On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED About This Page:

[pamcarey]

Great update!

[Cam22]

Beautiful pictures of Zurich! I think it would be fun to visit for the festival where the snowman/fireworks are blown up! Very interesting, I'm sure.

[luvnwdwgal]

Great updates Cheryl! Beautiful pictures!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by MGW

After the long winter we had here in Virginia, I'd be all for blowing up a snowman!

Most of the churches you have been in, are they Catholic? I was just wondering what the predominate religion was in each country.

Thanks for the update!

I'm desperately trying to wrack my brain here. I did read something about the predominate religion in Switzerland and I cannot remember what it was - I'm thinking Catholic though. I think it was Catholic in France.

[chezp]

Wednesday 24 March – part three: that was quite a hike!

We headed back into the city, passing many places that we’d seen on the way out and dropping a few people off on the way, as depending what tour you’d selected, depended on where you finished with the trolley.


A tree growing through a fence


We stayed on for a bit longer, learning about the Grobus department store, which we had seen walking up to the train station and Migros, which is apparently one of the world’s 500 biggest companies. It’s a supermarket chain that seems to be everywhere in Switzerland and apparently it’s run as a co-operative, and that’s how they can keep their prices so low.



We were soon back to the station and that was our getting-off point. I’d booked a combo tour that offered us the chance to go up to Uetilberg, which overlooked Zurich. Although it hadn’t said it when I booked it, I’d assumed that the whole thing would be escorted, but apparently not, as we were given train tickets to get there and instructions of how to find the platform, which was fine with me.

We set off and, almost immediately, found a pizza place that was serving an amazing array of pizzas, including a number of vegetarian ones, so we both grabbed one each and headed down to the platform. We only had a couple of minutes to wait for our train, and while waiting, a German guy asked Mark to help him with his stroller on to the train. As Mark said, typical that he managed to pick the only guy on the platform who spoke no German, but at least Mark was able to work out what he wanted. we forgot to take photos and didn’t really have a hand free, as we were busy eating.

We got on the train and set off. All I knew is that we were going to the end of the line and it would take 20 minutes. The first stop was in a tunnel, but fortunately after that, we were into the daylight and first seeing the suburbs of Zurich and then gradually climbing upwards.



Eventually, we reached Uetilberg and got off. We weren’t sure where we were going, so just followed everyone else. I naively had thought that the viewing area would be right by the station, but no such luck. It was a good 10 minute hike – and I mean hike – up a steep hill, which both of us could’ve done without.



There were some very odd light fittings on the way:



Up there was a TV transmitter:



Still.... when we got there, it was worth the strenuous effort, as the views were amazing. I was quickly able to pick out the old town, where we’d been just an hour or so earlier and we got lots of photos there.




Photographing done, we headed back down to the station to catch the next train back into Zurich’s main station, stopping to use the restrooms on the way. I was a bit sceptical, as these were free, but they were very nice. Better than paying our 1CHF or 2CHF back at the main station.

We headed back down, getting a few photos on the way.



Then it was back to the car, bidding farewell to Zurich. I’d been very impressed by the city and it feels so much more like a capital city than Bern does ( Bern).

Next: is this a good idea, going this way?

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures, especially from the top of the hill!

[honeybee723]

Great views from the hill!!! I also really liked the giraffe light poles .

[lazanya]

Great pictures!

[duck addict]

Originally Posted by chezp

I'm desperately trying to wrack my brain here. I did read something about the predominate religion in Switzerland and I cannot remember what it was - I'm thinking Catholic though. I think it was Catholic in France.

Quick internet search....
42% Catholic
35% Protestant
4 % Muslim
8% other
11 % None.

[luvnwdwgal]

Thanks for another great update Cheryl!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by duck addict

Quick internet search....
42% Catholic
35% Protestant
4 % Muslim
8% other
11 % None.

Thanks for that Don!

[chezp]

Wednesday 24 March – part four: is this a good idea, going this way?

We headed north, aiming for the Rheinfall. This hadn’t even been on my radar when I first started planning this trip, but it soon came on to the radar, thanks to a suggestion from Sabine. I did some reading up and discovered that they were Europe’s biggest waterfalls and it sounded like they’d be well worth seeing.

To get there, we had to get through lots of roadworks – I tell you, everywhere in Switzerland at the moment, there are roadworks. Now I’m sure part of it is trying to get it all out of the way before the main season, but I’m sure it’s also something to do with still being one of the few countries in the world with money. Well, at least, that’s how it seemed to us anyway...



At least I was able to see some Swiss cows on the way there...



When we got off the motorway, we followed Tim’s instructions, rather than the signs to the Rheinfall. It was to turn out to be a bit of a mistake....



Anyway, we quickly found parking, paid up and set off. We headed down a hill and that’s the point at which Mark said to me that he wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Just as he said it, I could hear the roar of water ahead of us, so reassured, I calmly announced that the waterfalls couldn’t be too far ahead and they weren’t.



The problem was, from this angle, it was clear that you weren’t getting the full impact of them, so we moved further round, heading down more and more steps.



When we got to the bottom, it was still clear that the best views were from further round, near the restaurant/snack shop/souvenir store (surprise, surprise!) and the parking that the signs would’ve taken us to. Great, had we followed those, we’d have had the best views right in front of us, instead of having to hike down here. We walked round, getting lots of photos as we went.




Then came the getting back to the car. “We’ll take that slope”, announced Mark. That probably won’t be as bad as going up all those steps. Sound reasonable enough? Well, it did, so that was the route we took. Let’s just say that the slope was very, very steep and we were exhausted walking up it. It was not what either of us needed, after having huffed and puffed our way already up the route to see the views of Zurich.



I cannot begin to tell you how tired we were when we got back to the car. We broke out water supplies, as we were in desperate need of a drink and, we were so hot, that we put the air conditioning in the car on to maximum in a bid to cool us down. It didn’t help that the sun had been blazing away and I think that affected us a little as well.

Finally, we felt well enough to set off, but we didn’t get very far, as we spotted a supermarket and we needed some breakfast food for tomorrow morning and some CDs, as the laptop had decided not to read the last couple of CDs we had. We managed to find a few bits and pieces for breakfast, so one out of two wasn’t too bad....



Next: two different currencies and countries...

[Colexis Mom]

Beautiful pictures of the waterfalls! Sorry about the hike down and back up again!

[honeybee723]

Beautiful pictures of the waterfalls!

[Cam22]

I can tell it was a steep hike, but the views are stunning! Great pictures!