Zurich
Zurich is one of the more popular places to visit in
Switzerland, at least more so than Geneva, so we figured we should check it
out. Quick facts about Zurich:
- Biggest city in Switzerland
- German speaking
- Really big banking center
- Also on a lake
When we started looking for stuff to do though, we quickly
realized there’s not a ton that we were super interested in – it’s too cold for
a lot of the outdoor activities, and we’re not crazy about museums. This trip
became largely food-focused, which is always fine with me.
We decided to rent a car and drive there, because 1) it was
cheaper than the train, 2) we’re planning on driving to Italy for New Year’s,
so figured it would be good to practice first with a shorter trip, and 3) we
brought Sam with us on this trip, and he hates the train.
Andy drove, but from what I can tell, driving here isn’t
that different from driving in the US. You drive on the right side of the road,
and the speed limits are roughly the same (although stated in kilometers).
They
do have some street signs that we don’t have in the US – but I’m guessing that
they aren’t that crucial, because we never figured out some of them and did
fine. For example, this one is all over the place, no idea what it means:
A couple observations about gas stations:
- You can’t pay at the pump, you have to go inside to pay.
- Gas is EXPENSIVE.
- Every gas station we saw had a full-blown coffee bar. Nice!
Our Airbnb allowed dogs, so bringing Sam was no big deal and
allowed us to save some money on dog sitting. He enjoyed the scenery on the way
there, then spent most of his weekend sleeping in the apartment.
We arrived pretty late Friday evening, so we just grabbed a
quick dinner and went to bed. We started our day Saturday with breakfast here:
I accidentally ordered a waffle with ice cream on top
(German is hard!), and it was amazing.
Next we did a city tour on a trolley – while it was
informative and a good way to see the city, I don’t think I would necessarily
recommend it, because it was a little long. We spent the rest of the afternoon
shopping, and then had drinks here:
And dinner here:
We LOVED both of these places. The Onyx Bar in the Park
Hyatt has a crazy good cocktail menu – it was a little fancy for our usual
taste, but so fun for a vacation treat.
Josef offers a set menu of 7 small plates that changes every
day – if you’re not a super adventurous eater, this probably sounds terrible,
but Andy and I loved it.
Sunday morning, we started with breakfast here:
And then went to the thermal baths:
The thermal baths have several different packages and ways
to experience it, but we did the “Irish-Roman” circuit, which is comprised of
10 stations – saunas at various temperatures and cool/warm pools at various
temperatures. I loved everything about this, but Andy maintains that I tricked
him into doing it (he was still a very good sport).
Our overall impression of Zurich certainly isn’t bad, but I
don’t know that we would necessarily recommend it as a must-see place. If you
find yourself there, I think the thermal baths are definitely worth trying, and
the restaurant scene is pretty impressive.
Madrid
Madrid, however, is a must-see place. We both agreed that
this was our favorite trip so far, and we’re definitely going to be returning
to Spain in the near future. The food, the culture, the architecture, the
language, the PRICES of everything…we loved it all.
We got in late Friday night, so again grabbed a quick dinner
and went to bed. We started Saturday at the oldest chocolate and churros place
in the city:
SO, so good.
Then we headed to the Prado Museum. Madrid has several relatively
famous art museums, so even though neither of us are huge art people, we
thought a couple museums were worth a visit. If you're interested in
European art and history, this museum houses a lot of work by Velazquez, Goya, and El
Greco. From Wikipedia:
“The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum,
located in central Madrid. It features one of the world's finest collections of
European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on
the former Spanish Royal Collection, and unquestionably the best single
collection of Spanish art. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in
1819, it also contains important collections of other types of works. El Prado
is one of the most visited sites in the world, and is considered one the
greatest museums of art in the world.”
We spent about 2 hours there and very much enjoyed it.
Next we had lunch here:
Delicious and reasonably priced.
We went to the Reina Sofia museum after lunch, and it was…interesting.
This museum is dedicated to modern art and is most well-known for its Dali
collection and housing Picasso’s Guernica.
While we did appreciate seeing these things, the rest of it was definitely
wasted on us. Maybe Andy and I just aren’t sophisticated enough, but we didn’t
really get it. The picture below is an actual painting in this museum:
Soooo yeah. There’s that. We had fun speculating at the meaning of it all, but we were done in about an hour. After the Reina Sofia, we went back to the
Airbnb for a quick siesta before dinner.
Dinner Saturday night was so wonderful and so weird all at
the same time. This is where we went:
Sidenote: People in Spain eat dinner incredibly late. This
is because they eat 6 meals a day, the biggest of which is lunch at around 3
pm, so they aren’t really hungry for dinner until 9 or 10. I made our dinner
reservations for 8:30 pm, which also happened to be the time that the
restaurant opened.
We walked into a completely empty restaurant and were
greeted by the sounds of John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.” Both
immediate red flags for what is expected to be a pretty nice restaurant in Spain, right?
It actually turned out to be one of the best meals we’ve ever had. The chef
came to our table and told us what she was preparing that evening; we had a
choice of 4 starters, 4 entrees, and 4 desserts. We both had duck for our main
course – and when she brought it out, she set our plates in front of us and
proceeded to cut up our meat for us. So that was nice.
More people started coming in around 9:30, and by the time
we left at 10:15 the place was packed. The food was incredible, the service was
wonderful, and I highly recommend this place.
We started our day Sunday with a bike tour. The bike tour we
did in Paris ended up being the highlight of the trip for us, so it seemed like
a good idea to do it again in another major metropolitan European city…except
it wasn’t, for several reasons.
- I’m not the best bike rider. I learned how to ride a bike at a somewhat late age and kind of missed the phase of life where you ride around the neighborhood with your friends. I never got a lot of practice, so I never got super comfortable. Hence, I’m a very nervous bike rider. Specifically, I have trouble (i) transitioning from a stationary state to moving, or (ii) when I have to turn the bike while moving slowly.
- Madrid is not a bike-friendly city. There are very few bike lanes, lots of dense packs of pedestrians, and it’s somewhat hilly.
- It was pretty cold that day. Not unbearable for walking around, but our hands were freezing holding onto the handle bars without any gloves.
Our tour guide was great, but the overall experience was
pretty stressful for me. We had to frequently stop at cross walks and
stoplights, and at one point (while pedaling slowly and trying to turn
simultaneously) I ran into a parked car. I may or may not have cried a little.
After 3 hours of bike riding, we were starving and found the
perfect place for lunch:
The Mercado de San Miguel is FILLED with stalls, where
entrepreneurs sell their individual fare of all kinds – oysters, paella, tapas,
pastries…and so many wine and vermouth choices as well. Very cool concept!
We spent the rest of the afternoon just roaming around the
city. For dinner Sunday evening, we did this food tour:
This was our favorite part of the weekend – it was the
perfect way to try several different types of Spanish food and wine, and also
learn a lot of Spanish history. Our tour guide was friendly and knowledgeable,
and the group was small (6 people) so it didn’t necessarily feel like a “tour”.
If you’re in Madrid, definitely do this!
I stayed in Madrid until Wednesday for work, but before Andy
had to fly back that Monday evening, we saw the Palacio Real and walked around
Retiro Park. Both are beautiful and a nice way to spend an hour or two roaming
around.
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| Ceiling inside the Palacio Real |
Thanksgiving
We took this past weekend off from traveling and hosted a
Thanksgiving meal at our apartment for some of our new friends. I have several
European coworkers who have never had Thanksgiving, and we were also joined by
some American friends who decided to stay in town for the holiday. I spent
Friday evening and all day Saturday cooking, and learned several fun facts
about cooking in Switzerland:
- Turkey as we know it does not exist. All I could find was turkey “escalope”, which is very thinly sliced turkey breast – it’s typically used to make a dish kind of like schnitzel. So I made turkey schnitzel for Thanksgiving.
- Dairy products are reeeeally different. Cream cheese, sour cream, half and half, heavy cream, buttermilk – all of these have vastly different names in French that do not directly translate. I did a lot of Google research to make sure I was using the right ingredients.
- Everything is packaged in grams, and my American recipes are obviously in ounces, cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons. There was quite a bit of math involved.
Since I usually get home from work pretty late, Andy is typically the one
to make dinner for us – and I have a new found appreciation for the hassle he
goes through pretty much every day.
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| Turkey schnitzel and gravy, spinach artichoke casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, cranberry dressing |
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| Andy about to get down on a buttermilk pie |
We had a really nice evening with our friends, talking about
things we are thankful for and teaching our foreign friends about American
football. It was certainly hard to be away from our families, but we enjoyed making the most of it and sharing the traditions with new friends.
