Just pictures, all but one taken within sight of our apartment:

Since it’s now 7 PM and I haven’t posted yesterday’s pictures and blog yet, I might as well throw in today’s activities.

The day started well: we lay abed until 9 AM, showered and had toast and juice on the balcony overlooking the castle. I don’t know what we did after that but by 2 PM we were getting hungry and headed for the waterfront. I, Judy knows, we both took a nap!

Not three houses down the hill we found a museum, open from 2 to 4 on Saturday and Sunday. A nice lady, a docent dressed in period clothing, showed us around, but since her English was limited, she enlisted the help of a man who might have been a caretaker. The house was the built in 1711 and was the home and workshop of a cooper – a man who made casks for the wine trade. There were a number of interesting exhibits about Spiez history, all in German but much of it we could guess: the coming of the railroad, auto road and ferry service. Everyday life in Spiez. An original manual wine press. That sort of thing.

As we left, the lady told us she was 81 years old and studying English on the computer – DuoLingo, of course. I told her I used DuoLIngo for Spanish and we had a good laugh.

Finally, down to the dock and an outdoor restaurant where we shared spare ribs and roasted pork. Good, if not expensive.

As we finished lunch, a trolly train, just like the one in Salzburg, pulled up. The lady handed us tickets. “How much?” I asked. She struggled trying to remember her English, “Zhen . . .” I said “Ten?” Using what little German that remains from my half-semester of German from 1965. I only did a half semester due to pneumonia over Christmas break. “Das ist nicht sehr gut” is the phrase I do remember since that is what the professor invariably said when addressing me. That’s the reason I dropped German and not some other course.

But 10 francs later we were on a nice city tour. The driver enjoyed going around traffic circles not once but twice to turn it into a thrill ride.

Jeff called, so we chatted with him while watching the harbor and mountains across the lake. That brought us to 6 PM and the other part of our survival plan: ice cream. You may recall that grocery stores are closed on Sundays here and starvation was a real possibility. By eating breakfast late, pigging out at on a late lunch and topping the whole thing off with ice cream, there’s a good chance we’ll make it.

So now, that’s it, I promise (fingers crossed just in case I weaken). No more blogging until we leave for Vevey on Saturday.

We’re lying here in bed looking out our windows viewing Lake Thun (Thunarsee) and the mountains to the north.  If we crane our neck to the right we can see the Spiez Castle. The left window looks out on a vineyard. It’s Sunday morning and we’re settled in for a seven-night stay in Spiez, a relatively small town about 15 miles west of Interlachen.

We arrived last night after a day of sightseeing in Zurich. We checked out of our hotel and hit the pavement (actually, cobblestones in Old Town) around 9 AM. First order of business: breakfast. We found a small corner store selling smoothies and croissants not far from our hotel. Perfect. Now the big question: Swiss National Museum or tram ride to Uetiberg, a small town at the top of a hill, recommended by Jeff as having great views of the city. The dilemma was that light rain was forecast to end soon but the cloud base looked pretty low and would we see anything at the top?

We went for Uetiberg and, after fumbling around buying tickets and finding Track 22, we made it with a few minutes to spare (trains run every 20 minutes on weekends, so no big deal). There’s a 10-minute walk from the train station to the top of the hill and, sure enough, the views were cloud obscured in most directions, particularly toward Zurich. But patience pays and eventually the clouds parted to reveal downtown.

There was a light sprinkle or two, but we spent an inordinate amount of time finding the twin towers of Grossmunster, the one right next to our hotel. Imagine my chagrin when Judy found it on her iPhone before I found it on my Fuji with the telephoto lens. Pride cometh before the fall. Problem was, Grossmunster has a nearby church with a green steeple that helps spot the bland-colored Grossmunster. There are two such steeples in that area with green steeples. I finally found the right one and got the shot.

Back in town we stopped at one of Amy’s favorite chocolate stores, Laderach, a block or so from the train station. $75 later we were well stocked for Spiez, Israel and beyond. Hope the stuff doesn’t melt (or we don’t succumb to temptation) before we get to share with our friends on the Israel trip.

Judy had spotted another cathedral to visit: Fraumuenster, which conveniently enough was on the path back to the car park. It’s the one with the more prominent green steeple. Before entering, we had a nice flat bread with tomato, cheese and basil in the church square. We circled the building, looking for the rather nondescript entry way.

On one side of the church, we found a whole series of large fresco paintings on the exterior walls. Each panel – perhaps a dozen of them – obviously told a story but we couldn’t guess the meaning. A man, about our age, dressed in a suit, was leaning against a pillar and said to us, “Would you like to know the story of these frescos?”

He went on to tell us that it’s the story of Christianity arriving in Zurich. Early Christians crossed over the mountains from Germany but were persecuted by the local pagans and the Roman military. This was maybe third or fourth century CE, so late in the Roman Empire period. Two young girls were captured and, guess what, beheaded by the Romans in the final panel.

 “And the girls picked up their heads and carried them to the site of Grossmunster, where Charlamagne built the church,” said I, smuggly. “That’s the myth but of course archeologists have debunked the myth,” he said. “Actually, the man depicted in the statue over there was Charlamagne’s grandson and those two women in that painting were his two great granddaughters, members of one of Zurich’s principal families at the time.

The man told us the frescos were painted in the 1930s. He was there because he had just given a one-hour lecture to a group of fellow members of his club. He lingered, I’m guessing, because he loved the frescos and church and wanted time alone with them.

Finally, we entered Fraumuenster. Of particular interest was a set of five stained-glass installations created by Marc Chagall, the Belarusian-born artist who started doing glass works at the age of 70. I believe there’s another Chagall stained glass installation in Tel Aviv. We’ll have to track it down if time permits.

But now it’s time to beat feet to Spiez. We walked back to our hotel, but on the way we encountered some sort of mass floating party heading down the River Limmit. Everyone was floating with the aid of some yellow blow-up. We asked a couple standing next to us and they said, “We live here and have no idea.”

Finally, we retrieved our bags and hiked on to the parking garage (gasp: 69 francs for 28 hours). We were on the road by 3:30.

The route to Spiez went by way of Lucerne and Interlachen. We’d traveled the Lucerne-Interlachen route with Carter 14 days ago by DayTrip car. At the time we said, “Glad Grampa doesn’t have to drive this twisty mountain road with all this traffic.” Guess what, Grampa got to do it after all. It wasn’t that bad and despite moderately heavy traffic and construction delays, we reached our Airbnb about 5:30 PM.

One more problem: our cupboard was bare, save half a loaf of bread (breakfast toast) and a carton of orange juice. A quick google revealed that all local grocery stores were closed and wouldn’t reopen until Monday (this is Saturday night). Not only that, but there’s some mega music festival going on in town. Roads are blocked and there’s a whole lot of people roaming the streets. A quick call to several restaurants found no tables available. Finally, we found one nearby that could fit us in.

The good news was that the restaurant was down by the water, all downhill from our Airbnb. The view of the lake and the docking steamers was fun. The fish we ate was great. The 500 ml of wine we drank (100 to Judy and 400 to Jon) was local and good. The dessert. Let’s forget about the dessert, although I remembered it all night long. The bad news: the restaurant is all uphill back to our Airbnb. But the exercise did us good and we missed only one turn in the dark before getting back home.

Looks like today we’ll have to drive into Interlachen, half an hour, for groceries or subsist on more restaurant food.

There are plenty of things to do around here: boat rides on Lake Thun, a par-three golf course in Grindenwald, the town we stayed in with Carter before doing the Jungfraujoch. Bern is only 30 miles or so away. But we’re committed to down time and relaxation at this, the midpoint of our trip. We’ll crack the spine of a book (e-book) or two.

One thing I’ll try to cut back on during our week in Spiez is blogging, so don’t count on much if anything from me for the next seven days. If I do post, those of you on my notification list will get an email. When the week is over, we’ll have five more days in Switzerland before going to Israel. We return home on September 19.

But you can’t go by what I just said. I did another day. Read on, if you wish.

Do you think this guy is capable of creating a blog entry and editing 250 pictures?

Me neither. Maybe mañana en la mañana. Ooops, Morgan frûh

Well, here we are in our hotel room in Zurich. We checked out of the farm Airbnb in Vaduz around 9, crossed the river into Switzerland over the bridge next to the Old Bridge we walked across yesterday, hit the A3 and an hour and a half later, here we were. The parking garage I had selected was full but the one right next door, the one the hotel had recommended, was available and so one interesting turnaround in an alleyway and the deed was done.

Hotel Rossli is in the shadow of the Grossmunster Cathedral. Judy had read about the cathedral and wanted to see it. I brought it up in Google maps and lo and behold, we walked a few feet and there it was in all its glory.

It’s an impressive building with an interesting history. It was probably first built around 1100 CE. The legend goes that Felix and Regula were chased by heathens to Zurich where they were beheaded. They picked up their severed heads and staggered a few feet to where they wished to be buried. Later, Charlamagne’s horse, chasing a stag while hunting, stumbled on their graves.  Charlamagne caused Grossmunster to be erected on that spot.

Grossmunster turned out to be the starting point for the Reformed Church in northern German speaking Switzerland. Two of its leaders, Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) and Heinrich Bullinger (1504 – 1575) were instrumental in following the lead of Martin Luther and Calvin to reform the previously Roman Catholic practices to focus on the teachings of the bible, now available, thanks to Zwingli, in German.

Zwingli was a radical: he had most of the decorative artwork removed. Both reformers caused change not only to the church but to Zurich politics as well. The Presbyterians in the US use some of Bullinger’s writings in their Book of Confessions.

We toured the cathedral, of course. Judy did the crypt and I climbed the 186 stairs to the bell tower.

Next, lunch. Following Niece Amy’s recommendation we walked maybe 20 minutes across the river to the world’s first vegetarian restaurant, Hotel Hilti. The food was great. Judy had a vegetarian stroganoff and I did the Hilti Cheeseburger, also vegetarian although I went with the Swiss cheese rather than going whole hog, so to speak, with the vegan cheese.

Zurich is the biggest city in Switzerland, and it’s an all-business kind of place. Lots of guys running around in nicely tailored suits (although hardly any ties in evidence). Lots of English spoken. Zurich is a major world financial capital.

Two business guys sitting next to us at lunch were speaking English, one from Switzerland and the other from the US. I didn’t eavesdrop too much but I’ve given and received enough sales pitches in my day to recognize one when I hear it. The Swiss guy, a banker I’ll bet, was schmoozing the American with some sort of financial deal. The risk of rising and falling interest rates was part of the pitch.

It’s been pretty warm here today, 86 F and humid but we soldiered on, walking down the Bahnhofstrasse to Lake Zurich. It’s THE high-end shopping street in Zurich and probably the

world. Amy’s favorite watch store, Beyer, had a $25,000 watch in the window. We didn’t go in for fear of making an impulse buying decision we’d later regret. Besides, $25K doesn’t even give you a phone like my Apple Watch.

At the lake, we inquired about a boat ride. The “short” cruise left in 3 minutes, 17 Swiss Francs for two, please. I waved my watch (Apple pay isn’t supported for $25K either), we walked to the ship, boarded and they drew the gangplank up and away we went.

The trip took us maybe 20% of the length of the lake, which is about 16 miles long. It’s a ferry boat. Many passengers got on and off at the dozen or so stops we made. The shoreline is heavily populated, with one town after another as far as we went. Clearly the lakeshore serves as bedroom communities for Zurich.

Now it’s hotel check in time and so we hoof it up the hill to our garage to extract enough clothing and stuff to get by for one night. The streets in Old Town, where our hotel is located, are cobblestone and hilly. No cars allowed. I insisted that we move the stuff into a backpack rather than trying to wheel a big suitcase. Mission accomplished; we’re checked in.

Normally, we’d hit the pavement and see more sights. But it’s hot. Our room is fully air conditioned if you consider two fans as air conditioning. Nonetheless, we’re laying low until dinner time.

We’re planning on staying here until after lunch tomorrow before heading to our one-week stay near Interlachen. The forecast is for a rainy day tomorrow so we may end up in the museum. If not, there’s a funicular ride recommended by Jeff.

Dinner was at an Amy-Recommended fondu restaurant. No menu to speak of, just fondu and wine. What more do you need? It was heavenly. Fifty years ago we had fondu at our honeymoon hotel on Lake Geneva. I’ll save that fondu story for when we’re there this trip.

Walking to and from the restaurant, we were impressed that Old Town, at least is a young person place. We crossed half a dozen squares – plazas on our half—mile walk. Each had loud, modern music playing. The crowds were large and young. And outside café tables were everywhere. A happening place

We’re going to be staying in one spot for the next seven days – Spiez on the south shore of Lake Thunersee near Interlachen. The idea is to take a break, here at the midpoint of our six-week itinerary. Our instructions are, from our kids, to do nothing but sit and read books. That ain’t happenin’ but we’ll try to relax rather than put on our usual day-long trek to the nearest cathedral, ruins or museum.