Switzerland Journal Day Two: October 9, 2009
A day later we were in the Zurich airport. We headed straight to our hotel, the Zic Zac Rock Hotel. The room we chose was the “Talking Heads” room. Those quotation marks are important, because the room lacked anything related to the Talking Heads with the exception of the name on the door. Instead the room was decorated with images of Van Morrison, Krokus, and some band called Eyes of the Universe. I was tempted to seek out some Talking Heads memorabilia while in the city and donate it to the hotel.
Overall we were pleased with our stay. The bathroom was shared, but we had a set of sinks in our bathroom. Our room was toward the back of the hotel, so we didn’t have any issues with sound from the clubs facing the front of the hotel or the first floor club belonging to the hotel.
After checking in we headed out and explored the city. What was our first meal in Switzerland? Sushi. Yeah, that’s simply the way we roll. Get it? Sushi roll? Anyway, all of my sushi research was in Geneva, so ending up with raw fish in my mouth on the first day was a bit of a surprise. It simply worked out that way. Maddie had her heart set on visiting a department store called Globus. It was a beautiful and very trendy department store. The grocery department was filled with such bright and lush looking produce. The coolers were packed with cheese. The wine department was stocked with so much temptation. However, it was much too early in our trip for purchasing foods at a store…until we went reached the top of the escaltor and we were greeted by sushi on a conveyor belt. I’ve always wanted the opportunity to eat sushi off of a conveyor belt. And we did. And it was expensive. But it was everything I dreamt it would be.
We left Globus and continued to explore. We found our way to the Lindenhof which overlooks the river that runs through Zurich. It was beautiful and one of Maddie’s favorite parts of the trip. The Lindenhof is notable because a second century tombstone was discovered at the location featuring the name Turicum which is the oldest known name of Zurich.
On the way back to the hotel room we picked up some soft cheese and cheap bubbly at a convenience store. The bubbly wasn’t the best, but it got us drunk and it was our first evening in Zurich of drunken bonding. I wrote in my journal “drunk bonding over champagne in Zurich because nothing else is present.” It would take four more days before it hit me how important this trip had become. All of the usual stresses we talked about on a regular basis – work, people drama, finances – they were no longer present. Our minds were free. Our souls were clean. We existed for Switzerland and were only with each other.
