A Rainy Day in Zurich

I got a bit of a late start today, but I was determined to get out and do the sightseeing that I missed out on yesterday--rain or shine! As I ate breakfast this morning I made my plan of attack: take the train to the main station and and follow the self guided walking tour from Rick Steves' book before heading back to meet up with my tour group at 2:30pm. All was going well until the train inspector stopped to check my ticket. I proudly handed over my ticket thinking I was all good and then he began a long speech in German which I quite obviously understood none of. "English?" I asked. I consider myself to be a fairly savvy traveler, but somehow I missed that my ticket was only good for second class carriages and I had mistakenly followed the crowd onto a first class coach. Oops! I explained that I had made a mistake and that I would gladly change carriages when the train stopped, but the inspector would have none of this. In fact, he curtly pointed out that there are very clear rules here and that I most certainly have eyes and could read which train I was getting on, so he made me pay 10 CHF (about $10) to upgrade my ticket for a ten minute train ride in first class. No warning, no grace. He did ask where I was from and whether we had the same system in my country, to which I responded, NO! In America AND Korea we all sit together on the subway or light-rail with no first class. Deep breath, and moving on...oh the joys of traveling!:)

Unfortunately, it rained for the majority of the two hours I spent wandering around Zurich this morning, but that didn't dampen my spirits much. At the first marked point of interest on the tour, I ran into an American couple from Philadelphia armed with their Rick Steves' book too. I joined forces with Julie (or Janet...short term memory loss) and Jeff and we chatted and navigated our way through the streets of Zurich for the remainder of the tour. It turned out to be a lovely time as Mrs. J enjoyed exploring churches just as much as I did. There happened to be three very nice churches on today's walking tour--St. Peter's Church which has a clocktower with the largest clock face in all of the world (it's over 8 meters across) and where a wedding was about to take place, Grossmunster with two lovely belltowers and some very strange stained glass, and Fraumunster which has 5 beautiful stained glass windows designed and crafted by Marc Chagall. We also saw a beautiful floral ceiling in the police station and baffled the poor entry guard as to why we wanted to wander around the lobby, as well as a couple of nice gardens and many beautiful small streets with picturesque houses. Since it was raining, I decided to leave the DSLR camera at home so no photos from this mornings walk. I headed back to the hotel around 1:15 so I could grab a quick bite to eat and change clothes before meeting the group.

I had no idea who my tour group would be comprised of, but at 2:30pm I found out! We're a rather small group of just 26 people plus a tour director and a coach driver. It appears that there are 3 singles traveling alone, the rest are couples and I'd say the average age of this group is about 55-60. Yes, friends I'm traveling with the retirement crowd for the next nine days (with a few exceptions). Once the group was assembled we all boarded the coach and headed back into the city for a couple of hours of free time and thankfully it had stopped raining! This meant I could pull out the camera and take a few pictures to give you an idea of what Zurich looks like. In case you are wondering, it's not all businesses and banks! Once you hit the backstreets, Zurich is quite charming.



A fun surprise to come across this street emblazoned with Swiss flags and old style houses.


Statues and fountains abound in this city!


A street filled with fluttering, colorful flags.


Another fountain and all of the water is pure and drinkable!


A magical stairway to an equally lovely park filled with Linden trees.


More statues!


The view across the river. The green spire is Fraumunster church.


That's Grossmunster church towering over the rest of the buildings.


A beautiful spray of roses.


The two towers of Grossmunster church.

So far everyone seems lovely, even if I am the youngest in the group by a few years;). I had a wonderful time wandering about with a couple from Australia and my dinner partners tonight were fantastic--lots of stories and travels to share. Tomorrow we head south to Evian in France and along the way we'll stop in Berne, Montreaux, and visit Chillion Chateau.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Zurich, Switzerland

Swiss Miss

I have arrived in Zurich, the international banking capital of the world. Here's a photo of the Swiss flag that I took today--proof, if you will! This visit marks my tenth trip to Europe and my ninth European country (for good practice I am counting England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as separate countries:)). By the time I am done with this tour, I will also be able to add Lichtenstein to my list.


The travel to Switzerland was fairly uneventful (the best kind) and I was actually quite happy to have a flight delay in Washington D.C. because I was scheduled to arrive in Zurich at 8:05am and I knew there was no way my hotel room would be ready yet. I did, however, feel a bit of anguish for all of the travelers who missed their connections in Zurich because of the thunderstorms we were waiting on. The two ladies next to me were taking their first trip to Paris and only had an hour and a half between flights. With the missed connection, they'll be relying on the goodwill of the airline and a lot of luck to get them to Paris today. I've been in that boat and it's NO fun, especially when Paris is waiting for you!

Anyway, my hotel is literally connected to the airport so I casually collected my luggage and rolled on over. By 10:30am I was checked in to the Radisson Blu and I had a room! That's a first! Then I committed all of the jet lag no no's like napping during the day, sitting around in my hotel room just chilling out, and basically wasting an entire day of perfectly good sightseeing. I'm still kicking myself about this seeing as it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow. I think this is one of the biggest challenges of traveling solo--finding the motivation when you're tired to get out there and tackle a new city on your own. Today, I just wasn't feeling it. And, I didn't have a plan of action. All of that is about to change since I really do only have one day left to enjoy Zurich.

I did manage to pull myself together, grab my iPad loaded with Rick Steves' Switzerland, and venture out this evening to see the sun go down over the city. Since I'm staying by the airport I first had to take a ten minute train ride to the main train station, then board another train bound for Uetliberg. The ride took about 20 minutes and when I disembarked I followed the other folks along a walking path that got exponentially steeper, and added some stairs, before I made it to the overlook. Since I haven't been out and about in Zurich yet, it was a cool way to get the lay of the land and the weather was lovely tonight! I made it back to the hotel after 10:00pm, showered, and now I find myself wide awake (darn napping) so I've decided to post a few pictures to show you Zurich from above and work on my plan for tomorrow's sightseeing before I have to meet up with my tour group in the afternoon. Here's my first taste of Zurich...


Interesting lamp posts flanking the final walkway to the overlook.


Classic binoculars at the sightseeing point!


Zurich, including lake Zurich, from above. It's quite beautiful!


Observation tower at the top that I could have climbed, but I was quite happy with the view with the earth beneath my feet.


More of the sprawling city!


A little village nestled between the mountains. I'm looking forward to seeing LOTS more mountains in the next week!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Zurich, Switzerland

Discovering Venice...Again! (From my written, but never published, blog collection 2012)

I just found this post from last year about this time about my experience on my first overseas Discovery Week in Venice.  After inserting a few photos from the trip, it's finally finished...just in time for several of the lovely students who went on the trip with me to graduate!  What a wonderful experience this turned out to be and how lucky am I to be going back to Venice AGAIN this summer to spend a few days at the end of this year's European vacation?!  No matter how many times I look over pictures from the same sights, they never seem to get old!  Enjoy!

What can I say, I am one very LUCKY girl!  After returning from my first trip to Venice, I just knew that I had to go back and what better way to do this than to propose a Discovery Week trip for students this spring.  It took months of planning, preparation, phone calls, STRESS, and collaboration with my friend Alice to put this trip together and before I knew it, May 18th arrived.  We met our 12 students and their families at the airport and by midnight we were up in the air and on our way.  First stop, Dubai, second stop, Venice!  Here's a quick overview of how the week went down...

Friday night--check in and fly!

Saturday--We arrived at Dubai Airport at 3:45 am and it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside.  Our next flight didn't leave until 9:30 am so we spent 5 hours roaming through the airport.  I know what you're thinking, wasn't everything closed?  Um, no!  Every single shop and restaurant are open 24 hours and there are more than enough people in the airport in the middle of the night to patronize them.  We chose to chill at Starbucks because they had tasty treats and cushy chairs!  Our second flight was a bit more eventful.  We had to make an emergency landing to offload a sick passenger in Ankara, Turkey.  Thankfully nurse Alice was on board to help take care of him.  An hour and a half on the ground and we were on our way...again.  We arrived in Venice around 4 pm, took the bus into the city, checked into our hotel, ate dinner, walked through the Cannaregio for an hour or so, and went to bed! Walking through familiar streets was so wonderful....I couldn't wait to see what the rest of the week would hold.

A lively campo in the Cannareggio

Sunday--San Marco day!  We taught the kids how to ride the water bus and took a scenic tour down the Grand Canal.  This main waterway through Venice is absolutely stunning and to see it again after a year made my heart very happy.  First order of business, a trip up the Campanile for a bird's eye view of Venice.  While up the bell tower we were both blessed and cursed by the ringing bells.  Yikes!  After a quick lunch and a bit of time to wander around, we took the Secret Itineraries Tour at the Doge's Palace and it was fabulous!  Not many pictures here, but we got to see the torture room, office where all of the secret documents were stored, Cassanova's prison cell, and much more than a regular tourist sees!  The rest of the palace was fantastic too.  From there, we spent an hour or so in St. Mark's Basilica, had gelato (of course), watched the parade of boats from the America's Cup race in Venice, and took the vaporetto back to our hotel.  A couple hours of free time, dinner, more free time, and bed!

The Grand Canal

Piazza San Marco

View from the Campanile

In the courtyard of the Doge's Palace!

Monday--A terribly rainy day and a trip to Murano and Burano filled our time.  We got to see two types of glass work in Murano, a more industrial process in which pieces are produced on a massive scale for sale all over the world and traditional glass blowing.  Both very cool and I bought a few fun things!  We all ate lunch together at a nice little restaurant before breaking up into groups to go shopping.  I scored and found the hour glass I've been looking for!  Before long we were off to Burano.  The boat ride is about 30 minutes long, but well worth it, even in the rain.  The colorful houses are so beautiful--I can imagine how nice it will be to visit again when the weather is good.  By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were all pretty beat.  Early to bed tonight!

Burano is beautiful, even in the pouring rain

Tuesday--Scavenger Hunt Day!  The rain was gone, the sun was out, and team Mighty Spinaci was ready to take on the city!  We started at the hotel, then grabbed the vaporetto to Piazza San Marco.  We tracked down several different sights in the vicinity of the Piazza, then walked all the way to the Rialto market.  The fruits and Veggies were so beautiful and the fish market was bustling.  It was a perfect place to take a break and eat lunch.  From there, the other two teams caught up to us and we all ended up meeting again at the Frari Church.  Together we all ate gelato, visited a cool paper shop, and found Salizzada Giusto, a tiny street, before heading back to the hotel.  The kids enjoyed spending the sunny afternoon in the Cannaregio and we went for a cappuccino.  Yum!  It was really fun to find our way around the city and I got to see all of the fun sights that I missed during my first trip!

Harry's American Bar

Looking for the next stop on the Scavenger Hunt!

Mercato Rialto! 

Finding the smallest fish!

Campo San Silvestro 

The whole group on the Twisted Bridge

The narrowest street in Venice

Whew!  One tired teacher after chasing a group of high schoolers through Venice!

Wednesday--Off to Verona!  We took an hour long train ride to Verona to spend the day meandering through the streets and contemplating Shakespeare's story of Romeo and Juliet.  The sun was shining and I really enjoyed being back in some familiar spots like Piazza Erbe.  I coaxed the kids up the hill to Castel San Pietro for a stunning overlook of the city, then into a few churches.  Our final stop was at a lovely little gelato store where I had my best gelato of the week--Vaniglia and Pesca-Mango.  Heaven in a cup!  We met back in Piazza Bra, stopped at a grocery store for snacks (one of the highlights for several of the kids), and headed back to the train station for our ride back to Venice.  All in all, it was a wonderful day and we still had the evening to hang out in the Cannaregio!

The Amphitheater

Juliet's famous balcony

Love graffiti

Piazza Erbe, one of my favorite spots in Verona

Verona from above

Gelato!

Thursday--Today appealed to the creative types!  We started the morning off with a mask painting class at Ca' Macana in the Dorsoduro.  Nancy, our wonderful teacher, gave a great lesson on how masks are made and what they had been used for in the past.  Fascinating stuff!  Essentially, the mask was the great equalizer in Venice and by wearing one a commoner could cavort with those of a higher class!  Everyone's mask was certainly a unique creation!  We spent our lunch time roaming through back alleys and found a restaurant with an inside garden, which was lovely.  Some of the students took this opportunity to go to the Accademia before we met again to visit the Peggy Guggenheim collection.  The kids had mixed reactions to this excursion, but Mandarin was a happy girl as she figured out what to do with her broken piece of pottery:).  At the end of our visit, we sat and listened to a student give a talk about Peggy's life...what fun!  We ended our time in the Dorsoduro with a gondola ride--it took 2 gondolas to fit all 12 students and off they went for a float, er paddle?, on the Grand Canal while the teachers sat at a canal-side cafe and awaited their safe return and excited rendition of being nearly capsized by their mischievous, singing gondoliers.

Learning the history of masks in Venice

Painting time

Capturing creativity!

Even the teachers participated

Finished creation 

Off they go on a gondola ride!

Boating on the Grand Canal!

Friday--Our last day in Venice was left as a free day.  I took the students to the post office to mail their postcards home and then we walked over to Orsoni.  Sadly, we couldn't afford a class there, but it was nice to take a tour through the furnace, color library, cutting room, and studio.  Thanks to Mirta for showing us around!  I'm really excited that I get to go back in July for a three day class!  After that, the group decided to head back to San Marco.  We hopped off at the Rialto Market to pick up fruit and sandwiches for a picnic, then found a little garden area just behind St. Mark's Square to eat.  Everyone broke up and headed off for one last exploration of the area and most were very happy to find H&M and some other familiar shops.  The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out in our neighborhood near the hotel.  We all met up for dinner at a pizza restaurant and finished the night with a quiz game to see how much our students had learned about Venice and each other!  Team spicy pepperoni was victorious and enjoyed their chocolate prizes.

The color library at Orsoni

One last visit to San Marco and the lagoon

Saturday--We enjoyed our last breakfast at the hotel, packed our bags, and by 11 we were checked out.  After hauling our bags back to Piazzale Roma, we caught the bus back to the airport and waved good-bye to the beautiful city built on the water.  At one point I had worried that we wouldn't have enough to do in this small city, but boy was I wrong!  The only good part about leaving for me was knowing I'd be back very soon with a long list of things to see and do!  Check-in took awhile at the airport, but we made it with a bit of time for lunch and to shop around the airport before our flight.  The first leg of the flight was terrifying at best as we hit a lot of turbulence and at one point dropped several feet.  

Sunday--Thankfully the layover in Dubai from 11:45pm until 3:30am passed quickly and the second part of the flight wasn't nearly as bad.  When we walked out of baggage claim and greeted the waiting parents, it was such a relief that we had actually made it!  The kids were all smiles, making all of the work and stress entirely worthwhile.

I've been back just over a week now and I'm still on Venice time, which makes getting to bed at a decent time nearly impossible.  Perhaps I'll adjust faster to Pacific time when I fly home in a week!  We're meeting with the kids this week for a little reunion where we'll eat pasta together and reminisce about the only SFS trip to Venice in the 100 year history!  See, we really are lucky!