Wandern am Wasser and Searching for Spargel

Today we left the Italian part of Switzerland and headed north for Zurich, in the German part. We had one last day of travel on our Swiss pass and I wanted to make sure we made the most of it. So, we were up at 630am to leave at 715am to catch the 737am train to Fluegeln. Here’s a good thing about staying in a youth hostel with a community kitchen. There are community leftovers. With the yogurt Susie bought and saved the night before, we added community muesli, awesome brown bread and Bonne Maman apricot jam, as well as instant coffee mixed w/instant chocolate for a fine breakfast at no charge.

We were due to arrive in Fluegeln at 9:41am, and the ferry (steps from the train station) leaves at 9:46am. Even with the train a couple of minutes late, we made the boat. The boat is a lake steamer, launched in 1955, that will take us north, 2 ¾ hours to Lucern, peacefully and slowly. Beautiful ride, gorgeous scenery, and sometimes the sun even came out. Bird-lover Susie found a magazine with poster-quality pics of Swiss waterfowl called “Wandern am Wasser” (Wandering on the water –hey, that’s exactly what we were doing!).

In Luzern (Loo-tsern), we had a big plan: hit the hotspots on a quick tour and find some spargel for lunch. For those of you who don’t know, it’s Spargel Season! Spargel is asparagus, but the best spargel not the pencil-thin stuff I get at Costco. Heck, it isn’t even green! It’s white. And fat. And yummmmy with Hollandaise sauce and new potatoes. Excited by the prospect, I find I can’t stop myself from saying it. It’s fun to say. Shhhpargel. We had to go to a couple of different restaurants to find the stuff, but when we did… mmmm, heaven.

Back on the train, we are in Zurich in about an hour. We take a tram and check in to the Sheraton (using frequent stay points – how exciting to have a bathroom in our room instead of down the hall!) Fortunately, it is early enough to get to the FrauMunster Church and see the amazing windows by Marc Chagall (no pictures allowed!). We walk a bit more until our feet are about ready to fall off, buy our tickets to the airport for the next day and grab some excellent Lebanese food (we are cheesed out) to go and get back to the room. Susie is still on Facebook as I fall asleep. Busy day of travel!