LET THE SUN SHINE!!

So the sun is finally shining on our cold EuroWorld here. We've had so many lovely days now -- I'm in heaven. The Swiss kept telling us that this was an anamalous winter, but I don't know that we quite believed them... Of course, now we hear that it's too warm and sunny for the norm too, oh my. And the clouds, where have the clouds gone??

It's been such a revelation seeing our world in color again; Baden looks quite new and Zurich is just fabulous! So as the sun shines, Rand agreed to venture back into the city again and here we are. The Sunday before Easter we just wandered along Zurichsee (the large lake where Zurich sits) for a little essen und trinken. The water is of course filled with sailboats and yachts; what's the good of all that international banking money if you can't get out on the water? And yes, that is a palm tree where we were having our afternoon drink, at Acqua (http://www.acqua.ch/outdoor.htm). The tables were set up on the rooftop and also on the dock outside. We went up to the rooftop (of course!) and watched the water with sunglasses on. We would see the occasional muscleman paddling a kayak, looking just clumsy as anything because he could barely twist his arm muscles around his shoulder socket. He went fast -- how German! Or then there was a couple in a little row boat about to ram into a stationary sailboat. Since he was paddling, we figured we knew what he was saying and what she was saying. Can't you just hear it?

So when I found this place my first thought was, "Oh, good, we can go here on sunny afternoons now like we went to Top of the Hill at home." Tee hee hee. See the first little picture on the left? This was our view on the side of the building looking away from the city. I thought it looked so Mediterranean. Weird, and lovely.

Funny thing, we ordered two beers and when the waiter told us the cost, we both heard "50 Franks". This stunned us a both a moment until I asked him to repeat that. Oh, fif-teen Franks, well, that's a little better, we're now down to nearly $13 instead of $43! For, did I mention, all of two bottled beers? When the wait understood our confusion, he laughed and said, "Well, this IS Zurich after all."

I was carrying around a pocketful of change (Rand never uses it, so yeah, extra money for me!) and as we walked back around the lake toward the city center, I carefully counted out ten more Franks and got Rand to agree to ride the huge ferris wheel there where the city center runs into the lake. I can't remember the last time I was on one, but I won't forget this one very soon. Not exactly a cornfield for a view. Oh wait, no, that's the Grossmunster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grossm%C3%BCnster).

Our last stop was to have an ice cream and sit on a bench overlooking the lake. And it was a really good ice cream too, orange filling covered with dark chocolate. Yum!

When we're ready to leave, we have the option of walking back to the main train station (the Hauptbahnhof), which takes maybe 20 minutes, or to catch one of the many many trams that run all over the place. This time we opted for a quick tram ride back to the station and just caught the fast train back to Baden. Now that's a good day.