Hi friends! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Hope you’re all wearing green. We’re having healthified shepard’s pie and Guinness in honor of the holiday. We’re also wearing our “I’m Iowish” shirts, proudly of course. Owen’s shirt, courtesy of his Aunt Shelby who lives in Ireland, says “feck it sure it’s grand” which, as you can imagine, is strongly associated with Irish speech. If you’re any good at an Irish accent, try it. It’s fun to say.
All day people smiled at his shirt.
We had gorgeous weather so the kid and I spent the day at Eifelpark – our favorite nice weather hangout.
Shelby sent me this this morning. It’s only been one year but man, has he grown and changed. Um, hi little man. What’d you do with my baby??? Look at him. He’s huge.
Right. I’m already way off topic. Let’s talk about Zurich. Here wee go. (There’s a little leprechaun humor for you. You’re welcome.)
We knew right away what we were in for when the blind booking deal revealed our destination was Zurich, Switzerland. We loved Switzerland the last time we were there and have been anxious to go back ever since.
Unlike Lucerne, Zurich has a much more urban feel. The train station was our first real view of the city as the street cars and trains are about the only way to get around.
We stayed outside the city by the football stadium but the city center was a quick street car ride away and Owen loved peeking out the windows of the street cars — the view is way better than on the underground train.
Our first day there gave us unpleasant weather. Rain off and on and cool temperatures so we decided to spend the day indoors. We first toured the Swiss National Museum. It’s housed in a Neo-Gothic castle and gives a solid background of Swiss history. We spent almost 3 hours in there but didn’t really take many pictures.
Lunch in the museum cafe was absolutely delicious. I ordered the vegetarian dish, spätzle with vegetables in a cheese sauce and it was heavenly. Even Owen, who was still recovering from the stomach bug (he left his breakfast in the hotel lobby that morning), enjoyed a few bites.
Bellies full, we wandered along the river for a while so Owen could see the “gucks” before venturing on to the next museum.
The zoological museum at the University of Zurich was the next best thing to the zoo itself and it appeared to be a hot spot in the city for anyone with kids. Totally hands-on and any imaginable zoo animal in a glass case.
Owen had a blast running around and looking at all the animals.
The view just outside the museum door was incredible – even on a cloudy day.
And I had the cappalletti with ricotta, gorgonzola and parmesan with a sage butter:
And mom and mom-in-law, before you question what we were thinking, I promise we were in a nice neighborhood and staying at a 5-star hotel. 🙂
I’ll be back later with the rest of our Zurich trip. The weather was gorgeous the next day so we did all our sight-seeing then. Stay tuned!
PROST!