Zürich to St Moritz

Before breakfast we did a quick run to the supermarket for lunch and snack supplies. I don’t know what food on Swiss trains is like, but if it’s any more expensive than supermarket food we don’t need it.

We packed our bags and headed to the station early, keen to try to get seats on the best side of each train.

Our journey from Zurich to St Moritz is in two parts and for the first half Luke had read that it was best to sit on the left, for the second half on the right.

We managed excellent seats for the first half, having four to ourselves. The first section of the trip was along the side of Lake Zug. It reminded me a lot of the train to Interlaken. Bike paths, parks, people on stand up paddle boards and sailing on the lake. It all looked very idyllic but the lady in the hostel told me the water was around 14 degrees at the moment.

Then the train headed into farmland and alongside a milky aqua lake surround by high peaks.

We changed trains at Chur and got to sit on the right side but facing backwards. Fortunately the girl who was sitting across from us got off only a few stops along and we could move across.

There is a more expensive and luxurious train but why bother when the normal trains are spotless and have huge windows?

This is the third ever UNESCO protected train route and the rails were laid over 100 years ago.

If you’re reading this because you’re planning on going to St Moritz by train, work out where your hotel is. The walk from the station to some of the hotels is up a steep hill. There is a bus that meets the train at the second last stop and then goes much further up the hill. We would’ve saved ourselves quite a slog.

The tour company had booked us into the Hotel Arte. The staff at reception were lovely and our package for our seven night bike tour includes baggage transport and breakfast every day. The first two nights are in St Moritz, which is just as well as we’ve both only ridden electric bikes once and that was five years ago.

Our room has an Egyptian theme, including a 3D (ish) frieze of the pyramids, which had an LED strip to light it up so… that’s a thing. I’d love to see some of the other rooms!

We checked in and then decided, after looking at the menu of the downstairs hotel, that we could afford their very cheapest item, a margarita pizza. So we booked a table then went out for a walk.

On the way up from the station we passed a strip of boutiques – Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes etc. Every store in our part of town is the very height of luxury and the people walking around the extremely clean and perfectly landscaped streets are dressed in clothing that probably costs more than our entire holiday.

Behind the shopping area is a hill with some beautiful houses. Here’s one that’s brand new.

There’s a real mix of modern and traditional but they all use wood, stone or are decorated like Wes Anderson hotels.

The tower below leans more than the one in Pisa, although it is shorter so it’s harder to tell.

Is it possible for a place to be too clean? It kind of feels like a Disney set of Switzerland.

I can’t tell if we’re out of season or if there’s always no one about in summer. There is a lot of construction and renovation work being done, which makes sense I guess. Can’t do it in Winter!

After a mooch around we went back to the room and got changed for dinner. The restaurant is in the same building. The interior was all wood and they do pizza and also Swiss food like fondue and schnitzel. We had one drink each (the wine was $18 for 100 mls! The beer was 300ml and $14) neither was of particularly exceptional quality. The pizza, which we shared ($30) was mediocre and nowhere near as good as the ones we bought at the supermarket in England and cooked in the oven at our apartment. Even the bain-marie pizza from the coop the other day was much better quality.

The restaurant was also boiling hot and we both felt we would be happier eating picnics in our rooms from now on. I did Google why food is so expensive here and it seems to boil down to ‘because they can’. The supermarket food is cheaper now because Aldi and Lidl (German chains) were allowed in. Thank goodness!

It did occur to me that the exceptionally pristine environment of Switzerland, both in the cities and in the countryside, is at least partially to thank for these high prices. We can barely afford to be here and we make reasonable money – Switzerland will never be accessible to most holidaymakers. I have mixed feelings about this but I’ll enjoy it while I’m here and, to be honest, this will probably be our last visit.

Luke being disgusted by the prices and the quality of the pizza. The staff were lovely and friendly though, and didn’t charge us the $10 the menu threatened for sharing a dish and needing two side plates.

After dinner we continued watching Ghosts and then slept very well, overlooked by pharaohs and in our very cosy beds!

9Jun2023

Zürich On A Budget!

by Miss Penny Black

The day’s plans were somewhat set back by me feeling rather under the weather from the previous evening. Luke got me some toast from the hostel kitchen and made sure I was ok before heading out at 11am to join a walking tour.

I went back to sleep and by 1pm I was ready to get out and about. Fortunately, with the sky being light until nearly 10pm, there’s no rush to get into things early.

Our first activity was to do a walk from one mountain to another along a ridge. we caught a train up to Uetliberg.

There were quite a few people but most were going to the lookout. The trail we were walking featured a scale model of the solar system. But first, these weird reindeer lights.

The view was pretty good, the weather was very fair but became windy and cloudy right at the end.

I didn’t take a photo of the sun at the beginning but it was the width of two basket balls. Some of the planets were so tiny they were encased in Perspex. I think this one is Ceres (not a planet obviously).

Here’s a better one of Saturn. They were clearly in the process of installing new benches. The path was very well set up, with toilets about half way, lots of rest stops and even places you could light fires and have barbecues.

And of course many of the ubiquitous natural springs.

Almost every mountain top in Switzerland has a hotel. This is the view looking back at Uetliberg.

We saw these bright orange butterflies along the trail.

Looking down to Zürich.

We got a message from Lea and Pete while we were walking, saying they had arrived in Melbourne after an uneventful flight.

The road was gravel the whole way (sandals were a bit of a mistake, bits of rock got caught in them) and the occasional cat went past, but apart from one steep-ish bit it was definitely a family friendly walk.

At the opposite end was a cable car down but we stopped at the mountain-top restaurant for a drink first.

A very distant view of snow-capped peaks.

The cable car was short but offered a good view and wasn’t crowded. we had bought a multi-zone 24hr public transport ticket. It was about $30 each and covered all the trains, ferries, cable cars, funiculars, trams – everything. That being said, no one, at any point, checked our ticket and there were no gates that needed a ticket to get through so if you were in Zurich on a very tight budget you could probably get around for free.

Love a cable car!

Next was a walk down to the train station and a ride back into the city. We ate our cornflakes chocolate on the way. It almost had the texture of popping candy chocolate.

The cheap bars of chocolate are very good and only work out to about $1.50 AUD.

Next activity: the funicular! It was tiny. It only went a short way up the hill, from the riverside to the university.

A very cute little station house.

We had then planned to go on a ferry down the river to make the most of our ticket but the ferry finished by 6pm.

We took a walk along the river, enjoying the sun on the buildings and the dark clouds overhead.

The clock face in the background is supposedly the largest in Europe – slightly bigger than Big Ben.

I’d watched some videos online about things to do in Zurich and one suggested the “Zürich car show, which runs from January 1st to December 31st every year”. Zürich isn’t quite as luxury car-heavy as Monaco but it isn’t far off. We didn’t make too much of an effort to look for them, not being car people, but I took photos of a few.

My favourite! I don’t know what make it is though.

Actually, I didn’t see any more luxury cars here than in Windermere, but I can definitely say the people of Zürich are the best dressed I’ve ever seen. Somehow at least 80% of the population look like they’ve just stepped off a yacht, despite this being a landlocked country.

We finished off the evening with ‘Ghosts’, a series on Stan that Mark and Sue recommended. We loved it, thanks for the tip!

Tomorrow: St Moritz!

7Jun2023

Zurich

by Miss Penny Black

We farewelled Lea and Pete before 7am and travelled to London City Airport to catch our flight to Zürich.

The plane had three seats on one side of the aisle and two on the other, an odd arrangement I’d never seen before.

The arrow words finally got some airplay again, keeping us entertained through half the flight.

Zurich airport’s underground train station.

It was a quick ride to the middle of Zürich and a short walk to our hostel, where we had booked a private room with ensuite. This room was costing us about the same per night as the whole flat in Camden… but it feels more spacious!

We’re on the sixth floor so there’s a bit of a view across the rooftops around us. Something we have noticed is many of the roofs have gardens, and balconies are often filled with plants too.

We had a shower then went out for a walk. The Otter Hostel is in the old town so we walked through the narrow back streets then along the river.

We stopped at the supermarket to get some food. Eating in a restaurant is pretty much a no go due to prices so supermarkets it is!

This cheese was extremely gooey and had pesto in the centre.

The prices of pre-made food in the supermarket is still high – the equivalent of $20 for a single serve bowl of fancy salad (dressing not included!) but little tubs of potato or pasta salad aren’t too bad and cheese is about the same price as at home. French champagne is much cheaper than at home but we had our duty free to drink anyhow.

This picnic was about $10 AUD each with the cheese.

We found some steps down to the river and stopped to eat.

A couple of people came by and jumped in for a quick swim. Imagine living in a city where the river is clean enough for swimming. Some people even say you can drink straight from it… I’m not quite willing to test that though.

The insanely expensive food. This is a super basic burger place and a meal is about $40 AUD.

We splashed out and bought a beer and a non alcoholic iced tea from the hostel bar. $24 AUD for both.

In the evening we went for a walk along the river and the lights reflected in the water were beautiful.

We also found people salsa dancing in a rotunda in a park.

To finish the evening we decided to unpack, and drink some of our duty free while watching Have You Been Paying Attention (an Australian comedy panel show about the news), it was nice to hear some accents from home.

Unfortunately I got a bit free with the pouring of the drinks and woke up with a shocking hangover – my first of the trip by some kind of miracle. Lesson learned! (I mean, no promises but there’s always a first time!).

Sign outside a nearby restaurant. I don’t regretti spaghetti but I do regretti too much Bacardi😢

5Jun2023

London: War Rooms and the Mithraeum

by Miss Penny Black

On the advice of a large number of people, we bought tickets to the War Rooms, the tiny rooms and and tunnels that Winston Churchill and the British government used as their operations headquarters in WW2.

After a breakfast at home we caught the tube to Embankment and then walked via St James Park.

The War Rooms were very interesting, even for someone like me, who will actively avoid war-related things. We got audio guides and then walked through the narrow and dim corridors, peaking into rooms and trying to imagine what the space would be like when full of tobacco smoke and people rushing around.

In between the historical sections is a large room with lots of detail about Winston Churchill’s life. When buying tickets they said to allow 2.5 hours, but if you really wanted to see and read everything I’d say 3 hours minimum. Unfortunately, in the past I’ve found those sort of estimates usually overdo it and I’d booked a table at 1pm at a nearby pub. Lea and Pete had to rush a bit, which I felt bad about, but it’s hard to predict these things.

It was quite dark the whole way through.

Winston Churchill, a man after my own heart, had noiseless typewriters installed.

We had lunch at the Blue Boar, a pub not far from the War Rooms. It had recently been voted the best pub in London but, being in an office area, was quiet on Sunday.

I left before everyone had finished eating as I was going to meet a friend and everyone else was going to see The Play That Goes Wrong. Luke and I saw it on our last trip but he wanted to see it again.

Luke and I had met Patrick on our Haggis bus tour last time we were here and added him on Facebook. He’d offered to come meet up in London as he only lived an hour away so we arranged to meet at The Crosse Keys.

The Cross Keys is one of the Wetherspoons chain of pubs, which are somewhat notorious for being downmarket but this one was in an old bank building and quite grand.

Patrick hadn’t changed a bit and we had a good catch up about all our travels then headed to the London Mithraeum, which was just around the corner.

Patrick had said he’d wanted to see it so I invited myself along. It’s a Roman Temple that was unearthed by developers and remained a mystery until the last day of the excavation when the head of a statue of Mithras, a Roman god, was unearthed on the site. Not much is known of the cult except that it was male-only (I have no idea how they know this) and there would have been a statue of the god slaying or wrestling a bull at the alter.

The exhibition was in the original location, under an office building. Before going down to the site we looked at an installation of urns, all suspended from the ceiling by rope and fitted with microphones. As we walked around them the microphones picked up the vibration of the urns and each one had a different note. Two of the urns were from Roman times.

Downstairs, the temple was in a dark room. Once a group was in they lowered the lights and played sounds of people speaking Latin and the atmosphere became a bit smoky. There was an outline of the god statue and it was all very evocative. Apparently the cult lasted around 400 years.

Next we walked to Postman’s Park via St Paul’s Cathedral and the ruined church park.

The park has a very sad memorial to everyday heroes who died trying to save someone – a mosaic wall with names and short descriptions of what they died doing. For example, people who died trying to save someone who was drowning.

After that we said goodbye and I caught the tube back to the flat, where Luke, Lea and Pete had just returned. They enjoyed the play a lot and reminded me of many of the funny scenes I’d forgotten.

We all had a rest before finally heading to Dishoom for dinner.

We arrived at almost 10pm and, unsurprisingly, were seated straight away. We shared some rather spicy curries, cheese and chilli toast, broccoli salad and naan. It was at the high end of our spice tolerance but we all coped and no doubt it made us stronger.

We walked home, glad Friday and Saturday nights were past and our noisy neighbourhood would be a little quieter.

4Jun2023

London: Portobello Road and Kensington Palace

by Miss Penny Black

First on the agenda today was Portobello Road. Possibly London’s most famous market and one I hadn’t been to in my many London trips.

We caught the bus there and encountered what was possibly London’s crankiest bus driver. We tried to pay with coins and he exaggeratedly gestured at the lack of a hole for us to hand them to him and snidely said ‘It’s 2023, use a card’. Well excuse us, but every bus we’d caught in every other part of the country took coins. What a jerk! Anyhow, apart from a child with the plague sitting right behind us, the bus journey was otherwise uneventful.

When we got there the markets were just setting up so it wasn’t crazy-crowded. We got a coffee and pastry (no point having a boring breakfast at home when there’s market food to be had) then decided to spilt up.

I ended up buying two spoons – I wanted a large one for learning to make rochers (when fancy food comes in a little roll) like this:

I found a really good one and I also found a little teaspoon for Lea because sometimes cafes don’t offer spoons and she likes to eat the foam off her cappuccino before drinking it. Also the little teaspoon would be perfect for making tiny rochers.

Fake flowers around doorways seem to be a big thing here.

One of my highlights of the markets was a laneway next to the vintage end where there was a giant wall of climbing roses. The smell was unbelievable and several people were stopping to take photos. Imagine having this along your fence!

My new cardigan did clash with it somewhat.

After a wander up and down we found the main food section. There was food from all around the world.

I went for a Peruvian arepa, which always reminds me of Charmaine as she taught me how to make them – although so long ago I’ve forgotten. This had plantain in it, which I haven’t had for ages.

The lady making the arepas put all the ingredients on the grill, including a big handful of cheese and cooked them all together. Watching people at stalls work with bbqs makes me realise how limited our use is at home and it makes me want to be more creative.

By the time we’d bought food and walked to both ends the market was getting very busy. We met Lea and Pete again and Lea and I headed to Kensington Palace, a short walk away.

On the way we saw some interesting fashion!

And some very bland fashion. I’ve given up taking photos of people dressed entirely in white as there are so many, so then I was taking photos of couples dressed entirely in white and now I can’t even be bothered doing that. It’s a mysterious trend. Also.. how do they all stay so clean?

On to the palace, which looked pretty dull on the outside (albeit with lovely gardens) but inside was very interesting.

We’d come to see an exhibition on fashion.

Apart from booking tickets I didn’t actually know that much about the building or the exhibition. It turned out to be a combination of iconic modern pieces, such as Met Gala costumes, combined with examples of historic royal gowns and suits that illustrated the origins of modern trends and inspiration.

But first a visit to the toilet and a look at some wallpaper designed to commemorate Diana, who lived here for many years.

I think the wallpaper was one of my favourite items of the day, actually!

Some of the modern items were really amazing art and political statements, such as Dan Levy’s beautiful Met Gala outfit, which celebrated the LGBTQI+ community and used fine embroidery and interesting techniques to create a really joyful and also comfortable outfit. I loved it!

I don’t really know a lot about the Met Gala but some people seem to use it for good, like Billie Eilish collaborating with a designer on the proviso they stop using fur.

Other pieces were funny, such as this piece worn by Katie Perry.

And some were just stupid, like this Beyoncé piece which was designed to make her look like a goddess for her VMA performance (fine, whatever) but has her own face embroidered on the front. If you need to know someone has reached a level of celebrity where they have no one left around them who will tell them the truth, this is an indicator.

Anyhow, as beautiful as many of the old and new pieces were, the exhibition seemed very focused on glamourising fashion and even going so far as it to say the need for specific items enriched communities around the world. No mention of the devastation of animal populations such as beavers for hats or the slave trade that funded/allowed these lifestyles (and still does), no mention of current ills such as the blinding of the children who sew the fine detail in dark workrooms on India, let alone the global impact of fast fashion.

Art like this is beautiful, but only a handful of the displays were ethical in any way. Emma Watson’s dress was fashioned from Oxfam-collected wedding dresses and Tan France’s Indian outfit, that celebrated his immigrant roots, was another favourite.

After all the slow shuffling along with the crowds my feet were aching so we walked in the direction of the nearest tube station and found a pub for a drink. Lea likes lemon, lime and bitters but it has been impossible to find anyone here who will make one so this time I asked if the barmaid had any angostura bitters and could she please add a dash to the lime and soda… voila! Almost as good as the real thing.

There was a Waitrose near the tube station and so we popped into to compare it to Booths, the fancy northern supermarket. It wasn’t bad but didn’t have a cheese counter so I’m going to have to say that Booths is still my supermarket of choice, although one of the cheeses we bought there was possibly the meltiest Brie-style cheese I’ve ever tried. For future reference it was:

Despite the rail strikes on the day it was a quick trip home to rest our feet. Pete and Luke were not long in getting back, they’d been to see the most recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

We had planned to go to the pub up the road, The Camden Head, for dinner and their free comedy night. Luke and I got there first and ordered dinner, which was late and unremarkable. What was remarkable was how little the bar staff were doing, particularly one young guy who spent all his time looking at his phone, vaping, drinking and high-fiving the security guard while the female bar staff cleared tables and served customers. My parents would have fired him in minutes if he’d worked at one of their pubs!

Unfortunately it turned out that, although this pub was called the Camden Head and there was comedy on, the free, unticketed comedy was at a different pub, also called The Camden Head, which was in Islington, not Camden. The comedy at the one we were at was ticketed and sold out. Sigh.

We ended up going back to the apartment and eating cheese and playing cards until about 10:30.