Swiss Holidays: Lucern to Zurich

We were awakened in the middle of the night by thunderstorms, which settled down to a steady rain by the time we woke up. Considering the lousy weather we decided to visit the nearby Swiss Museum of Transport, which promised all kinds of interesting things to see.

However, it seemed that every other tourist in the area had the same idea, because the reception hall was packed. The queue was long, and full of damp, cranky people and noisy children. We waited in an unmoving line for a good fifteen minutes before throwing in the towel and walking back to the car.

The rain had let up, so we decided to visit the Löwendenkmal, which is a monument to the Swiss soldiers killed defending the Tuileries Palace during the French Revolution. It was a beautiful, moving sight, and we were glad to have skipped the museum to see it.

Back on the road, an hour and a half later we pulled into Zurich. We were earlier than expected, but our B&B host was happy to show us to our room. We were staying a bit outside the city in a recently remodeled home high up a bank of the river. The owners lived in the ground floor, guests stayed on the second, and the third floor was a cozy loft with a lounge and kitchen. We had an impressed overview of our room and the facilities before dropping off our bags and returning to the car.

The drive from Lucern had dropped our gas gauge by a few millimeters, so we pulled into a gas station across the street from the B&B to top off. As David was puzzling over the credit card machine a young man in a polo shirt and wild hair walked up and made motions indicating that he could help. Assuming that he was the station attendant, David let him help with the credit card machine and operate the pump himself to fill up the tank.

I bet you think this story is going to end in theft, don't you. We just let some random kid handle our credit card. Sure he was wearing a polo shirt, but why didn't it have a Shell logo on it?

As I sat in the passenger seat thinking this over, the guy hung up the gas nozzle, waited for David's approval and thanks, then walked to a car waiting nearby and drove off.

David climbed back into the driver's seat with confusion on his face.

"That guy doesn't work here?"

"I guess not."

"Did I just let a random guy on the street pump my gas?"

"Looks like it."

"He was just walking by and offered to help me?"

"Weird."

"Weird."

Maybe too much travel everywhere else in the world has made us paranoid. This is Switzerland, and people are civilized here. They're polite, they don't litter, they don't pass on the right and they certainly do not merge at the last possible second. They help each other out, and can undoubtedly offer that help in at least three languages.

* * *

Anyway, we continued on to the rental agency to deposit our car without any more surprise random acts of kindness.

Feeling a bit lost without our beloved car, we set out for the city on foot. After some confusion with the rather complicated ticketing system, we bought tram tickets and made our way to the city center.

We disembarked at Zurich's famous train station, walked through a posh shopping district (entirely by mistake mind you), and found ourselves at St. Peters Kirche. The church is apparently very old, but we found the most interesting part to be the giant clock face on the tower. Biggest in Europe, my guidebook tells me.

It had been a rather taxing day, so we decided to take it easy for dinner that night. We found an Italian grocery store and bought pasta, sauce, and salad, navigated another set of trams and buses, and arrived back at the B&B just as another rain storm blew through.

We made ourselves dinner in the communal kitchen, made sure everything was cleaner than we had found it, and gave the rest of the night to CNN news and books.