MY LOOK BACK AT FOUR DAYS IN SWITZERLAND

My time in Switzerland is fast becoming a delightful blur, that I don't want to forget. So here are some quick impressions of a country that I hope to revisit. I arrived on a Wednesday and met my friend and her mom at the train station in Zurich, successfully making my way there on a train from the Zurich Airport.  I waited for them at Cafe Oscar where I had cafe creme and a chocolate croissant near the treffpunkt or meeting point. It seems that there are treffpunks at every train station in Switzerland and Germany. The visual reminder is a sign with four arrows pointing in, which makes it obvious that is the place where one should be. 

We met and all was well. Took the train from Zurich to Zug As per Wikipedia, Zug i.s an affluent municipality and that showed. The weather was perefect and it was a delight The name Zug originates from fishing vocabulary; in the to go for a meal or a dirnk or a coffee in any one of the numerous open air restaurants. The name Zug, I learned comes from a Middle Ages term that refers to the right to pull up fishing nets and hence to the right to fish. And there is plenty of fishing from this lake, which is also in the early summer when I was there, a place where people gathered to talk, to think, to picnic and watch their children play in the park. 

The day after I arrived Deitland and I rode the train throughout Switzerland crossing into a number of different towns and changing trains at different locations. Our aims was to get to the Alps and perhaps take a hike. Our aim was to take a hike at bottom of the moutains and we did get there, But it was wet and damp and not conducive to walking and tramping around, although it was certainly conducive to walking around. 

My take on Switzerland based on my all too brief visit is that it a country with spectacular views and scenery. As I write this from the vantage point of having spent three weeks in Europe, I would say it is the best train system which I have experienced. The trains were clean, sparkling and very easy to manuever in terms of the on and off since there are no steps, but rather a slide out user friendly alternative that easily accomodates the disable, more so than the German and Czech trains I have ridden thus far. 

And everywhere I looked were spectacular views and this time of year, verdant and green like I have never seen elsewhere. Switzerland actually looked like a fairy tale, expect that it isn't make believe; it is real. 

I didn't really pay attention to where we were going that Thursday. On one train, get off at one station, get on at another. Until Dietland said it was time to go home, as it began to grow dark and in theory we were to meet her mother for dinner that night. Fortunately, for me, the GPS on the iPhone lets me know where I was, even when I didn't remember to write it down. 

It rained when we got back -- at least on the train.  But by the time we got to the plaza in Zuk, the rain had stopped. We went to eat fishes, as Dietland called them, a Swiss equivalent of fish and chips with fish caught right in the lake there. A glass of wine and then a walk of a few blocks to get back to the rental we had.

Then to sleep, and the next day another adventure.