Zurich, Day 2

Maggie goes off to work and I go into downtown Zurich again. Maggie graciously agreed to bring my suitcase for Paris with her to work so I wouldn't have to walk around Zurich with it all day. She leaves and 15 minutes later, naturally, I discover I've forgotten my bra. Genius. Good thing there is an H&M right near the train station downtown. Also temporarily forget that, although I've become a "light packer" traveler (two weeks of honeymoon? ONE carry-on suitcase people), my second carry-on bag, always jam packed with books to read, travel books, etc. is NEVER light. I'll never be able to carry this bag around all day long. God bless H&M once again. Go to pay for said bra and bag. Salesperson definitely speaks not one word of English. Her hand gestures suggest my credit card was not accepted. I tell her to swipe again. I feel less like an idiot when her superior comes over and shows her how to manually enter the credit card number. I feel even less like an idiot, simultaneously learning that she's just a moron, when I watch her entering the numbers I know not a single one of them to be numbers of my credit card. I look at the card in her hand and NO JOKE, she's reading them upside down. Numbers are universal my friends..... what did she THINK she was reading? There are 7's and 5's in my card number..... I grab it out of her hand and turn it around and show her. Voila! Card accepted. Half ton bag on each shoulder instead of one ton bag on one, and the girls are in place. Great success!

Lunch at a cute little coffee shop, where I get basically a super thin crust pizza. The name slips my mind now, but it was very good. Bill comes and I fork over the credit card. No no! Credit cards only about 50 francs! Do my ears deceive me? The franc and dollar exchange basically 1 for 1. Can you imagine a $50 limit at a coffee shop in the U.S.? Neither could I. PLUS my bill was $24.90, so there was no way I could order more coffee enough to bring it up to $50. Worse, I had EXACTLY $23.90 left in francs AND this was my last day in Switzerland. In steps Mr. Euro. Not, not some handsome Swiss German man that offered to cover my bill. The currency. The accept both. I pay for my coffee in Euros and my pizza in Francs. Crisis averted.

I visit Zurich's two big churches. The first, the Fraumunster, is a benedictine abbey. There are 5 beautiful very primary-colored, stained glass windows by Marc Chagall in the choir of the abbey. The second church is the Grossmunster, a protestant church, with very modern stained glass windows. As Forrest Gump famously said, "that's all I have to say about that." I didn't take pictures of the church, but this is a cute square downtown.
After a glass of champagne in a caviar bar, I met Maggie after work for the train to Paris. Just like she warned me, the train left promptly at 4:27. 4.5 hours, one croque monsieur, a broken door (which just about put Maggie over the edge ;)) and one little bottle of cold pinot noir later, we arrived in Paris at the Gare d'Est. The taxi drive took us right by the pyramid and the Louvre, and we could see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower as we crossed the Seine. We arrived at the hotel and headed out to Le Petit Sommelier for dinner. You better choose quick, they warned, because the kitchen was closing. We ordered a nice bottle of wine however, that the "sommelier" clearly approved of, and all of a sudden, they were in no rush to see us out the door. They even let us stay for dessert (how polite!). We made a toast to the Paris vacation that was finally taking place. C'est arrive!

Zurich

There's a back story. Maggie and I were roommates at BC our sophomore year where we quickly learned that while good friends, we can never ever ever ever ever again live together! That year we were supposed to go to Paris over Spring Break, but Mags got super sick (like hospital stay sick) the day before we were supposed to go. Jump ahead seven or so years to 2010 where Mags tells me that she will be in Zurich working for a number of months. "Come to Europe!" she says, "We can go anywhere you want on the weekend." The word "Europe" generally translates in my little mind to "Tuscany" or "Paris." Given the history, I thought it was time to finally take our sojourn to my favorite city on Earth, Paris! Besides, I thought, there will be know glorified hostels and budget meals this time around. God Bless being a working adult ;)

The plan is for me to fly to Zurich, meet Maggie, and train with her to Paris to spend the weekend.

March 2. Arrive EWR. Security a BREEZE. The airport is EMPTY. Glorious. Even more glorious? There's a legit wine bar in EWR's Terminal C now. Like lots by the glass, flights, and non-disgusting sounding food options. I order a glass of bubbly and begin reading "My Life in France" by Julia Child (appropriate choice, eh?)

Aside...... but Rachel, you say, you gave up weekday drinking for Lent! Bubbly counts, no? Yes, it counts. Yes, that's what I gave up. But I'm on vacation. And I'm a bad Catholic anyways. I figure I'll be visiting no fewer than five churches in Paris (and there are two famous ones in Zurich), so God will maybe look this over.

I next order a nice glass of Burgundy. I almost forget I'm in an airport. I glide to gate 10 minutes after scheduled boarding time to find no line and also no buildup at the entrance to the plane. The Swiss are efficient, I think to myself. Watch the Blind Side, pop an Ambien, arrive in Zurich. Follow Mags' instructions to downtown and walk around. Manage to get slightly lost in a city that (1) isn't' small and (2) has a river running through the center of it as a guide post. Woops! Find my way around and explore. At about 2:30pm, I can barely keep my eyes open. Head back to hotel for 5 hour nap. Wake up just in time for Maggie to arrive from work. Head to fondue place (invented by the Swiss - a lovely people). Fondue is GOOD. MMMMM cheese. Better yet... MMMM Gruyere cheese melted with wine.


Arrive back at the hotel and crash. Afraid when I awake at 2:30am. Feel wide awake, but magically fall back to sleep and wake up when Maggie's alarm clock goes off. Day two in Zurich next!