Zurich

I had a sleepless night last night, waking with leg cramps. I was tired this morning and decided to skip the 4 hour tour. I rested in the room, then Rudy and I took a walk across the street to see the market and cafe. The market closes at 8 PM. Since they are located in an office building, the cafe and take out are only open until 2:00. I was told by the hotel there was a post office in the building but there isn’t. It’s a 4 minute walk away in a different market. I will find it Friday and go Mail a box home-a practice I’ve been doing for years on this kind of trip. Never lost a box and I’m sure the conscientious Swiss won’t lose this one either!

Betty and Verna got back from the tour and we went to have lunch in the cafe across the street. I wanted some ravioli. When I walked up, the man started piling the ravioli in a bowl. I only wanted 3 or 4 and I got a bowl full with red sauce and cheese. It was good but I ate only the 4 I wanted. I hated to throw it away but I couldn’t bring it home. We bought tram tickets from a machine in the lobby and took the tram to the end of the line just to see where it ended. We went along the shore of Lake Zurich for a bit before the tram started back on its way. We got off at the opera house where there was a big market. We walked around the market awhile, then Betty realized she didn’t have her credit card when she went to pay for something. It wasn’t anywhere to be found. So they headed back to the hotel to cancel the card. Turns out she had left it in the tray at lunch. Rudy went to check and they had it. Verna and I walked around a bit more then rode the tram back to hotel. Our reservations for dinner weren’t until 7:30 so we had several hours downtime. It was great but we both were freezing. We ended up under the covers to stay warm. The thermostat didn’t work. We told Rudy when we met them downstairs. He went to someone and told them and they turned it up. I think they just turned up the fan because we can hear it running now.
‘Our reservation was for a fondue dinner in one of the little houses outside the hotel. It was tight quarters inside and a little chilly. There was a heater inside and once the fondue pots got going, it warmed up. We had the classic fondue and a truffle one. They were both delicious. We were given bread,some pickled vegetables and little new potatoes to dip in the cheese. We ordered some wine and were happy campers. It’s a very clever idea to have something like that this time of year. Now we’re back in our somewhat warmer room winding down.
Tomorrow is our first day with nothing planned for early, so we plan to sleep in! Breakfast goes until 10:00 so we’re good. We’ll find more markets tomorrow and see about train tickets to another town for Thursday.

Photos: some photos from the tram, the top picture is of the lake, the Opera House and market. What was nice about this one was that there was lots of seating around for the food and drink booths, of which there were many! There were even some wooden booths which were decorated to look like living rooms for people to sit in.