Travel Day 815 – Zurich, SWITZERLAND
As my second day in Switzerland began, I was really excited because there was actually a tiny little bit of snow on the ground. But unfortunately it was just enough to last for a few hours before it simply disappeared…
Rathausbruecke in Zurich, Switzerland
So I used the day to explore a little bit more of Zurich and took off to have another wander around town. First I tried to find some landmarks that we had passed by yesterday and then I wanted to see some new things along the way. Some of the landmarks we had passed yesterday were the big lake with the snow mountains in the background, an old water tower that was converted to a nice restaurant, an elevated area with a viewing platform and of course the river and the main shopping street…
As I had a little more time for leisure today and could take the time to stroll around, I became even more aware of how organized and clean everything was. I always thought of Germany as the most orderly and rational place in the world, but it seemed that Switzerland had taken those attributes to the next level and developed them even further. But there was another aspect that has developed quite differently and I became aware of it when I walked into a local supermarket…
Obviously a lot of the products were local, but what became the centre of my attention was one shelf with Switzerland fan items. This would be an unthinkable thing in Germany, but here there was an entire shelf with everything wrapped in the Swiss flag and patriotically celebrating the country. It was almost a bit amusing, but I didn’t really remember ever seeing another country that had so many items with the country flag and the country colours in a supermarket, not even in the US. At least this gave me a clue as to why people here thought that Switzerland was the best country. Obviously everyone was extremely proud of Switzerland…
Either way, I still didn’t quite think that this was the best country in the world, but out of all the fan articles I found one that interested me. It was of course an original Swiss army knife. First I found a lot on display in one of the stores and then I realized that pretty much every single store had them on offer. Since I was never really happy with the heavy knife I had with me for travelling, I thought this would be a great chance to downgrade and find a simpler knife that would add less weight to my bag…
Eventually I did find a good knife that seemed to be the best for my use and I finally retired to one of the cafes for some hot chai, local cake and some reading of my book. Yeah, Switzerland seemed quite nice this time, maybe still not extremely exciting, but at least really nice… : )
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