Bottom of the Lake

We suffered a big disappoint-ment this weekend as we were anticipating receiving our first U.S. visitors...but the plans were canceled late last week due to Eurail overbookings. A good friend is unexpectedly (for us) visiting Paris & Germany for nearly two weeks and planned to swing by Zürich, but our consolation plan is to visit him instead (more on that in an upcoming post).

So we moped a bit on a rockin' Friday night--visiting the monstrous suburban IKEA (hey, we never did that at home!), attempting to finally furnish our remaining apartment rooms, but were logistically stymied in nearly every department--the couch we wanted delivered isn't available for delivery, the bureau we wanted to carry home could only be delivered, various desired items weren't in stock, etc. One decision did pay off, that is, we passed on IKEA's delicious in-store Swedish meatballs & fries for dinner and instead later discovered our Stadelhofen neighborhood's restaurant equivalent of Perkins--a major score.

Most of Saturday we moped in our sleep, as we woke late and then grabbed an early afternoon nap. All (mild) winter we've both felt constantly more tired than seems justified, either thanks to the malign effect of strange Alpine föhn winds or some lagging subconscious stress or both (although I'm kidding about the föhn, the winds in Switzerland and Germany were actually particularly nasty and gusty all weekend). We grocery shopped Saturday afternoon then grabbed appetizers at our new favorite Old Town tapas restaurant to debate Sunday plans. We've been dying to ski, but we were watching our friends' dog over the weekend and couldn't stretch the necessary time. We fell asleep Saturday night with the laptop computer in bed, still searching other short daytrip options...zzzzzz...

Steph awoke Sunday with an inspiration--an idea originally suggested by our Kloten landlady and repeated several times by me over the months but which she now took credit for--we'd go to the south side or far side or "bottom" side of Lake Zürich to a reportedly cute lakeside town called...Rapperswil! Despite clouds, wind and intermittent rain forecasted more or less all day, nothing dissuades us from an inspired walk, so we donned our bomb-proof Patagonia rain gear and bid the dogs Tschüss!.

An express commuter train runs from our nearby Stadelhofen station down the lake's east side to Rapperswil so we arrived in a quick 45 minutes door-to-door. The town sits on a small cape jutting into the south tip of Lake Zürich; the (mostly Italian) restaurant- and shop-lined quay a short walk from the train station indeed provided excellent lake and nearby bluff views despite the blustery weather; I'm certain the summertime is gorgeous as the town is also known for rose gardens and widespread flower displays. We left the looming churches and notable old town castle for exploration another day and headed almost immediately out of town, southwest across the lake on Switzerland's longest wooden bridge, a relatively recent reconstruction to reproduce the original bridge that existed as early as the 1300's (!).

We followed the always-perfect hiking signs for slightly over an hour and 3.5 miles of steady wind and intermittant drizzle and sunbursts, over a small canal system to the town of Pfäffikon on the south and west side of Lake Zürich, or the "opposite corner" from our domicile. Interestingly (to us) and unknowingly, we also had crossed in and out of three different Kantons (counties), those of Zürich and Sankt Gallen and Schwyz, which doesn't mean much for non-residents, so I'm not sure why I mentioned it (St. Gallen makes the best veal bratwurst and Schwyz is one of the oldest four communities that established Switzerland). Nonetheless, we were quite tickled.

In Pfäffikon we tested some espresso and cappuccino to ensure consistency across cantonal lines; Stephanie convinced me to catch the earlier train home before I could similarly test the french fries. We chalked it up as yet another great Swiss "backyard road-trip" excursion, not a bad one in the bunch so far. And a not so subtle feeling keeps growing that Switzerland will be absolutely awesome in the summertime...

Pictures and the always-fun terrain map (grab and drag a little to the left to see Rapperswil):

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2hd8fyj.7v43xy47&x=0&y=ms2nw0


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