A day in Zurich

Blogging after the fact, there is much to say about Zurich. What a beautiful city! Linda and I arrived in the Zurich airport on the morning of the 10th. We rode the airport train back and forth twice not realizing that it had only two stations. The first time, we didn't think we were in the right place and didn't get off the train only to be shuttled back to the terminal. Wiser the second time and having seen a Swiss mountain girl blowing kisses outside the window of the train now three times, we headed downstairs to figure out how to take a train into town. Some minor language struggles aside, we managed our way onto a very nice train that took us directly to the main Zurich train station.
We wandered down the river that runs to the Zurichsee, a beautiful lake at the south end of the city, had breakfast (espresso-like coffee and an apricot pastrie) at a cafe on the river, and watched cyclists on every type of bike pedal by - a good omen given the cycling to come!

We decided to climb the Grossmunster (the first of many cathedrals and windy stairs on the trip) for a view of the city...simply stellar! You catch views of the lake, the city, the Fraumunster across the river and the St. Peter cathedral with the largest clockface in Europe (seen in the pic below). The streets in this part of the city wind all cobbly and wonderful through little shops and up and down hills.

We snoozed in the arboretum by the lake and watched school groups make their noisy processions through the greenery before spending some time outside the Fraumunster where we were to meet the van. Attempts to find internet also put us at a Starbucks where Linda again succombed to her narcileptic tendencies. The stained glass windows in the Fraumunster were designed by Marc Chagal and are fantastic to see. The Mazeratis driving around, a product of the banking industry, also make this a unique place. After a nice dose of Zurich we made our telephone connection with Maria and the van and found them just outside the trafficky center of Zurich. We jumped in the van (quite literally) as it was stopped at a light and were off for our long drive to the Orval hostellerie and Belgium. We found out that the phenomenal number of time trial bikes were the result of the Ironman Zurich that had been going on and the van with all of its bikes on top was expected to take part and had been signaled off the road and into the triathlon area!