It's been a while, landed in Zurich Tuesday morning with tales to tell already and it's been a glorious adventure in time travel, sound and culture immersion and friendly encounters with new friends and strangers. No internet access without making a point of sitting in a cafe and spending francs on a drink I did not need held me up some as the airports and stations here don't have free wifi like NY did.
I've been walking and taking trains and taking scads of pictures but that will slow down now that school begins tomorrow evening. Having these days to travel and wander ahead of time are going to be a life saver as there will be no days off until I arrive back in the states at the end of this 23 day session. So, hopefully, tomorrow I will catch up with my journal and post some tales here along with some pictures. Otherwise, you could see the whole thing on my Flikr page when I get that uploaded, too. Day 1 is up now.
Arrived in Zurich feeling exhausted, only 3 hours sleep on the flights, crowded, tight, crying children, airplane noise made it supremely difficult for this claustrophobe. I ended up purchasing some noise cancelling headphones at the airport in NY or I'd not slept those 3 even. So alone and not knowing where to go was overwhelming. I just kept putting one foot in front of other and tried not to burst into tears.
Little did I know Niki de Saint Phalle's 'Temperance' was watching over me the whole time. I did not see her until the next day.
And for Tish, good thing I did get that travel umbrella because it rained most of the first day and I'd have been soaked, raincoat or no! Thank you for pushing that point!
Found the information booth and got directions for the bus towards my hotel, later could walk the 10 minutes myself but not that first morning with two bags and one more that was me. No rooms are available until 1pm so I had hours to kill which wearied me even more but was told I could leave my luggage in the lobby and come back at check-in time. That was unnerving, something I'd never do anywhere in the US, especially since they weren't even locked but this is Switzerland, land of the honest and polite! So off I dragged my weary soul to Fraumunster Cathedral where there are 5 stained glass windows done by Marc Chagall. Sorry no pictures allowed.
About 9:30 am Zurich time, I decide I could finally call one of the people I was going to contact and Rahel (we have a mutual friend) and she was home and thrilled at the surprise of hearing from me. It had been planned as a surprise and to my great fortune, she had time to come meet me so half an hour later and just a few blocks away, we met at Sprungli's and everything about the day and my travels changed dramatically for the better! Thank you Mary!
From there everything got better and better but will tell you about that another time. Enjoy!
Fun to read about your adventures! I did not know that there was no picture taking at Fraumunster Cathedral, so I have some if you want! Was that the church that had an oldl room from like year one in the basement? (went down some steps and it was mostly empty) Or was that the "mans" church that had that? I remember singing in it, the acoustics were fabulous. Hope you are loving school and that you are getting your rest. Tell Paolo and Steve Levine that I said hello! Oh, and glad the umbrella paid off! xoxoTish
ReplyDeleteSwitzerland and Sprunglis, such childhood yearnings. . .
ReplyDeleteThe blog is great. Thanks for sharing with us.
Love you, Mary Day and Dennice