Zurich

Kiwi and I travelled by ourselves (my first time navigating the confusing train system without der Junge! aah!) from our town via train and 2 transfers and 5 hours later we finally arrived in Zurich. Where we met up with these two strapping young Alpine men...

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Pretty cute...  but they should practice their yodeling technique to make the look complete... maybe they can get the instruction booklet from Taylor Ware (as seen on America's Got Talent 2006)... 

she's really good!

and another one, I can't resist...! 

This is Oesch's die Dritten, a popular folk singing group (they are actually a family, Hansueli and Anne Marie Oesch, their children Melanie, Kevin and Mike and accordionist Urs Meier) from Switzerland

ok so now to Zurich-> we had a short walk from the train to our hotel which turned out to be a pretty awesome place...

Since we were three plus a dog, we booked an apartment suite.  It was on the top floor of a small 13-room hotel building in the historic center of Zurich, built in 1450 and renovated in 2007.  We had a large balcony, an open space little kitchen and living room and bed on the main floor, plus a little fireplace.  Der Junge's friend slept in the loft bed on the 2nd level.  It had fully opening windows on three sides, plus three sets of doors leading out to the spacious balcony.  It was so cute and a perfect set-up.  I wanted to move in permanently!

Unser Bett mit Hund

plus the hotel left us these delicious Swiss cookies

an example of you are what you eat...

and after unloading our luggage, we set off to explore Zurich...

happy to be free of lederhosen

Zurich view from river

and again!

We toured the Swiss National Museum:

Swiss National Museum

interior courtyard 

Lindenhof Square:

view across the river Limmat towards the old town 

Grossmünster:

Grossmünster

view from top of the church tower

Fraumünster abbey:

and then we took a train and a short hike up to the peak of the Uetliberg mountain to see a stunning panoramic view of the entire city of Zurich and the Lake of Zurich.

I couldn't resist getting a shot of this couple posing for their wedding pictures here,
it was so beautiful and romantic!

Then the next day, a walk on the famous Bahnhofstrasse shopping street:

Bahnhofstrasse and view of Hauptbahnhof (train station) 

Swiss chocolate!

mmmm...

too cool for chocolate (my waiting entourage)

then Kiwi and I parted ways with der Junge und freund and made our way back home while they went on to Munich... Auf Wiedersehen! Der Junge's post to follow