+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Switzerland 2022 | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Table of Contents Lucerne [1.0] April 23, 2022 [1.1] Bern [2.0] April 24, 2022 [2.1] April 28, 2022 [2.2] Lausanne [3.0] April 24, 2022 [3.1] Basel [4.0] April 25, 2022 [4.1] St. Gallen [5.0] April 26, 2022 [5.1] Zurich [6.0] April 26, 2022 [6.1] April 29, 2022 [6.2] Radan [7.0] April 27, 2022 [7.1] Zermatt [8.0] April 27, 2022 [8.1] Lauterbrunnen [9.0] April 28, 2022 [9.1] [1.0] Lucerne ________________________________________________________________________________ [1.1] April 23, 2022 Insanely dense day. Flight got delayed because of a medical emergency and then sat next to an American expat living in Belgium who has been an opera singer for the past 25 years. Gotta listen to some Puccini. Reached Zurich, getting Wifi at the airport was a journey, but I did it. Then took the TRAIN to Lucerne.Train was quite nice. Significantly faster than my Amtrak trip and it was clean and did the job. Reached Lucerne and was able to store my luggage in a locker??
Amazing. Spent 6 hours walking in meandering circles around Lucerne. There's definitely a clear delineation between the tourist section and the actual city. But regardless of where you are, lots of access to pedestrian walkways and some nice biking paths. River was beautiful!
Then spent some time walking around the non-touristy areas.
Had a delicious falafel roll in some random restaurant I came across. Then sat on the shore of Lake Lucerne for a while. One thing I noticed is the crazy number of trash cans in public spaces. I later realized that they are used to heavily segment recycling into different types! Amazing!
Saw some crazy art.
Then walked up to this museum I had seen in the distance and came across the CUTEST highland cows. Definitely the highlight of the day.
Got a hot chocolate to enjoy on the riverbank, and I got 2 CHF in change but it was in coins! I love the idea of being able to pay for actual things with just coins. So cool. Went back to the station and found out that typically you are supposed to pay for the privelege of using the restroom in the station? For some reason it was free this time, but good to know in the future.
Got the 6:30 train to Basel and reached the hotel by 8ish! Crazy day, I feel dead. BUT my new insoles certainly helped my feet, not nearly as achy as I would expect them to be. Fan-tast-ic. [2.0] Bern ________________________________________________________________________________ [2.1] April 24, 2022 Started the day by visiting BERN. And o boy, what a beautiful city. I walked around the old town for a bit, and then took a long stroll along the river. Particularly impressed by the riverside infrastructure (reminiscent of Chicago) and the overall beauty and feel of the city.
Found the University of Bern's botanical garden and it is quite magnificent. If you visit please remember to go inside the greenhouse containing tropical plants. The humidity has rusted the inside, and it feels otherworldly. My glasses kept fogging up, so I had to see by taking photos of the area.
Then, I walked to the University of Basel's main campus. It's a pretty lovely place, and if the library had been open I would have loved to see it. Really appreciated (1) the open areas of the campus and (2) the proximity to public transit. You literally take an elevator up from the train station to the main campus which is just sooo cool.
Then decided to go to Lausanne! [2.2] April 28, 2022 Went BACK to Bern today. Still had more on the list of things Laurent gave me to do. Walked to Rosengarten per his advice. Oof very beautiful view of the city.
Met up with my main man Einstein.
Then actually went to the Rose Garden section. Aggressively nice.
I've decided that I think the reason people are attracted to flowing water (ocea n waves, fountains) is at least partially due to the noise it produces. I think if it's loud enough it can drown out the inside voice in our heads and help impart some degree of meditative thinking. Got me thinking if there's an optimal waterwork that produces the maximum amount of sound with the minimal amount of water. Then took the bus to the Paul Klee museum! I was planning on going to Altes Tram depot after Rosengarten, but it looked super busy and I remembered I don't actually like beer that much. Museum was pretty cool, they only had two exhibits I could find? The first was Gabrielle Munster, I wasn 't a huge fan of most of her works, but she did have a couple small highly contrasted wood panels which were fairly pretty.
Then went downstairs to the namesake of the Museum, Paul Klee's exhibit. Really liked his stuff, his early sketches in particular are super distinctive. But he also had some paintings and dolls that he made which were just wild. Seemed like a very cool dude.
Took the bus back to the train station and was originally going to hike Mt. Niesen (again per Laurent); however, information I found online told me it was both closed and a 1 and a half hour train ride away. Called an audible and instead took the train to Lauterbussen! Before I went, I got a `hot dog'-esque thing and a Rivella soda from the grocery store in the train station. The hot dog was a sausage encased in a croissant-type pastry and the Rivella soda was something I saw a bunch of Swiss drinking. It was lemony? I don't know why it doesn't exist in America but it tasted quite nice. I enjoyed both at the plaza in front of the University of Bern! [3.0] Lausanne ________________________________________________________________________________ [3.1] April 24, 2022 To be fair, I didn't actually end up going to Lausanne. I actually went to Zurich, and caught the same train going the other way to Lausanne. Fun fact, two trains can have the same number but be going opposite ways! The SBB app actually does tell you the station number of the train you're supposed to catch so I recommend looking at it! In any event, I eventually got to Lausanne. It's right on the shore of Lake Geneva, but I like it better because it doesn't have the pretension of Geneva. First walked around the city, and came across another beautiful community garden. High praise to the Swiss and their dedication to gardening well.
Then walked down to the lakefront and walked along the pier. Saw the alps clearly for the first time in my trip! Amazing. Also went to my first Swiss grocery store. Found it was p much the same as American ones. BUT this one did have their eggs unrefrigerated.
Finally got dinner at a kebab place next to the train station. At one point, this old lady came in and got a glass of wine while the owners made her takeout. Just incredibly cool. Took 3 trains to get back to Basel, but I did it! [4.0] Basel ________________________________________________________________________________ [4.1] April 25, 2022 Today was mainly completing my DAC. I was annoyed at first, but then Shandu reminded me that very few people could say they completed their first DAC report while in Switzerland so that made me feel better. I first went to the Fondation Beyeler, an art museum in northern Basel that Laurent recommended. Found it to be very nice, ironically their main exhibit of the season was on Georgia O'Keefe, an American artist. I had seen some of the paintings before, but it was interesting to see them framed through the European perspective.
I also had recently attended a talk on the structure of art museums, so I tried to pay special attention to the physical layout of the museum itself. I think I agree with the main conclusion of the talk that the physical layout of the museum plays a significant role in how people interact with it.
After that, walked to the church in old town and attempted to go up! But they told me they only allow groups of two or more into the tower, so I had to settle for just walking around the outside and inside fresco.
Then walked to Basel University and used a public toilet! This one was cool because it auto-cleaned the entire inside after people use it! Incredibly useful.
Worked on my DAC report inside Basel University's public library for a while. Really enjoyed the library, they had a lovely cafe and nice view of the city. Wish I got to see more of it. Then headed back to the hotel to have a meeting with Michael and send my completed DAC report to my committee. Afterwards, the pops and I went to get dinner together. Took a tram for 30 minutes to get to this random restaurant where we attempted to order fondue. Apparently cheese fondue is only served in the winters so we were instead served raw meat to be cooked in a hot oil broth. Was very good, but still unexpected. A gOOD day. [5.0] St. Gallen ________________________________________________________________________________ [5.1] April 26, 2022 Began the day by stopping at a grocery store takeaway to get a schnitzel with so me sort of cheese on it. One thing I really like about Switzerland is how accepted it is to go into a grocery store, get a quick meal or sandwich and then enjoy it outside somewhere. All the grocery stores I went to would facilitate this by having a section for quick meals and pastries. Anyway, a schnitzel is apparently just a pretzel. Mine was just stupidly salty. I then took the train to St. Gallen to visit the Abbey and its library, which is a UNESCO heritage site! Amazingly pretty place!
Abbey was cool, library was beautiful. I wanted to take a picture of it, but the abbey did not allow it so look it up. They had an exhibition on one monk at the abbey. It was wild, the only way they can a nalyze people is through small differences in the translation and annotations of different texts. Very different from research I'm used to, but still nifty! This abbey was somewhat unique in that they were adamant about only keeping prim ary sources for their documents instead of reproducing the content in more manageable books like other abbeys. Probably not the smartest decision back then, but now it makes them unique as a source of primary documents. I then got a CURRY bratwurst from some place near St. Gallen, and in the Swiss tradition, I had it outside the abbey which was q nice. Also, I didn't appreciate this before but I think the only difference between a bratwurst and a hot dog is that they cut up the bratwurst and give it to you in a bowl with a hunk of bread. Call me an ignorant American, but the hot dog method seems much more sensible. I washed it down with holy water? It tasted divine.
Stopped at a large supermarket near the station to look around. Most interesting feature was a machine that makes fresh orange juice. I was too nervous to operate it, but it looked refreshing.
Walked around a bit more, but it didn't feel like there was much more to do in St. Gallen. So I took the train to Zurich! [6.0] Zurich ________________________________________________________________________________ [6.1] April 26, 2022 Walked around for ~2 hours. Definitely felt like an intentionally international, businessy place. Lots of companies and English signs for restaurants and stuff. Walked to the river and stopped at a ga s station to get a beer. I normally don't like beer that much, but this one had a cow on it so I was impressed. Then I took the beer and publicly enjoyed it on the riverside??? Publicly consuming alcohol is quite a thrill.
There was a pretty cool skatepark behind me and some beautiful graffiti. Really enjoyed the space and how secluded it was from the main part of the city. Wish this type of location was more easily accessible in the States.
Took a very cool pedestrian bridge over the tracks to get back to the train station? Amazing.
[6.2] April 29, 2022 LAST DAY. Got up and headed to Zurich for the day. Dropped my suitcase off and w ent to the Landesmuseum near the train station. They had this insane permanent exhibit on the first floor on reas ons why Switzerland is great. Interesting to hear another state besides America toot their own horn as much as they did. Then they had this amazing temporary exhibit on forests.
The beginning was a bit boring, but then they got to activism in the 2nd half and it became PRETTY cool. They also had a bunch of artifacts from Switzerland's history in the other section of the museum. I didn't have time to really explore it, but I did come across this globe again.
So this globe is the original one, but the copy is currently deposited in St. Gallen's Abbey. Before Switzerland's unification, Zurich invaded St. Gallen and took this globe as one of its spoils from the war. They refused to give it back after unification and it eventually was settled in court in 2011. The settlement was that Zurich could keep the original, but had to commission a perfect replica for St. Gallen to display in its original home in the Abbey. Kind of insane it only got resolved in 2011, and quite funny that the replica in St. Gallen is not allowed to be photographed and is held in a special place and in Zurich it's just plopped outside a big room. Finished the museum trip with a coffee and pastry outside and then left for HOME. A fun trip. Still digesting, but I think it's got me thinking. [7.0] Radan ________________________________________________________________________________ [7.1] April 27, 2022 Weather was very nice, so I made this a hiking day! Took the train to Radan which is one stop before the much more famous Zermatt. View from the train was OOF. As an aside, there's a stop before Radan for a town called St. Niklaus. It wasn't until I saw that name that I realized St. Niklaus --> Saint Niklaus --> SaintNi Klaus --> Santa Claus. I can just imagine some poor German feller trying to say St. Niklaus and getting misheard by an Englishman.
Hiked up to the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge which is the tallest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world! It's a circle so you have a choice to go left or right, I chose left and would recommend that path. It's steeper, but then when you eventually come to the bridge it appears before you suddenly which makes it very dramatic.
Only came across 4 other groups on the hike, and all were Swiss natives! So I felt secure in my decision to do the less common hike. As I passed one family, the grandfather started speaking to me in German and when I replied I don't speak German he said to me in a playful and booming Swiss German accent: "In the mountains, we say hello!" I profusely apologized and said hello to every other hiker from that point. Good to know!
Walked back down to the train station and on the way was dismayed to realize that the base of one of the mountains was now a productive mine. It was a useful reminder that looks are deceiving and the untamed virgin wilderness of yore is well and truly dead.
[8.0] Zermatt ________________________________________________________________________________ [8.1] April 27, 2022 Took the train to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn! It's immediately apparent why i t's so iconic to Switzerland, it's a fairly pretentious and flamboyant rock. Walked around Zermatt for a bit, and it's a cute place if a little aggressive in its touristyness. Saw some division of the Swiss Army perform a couple songs?? No one explained what was happening but they did a good job.
Then took the tram up the mountain to get a better view. Again stopped at the before the main location and was rewarded by a more open place to hike around. Ate a pear at a bench looking out on the Matterhorn. Fed the pear core to two friendly birds who kept flying around me. Hope I didn't introduce an invasive species, but I doubt pear trees can grow successfully in that climate.
Then hiked up the snow to this church and got some pretty nice photos.
Took another tram to get to the top location. Fairly similar views of the Matterhorn side, but did manage to see some more of the glacier in the back! Ya just gotta love glaciers.
Went down the mountain, and to a McDonald's. Got to order without any human inte raction AND got a McPlant burger. Tasted just like chicken, but it was a McDonald's burger so all they had on it was a slice of plastic cheese. Would have been more sad but they had paprika sauce on it so sli ghtly better.
[8.0] Lauterbrunnen ________________________________________________________________________________ [8.1] April 28, 2022 Originally I was planning on going to Trummelbach Falls, but I realized that by the time I got there I would be unable to visit them before they closed :(. Definitely disappointing because they do look amazing. Instead, I took a cable car and train to Murren, and then hiked from th ere back to the cable car stop at Grutschalp. If you're doing this hike, I'd recommend doing the opposite so hike from Grutschalp to Murren and take the train back. Both were very impressive, but the Grutschalp-Murren direction is towards the mountains so you're able to see more of them.
Murren was slighly surreal to walk around in. I think the town is mainly used for winter sports so by the time I was there all the stores were closed and the only people in the to wn felt like the other tourists I took the train with. One should also note that the 'car-free' nature of Swiss towns only applies to pedestrian cars. Both here and in Zermatt there were plenty of vehicles traveling on the roads but they were all dedicated to construction materials.
Jungfrau and the mountains were quite beautiful! I then started the 2 hour train ride to Basel. I was originally hoping to have a gigantic meal on the train, but unfortunately I was told that the train didn't have any food left. Very sad, I settled for a beer which was honestly pretty good, and I got to see the sunset!
Luckily, I was able to acquire and then single-handedly devour a Turkish lamb 'pide' from a restaurant near my hotel in Basel.
Arya Kaul (C) now - forever