Landing in Swiss in Bliss

Deboarding the plane-getting through customs-exchanging currency-catching the train-waiting on the tram street side. It was all as seamless as the marble floor that I admired as I strolled my bag through the Zurich airport. I made sure my admiring scope of the floor fit Nick's feet in too. I do this cop-out of a thing when I am traveling with him- I follow. It's just so easy. I know it's horrible that I'm not more of an upfront thinking, directing, commanding co-traveler... but, then again... is it after all?? Nick is a seasoned globe trotter. I exit any building or vehicle and just head right, thinking I'll sort all kinks out along the way. Do you see the difference? I am presented with this option: Be a leader. Be an individual traveler. Be lost. OR Be... behind Nicholas. & Hey. That's not a bad position to be in if you get my drift. I lead in some areas, but this area is his forte.  I can do it by myself, domestically or internationally, I'm not a moron, but he leads us effortlessly and allows me to marvel and ooh and aah. I love that about our relationship!

Sheep. Check. Marble. Check.
Happy to be in Zurich. Check.

Did you notice my city?  Did you catch that or did you skim right past it? ZuRiCh! zUrIcH! ZURICH!! ...oooh... aaah... Zurich has wrapped me around her little alp.       

So, the first impression of Zurich was from the air, out the window, over my Portuguese friend's shoulder.  Crisp is what it looked. Someone has ironed beautiful sheets of grass in all different shades up and around and smoothly down the Swiss landscape.  Meeting this pressed patchwork pattern is a silky greenish blue swirl of water winding along the way rivers like to do.  It has come from the most dynamic of zigzags, the Swiss Alps, and this silky river borrowed the ice from the zig and snow from the zag and breathed on it like a pane of glass until that steamy breath made one trickle, then two, then three and then from the fourth flowed a river as pure and crystal as the ice from which it melted.  And this I saw from the air and how the clarity of its own character fed and nourished the earth and its people and animal life.  Life.  This place radiated in a beautiful and vibrant way and that looked like the word Life.  And that was just my impression from the air.

The best shot I could get out the window.
 I was practically hovering over  the neck of the man in the actual window seat!

Entering the society that has flourished in this setting was remarkable easy and comforting.  Like I already mentioned, the airport was pretty darn awesome with its shining marble floor and modern EVERYTHING.  The only odd thing I remember seeing is a Starbuck's.  I thought, "for real?" But, it was limited to the airport.  

Waiting on Nick in Zurich's
airport, people watching.

Most everywhere we went during the entire trip, these chains were given assigned seating and it was the Stations. Train, plane... that's where they think their market is and they are right.  Americans will be at these locations and so their food is too. (I say their instead of our here because I'm not claiming that sad, sorry, pathetic habit.  In Zurich someone wants a Whopper? Give me an effing break! In Italy, someone requests Burger King because they "don't trust foreign food"? First of all, I want to say to them, "You're stupid, go home." Italians KNOW food. And then I want to say to them, "Did the potato and cow you are devouring come from Kansas? Are you in Rome and eating an American cow or an Italian one? And if you want frozen, shipped, old food... you deserve all the yuck that's in your mouth." That's what I want to say to that person, but I don't because that's really mean.) But, Starbuck's is in the airport and it's okay because it's coffee.  Not the best coffee in the world, but it is not a terrible cultural trademark. I got to observe these things as I waited on Nick to get whatever he was getting and then come back to me.  I stood in the middle of the floor with my suitcase and his and watched all these really good looking people walk around.  And, one cute girl stuck out.  She had a southern accent and was dressed like a Polo ad.  She was marching around looking at signs and telling her husband what she was reading.  I thought, "Do I look like that?  Do I sound like that?  I don't think I do, but do I?"  She was precious and I was happy to see someone repping America without a fanny pack, but I wondered if I looked neon in the black and white photo too.  By the time Nick came back I had already decided I loved this place I was in.  It was just Marble-ous!

Nick waiting with me to get on the train.

Who cares that I got zero sleep?
Not me!
Let's go see the city!

Now, how do we get to our hotel?

Oh! Look! Right outside the airport is an electric tram system that you simply purchase a token for from a conveniently located machine (On the honor system btw! What? No one shoots you in the back five times here like they do in San Francisco because you don't have a ticket and that must, well, be considered the most criminal, death-deserving thing in the modern day world!? No, they don't do barbaric things like that over this tram. You may live... and board the tram.) and then you just get on it and ride on it until it stops at the location nearest your destination. So simple it made our heads spin. Brand new and up to date was everything in this city. I watched the floor of the tram pivot and swivel under my left foot while the floor under my right foot remained still.  I was half in the bend of the tram and half out of it.  So cool.

This city is full of clever ideas like electric trams 
and diesel cars!

When we got off this tram we walked over a block and then down a block and checked into our hotel with an English speaking desk manager. Note: Switzerland has three different language speaking regions. French, think Geneva. Italian, think Lugano. And German, think Zurich.  But, all of those regions have one language in common and that is English.  Everyone I met spoke English like a professor.  

Just one clipping of the pretty streets we walked
to make our way to our hotel
in Zurich, Switzerland.

Happy already and yearning to explore, I voted nada to nap time and yes to getting changed and walking the streets to find dinner beats. Check in.  Change.  Check this place out.

As I took my awesome key and inserted it into my deep cobalt blue lacquer door, I felt like I was unlocking the one item left in Pandora's box, the good one, the one called Hope, and fairies and gnomes were waiting to poof magical dust on me and shout "Surprise!!" "You're here!" "You made it!"  I sigh as I write this and remember the instant pleasure I had in Zurich over just being alive and able to see it.  I was thankful to just BE THERE. (I see my name in that. neato.) I was finding treasure.  I was in the treasure.  And in Zurich I felt I was treasure too. Which makes this sentence round out like this... In Zurich I found myself.