Switzerland 2: French and German

It's hard to believe that my European adventures are quickly coming to a close. Today, I am writing from Zurich as I wait to board my train to Milan and onto Florence for my final stop. So far, I've really enjoyed being back here across the pond, but I can say that I miss the comforts of the USA. It has, however, been very nice to be staying at Christina's and soon my cousin Joe's apartments. Traveling in hostels is fun for a bit, but the creature comforts and personal space have their perks.

Yesterday, Christina and I took the train to Genève (Geneva) instead of making another long drive across Switzerland. The tickets here are, of course, expensive at $200 round trip from Zurich to Genève, but it was worth the scenic views and train instead of car. It takes about 3 hours to cross the country from Zurich in the north central part of Switzerland to Genève in the southwestern corner. Christina says that Swiss think an hour is a lot of travel, so this was a big day for us. As you cross the country via train, you watch the language and signs switch from German to French. Freiburg is the last bilingual city to cross through before reaching French Switzerland.

French Switzerland is much more like France than Germany, but it still has its Swiss touches. First of all, the accent is different than typical French francais in Genève and surrounding regions. Also, everything is expensive and posh as one would expect in Switzerland. The weather in Genève was beautiful, warm, and sunny, a change from cooler Zurich. As we hopped off the train, we walked towards the center of town across Lake Geneva (Lac Léman). One of the biggest tourist attractions is the large jet of water (jet d'eau) shooting 500 feet into the air over the lake.

The lake gives the city a more Mediterranean feel. Genève is just a few kilometers north of Mont Blanc in the French Alps, and the city isn't too far from the French Riviera. After seeing the jet d'eau and the l'horlage fleurie (Flower Clock) in the Jardin Anglais, we wandered through the streets to the Veille Ville (Old City). Much of medieval Genève is preserved, and we finally made it to the top of the hilly city to St. Pierre cathedral. Genève is known as the Protestant Vatican because it became the center of Protestant movements like Calvinism. Switzerland is about half Catholic and half Protestant. Genève is also home to many international organizations like the Red Cross and European headquarters of the United Nations. 

After seeing the old town, we stopped for a very French lunch, complete with roasted chicken, Provençal potatoes, and a glass of Swiss white wine. We wandered back to the train station and boarded the train back to Zurich. Trains are amazingly reliable given the high prices and almost always leave on time. After an awesome time in Switzerland (thanks for hosting, Christina!), I am excited to move onto my last stop in Florence. Today, we did a quick walk about Zurich downtown to the lake and down the Bahnhofstrasse before stopping for a bretzel (pretzel) and Swiss chocolate. Onwards to Italy then back to the good ole USA!  Ciao!

Switzerland 1: German and Italian

Christina and I finally made it to Switzerland after a day's drive from Belgium, and we haven't stopped driving since! Today we spent the day in the Swiss Alps and Italian Switzerland, and tomorrow we'll be headed off to French Switzerland. Switzerland is a small but diverse country with distinct regions and geography. After the long day's drive, we rested up at Christina's awesome apartment. She lives outside Zurich in a small village called Aadorf, which Christina says has two As at the front so it's first in the dictionary. 

Since I've already been to Zurich, we were not planning on spending too much time in the city, which is Switzerland's largest. We'll mostly be using it as a base for travel. Trains are amazingly efficient but expensive in Europe's most comprehensive network in Switzerland. Last night, we went out to a Swiss club in Zurich from Aadorf by taking the train into the city. Everything is super expensive here, as I experienced the last time I was here in 2010. It costs 40 CHF (about $42) to take a round trip train just 25 miles into the city, and you must pay an extra 5 CHF at night to pay for train security. As such as wealthy country, everything is well organized and regulated. Roads are clear and monitored, and there are even taxes/fees on placing a trash bag out for disposal to cut back on waste here.

Back to Zurich, we decided to go out on the Niederdorfstrasse, the main walking and drinking street at night. Drinks are expensive of course, although to be honest I don't even remember the price after handing a confusing and large 200 CHF bill to the bartender. Swiss ATMs hand out only big bills. After a few hours of dancing, we headed home on trains (which run all night on weekends) back to Aadorf for our first travel day. 

Today, we drove down to the Italian section of Switzerland near the Italian border. As I stated earlier, Switzerland is divided into four main cultural and linguistic areas. The vast majority (65%) of the country is German and in the north, including Zurich, Lucerne, Basil, and Bern. My friend Christina is German from Germany, and she often runs into "trouble" with her German German accent instead of Swiss German accent in this part of the country. Today, we drove to the far south to the Italian part (10%) near the Italy border at Milan. Tomorrow, we'll be doing to the west near France via train to Geneva, the main city of the French section (25%). There's also a tiny population (less than 1%) in the east near Austria which speaks Romansch, an old language derived from Latin.

To get to Lugano, the largest city in Italian Switzerland, we had to cross straight through the Swiss alps. We drove up and down massive mountains in Christina's little Volkswagen, but we made it just fine. The are tons of picturesque Swiss towns like you would imagine in the Alps, complete with cows on the side of the road with bells around their necks! The Alps even had snow still on many of the mountains, and of course we stopped so I could touch a bit of snow in July. After many ups and downs (literally), we finally made it to Lugano.

Lugano is situated on a lake in the middle of the mountains, and it looks much like what you would imagine Lake Como in Italy to be like. There are Italian signs and buildings, and it's amazing that you're in the same country as uber German Zurich just 3 hours away. Lugano is all about sailing and sitting down to eat Italian style food. After walking the city promenade around the lake, we sat down for a long pizza dinner and of course got amazing gelato for dessert nearby. There was also a Harley Davidson festival going on, which was odd seeing Swiss Germans in biker garb.

After relaxing in Lugano, we headed home to Zurich via highway instead of Alps, which cut the trip down by an hour and several thousand feet of altitude. We also passed through the St. Gotthard tunnel, which goes under the Swiss Alps and is the third longest tunnel in the world (16 km).  Soon, Switzerland will open the world's longest tunnel in 2016 at 57 km, longer than the Chunnel between France and England. We must have gone through a hundred tunnels today on our way down, as everything is super mountainous.

That's all on Switzerland for now. Looking forward to seeing French Switzerland tomorrow on my last full day before heading down to Florence, Italy, to visit my cousin Joe and his family. Ciao!

The Most Expensive City on Earth

Ok, so the title may be an exaggeration, but Zurich, Switzerland, consistently ranks among the top 10 most expensive cities in the world. I was excited to be going to Switzerland, where the Swiss Franc is trading for less than the US Dollar. After months of dealing with the expensive euro, I would finally be on the right side of the exchange rates. FALSE. See later for details.


The train ride from Milan to Zurich went through the Swiss Alps, including the beautiful resort town of Lake Lugano. The views were spectacular, and Switzerland's countryside is all that you would imagine it would be. Upon my arrival in Zurich late Friday night, my friend Drew from Georgetown greeted me at the train station. Drew's family lives in Zurich, so he graciously offered to take me around the city while I was there. It was great to have a tour guide and someone to travel with (for the first time since I returned to Europe)! After checking into my hostel (the most expensive and nicest one by far that I've stayed at in Europe), we headed out to explore Zurich nightlife. The Niederdorf is a alleyway where most of Zurich's bars and clubs are, and that is where we spent the night out. Drinking in Europe is expensive, but it is unimaginable in Switzerland. For 3-4 drinks for each of us during the night, we spent at least 100 francs, if not more!


After resting up, we started our tour of the city on Saturday morning. Drew has become his family's unofficial tour guide for when friends and family visit them in Zurich, so I got tons of great information and saw lots of sights. Zurich is not a very large city, but it certainly is beautiful. The city is situated on Lake Zurich and the Limmat River runs through the center of town. On almost every street, the Swiss flag (which is square not rectangular) and the Zurich Canton flag hang between the buildings, proving how proud the Swiss are of their country and their region within it. Zurich is in the north of Switzerland, thus they speak German for the most part. English and French are widely spoken, and almost any person can speak any of the three languages on command.


We visited a series of famous old churches in the city. The Grossmünster is the largest and most famous, and legend has it that Charlemagne himself built it. A quick climb up the several hundred stairs to the top, and there are spectacular views of the city, lake, and the Alps in the distance. Fraumünster is nearby and famous for its stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall.


The weather was PERFECT in Zurich on Saturday, hot and sunny, which is not always the normal for northern Switzerland in the summer. Citizens and tourists alike were out in droves on the lake to sunbathe and boat. It seems like everyone has a sailboat...or yacht. We had lunch at a cool little Mexican restaurant...which was 80 francs for two people!! Next we walked the Bahnhofstrasse, the main shopping street in the city just near the train station. A coffee break at Starbucks, ever popular in Europe, with the bill totaling 16 francs for two drinks!


Later we walked around the park behind the National Museum before Drew went to the countryside to visit with his family. I grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Burger King in the train station before my train...and a fast food meal cost....a whopping 16 francs! The equivalent of $15-16 is what it takes just to get a crappy burger, fries, and drink in Switzerland. Unreal. I loved the city of Zurich, and I would love to return to see more parts of this beautiful and posh country. Germany in the next post!