Central Switzerland

It was a beautiful train ride from Innsbruck in Austria to the central Swiss city of Zürich: we passed through so many quaint mountain villages and some beautiful farms and dairies with their rolling green pastures flanked by the towering Alps. The route also took us through Saint Anton and the tiny country of Lichtenstein between Austria and Switzerland. Such a picturesque journey… Our ultimate destination in central Switzerland was the village of Buonas on the shores of Zugersee about 30 minutes outside ofZürich, but on the way we had some time to kill so jammed our bags in a locker atZürich Hauptbanhof and strolled about the old town for a couple of hours. I’d always heard about how expensive Switzerland can be, it only took us a few minutes after arriving inZürich to experience it firsthand. After a few days in Switzerland my general rule of thumb is: in Switzerland everything is about twice the cost of the same items in Austria and Germany; in Austria and Germany everything is about twice the cost of the same items in Slovenia; in Slovenia everything is about twice the cost of the same items in the Czech Republic and Croatia!

Zürich was a beautiful city through which to stroll for a couple of hours, with is cobblestoned streets in the old town lined with restaurants, bars and stores toting high fashion. We were lucky with clear blue skies on Thursday so made our way to the sunny shores of Lake Zürich where there was a kiosk selling canned beers and German sausages. We enjoyed a couple of cold ones and some bratwurst while the kids fed the huge swans which obviously relied heavily on humans for their sustenance.

We bunked in with the Challenger family for our few days in the central Swiss area around Zürich. Lynn gave me my first finance job as a currency trader when I was a wet-behind-the-ears graduate from Cal all those years ago and was kind enough to host us in the quaint lakeside village of Buonas as we made our way west across central Europe. Lilia and Max were pretty pumped to be staying with an English-speaking family for a few days, and both kids were particularly jazzed with a home-cooked meal, two dogs, two cats, a trampoline and SUP at their disposal whilst in residence at Casa Challenger. I hadn’t seen Lynn and Amy’s kids since they were younger than Max and Lilia, amazing how time flies now that they’re all teens. It wasn’t hard to see why there’s such a premium associated with living in Switzerland: everything was so clean, the public transport ran like clockwork, no one locked their cars or houses, and kids in elementary/primary school roamed about town freely without a care in the world. The villages on the lakes surroundingZürich were intermingled with a tapestry of farms and dairies, it was commonplace to see tractors driving on the road holding up Ferraris and Lamborghinis trying to get to and from work!

We made a day trip to Lucerne while staying in Buonas, a quick hop on the impeccably well-oiled and clean Swiss train system from the Rotkreuz station. Lucerne was a little surreal, with its beautifully preserved medieval architecture sitting below snowcapped mountains on Lake Lucerne. Like something out of a fairytale. The old town is bordered by the Musegg Wall, a 700 year old rampart that was open to visitors every day free of charge. We walked up to the wall and climbed a couple of the towers, the clocks in the Zytturm were fun to watch as their cogs clicked the time away. Both the Zytturm and Luegislandturm provided us with amazing views of Lucerne, the lake and surrounding peaks. The covered Kapellbrücke, built in 1333, was also a notable highlight in town, with its colorful bouquets of flowers lining the bridge over the Reuss River.

Thank you to the Challenger family for housing us and feeding us for a couple of nights as we passed through! Was great to see Amy and Lynn after so many years, and to see how all their kids have matured since I last saw them in the San Francisco Bay Area all those years ago.