German – French – English

It’s tough getting by in Zurich. Actually, can I rephrase that? It’s quite easy because you never know what language someone is going to use. So I just stick to English which seems pretty universal. It’s quite fortunate that beer sounds the same no matter what language you use (luckily there’s no obvious Spanish speakers).

Our hotel is in a great spot for wandering from and wander we did this morning. After a massive breakfast – I had the William Tell breakfast which is basically a big plate full of shredded then fried potato with two eggs and two bits of bacon resting on top. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious but just a bit too much potato for the beginning of the day. Mirinda was much smarter and had the healthy option of cereal and fruit. Not sure why these places can’t just do toast and Vegemite.

So completely fortified (or stuffed, which is how I felt) we set off from the hotel, striding down Stampfenbachstrasse towards the river. Then Mirinda had a little ‘umm’ and a little ‘ahh’ and decided she should have brought her fleece with her. I was sent back for it. Back UP the hill. Then back down Stampfenbachstrasse.

I do like the name of this street but can’t help but wonder what drunks do if they need to get back to it and have to ask directions or answer a police officer. The German language never ceases to amaze me. Rather than make up new ones, they just keep sticking bits on the end of each existing word.

Zurich is on a river which flows not far from Stampfenbachstrasse. The river Limmat flows into (or out of) Lake Zurich and has to be one of the cleanest rivers I’ve ever seen. Amazingly, you can see the bottom from anywhere along it. This is a shot of the river taken from the tower at the Grossmunster and you can see the bottom!

In fact, it was so clean that we could see a bicycle lying on the bottom. And it continued on into the lake. This was also very clean. I think it must be the Swiss thing for perfection. I quite like it. The water looked like you could drink it.

Speaking of water, I forgot to talk about the shower in our room. It’s excellent and so nice to have soft water again – I was a bit spoiled in Australia. The heat and pressure are both excellent and it’s all very easy to use. Shame…I do like to have a good moan about the bathrooms but just not possible here.

One thing that had completely escaped us was that today was May day and something we didn’t know anything about at all was the annual May day march through Zurich. This was rather fortunate because these things have been known to kick off in the past and it may have deterred us somewhat from joining in with the festivities.

It wasn’t until we crossed the river that we spotted the riot police and water cannon waiting for any eruptions or ructions from the crowd. Apart from lots of yelling about international solidarity and a hearty version of the Internationale a bit later, it went off very well and the riot police were not required.

We wanted to go for a ferry ride around the lake but rather than plough through the slowly gathering crowds of marchers (the end of the march was at the quay) we decided to set up camp at a nearby beer garden. And what a wonderful piece of serendipity it was.

We sat for a good hour, enjoying a couple of beers and a pretzel – just like the pretzels I had in Munich – and salad and chicken for lunch and were royally entertained by the Bauchnuschti Stompers. They were excellent and here’s a little taste of them playing Always. We were quite close so it’s a bit loud.

The drummer was a cheery chap who would pop up for a swig of wine between songs. He announced at one stage that they were playing a particular song in honour of the fact that Nicco Cunningham from New Orleans was in the audience. I have no idea who this was as no-one seemed to indicate any sort of recognition. Still, it was very good.

We then ended up at the quay, amazed that the stage had gone, the demonstrators had all disappeared and the riot police gone home. You would never have known anything had been going on and yet only an hour before there was a crowd of thousands with flags and speeches and megaphones. Very Swiss for all trace to be removed within moments of the end. There wasn’t even any rubbish!

Good for us though as we managed to buy a ticket for the short round trip around Lake Zurich. It was all very lovely – we even caught a glimpse of snow capped mountains when the clouds cleared for a bit. It did rain for a while – big, splashy drops that chased us inside for a coffee/tea – but it didn’t spoil anything. In fact, Mirinda sat on a wet chair just so we’d have somewhere dry to sit. Here’s our ferry:

We then wandered up to the Grossmunster, the famous Zurich cathedral which is awfully bland because this guy called Zwingli decided to get rid of anything that looked lovely (statues, paintings, icons, etc) because God didn’t like it. This was during the reformation when God only liked things that were without colour. So the church is very, very dull inside. However, you climb the tower and the beauty of man is spread out before you.

You might think that Zwingli missed a trick with the towers but, to be fair, they weren’t built until 1786 and he was doing his thing during the 16th century.

If you ask me, Zwingli was a bit dull. If you believe in God and wonder at his creations then surely wanting to decorate a church with scenes depicting God’s wonders would be de rigeur. If you believe in him then you must believe he created all the colours and the rich tapestry of life. I’m not that keen on a church that decides it’s not nice to look at lovely things. To be fair, I’m not the best judge anyway. Moving on, then…

The church was founded by Charlemagne after his horse tripped over a couple of graves. These graves were dedicated to the martyrs Felix and Regula who, having had their heads cut off, carried them to the place where the church eventually was built. Typically weird but wonderful fairy stories as most of these big churches have.

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We did have these wonderful plans to go down into the town for dinner but, after a couple of hours chilling in the hotel (and, it should be admitted, a little snooze) we decided to order room service instead.

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I just heard on the snooker that whispering Ted Lowe died today. Sadly missed and fondly remembered from Pot Black. You were great, Ted.