For the last four days we have been staying with our friend Sili (say it, See-lee) in Switzerland. He lives in Winterthur, which is about 30 kilometers out of Zurich. We met him near the train station, and that night went out for dinner at Portugese restaurant/bar, where a 2008 European Football Cup qualifying match was being shown and which Portugal was playing in.  The food was delicious, the fans were devoted, and it was a great way to end our hectic travel day from Copenhagen. The next day we relaxed at Sili’s place, and waited for our bags to be delivered from the airport (we barely made our flight, but our luggage definitely didn’t). Then we walked to the store to buy groceries (read: Swiss chocolate) for our week’s stay in Winterthur. That night, Whit went to ultimate practice with Sili, and afterwards we all went out for beers at a local pub.

Apparently, the week before we arrived in Switzerland, snow had been falling.  By the time we got here though, it really felt like spring.  We walked to the old city of Winterthur, which is a dense area of the original buildings of the town.  The streets are now pedestrian walkways with shops, businesses, restaurants, cafes, etc.  We shopped around, had coffee, and took in the scene.  We got home an hour or so before Sili got back from work.  When he arrived, we ate dinner together before walking back to the old city to meet a friend of his for drinks - but not just any drinks, uh uh.  Instead of normal sized beers or other alcoholic beverage, the drinks there are ordered by the number of people sharing them and then served in a vase according to that number. Ours was a fruity number served in what looked like a third place bronze trophy with 15 huge straws. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun that night - thanks to Sili treating us with rum-filled chocolate bunnies. Yikes!

The following day we got off to a pretty slow start, but eventually made our way back to the old city (again), and walked around a bit.  Really, our reason for going back was that its close to the train station, where we were going to pick up Drew later that afternoon. Drew is our close friend from Seattle, who traveled out to Europe to play at Paganello over Easter weekend.  We were really excited that he was coming in, so we were extra disappointed when he didn’t get off the train he was supposed to be on.  Turns out he missed the scheduled train, and was going to arrive that evening.  In the meantime, we did some shopping for dinner (veggie lasagna) and also prepared ourselves to watch the NCAA Final Four. We picked up Drew and went back to Sili’s place for dinner and waited for the games to start, which was when we drank wine out of a porron. Sili, our cultured European host that he is, owns one of these traditional Spanish wine pitchers which none of us had ever heard of, though we thoroughly enjoyed it. The first game didn’t start until midnight, so it was just another late night in the name of sports.

Today we all packed into Sili’s car and drove to Liechtenstein.  It was fun to get out and see more of Switzerland, and add another country to our travels. We went to Vaduz, the capital (population: 5,000) and checked out the sites.  Considering the size of the town (and country for that matter), there wasn’t a whole lot to do, but the Swiss Alps in the background made it a sight to see.  We parked near the city center, and then walked up to the castle, which sits high on a hill above the town. The castle itself was pretty small, and most of it was covered in scaffolding.  It was a nice walk, perfect for enjoying the weather and scenery. On the way down we stopped at St. Florin’s Cathedral before hopping in the car to go get our passports stamped at the Liechtenstein-Austria border.  There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the stamps build up in your passport but border control isn’t very strict between many European countries, especially since the formation of the EU. We’ve been to seven countries in Europe already, but only have stamps for four. Booooo!  Obviously, we were happy to get another one, especially since it’s from Liechtenstein.

On the way back to Winterthur, Sili took the mountain roads instead of the main highway.  This way, we got to see more of the Swiss countryside and mountains.  We stopped briefly in the small town of Altstatten and had a bite to eat.  It was a very quaint town with great old buildings and cobblestone streets and there were decorations for Easter all over the place - on buildings, lamp-posts, fountains, etc.

The road from Altstatten took us up into the mountains, where the view of the Alps became incredible. All day it had been pretty hazy over the mountains despite the sunshine everywhere else. Patches of snow dotted the hills as we made our way up to Gais, another small mountain village.  We parked and walked up a trail to the top of a hill to marvel at the mountains and play with the snow.  The view of the mountains was breathtaking, especially since everywhere we’ve been since New Zealand has been really, really flat. It was awesome, but none of our photos really do it justice.

After our successful day of seeing more of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Drew treated us to dinner back in Winterthur.  We ate at an Indian restaurant that used to be a Mexican food restaurant, so there were both kinds of food on the menu - we were in heaven.  It was a really delicious meal with both kinds of food represented, and was the perfect ending to a perfect day - thanks Drew!

Only two days until we leave for Italy, and we’ve still got Zurich to see!

Swiss Adventures will be continued shortly…

xoxo, clairenwhit