More from Zurich, a trip to Lucerne

Zug, Switzerland - Wow. We've had a busy couple of days. Here's a brief recounting of recent things of interest:

Susan

Susan is the mother of Hannah's coworker, Isabel. Susan is delightful and effervescent. We met her at a Lebanese restaurant called Le Cedre in Zurich's Altstadt (Old City) neighborhood. Susan tossed aside the menu and casually ordered her favorites, which was practically the entire menu - hummus, baba ganoush, muhammara, fried egglplant with yogurt, fattoush,falafel, spiced chicken, and a lamb dish. Throughout the meal, Susan regaled us with her life in Switzerland and many travels around the world. Susan grew up and went to college in the states, moving to Switzerland as a young adult, so she has some idea of what it's like to adapt to European culture. We took home leftovers.

Then Susan took us to a Globus - a large department store with an excellent grocery store. Susan walked Hannah through the various flours and sugars and other baking ingredients that are available in Switzerland, what they're called in German, and how to use them.

Finally, Susan walked us through a bustling part of to the Altstadt on the way to the Grossmunster, where we parted ways. This area had lots of retail stores, bars and restaurants, and Susan would occasionally hustle us into one or the other to show us some favorite or unique spot. Kronenhalle Bar looks like a fun (and expensive) blast from the past.

All-in-all, Susan was a pretty excellent tour guide.

New Game

Hannah and I created a new game. It's called: Find the Litter. The object is to find a piece of litter bigger than your index finger (i.e., cigarette butts don't count). This game is very hard. The score is currently: Mike (1), Hannah (1), Switzerland (1 x 10^1,000).

Lucerne

Lucerne is about 30 minutes southwest of Zug by train. It's Switzerland's seventh largest city with about 80,000 people. While it's not very big, it is very pretty. Lucerne hugs both banks of the Reuss river, an outlet for beautiful Lake Lucerne.

There are several walking bridges crossing the river, the most famous of which is probably the Chapel bridge, a covered wooden bridge that - in one form of another - dates back many centuries. Most of the bridge burned in 1993, but the remade bridge looks like it could be centuries old, what with the moss growing over the roof tiles and the unevenly cut wood. I'm sure most tourists don't know the difference. It's like the tourist version of shabby-chic.

The city on the Southern bank has a wide flat expanse and is probably where most of the functional stuff happens. The train station, university, and expo center are here. However, Hannah and I spent most of our time on the northern bank, where the city rapidly rises up from the low banks of the river into the hills overlooking to the valley and lake. We started at the Rathaus (not that kind of rat). This was the townhall back in the day and now it's a restaurant and brewery. We ordered sausages and beer. It was good.

Next we walked up the hill to the old city walls, which consist of pristine towers and stone walls that once kept foreigners out but now serves as one of several attractions to bring them in. At certain times of year you can enter some of the towers and walk along the wall, but these were closed when we arrived. Nonetheless, the view from up here over Lake Lucerne is stunning and I highly recommend it.

Next we visited the Lion Monument, which is a rock relief of a dying lion. It's dedicated in memory of the Swiss Guards who died defending Louis XVI as mercenaries. At the time, Switzerland engaged in the very profitable practice of hiring out their men as mercenaries - sometimes to both opposing sides of the same war. The massacre of these soldiers defending Louis XVI was among the last times Switzerland would engage in this practice.

Finally, we walked around the Old Town of Lucerne on the northern bank. Lucerne is particularly famous for its murals, which adorn the walls of many of its historic buildings (photos below).

Apartment Hunting

We recently started working with a broker to find more long-term digs in Zurich. After a couple of visits to the city, H and I settled on Seefeld and District 1 as places we'd like to live. They're close to the main train station, so transportation is good. They have charming neighborhoods with cafes and coffee shops that H can work out of from time to time. For me, they're close to the lake and so its easy to get in a nice run in the morning.

Apparently, we're not the only ones who spotted these attributes. Our broker commented, "I can see that you are choosing to live in the very nice areas in Zurich."

Germanic Cuisine

After spending a week in Switzerland, H and I now believe that a key motivation guiding much of German cuisine is finding ways to make potatoes interesting, principally with fat. Potato salad is potatoes with gobs of mayonnaise, Raclette is potatoes with gobs of cheese, etc.

Zurich's District 1, near an apartment we saw online