Spring in the Alps

We had a 20 hour layover in Zurich on the first beautiful spring day of the year. We rented a car, booked a hotel room, and went downtown to take in the sights.

We parked across the street from the Porches and experienced one of the most maddening parking situations ever. We’ve been used to parking all over Europe and paying with a credit card, either in the automated attendant or with an app on our phones. The only time I needed coins to park in the last three years or so was outside of the Jameson Distillery in Dublin. This time we didn’t have any Swiss Francs so we walked to the Lidl grocery store at the end of the block from where that photo was taken. No ATM and they couldn’t give us cash back with a debit card purchase. So Bella sat with the car and I walked a few blocks away to find a bank with an ATM. The smallest bill I could get was a 50CHF bill. That’s $52.72 USD. Well, that wasn’t going to work, so back to Lidl for change. I waited in line for the same cashier I had talked to earlier and she broke the bill after admonishing me with “we don’t normally do this, so just this one time.” So I put 8CHF ($8.31) into the machine to get two hours parking. The whole ordeal took two hours. The remaining two 20CHF bills covered my pasta and two beers for lunch.

The restaurant we ate lunch in was WONDERFUL. They deserve high praise. It was Santa Lucia Paradeplatz in Innenstadt area. Inside the restaurant they had a beautiful old meat slicer. It was so pristine I can’t imagine it was in use. I wonder if the meat was real.

After our parking expired we drove out to see the alps.

The Swiss motor heads were out in some beautiful cars enjoying the warm temperatures and bright sun.

Zurich is one of the cleanest and best maintained cities I’ve ever seen. I guess that precision is what the Swiss are known for. That and their four regional languages. Can you name all four?

~ Freddy