Memrie and Hank’s visit Part 2: Zürich and Lugano
Day 2 we planned to go visit the Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum and knock around Zürich, ending up at some Weinachtsmarkts that evening. When we headed out to catch the train at Bahnhof Wollishofen, I had forgotten my phone. Cass ran back to the apartment and returned on a PubliBike electric bike, so Hank got to give it a spin before he took it to the collection point. The train ride to Lindt was quick (like, 2 stops), and we started the tour. Everyone’s favorite part of the tour was the 3 chocolate fountains with endless tastings of white, milk, and dark chocolate. I’m looking into getting one to have at our apartment. I also got some pictures of the molds that they have used in different decades to make their chocolate products. Kind of cool. I bought a couple of the big teddy bear shaped Lindt chocolates just today.
Hank wanted to go to the Carl Jung Museum, since it is in the Zürich area. However, we quickly discovered that the museum is only open on Thursdays (and this was Sunday), so instead we decided to just go see the house from the street, then go visit his gravesite in a nearby cemetery there in Küsnacht. We made it fun by riding the public transport boat, because Küsnacht is pretty much straight across the lake from the Lindt factory. When we got to Küsnacht it was snowing, so we walked to the Jung Museum in the snow. Then we crossed Seastrasse to walk to the cemetery. We walked around in the area a bit before we figured out that he was in the cemetery and not right up by the church, so we walked into the cemetery. As we opened the gate to go in, there was an older lady carrying in her gear to go tend a grave. We circled through the cemetery, using a picture from online as a guide, but we still didn’t come across his marker. Hank decided to go ask the lady if she might know where we should look. As the rest of us were walking up, he asked her if she knew if he was buried in that cemetery and if so, did she know where. She said, “Yes, he was my grandfather.” You could have knocked us all over with a feather.
She led us over to where his marker was, and we would have never found it without her help. It’s a multi grave site, so there are several other family members listed on it as well. She went through all of the names and told us who each one was. She also talked about how she lived there in Küsnacht all her life, and when she was younger sometimes other families would somewhat shun or avoid their family due to the notoriety of her grandfather and his psychological beliefs. She was very sweet and definitely did not want to have her photograph taken - which is very Swiss. Her husband had died earlier this year, which is why she was in the cemetery in the first place to tend to his grave.
While we waited to catch the boat back to Bürkliplatz (in Zürich), we had some snacks and Glühwein. We went to dinner at a fancy restaurant where the server had no sense of humor, and then we went to see the Weinachtsmarkt that is inside the Haupbahnhof.
The next day, we were chasing good weather. It may not look like it in the first group of pictures, but we had to go through a lot of snowy weather to get to the sun. We headed south to Lugano, going through Zug and Arth-Goldau and Bellinzona, among other little villages, to get there.
At some point during the train ride, we took a different route that takes a more winding path up through the mountains. While it took us longer to get to Lugano, it was definitely worth it for the spectacular views. Of course, I didn’t get any pictures because it’s really hard to get good pics through a train window.
Lugano is really close to the southern border with Italy. When we got there, the sun was actually out in the sky! I haven’t seen that for a while. It’s a really cool Italian-ish town that is still in Switzerland.
We had pizza (I had Calzone), we saw the Christmas decorations, we walked around by the lake. I think in the last picture, looking out across the lake, you can see a sliver of land over there that is actually a landlocked portion of Italy. No idea what the history behind it is, but you can clearly see it on the map. It’s called Campione d’Italia.
More scenes from Lugano….
We were there when the sun was setting (at like, 4:30pm these days), and we tried to get somewhere with a view. But we didn’t plan well enough and got stuck kind of near the train station. Not that it mattered, because the train station has really pretty views.
After a 2 hour train back to Zürich, we decided to wrap up by going to the Weinachtsmark over by the Zürich Opera house. This was by far the biggest and best market we’ve seen. Memrie and I had hot chocolate which was made by stirring that chunk of chocolate into hot milk until it melts. Delicious. We also had some raclette cheese and potatoes, and we shopped in a store full of Nutcrackers and Christmas ornaments.
It was such a great visit. I’d be more sad about them leaving, but we’re headed back to the US next week for about a month, and we’ll get to see people we’ve missed or at least be near enough to call them!