We found a market in Zurich!
Two more days into our trip. We didn't have Internet yesterday so I have to pick up a couple of days in one blog. Thanks for the messages we have received from family and friends it is good to know that some of you have found us back on our blog. Yesterday we had a nice drive through Germany today we touched France for a little while, stopped in Zurich, Switzerland for about 5 hours and drove on to a little town call Weesen, Switzerland for the evening. The drive to Zurich was pretty uneventful, except that we drove in Germany, France, and Switzerland all in the same morning. As we went into Switzerland we had to pay a toll. I got out my euros and expected to pay maybe 3 euros, which is about $4 US. The lady immediately said, NO COINS - NO COINS. I asked how much and she said 40 Francs, which is about $38 US. Wow that made us take notice, but with the two security personnel behind her with guns, we didn't argue. We got to Zurich just before lunch and found our way into the city center easily. Gertrude the GPS lady gave us pretty good directions with only a few hiccups where there was construction going on. We decided to take a bus/boat tour on the Gray Line to give us a better idea of Zurich, since we didn't have a great deal of time to spend. It was a pretty good tour, of course we saw the financial district and banks where Greg has all of his hidden money. A few facts that I found very interesting are:
only 6% of the Swiss own the home they live in. Nearly everyone rents from either the city, an insurance company, or a bank.
children start school at 7 and then in the seventh grade take exams to determine whether they will go on to trade school or secondary and post secondary education.
How do you like my parking job of our little Mercedes van? Pretty small parking spaces!We got our advice from the tourist center and began our drive south towards Milan. Shortly after leaving the tourist center Gertrude the GPS lady got confused with construction. She ended up taking me into a dead end construction site. By the time we got out she was so confused and between the four or five maps we were using and the different ideas of where we should go from my friends in the van that I finally took off in the direction I thought was most likely the one we should take. Well there are two major routes to take from Zurich to Milan - one is more scenic and one is more direct (this is the one the tourist center recommended). You guessed it, I/we picked the scenic route. Well scenic may not be the best description for all of it. As evening began to fall we were anxiously looking for a place to stay for the evening. The towns along the expressway were getting smaller and smaller (some would say quainter) as dusk began to fall. It was about this time that we needed another bathroom break and some tourist advice. We pulled of at a small gas station with tourist info near by. I forgot to tell you that up to this point every "toilette" we have used has cost money - .50 to 1.5 euros. No kidding - I don't want our US gas stations to get a hold of this idea. Anyway I went in to ask about the toilette and the attendant indicated that there was a charge, but I couldn't understand what she was saying. I ended up holding out my hand and she eagerly took the largest coin I had - 5 francs and gave me the keys. On the door there was a sign indicating the cost was .50 franc, which means I paid for 10 people. I guess that was my -Do Something for Others, Today thing. We did get some advice about possible places to stay fairly close and took off to search for one. We ended up in Weesen a beautiful (and yes quaint) town along a large lake in the lower part of the Alps. Remember, earlier I said we thought we could get away from Zurich and perhaps save some money on our room. We found two places that had rooms - the first one said he had rooms for $150 US each. Greg and Ian thought they would check out the other hotel across the street. he said, "I own that hotel too and the price is the same." So much for saving money. The rooms were very nice, the view was great, and we had an excellent supper and drinks. I do need to tell you about one of our drink experiences. Everyone who knows Mary Kay has a pretty good idea of what she ordered to drink at supper - Chardonnay. Sharon ordered the same. When they came we didn't notice, but Sharon's looked different than Mary Kay's. Mary Kay took some sips and said this really has a different taste, maybe a little lime. Ruth tasted it and said it smells like apples. After sometime, I thought well I should ask the waitress about it since the two drinks we had were very different. We found out that there is another drink called Shardala (sp) made from apple juice and seltzer water. It was good for a laugh and the end of a very nice day!
Today we headed on to Venice. Remember we had taken the "scenic" route out of Zurich. Well, it got allot more scenic as we went up and up and up from four lanes to two into the Alps. We didn't make great time, but the day was full of beautiful sites and very winding roads. It was raining throughout the day so as we got to the top of the mountain we were on it began to snow! Pretty neat site for August 4th. Finally we got down from the mountains and into Italy. We all said that although the route wasn't the quickest we were glad we took it. The trip was much more interesting than the expressway would have been.
One more problem with Gertrude and our hotel address and we ended up in the right place the Hotel Bologna just outside of Venice around 6:00 PM this evening. We got a recommendation for a restaurant and enjoyed ourselves once again over pasta, drinks, and a lime sherbet/vodka/Italian Champagne drink.
Greg is feeling much better - food is starting to taste good, but he is still staying away from beer.
Arrividerci!
DO SOMETHING FOR OTHERS TODAY! (something besides paying for them to go to the bathroom)
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