On Track to Zurich

On Track to Zurich

     One can only be awed by the efficiency and extensive coverage of the rail lines of Europe.  The high speed trains and city terminals are filled with people, all determedly moving somewhere, back to their home or onto another destination.  Step off of the train and you'll discover the stations equally full, the large lighted boards constantly changing as the trains arrive and depart pretty much within a few minutes of each other.  This was certainly the case in Zurich, a microcosm of what we saw in Paris, but as with the precision of their watches, was a thing of beauty to behold.  

     For you newcomers, and we were certainly in this frustrated group for many days and countries, let us assume that you have somehow made it through the local ticket process and moved onto the larger trains making the longer runs.  The trains are divided into sections of first and second class, much as in airlines.  Seats are nicer, more leg room, a bit of a snack, and about €100 difference if you're going from Paris to Zurich.  This sounded great but was not us.  Of course, we had to first discover where each cabin began and ended which seems obvious but we're talking trains with 40 or more cars.  So --gasp-- we stopped to ask and were told no problem, we were in the right section but in car 16.

  Merci, we said, then walked away a bit puffy as if we were now local masters, thst is until we realized that we had no idea how to find which car was #16.  Where were the numbers (those of you perhaps going to Europe at a future date, you'll need to know this).  After a rather extensive and frustrating search, we found the train car number near the door, albeit in tiny dimly lit letters, which almost matched the equally tiny lettering on our ticket that we discovered let's you know that you even had an assigned car number and seat number.

    The trains, of course, are smooth and travel efficiently; by that, I mean that the ridership is quite large.  Even shorter train rides of an hour or so are pushing on with full loads (our particular ride to Zurich was just over 4 hours with a few very short stops in cities such as Dijon, as in mustard).  Tickets are checked and punched on these longer runs, but once in Zurich and surrounding areas such as Basel and Lucerne, we found much of the riding to be somewhat of an honor system, the passengers jumping on and off at random, a few stopping at the ticket machines and a few (we were told) with hotel "hospitality" passes.  One of our friends made the honest mistake of thinking he had purchased two tickets but in fact only had one and a receipt, and the train inspector allowed him to purchase the missing ticket. "Not normally," she said in a friendly manner as if to say that it happens but one would probably not be thrown off the train or carted off to jail.  As such, at least so it would seem, the city trams and trains are full as in difficult to board full, and they are constantly running, the city trams crossing and crisscrossing paths even few minutes.  The streets were full, the trams were full, and the ferry boats were full (as with the trams, we bought our 8.40 CHF ferry ticket, something which again appeared seemingly unnecessary as there was no inspector of sorts...by the way, CHF is Swiss francs, each one currently about on par with the US dollar; Switzerland is not part of the European Union and as such, has retained their own currency).  To see it all in action --the new trams, the tracks and people bustling together like organized ants-- is like being in a working but enlarged version of Main Street in Disneyland.  It all seems to work.

    So, with everything full including the streets and the shops, we wondered where exactly was everyone going?  Zurich, after all, is very walkable and most everything is within a 20- minute walk.  There is the largest outdoor clock face in Europe at St. Peter's Church (larger than Big Ben), stained glass church windows by the artists Chagal and Giacometti, archeological digs, and scattered throughout the city, always-running  water fountains with exceptionally cold and drinkable fresh water.

    But by now, you are hungry and thus begin your search for a bite to eat.  And it is here that despite all that you have seen, the biggest shock of being in Switzerland arrives...food is not cheap.  Our small platter of spaghetti with diced tuna (the pieces were about the size of diced canned tomatoes) ran us 29 CHF with an accompanying platter of five average-sized pieces of fish about 52 CHF.  Yikes!  Did we just run into an expensive place?  Uh, no.  Turns out, eating out is an expensive if necessary proposition.  And don't feel that just because you found a Burger King or a McDonald's that you'very lucked out.  Guess what, most everything is expensive, even rents.  That home some distance up from the lake?  A million plus.  That studio apartment (whether a home or a rental, a parking space is extra...the average car spot for a home is about 35,000 CHF additional)...about 3000 CHF.

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Why even the ads seem expensive as you can see by the rather explicit billboard dotting the streets.  But contrary to what it seems (and even though you might  never see such an billboard in the U.S.), all is not as it appears (the ad is an effort to prevent the spread of HIV and advertises using safe sender practices).  Which was the real Switzerland, full of surprises and all not being first impressions.  Subtle, dazzling, and yes, expensive....all that and more in the next post.