Monday, September 28, 2009

ZZZZZZZZZZZZurich..... Camp Zurich

We landed at Zurich yesterday. Was a bit lost at the station before we finally found a Tourist Service office to guide us to our hotel. For once our hotel was far from the city centre. A full eight minutes by tram.

Our hotel, Leonardo Rigihof is really nice. Each room is named after a Zurich intellectual. Ours is named after a gentleman with a long name and has a German explanation on who he was.

K did a song and dance number when she stepped into the small but very modern room. Wooden or Pergo finish on the floors, wooded paneling on the bathroom exteriors making it look different from the rest of the room, a water colour like sketch of old buildings with calligraphy on the wall by the very comfortable bed, modern and aesthetic lighting, well designed bathroom gleaming and yet pleasing to look at, glass doors curtains with watercolour strips which open onto a largish balcony which looks onto a lovely stone house with a slanted wooden roof and bright flowers in the window.

Most of our hotels in this trip the aristocratic Villa Toscane at Montreux, the cottage like Christiana at Zermatt, the stately early 1900s building with a 21st century soul Waldstatterhof at Lucerne and now Rigihof go against the popular belief that base level three or four stars in Europe have very small and dingy rooms. Each of these hotel rooms have been quite different and distinct.

We had kept all our shopping for Zurich which was a bit of a bummer as all shops were shut as it was Sunday. The city looked like the Fort area of Mumbai on a Sunday. An office district, with European buildings from the beginning of the last century, completely empty. We have faced the biggest language problem here so far.

We were bored and for the first time got onto a river cruise. The staff at Toscane and Ricky at Waldstatterhof had warned us against a river cruise. They were right. It turned out to be the singularly most boring experience in Switzerland. The sort of thing where a boy and girl might enter as friends, decide to get married in between and file for a divorce by the end of the trip.

K and I rested our weary feet for one and a half hours and joined the jubilant exclamations of all around when the cruise ended.

Hopefully today, a Monday, is another day.

4 comments:

SwB said...

Damn, I told you not to go to Zurich! :) I lived there for nearly 3 months man! Most interesting thing there was the Zoo!

And please - PLEASE - don't do any shopping in Zurich. Switzerland is NOT a shopping place ... unless you happen to be an Arab Sheikh and fancy some diamond studded timepieces. Even those are be cheaper at Heera Pana!!

Take the train to Winterthur and go to the Rhine Falls. You'll like that(weather permitting!).

Kalyan Karmakar said...

hey SWB...only here in trasit and a total of 24 hrs...you wont take away my badra entry permit I hope :)...we did stumle upon the cheapest shopping in switzerland....still ned to be a sheikh for that though

Nitin Bhandari said...

hey ... interesting stuff..

i went to swiss on my honeymoon earlier this year...reading ur blog reminded me of that...

i think switzerland is the most romantic destination...
we went to zermatt, interlaken, lucerne and Zurich..
Zermatt is a snow paradise... with gornegratt and matterhorn...
contary to u .. we loved interlaken... i guess u shld have taken a trip to the surrounding villages around interlaken .. like Murren, Lauterbrunnen etc. amazing stuff...

Lucerne is amazing... Mt. Titlis leaves u spellbound... and it was so much fun skiing and sledging on the mount pliatus...

zurich is ok too..the nightlife is great ..(we were there on a saturday)

Kalyan Karmakar said...

Hey Just Another Indian, thanks for dropping in. I am so missing Switzerland lvoes Zermatt. Actually we didnt want to spend more after Matterhorn so skipped Titlis et al. So did Interlaken a bit of a disservice. I guess we are also a bit of what of Lonely Planet S called 'urban at heart' so feasted on the towns. Look forward to hearing from. Loved Lucerne too. We have been mariied for 8 yrs now. Went to Goa for our honeymoon. Cheers and look forward to hearing more from you

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