Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2007 10:28:49 GMT -5
since you will be spending time there i thought you and other board members might enjoy reading my trip report from zurich
started our trip on 5/5 by staying at the airport mariott so we would have less problem being at the airport for our 6am flight. we were lucky enough to have accumulated enough airline miles to fly first and business class to munich. this required us to fly to denver, change planes, to dulles, change planes and on to munich. the closest city to italy that united could give us to conform with our schedule. oh well, a free ticket is a free ticket. at the airport hotel jan realized that she overpacked and sent some items home with her sister.
the plane ride was long but reasonably comfortable due to riding in the front of the bus. all arrivals and departures were on time and there were no problems making connections.
arrived in munich the following am. took the s bahn train 1 or 8 to the munich hbh. had a few hours to kill before the train left so we checked our luggage and walked around a bit at the station. actually stopped at a mc donalds for a cold drink. remember for us this was a 17 hr trip and we hadn’t reached zurich yet.
at the train station there was a man smoking a cigarette who actually got up from his seat and walked about 10 feet to put it out in an ashtray. just like in the usa lol
if you are considering train travel please remember that when going between germany and switzerland the train goes through austria and your ticket must show that. if it doesn’t you have to buy a supplement ticket to cross that small piece of territory. the same holds true in reverse. they do check your tickets and you can be fined if you don’t have it. also, they only announce trains occasionally. they do not announce all stops and therefore you may have a tough time being sure that you are on the right train. what I found is that all stations have centrally located bulletin boards showing arrivals and departures, not the automated ones. find this board and find your train by number and time of departure on that same line in small print are all the stops listed and their times of arrivals. find your arrival city on that line and you have confirmed that you are going to board the right train. the track number is also given and you can confirm that at the track. suggest that you write down one or two of the stops before yours. you can then spot them as you arrive the station. in that way you will know when your station is due, then you can get your luggage to the door before the train arrives at your station. trains generally stay at a station for 2 or 3 minutes. train stations are generally not announced at the station
finally arrived in zurich. had the name and address of our hotel on a piece of paper and I handed it to the driver who asked me in perfect english “are you sure you hotel is in zurich?” well he did find the hotel in his street map book and off we went. the hotel roessli is located on a narrow cobble stoned street that can only be reached on foot form the street above or the street below. the driver thought we were at the right street, but before being stranded I decided to get out of the cab and walk up this street and make sure it was the right one. while getting out of the taxi the driver allowed the cab to roll forward a bit and the wheel went over my foot. as I limped up the street I saw the sigh of the hotel roessli so I went back to get our luggage and jan and I walked to the hotel.
we decided that since this was our first stop after a grueling trip that we would splurge and get the penthouse with terrace. the elevator goes to the 5th floor and the penthouse is on the 6th . so we had to carry our luggage up the last flight and look forward to that flight of stairs every time we came back to the hotel. a very nice large room with another bed in the alcove. the room was done completely in white including the wood floors. the bathroom was the largest one we had on the entire trip and it included a soaking tub which jan fell asleep in.
didn’t see the door to the terrace but was shown a button on the wall and when you pressed it a flight of metal stairs, like the ones you have in your garage to get to the attic, came down and if you climbed them it led to the roof that had a table and 4 chairs on it. we did not use the terrace often. I would consider staying there again but not in the penthouse. breakfast was good and contained all the usual including meats and assorted cheeses.
no a/c would have been nice to have during the day but was not needed in the evening
the hotel is located very near where the limmat river meets lake. we took a walk over the bridge crossing the river and found an outdoor cafeteria restaurant that has a full serve restaurant in the back
called restaurant bauschanzli and we decided to eat there because of the view of the river and the old part of the town. as I recalled the food was nothing spectacular but we were very tired from the flight and it was the first meal we ate while not being in motion.
we were back in the room and asleep by 9:30
had a good nites sleep and a filling breakfast. this was are only full day in zurich and we started by walking up bahnhoff straus and looking at all the famous designer shops. we decided that since we only had one day that we would take the classic trolley tour of zurich lasting 1 ½ hrs. if you only have a short stay in zurich this is a good way to get an overview of the city. if you have more then one day, then this is a good way to start, making notes of things you want to go back and see on your own.
at this point in time I had only seen 2 people in shorts and one of them was a 5 year old
the trolley is parked about 15 min from the train station where you buy your ticket. on the way we stopped at another mcdonalds for a drink because we had already discovered that ice had not yet been invented and that only mickey ds had any.
ride was very interesting and informative. had lunch at the walhalla, right across from where the trolley left us off. it was here that I discovered tomato and mozzarella.
took a leisurely walk back to the hotel on limmat quai
back at the hotel we took a break just to rest our eyes and napped for a few hours. had 7:30 reservations at the kronenhalle, a board recommendation that was located about 6 min from the hotel. spent 2 hours at the restaurant, service was unreal, formal and no fooling around. jan started with a crab cocktail, when presented there were 3 pools of french dressing on the plate and 3 big piles of crab on each pool of dressing. I had herring and crème sauce. everything in finished on a sideboard at tableside. unreal bread and rolls. restaurant is starting to fill up. I had the house specialty, thin strips of veal in a wonderful sauce with what I can only describe as a potato pancake – only fantastic jan had roast beef with grilled small potatoes and peas with onions. when we finished our entrees the waiter cleared the plates and then served us the rest of the entrée. seems that they only put about 75% of the entrée on the original plate and the rest is kept in a warmer til you finish the first plate. had tea and coffee and we split a chocolate mousse.
with 2 kir and a carafe of riesling cost was 222sfr approx 135us and worth every penny. toward the end of the meal a party of 5 came in with a big dog. the waiter told us it is against the law to refuse service to someone with an dog. during the meal a woman came by, who I believe is the owner and spoke with us for a few minutes
up at 6:30 to have breakfast and to catch the train to lake como italy
the rest of this report will be posted, eventually on the Italian boards as Lougee1043-trip report lake como,
venice, florence, rome, pisa, sml, milan and then on the germany board munich
if you have any questions please contact me directly
started our trip on 5/5 by staying at the airport mariott so we would have less problem being at the airport for our 6am flight. we were lucky enough to have accumulated enough airline miles to fly first and business class to munich. this required us to fly to denver, change planes, to dulles, change planes and on to munich. the closest city to italy that united could give us to conform with our schedule. oh well, a free ticket is a free ticket. at the airport hotel jan realized that she overpacked and sent some items home with her sister.
the plane ride was long but reasonably comfortable due to riding in the front of the bus. all arrivals and departures were on time and there were no problems making connections.
arrived in munich the following am. took the s bahn train 1 or 8 to the munich hbh. had a few hours to kill before the train left so we checked our luggage and walked around a bit at the station. actually stopped at a mc donalds for a cold drink. remember for us this was a 17 hr trip and we hadn’t reached zurich yet.
at the train station there was a man smoking a cigarette who actually got up from his seat and walked about 10 feet to put it out in an ashtray. just like in the usa lol
if you are considering train travel please remember that when going between germany and switzerland the train goes through austria and your ticket must show that. if it doesn’t you have to buy a supplement ticket to cross that small piece of territory. the same holds true in reverse. they do check your tickets and you can be fined if you don’t have it. also, they only announce trains occasionally. they do not announce all stops and therefore you may have a tough time being sure that you are on the right train. what I found is that all stations have centrally located bulletin boards showing arrivals and departures, not the automated ones. find this board and find your train by number and time of departure on that same line in small print are all the stops listed and their times of arrivals. find your arrival city on that line and you have confirmed that you are going to board the right train. the track number is also given and you can confirm that at the track. suggest that you write down one or two of the stops before yours. you can then spot them as you arrive the station. in that way you will know when your station is due, then you can get your luggage to the door before the train arrives at your station. trains generally stay at a station for 2 or 3 minutes. train stations are generally not announced at the station
finally arrived in zurich. had the name and address of our hotel on a piece of paper and I handed it to the driver who asked me in perfect english “are you sure you hotel is in zurich?” well he did find the hotel in his street map book and off we went. the hotel roessli is located on a narrow cobble stoned street that can only be reached on foot form the street above or the street below. the driver thought we were at the right street, but before being stranded I decided to get out of the cab and walk up this street and make sure it was the right one. while getting out of the taxi the driver allowed the cab to roll forward a bit and the wheel went over my foot. as I limped up the street I saw the sigh of the hotel roessli so I went back to get our luggage and jan and I walked to the hotel.
we decided that since this was our first stop after a grueling trip that we would splurge and get the penthouse with terrace. the elevator goes to the 5th floor and the penthouse is on the 6th . so we had to carry our luggage up the last flight and look forward to that flight of stairs every time we came back to the hotel. a very nice large room with another bed in the alcove. the room was done completely in white including the wood floors. the bathroom was the largest one we had on the entire trip and it included a soaking tub which jan fell asleep in.
didn’t see the door to the terrace but was shown a button on the wall and when you pressed it a flight of metal stairs, like the ones you have in your garage to get to the attic, came down and if you climbed them it led to the roof that had a table and 4 chairs on it. we did not use the terrace often. I would consider staying there again but not in the penthouse. breakfast was good and contained all the usual including meats and assorted cheeses.
no a/c would have been nice to have during the day but was not needed in the evening
the hotel is located very near where the limmat river meets lake. we took a walk over the bridge crossing the river and found an outdoor cafeteria restaurant that has a full serve restaurant in the back
called restaurant bauschanzli and we decided to eat there because of the view of the river and the old part of the town. as I recalled the food was nothing spectacular but we were very tired from the flight and it was the first meal we ate while not being in motion.
we were back in the room and asleep by 9:30
had a good nites sleep and a filling breakfast. this was are only full day in zurich and we started by walking up bahnhoff straus and looking at all the famous designer shops. we decided that since we only had one day that we would take the classic trolley tour of zurich lasting 1 ½ hrs. if you only have a short stay in zurich this is a good way to get an overview of the city. if you have more then one day, then this is a good way to start, making notes of things you want to go back and see on your own.
at this point in time I had only seen 2 people in shorts and one of them was a 5 year old
the trolley is parked about 15 min from the train station where you buy your ticket. on the way we stopped at another mcdonalds for a drink because we had already discovered that ice had not yet been invented and that only mickey ds had any.
ride was very interesting and informative. had lunch at the walhalla, right across from where the trolley left us off. it was here that I discovered tomato and mozzarella.
took a leisurely walk back to the hotel on limmat quai
back at the hotel we took a break just to rest our eyes and napped for a few hours. had 7:30 reservations at the kronenhalle, a board recommendation that was located about 6 min from the hotel. spent 2 hours at the restaurant, service was unreal, formal and no fooling around. jan started with a crab cocktail, when presented there were 3 pools of french dressing on the plate and 3 big piles of crab on each pool of dressing. I had herring and crème sauce. everything in finished on a sideboard at tableside. unreal bread and rolls. restaurant is starting to fill up. I had the house specialty, thin strips of veal in a wonderful sauce with what I can only describe as a potato pancake – only fantastic jan had roast beef with grilled small potatoes and peas with onions. when we finished our entrees the waiter cleared the plates and then served us the rest of the entrée. seems that they only put about 75% of the entrée on the original plate and the rest is kept in a warmer til you finish the first plate. had tea and coffee and we split a chocolate mousse.
with 2 kir and a carafe of riesling cost was 222sfr approx 135us and worth every penny. toward the end of the meal a party of 5 came in with a big dog. the waiter told us it is against the law to refuse service to someone with an dog. during the meal a woman came by, who I believe is the owner and spoke with us for a few minutes
up at 6:30 to have breakfast and to catch the train to lake como italy
the rest of this report will be posted, eventually on the Italian boards as Lougee1043-trip report lake como,
venice, florence, rome, pisa, sml, milan and then on the germany board munich
if you have any questions please contact me directly
