Day 0-1:E-ville to Zurich

Day 0-1: SFO to Zurich

Weather: Perfect in E-ville, very hot in Zurich (90s) and a bit hazy/smoggy

QOTD:

The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years

Squeak 

Before we leave for the airport, there’s a brief meeting with our kitchen contractor, a local artist whose work will be sandwiched in a glass pantry door, and THB and DB. Artist departs, THB and DB Uber to the airport, and the contractor is left on his own to work on the kitchen.

Flight is uneventful, non-stop to Zurich, and we’re through security in a flash (oh, why oh why couldn’t this have been the case in Chuck day Gaul?). THB pushes for the train in from the airport ($7/each) and fortunately DB makes sure we got off the first train while it still says Zurich or we’d be doing a round-trip to Bern. The train is super crowded, mostly with teens doing a summer in Europe.

Transfer in the main train station to a local, which lets us off 2 short blocks from our very lovely hotel, Hotel Ambassador a L’Opera. We’re on the top floor, just below the view deck (an interesting spot, complete with free self-service flip-flops and cold non-alcoholic drinks).

There are two doors to our mini-suite; only one bathroom 

The entrance to The View is across the hall from our fifth (or is it sixth) floor room

Lake Zurich

$37 

Lunch at Tibits, a block away from the hotel; it is a help yourself buffet, you are charged by weight. Two plates, one matcha tea, 37 Swiss francs, which is $37 (those plates are heavy, we didn’t put THAT much food on them).

 

Gates of Hell on front of Kunsthaus

Another short walk to the Kunsthaus (= Art House/Museum) for a tour of a small gem. Lots of terrific work by well-known artists, well displayed. A/C is functioning as well. 

THB recommends: Francis Bacon In Your Blood, A Memoir by Michael Peppiatt

The triptychs go for massive pounds nowadays (pre-Brexit?)

More iconic work:

Maybe Al West offered to buy it

Made of dice

Hung upside down intentionally

Picabia was the special exhibit...this guy did not do a, a, a, a, a....clearly an a, b, c, d, e type of guy

Jet lag is setting in, so we stroll back downhill to the lake and then to our hotel, stopping for a double gelato for THB (coffee and chocolate) and single for DB, $12 (you’re in the big city now, on a hot day in a tourist area).

$7.50 double cone

Good news: the A/C in the room is working as well. THB continues feasting on the Tour de France (two weeks left) and Wimbledon (now over), though only one was broadcast in English (actually, British). Brits have won one and are leading in the other. What in the hell is this world coming to (in short: a world without Britain, that’s what).

SC is now on hand (she’s the one that extended the offer of hiking in the Swiss Alps) and the three of us enjoy dinner at Bel Canto, only 50 meters from the hotel (see name above). 

Make-it-yourself salads and brewskin

It’s the last dinner they are serving before closing until the end of August (guess the Opera isn’t in session), and by the end of our meal they are putting away the table and chairs inside (we deemed it too hot to sit outside). Three salads, three ½ main courses (trout with boiled potatoes and wiener schnitzel with frites), one large bottle of water, two glasses of wine and one draft brewski, $165.

Book Review: Shelter, Jung Yun (novel): A grim two weeks in the life of three generations of a Korean family living in US: brutal home break-in, marital break-ups, emotionally repressed individuals, poor child-rearing skills (including child abuse), police as actual people, and a small amount of kindness by a few non-main characters. Hard to recommend, yet THB couldn’t stop reading either.

A few more art shots and one graffiti shot