Day Two -- Zurich

Since we have a five hour layover in Zurich our plan was to catch the train into town. We arrived just a few minutes late so we hit the ground in a hurry. We followed the signs for the Bahn (train). In route I got some Swiss Francs (CHF) from the ATM and locked up my backpack in a locker at the airport. Matt got us 24 hour passes for the train. Two stops got us to Zurich HB. Once outside I was confused about the direction but Matt seemed to know where we were without ever having been to Zurich. We found the river Limmat and headed across the bridge.

 

I wanted to see two churches that sit across the river from each other.  Both of them close at 6 p.m. and it was 5:30 p.m. We got to Grossmunster church by 5:45 p.m. afraid that they might have already closed the doors but were relieved to find we could go inside. 

 

They had the most interesting stained glass.

 

Grossmunster also offers a climb up steep, narrow steps to a grand view of the city. There was no time left for that so we headed outside to the plaza outside named for Zwingli, where a young boy was playing with a dollhouse size version of the church. 

 

Back across the Limmat we marveled at the amazing view of the Alps.

 

We made our way to the Fraumunster church. 

 

It was now 5:58 p.m. and we were feeling lucky. Perhaps the church would be open and we would get to peek at their lovely stained glass windows, designed by Chagall. But, alas, we were not lucky. So instead we meandered through beautiful little alleyways and enjoyed the view of the river from this side.

 

This time we found the main entrance to the bahn station, which has a statue of Escher out front.

 

The train station in Zurich is massive. It is easy to get confused.  There are trains heading to multiple airports. We managed to find the train heading to the Zurich airport. Security at the airport was deserted compared to SFO. In fact, it felt a bit like the rapture had come and we had been left behind. We breezed through and began looking for a place to eat something. We found a "sports bar" playing Beach Boy music and showing a marathon race on the large screen. Outside it began to rain and we were glad it waited for us to get back to the airport. When we got to our gate there was a lovely double rainbow. 

 

Boarding was a mess. Once on the plane a passenger got into a fight about his luggage and the captain had to come out of the cockpit and negotiate. I would have rather had him checking out the plane. We left a half hour late, not a big deal unless you are exhausted. We arrived in Athens at 1 a.m. expecting some form of customs but there was none. I had arranged for a transfer from the airport to our hotel near the Acropolis in Athens. Outside a man holding a sign that said "Susan Boyer" shook our hands and escorted us to our waiting car. Bottled water was waiting for us in the back seat. He put on driving gloves and made record time in getting us to our hotel. We collapsed into bed gratefully. We had left on Friday night and arrived Sunday morning!