This part of the post-Rome blog is being written by Mom. WOW, what a trip it’s been! First of all, keeping up with a 22-year-old…..dart here, dart there, climb there, walk 14 hours a day….my knees will never recover. I whined a bit, but got over it since I got no sympathy from you-know-who. Wine helped a lot! Incredible Rome was the perfect place to begin our trip. This has been the trip of a lifetime for me and I’ll never forget the wonderful time Sara Beth and I have spent together. After our four fun-filled days in Rome, we flew to Zurich. This was a very special part of the trip for me since both of my parents are Swiss natives and grew up in a town named Winterthur, about 30 miles from Zurich before emigrating to the USA when they were in their 20s. This was a place I had not visited since I was a teenager. The morning after we arrived, we met my cousin Eric (who I had not seen for 40 years) in Zurich and he spent the whole day showing us around.
The great thing about touring a town with a ‘local’ and not with a tour guide is that you get to know the city in a different way. Eric took us to this wonderful little fondue restaurant the locals eat at tucked away in a hard-to-find side street and we had the most perfect meal. Nothing says ‘I’m in Switzerland’ better than eating fondue! Later that evening, we met up with Eric’s wife Denise at the Bahnhof (central train station). We had a great time wandering and eating our way through the KristKindl Market (Christmas market) in the station. Eric went home to watch an important soccer match, which as you know is as important as football is in Texas! Denise then took us up to a lounge bar on the top of a highrise and we got a wonderful nighttime view of the sparkling city below.
Some more about Winterthur….. We only had the morning to take the train over there from Zurich before leaving for Germany so we did not get to spend much time there. However, I found the street that my mother grew up on and at least got to get a sense of their early lives. I had been there before but only when I was a child/teenager and didn’t really appreciate the town for its importance in their lives.
After leaving Winterthur, we took the train from Zurich to Munich (four hours) and passed through Austria as well. This was a lot of fun because we really got to see the countryside. We had bought lunch and pastries from a local shop before boarding and bought some delicious coffee on the train. What a fun meal!
In between Zurich and leaving for Munich, we spent a night in Interlaken and took the train to the Top of Europe – the Jungfraujoch mountain. Sara-Beth is going to write all about that; all I can say is WOW! It’s really pretty indescribable.
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