even more patient when a group of what appeared to be off-duty porn stars came in and started ordering in three different languages. These women looked like they had worked all night, and I did my best to keep my eyes on my breakfast.
After breakfast we went back to our hotel and met up with Roger in the lobby. He had some big ideas for the day, and so we sat down at a nearby cafe (that turned out to be quite famous) down the street to sip alcoholic coffees and hot chocolates and plan out the day. When I realized that we were actually in the famous cafe that I had hoped to visit, Roger was surprised that I even knew about it. Then I showed him my Lonely Planet guidebook that I had installed on my iPhone, and he saw that most of the destinations for the day were there. He half-jokingly asked me just what we needed him for – we had all the info we needed already. I was a little bit afraid that we hurt his feelings, but we didn’t know him quite well enough at that time to realize that he was kidding.
With the weather turning to blue skies, Roger proceeded to give us a guided tour of Zurich that was entertaining, comprehensive and humorous – he was a great tour guide. We went to the top of churches, examined stained glass windows, posed for pictures for Nancy, hit bars, saw a steamboat, and just about covered every major sight in town. We ate macaroons at a historic wall overlooking the city, where city elders had dressed women as soldiers to give the enemy the idea there were more fighting men available than really were. The spot provided an excellent view, and it was a great place to relax in the sun. Before the last stop of the tour, a panoramic bar at the top of a historic downtown building, we gave him the present we had bought in Germany, a bottle of wine from Rudelsheim, the wine town that we had visited on the first leg of our trip. Turns out he is a big wine fan, so we were happy to get him something (a little) rare in Zurich.
Roger’s plan for dinner was originally to drive us to his favorite restaurant outside the city on the hillside above Lake Zurich. He was a little worried about whether he should drive or not considering we were hitting bars and having drinks now and then during the day. We managed to convince him to share a taxi with us, saying that we would pay the bill. The taxi fare was almost 70 Francs to the restaurant, and before we could pay Roger beat us to it. We were paying for dinner, so we let it slide after some protest.
The location of the restaurant, perched on the hills above the lake, was pretty dramatic. We had a cocktail out on the terrace and enjoyed the scenery. There was absolutely no pollution or smog above the city in the distance, and the deep blue color of the lake really contrasted with the bright green of the hillsides. It was a beautiful location, and we drank it in until it started to get cold. We went inside and grabbed a big table in the dining room and set to ordering. Roger knows the owner, chef and staff very well – he’s a regular – so he kept asking for dishes that weren’t on the menu, and he was good enough to translate the menu items that we couldn’t figure out. It was a rare experience for us to travel and understand the whole menu – and so we took advantage and ordered some things that were very Swiss.
Loads of delicious food began arriving at our table – we did a rotation of three appetizers, and then a rotation of three main dishes. Finally a rotation of three desserts, and that pretty much did us in. We managed to drink two bottles of very delicious Swiss wine (Swiss wine – who knew?). As the night wore on other customers left, and the staff came over and sat at our table talking with us. Roger translated what we were saying, and we felt like we were regulars ourselves.
The owner Maya came over and held court for a while, telling us a couple of dirty jokes (faithfully translated by Roger) and entertaining us while we finished off our meal. Some of the cooks came in and sat down, too, so it was a full table. Maya gave Kuniko and me some Toblerone chocolate bars to take home with us, as well as some postcards showing the restaurant – she was a very kind woman. During the commotion Roger snuck over and paid the bill before we could get to it, and no amount of complaining or threatening could get him to let us help pay the bill. Too nice.
Also late in the evening Roger’s roommate Johnny came by. He had to go to a business dinner so couldn’t join us for dinner, but he stopped by afterwards, and we got to meet him. He was a cool guy, too – and after the evening wrapped up he drove us all back into town.
The dinner was definitely the highlight of the trip – something that we couldn’t ever do on our own, and something we’ll always remember. Sorry, Lonely Planet.
We said our farewells to Roger and Johnny on the sidewalk and then headed back to our hotel for our last night in Zurich. Roger turned out to be a great guy – and we’re hoping he’ll have the chance to visit Asia sometime in the future so we can return his hospitality.
