Easter Weekend 2013, Part Three: Zurich, Switzerland

On April 29, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe12 Comments

The Friday and Monday surrounding Easter weekend this year were public holidays in Bavaria. Since I had a long weekend, I decided to do a whirlwind tour through Strasbourg France, Freiburg Germany, Zurich Switzerland, and the Rhine Falls near the Swiss-German border. I’m going to write about them one at a time, though. Next up is Zurich!

Sunday morning, I grabbed an early train from Freiburg into Zurich. If you arrive by train, you will find yourself in one of the busiest train stations in the world, with nearly three thousand trains a day. Hanging overhead in the main hall, you’ll see L’Ange Protecteur by French artist and sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, a French sculptor. I hadn’t heard of her sculptures, called Nanas, until I saw this one. There’s a bunch more in in various places around Europe.

In front of the train station, there is easy access to the street tram system, and from there you can get almost anywhere else in the city. The street directly opposite, Bahnhofstrasse, is a very busy and fairly well known shopping street. I spent some time in the evening walking down this street trying to find the source of a tantalizingly delicious smelling food smell- I never figured out where it was coming from.

I took the tram to the Rathaus stop in order to see some of the more well known sights in Zurich, and that let me out in front of this building:

From there, it was a very short walk to most of what I wanted to see. First I walked up the hill to Lindenhof. This is a hill in the middle of the city, with a really spectacular view. Apparently it used to be a Roman fort, but honestly, this is Europe- what wasn’t a part of an old Roman fort? You can see Grossmünster, the church with the two dome-shaped spires on the right side there. That’s the next place I walked.

Grossmünster was a very impressive structure. I didn’t know until after I was gone that you can actually climb the tower. Blast! I missed a chance to go into a tall thing! I’m sure I’ll be back there in the near future, though.

The door of Grossmünster is ornate and fascinating.

Grossmünster is quite pretty inside, also.

Across the river from Grossmünster is a courtyard area that connects shopping streets (and the climb to Lindenhof) to Fraumünster. There are a lot of clocks in Zurich. I wonder how often one of them is wrong.

Inside Fraumünster there are four glass windows which were painted by Marc Chagall. You’re not supposed to take pictures of them from inside the church, so pretend you didn’t see this.

After a busy day of seeing churches and not climbing them, I stopped for lunch in a tasty place called Cafe Odeon, which has apparently been open for more than 100 years.

I had the Rösti, which is a common food in Switzerland, a fried potato dish which is somewhat similar to hash browns. In this case, I had it with fried eggs and a some vegetables. It was quite delicious.

Easter graffiti! I saw this while I was walking to where the Jacob Coffee Museum is. Unfortunately, the Coffee Museum is closed for renovation. The information I read said that it would be open in March of 2013, but it was most definitely not finished with renovations. Oops!

While I was walking to yet another closed attraction (stupid holiday weekend), I saw this lovely flowering tree. Someone tricked this plant into thinking it was already springtime.

The aforementioned closed attraction- This is the Polybahn, a 19th century funicular that goes steeply up and down one of the hills near the center. I like funiculars, naturally, but this one wasn’t running. Stupid holiday weekend.

That was the bulk of my sightseeing for the day. I went back to the hotel room for a little while to shake off a headache in the late afternoon, and didn’t go out again except for dinner, a little more wandering, and some dessert. Dessert was this amazing piece of apple pie at Hotel Schweizerhof’s Café Gourmet, a nifty little place for a snack across the street from the Bahnhof.

Have you been to Zurich?

Easter Weekend 2013, Part Two: Freiburg, Germany

On April 25, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany17 Comments

After spending Friday in Strasbourg, I got up early the next morning to grab a quick train into Freiburg. The weather had turned, so much of this day was moist and cold and overcast. I had been looking forward to some of the nicer views from hiking up the Schlossberg or taking the Schauinsland cable car, but since the weather didn’t cooperate, those will have to wait until the next time.

I did get to meet Andrew from Grounded Traveler– we had lunch together and he showed me around town a little bit. While walking to the town center to meet him, I passed by these fun little tornado statues:

During my minitour, we walked by one of the town gates, the Schwabentor. It was all scaffolded for construction. This happens a lot.

This is just a regular street in the town center. Freiburg is quite charming, and I’d love to see it again some time in the sunlight.

This is the other city gate, the Martinstor. While not in scaffolding, the McDonald’s logo on the gate has drawn criticism. (McFreiburg?)

My favorite part of Freiburg, to be honest, is the Bächle. These are small canals all over the city. The locals say that if you accidentally step into one, you will marry a Freiburg resident. Andrew says he’s stepped in them many times and he wound up with an American anyway.

One of the cool things about the Bächle, in my opinion, is that the locals have integrated them into their entertainment. I saw lots of kids with little toy boats on strings like these two. Incidentally, this is my favorite picture from the entire day in Freiburg.

My second favorite thing about Freiburg is the stonework in front of various shops around the old city. For the most part, the stonework is indicative of the business it sits in front of, although there were a few places where the business was relocated and the stonework remained. Even so, it’s pretty easy by the stonework to figure out what kind of business you’re looking at. Here’s three examples:

Another general shot of the city, with one of the church towers in the background for perspective of what the weather was like.

The Roter Bären is one of the oldest buildings in Freiburg, and is a well known hotel.

The front of the Rathäuser, the history city halls.

The Münster cathedral, with amazing gargoyles all over the structure. You can climb the tower, but I didn’t want to do that unless it was a clear day- the view just isn’t the same when you can only see a few buildings away.

Note the gargoyles in the center- the one on the left is just sticking his butt out. Hilarious!

Lastly, a short walk away from the cathedral is the 48th Parallel. I live close to the 49th parallel, and I know you can see the 49th in Karlsruhe, but I haven’t been there. I was also unable to see the Prime Meridian when I was in London because the observatory was closed due to the Olympics. But here, there’s a bar on the corner called 48 Degrees. And right in front of that bar, is the 48th Parallel. This is fascinating to me:

How many parallels or meridians have you seen?

Easter Weekend 2013, Part One: Strasbourg, France

On April 22, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe14 Comments

I’ve been trying to perfect the art of packing light for my travels, and I think I did very well on this trip. For a four day, nine train journey to all of the aforementioned places, this was my entire pack, including my DSLR.

I arrived in Strasbourg around 9pm, and made my way to the hotel first to drop off my belongings. I stayed at the Hotel Cathedrale, and was quite surprised when I arrived to see just how close the hotel was to the Cathédrale Notre Dame. The entrance to the hotel is just across a courtyard from the Cathedrale, which made my sightseeing the next day quite easy to plan. Since I arrived into town quite late, I grabbed a quick dinner at The Dubliner’s Irish Pub, a few blocks from the hotel. I saw the pub on my walk to the hotel, and while I wasn’t in the mood to try local cuisine right away, I know I can always count on tasty food in an Irish pub. Plus, this is a great way to start the holiday weekend:

Walking back to the hotel from the pub, I snapped this picture. The entranceway to the Cathedrale is just like one of the large churches I saw in Barcelona, very typical of the time period in which it was constructed.

The hotel also had a variety of gargoyles around the elevators and stairways, to watch over you and protect you while you slept. I slept very well.

The next morning, I had the hotel breakfast (not bad), and walked out to find the nearest tram station. From there, I went back to the main train station, because it has an amazing glass dome in front, and I wanted to get a picture.

From there, I made my way back into the center of town, partially by tram and partially on foot. You can see the tram in the background of this picture of a rather pretty town square.

This building was on my path back to the center of town, and I was utterly fascinated by the giant barrel in front.

After my walk back toward the hotel, I finally went into the Cathedrale. It’s enormous- you can get a sense of scale from the people in this photograph.

Inside, the arched roof is amazing.

I’ve noticed memorials to fallen American soldiers in various places around Europe- it’s rather strange (but heartwarming) to see tributes to Americans in all these other random places.

Inside the Cathedrale, there is an astrometric clock that was built in 1838. There are various moving pieces on the quarter and half hours. At 12:30, there is a “procession of the Apostles” on the upper level, and the mechanical roosters even crow. I’m really not sure how they reproduced the sound of a rooster using mechanical means in the 1800s, but it’s there.

The upper level is Christ- the Apostles move past him at 12:30. The lower level shows mankind at different ages, walking past Death. You can see the old man figure to the right of death in this photo.

In the courtyard outside the Cathedrale, street artists try to get tourists to stop for a sketch. I saw a lot of these on Charles Bridge in Prague, too.

For a small fee, you can also climb up the 332 steps to the tower platform if you like to see things from tall places, which I really and truly do. Here’s what the view is like on a mostly clear day:

Climbing back down the other side, there are some nifty gargoyles keeping watch. I especially liked this fellow:

After the tower climb, I was good and hungry for some lunch. I went back to a place I’d spotted earlier, La Crepe Gourmande, on a side street a short walk from the Cathedrale. I had “Galette Paysanne,” which is a buckwheat crepe or pancake with onions and bacon inside. Oh, and an egg on top. It was delicious.

After lunch, I took a boat tour on the river, in these glass topped tour boats. The audio portion is available in many different languages, including English. The tour goes through two locks, which is a fascinating experience if you like transportation technology as much as I do. The tour went past the ARTE headquarters as well as the European parliament, neither of which are pictured here because I didn’t take very many pictures from the boat. I did get a few nice shots, though, and they follow this one.

Also, since it was a sunny day a lot of people were out on the banks of the L’ill river. People were reading, walking, holding hands, picnicking. It was a nice day for that sort of thing.

All that was left after my day of sightseeing in Strasbourg was a nice dinner- I went to Cafe Rohan near the Cathedrale, and had some local Alsace cuisine. I had Baeckeoffe in a crock pot, which is a beef, lamb and pork stew cooked with potatoes and carrots. It was delicious, and hearty- I’m glad I didn’t skip the regional food entirely while I was in Alsace.

Have you ever been to Strasbourg?

A Perfect Day

On March 4, 2013November 15, 2017 By StevenIn Life At Home12 Comments

I travelled into Munich on Saturday afternoon. Compared to last weekend’s total bust of an Ingolstadt day trip, this weekend’s trip resulted an absolutely perfect day. It helps that I had a specific goal in mind. I had acquired a ticket to see Dinosaurier: Im Reich Der Giganten. I gave myself a little bit of padding time before and after the show, and that extra time is where the day became really successful.

It also helps that Munich is a vibrant and amazing city, with a lot of really cool stuff going on. There’s so much cool stuff in Munich that even after repeated trips to the city, I’m still ticking things off my “Ooh, I’ve gotta see that sometime!” list.

I went a little bit early today with the intent of finally getting to see the Ruhmeshalle. I had already seen Walhalla and the Befreiungshalle (“Hall of Liberation”). This is a sort of companion piece to the both of them, since they were all originally commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria. I did make it to the Ruhmeshalle, but I could’t go inside because it was closed up- probably because most of the stairs were still iced over. At least I got to see it, along with the statue of Bavaria in front. I’ll have to go back there some other time, when it’s a little bit less icy.

Because I took a detour to an area of Munich I hadn’t seen on my way to the Ruhmeshalle, I got to see several other interesting things. First of all, there’s this wacky staircase at the KPMG Building:

Secondly, I got to see a random giant snail. I have no idea whatsoever what this snail’s deal is, but I assume he’s related to the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum, a part of the Deutsches Museum near Theresienwiese. It’s a giant glass building filled with trains and planes and automobiles. And at least one helicopter. I really need to go back there sometime- I love things that go zoom. Anyway, here’s the snail. Doesn’t he look happy?

After my detour into giant snail and unpossible staircase-land, I went on to the dinosaurs that were my reason for going to Munich. If you go to the Dinosaurier Live site, you can see some cool promotional video of the show. My seats were way up in “sherpa guides and oxygen tanks” territory, but I still took a few pictures. Click for bigger. (And a quick side note- remember the brontosaurus? I miss that big guy.)

I debated whether or not to include video clips, but the way they animate the dinosaurs is really quite amazing, so here’s two short clips.

By the time I came out of the Olympiahalle, the overcast day had given way to sunny and gorgeous, because springtime is banging at the door here. My walk back to the U-Bahn took me right past the Olympiaturm, another place on my “I want to go there” list. Since the skies had cleared up, and I had an hour to the next train back to Regensburg, I decided to hop in for a look-see. There’s a restaurant up at the top of the Olympiaturm, and I’d like to eat there some time in the future. I love restaurants in tall places. (I’ve been to restaurants in the Skylon in Niagara Falls, the CN Tower in Toronto, and a few other super-tall places. My love of dining in the sky knows no bounds.) This is the Olympiaturm.

Since the weather had cleared,the views from the top were amazing. It still wasn’t clear enough for me to see the Zugspitze, but I’m ok with waiting until May to see that for myself. In this picture, you can see the BMW complex. You can also see the shadow of the Olympiaturm, which cracks me up.

At the foot of the Olympiaturm, there is a pond. And in that pond, the forces of Springtime were amassing. And eating pretzels from all the passersby. Ever seen a mallard duck trying to chew up a piece of pretzel? It’s high comedy. Aside from that, it was really quite lovely, though. A perfect end to a pretty amazing day.

To top it all off, when my train left Munich, we passed an open field where four small deer were playing in the snow. Seriously- a perfect day.

Tell me about the last time you had a perfect day.

Short Trip To Vienna

On October 8, 2012January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe4 Comments

I went to Vienna for several days. For once, I wasn’t there to attend a concert. Instead, I was there to help Jenny with her competition in the Vienna Photomarathon. The Photomarathon was only one day long, however, so we had plenty of time to do some sightseeing. Here’s a couple of things I really liked in Vienna.

Spanische Hofreitschule – The world famous Vienna Spanish Riding School, where the Lippizaner stallions have been trained since the main riding hall was built in 1729. I took these photographs roughly ninety seconds before I found out that photraphy is strictly forbidden in the riding hall. Oops!

Zentralfriedhof – This is Vienna’s Central Cemetery, established in 1863. This cemetary is enormous- 2.4 square kilometers in size. It’s so large that it has three separate gates. It’s so sprawling that there is a separate city bus line that runs entirely inside the cemetery!

There are many notable interments here- I found the graves of Beethoven, Strauss, and Brahms, but I did not see the grave of Antonio Salieri or Falco.

The Wiener Riesenrad- The Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel, located in the Prater, is a 212 foot tall ferris wheel which was originally built in 1897. The Riesenrad originally had 30 gondolas before the bombing during World War II destroyed most of them. It was rebuilt with only fifteen, and has become a very well known landmark, even appearing in a James Bond movie in the late 1980s.

Shmetterlinghaus- Compared to Butterfly World in South Florida, Vienna’s Schmetterlinghaus is tiny, but it was still nice. This attraction is located just a few minutes walk from the State Opera Theatre.

Statues, Statues, Statues! While in Vienna, we saw statues of Mozart, Goethe, Gutenberg, and countless others. Here’s two of my favorites.

For the rest of these pictures, I’ve decided to try a WordPress gallery- if you click on any of the images, it will bring it up larger with some additional commentary, and then you can scroll through the rest of the gallery with your right and left arrows. (Escape key to get back out of the gallery.) Ain’t technology grand?

The Donauturm is a tv tower with an observation level, a revolving restaurant, and a bungee jump.

This was part of the view from the Donauturm.

Leonard Bernstein’s tux in the very cool Haus Der Musik.

The Holocaust memorial in Judenplatz doesn’t look very much like a memorial, until you read the inscriptions on the stones around the base. There’s also a museum nearby with an excavation of a medieval synagogue.