Guten tag!

So, here we are in Zurich.

It was a long day of travel. The woman in front of me on the plane was reclined, all the way, basically 98% of the flight, there was some pretty wicked turbulence which practically gave me a panic attack, I had planned on getting up and stretching my legs a number of times but after the turbulence, well, that just wasn't happening. I didn't get any real sleep as best I can tell, until we at down on the second plane and proceeded to get our takeoff delayed. I don't know why it is, but for some reason I always get fantastic pre-takeoff plane sleep. I'm always shocked when I wake back up and we're still on the ground. Our second flight (from Frankfurt to Zurich) turned out to only be about a half an hour. We took the train into the city and got to our hotel around the same time we had been taking off the day before (of course this wasn't really 24 hours, only 15).

Our hotel is clean and simple, quiet, and has a friendly staff. We unpacked and freshened up, knowing if we laid down at all we'd fall asleep and it was a bit too early for that, we headed out for some dinner. CF (Classy Fellow) quickly realized he was not wearing nearly enough clothing for the near freezing temperature, he added a sweater but I think he was still too chilly to put up with too much exploring. Somehow our first night in a new city never goes well. The city was very quiet and seemed fairly empty. It was about 8pm, we started to wonder if dinner places closed early on Sundays. We found a few options but got turned off by the prices, I think that's going to happen a lot this week! And then we happened to come back past the train station and finally settled on a place we had seen while walking with our bags earlier. Tidbits turned out to be just that. A vegetarian buffet of this and that and you pay by the weight. Everything we tried (which included an onion ring and falafel or two) was pretty darn good. We didn't want to eat much, we mostly just needed to get some food in our bellies and go to sleep. We came back, had some much needed post-plane showers, and fell into our comfy bed (Or beds really, it's two little beds pushed together!) and got some fantastic sleep.

But it only lasted so long. We were both wide awake at 4am. We tried to will ourselves back to sleep but it didn't really happen. CF got up at one point and got his iPod, and then proceeded to finger drum softly to himself... not realizing just how audible this fidgeting was. Around 5:30 we finally gave in and got out of bed. We managed to make getting ready take the hour and a half we had until breakfast was served, the GoogleTalk chatting with friends and family back home helped with that. Breakfast was just was the doctor ordered! They made us some very good coffee complete with a little pitcher of steamed milk for each of us. There was fruit salad, delicious breads and cheeses... and wait for it... you know my favorite part of breakfast in Europe: Nutella! Feeling human again we were suddenly excited to go out and see the sunrise. Well, we didn't really get to see the sunrise, but we were out by the lake as the light crept into the city. I walked CF to his tram stop, he bought himself a day-pass and I kissed him goodbye and set off on my walk.

I decided that since I was already out and about I'd just wander for a while without going back up for a guidebook or to look at the recommendations we had links to on the computer. For the morning I'd just see what I could see. I walked for about two and a half hours out in cold before finally giving in and coming back up for a break and to warm up a bit. I can't believe it's still before noon! So right now I'm going to look at the guidebook and get back out there for some lunch and to find my CF a nice warm scarf. I'll upload photos and tell you about the most wonderful little cookies in the world a bit later.

Oh and by the way, I can't read German to save my life! It was so much easier to get by in Italy. So lunch is going to be an adventure!