Guten Tag meine Freunden!

Greetings to you all from Zurich, Switzerland! Today is day #3 of our European adventure and I have managed to find a few lucid moments to share a bit of our European moments with you. Brian, the children, and I first set forth on our journey on Thursday afternoon from Aberdeen via plane through London to Frankfurt, Germany. There we met Brian’s parents at the hotel where found ourselves arriving a bit late to enjoy any local fare. So, like any good Americans, we found a McDonald’s in the shopping area outside of our hotel to indulge our hunger. When Bill, my father-in-law, asked for iced tea, the clerk responded abruptly with “We don’t have iced tea in Germany!” We all got a kick out of that one. As the family enjoyed their happy meals, I tempted my taste buds with a Prawn Lemon sandwich, which was basically a bunch of shrimps pressed together into a patty and fried like a McDonald’s hashbrown patty, served on a seasoned bun. It was actually quite tasty! ☺ Of course, the most amusing part of it was “Ich liebe es.” written everywhere. You know, “I’m loving it.” After our brief outing, we all retired to our rooms for the evening to make preparations for our first train ride the next morning; destination Heidelberg.
On Friday morning, we gathered ourselves and our things bright and early, enjoyed a nice breakfast in our hotel, and set out for the subway train station to catch a quick, yet stressful ride to the train station where we were to catch our train to Heidelberg. (Wow, could that sentence have been any longer any poorly written?) It took Brian and me about 15 minutes to figure out how to use the ticket machine in order to purchase our tickets for the subway. After doing so, the seven of us made our way to the platform with our many bags, strollers, and Jan’s roll-ator. We had about 20-30 seconds to get 6 people, a stroller (carrying Sadie), Jan’s roll-ator and 10 bags through a very small doorway and safely onto the subway. Whew! What a pain in the rumpus that was! Then, of course, we had to keep our luggage (and selves) from tossing about the train car as we stopped and started through many points between or entrance and our destination. Of course, then we had to change train cars once before we even made it to the Main train station. Methinks I’d rather skip a souvenir or two to take a taxi next time. :-P We live and learn, right?

Once we arrived at the train depot, we checked in and set about to find our train. Because Bill is so wonderful, he had booked us 1st class tickets aboard most of our trains, so we had two entire compartments to stretch out and enjoy while taking the short, 40 minute, journey to Heidelberg!

Later in the day, we decided to head down to Aldstadt (Old Town) for a boat ride down the Rhein. Our taxi dropped us off a bit too early, and as a result, we were a couple of minutes late to take the ride, so we opted to just take in the sights of the area. A few of us walked down the river to the Old Town bridge. There, Brian took some pictures atop the bridge and of the gorgeous castle nestled into the mountain side. I enjoyed browsing through a few of the local tourist shops there. Afterwards, Brian and I decided to take the 2 mile walk back to the hotel, while the rest of the family took a taxi home. It was a very nice walk, with a lovely river view. We even encountered a gentleman dressed in what we Americans think of as traditional German festival attire. He didn’t appear to be heading to a festival, however, just out on a stroll with his wife!
We finished our day in Heidelberg with a nice dinner by the river at our hotel where I indulged myself with a Heidelberger Bier. I am not a beer drinker, but you can’t go to Germany without having a German beer, right?
This morning, we awoke quite early and found our way (via taxi this time) to the Train Depot to embark on the next leg of our journey. This time, finding our way to Zurich. Again, our train accommodations were luxurious, having our own compartment with reclining seats right behind the engineer. This train had two engineer compartments, one at each end. During the first part of the ride, the engineer was actually located in the rear of the train, but later drove from the front of the train where Bryson loved getting to watch him “drive” the train. It was quite an experience. Admittedly, though, I slept a good portion of the ride. How nice to have the room to do so!
Today has been a “down” day in Zurich, one that has found us recovering from the many hours of travel over the past few days. We enjoyed a late lunch in the hotel and the retired to our rooms for some rest. Tonight will find the children going for a swim and then hopefully getting some much needed rest. Tomorrow we will set out for a 9 hour “Heidi” tour. It should be a fun day for all!
This trip, thus far, has been quite an interesting one. I am quite surprised at how much I actually do remember from my 3 years of German and how much more I don’t remember! Thankfully, a great deal of Germans and Swiss “sprechen Englisch”. I have had fun trying to translate menus and signs. I am kind of sad that we didn’t have more time in Germany, but hey, we have so much more to explore! Anyway, I look forward to what is in store for us tomorrow! Until then….Auf wiedersehen!

-W