Slept in and caught the 10am shuttle to the airport, then got a train to Zurich HB. One of the goals today was to find some souvineers, so I was on the lookout for soccer jerseys for my son. I had noticed a store that had some in the station last week when we arrived, so I wandered around trying to find it again - with no luck. I did manage to get myself pretty turned around by the time I exited the station. I wanted to head back towards Altstadt, but instead found myself wandering around bahnhofstrasse, the more upscale shopping section. Got myself a big pretzel for breakfast - yum.
I spent most of the day either exploring Altstadt or hanging around the intersection near Bellevueplatz watching the world go by. Traffic was far lighter today (Saturday) than on the Friday Jim and I walked around town.
Not a lot of narrative for this day, mostly just pictures.
That BMW C1 is pretty interesting
Ah, my first bike. Mine had wire wheels and a 4-into1 Kerker
Didn't think that would be legal
Loved the fashionable women on scooters
OK...
Neat little minibike
How NOT to look cool in Europe
A Wiesmann GT
Nice Givi setup - must be an STN'er
No shortage of these trike monstrosities
Kid in full leather - nice!
The MT-01 has a similar-looking exhaust to my Multistrada, just 5x bigger
Speaking of Multistradas, I only saw 3 or 4 the whole week
Interesting city bike. Looks like it needs a helping hand.
Wow. Just wow.
Out shopping
Gorgeous Italian machinery. The bike isn't bad looking either.
The intersection near Bellevueplatz
OMG. Ferrari 275 GTB, worth in the neighborhood of $1 million.
What the?
Sorry for the bad quality, just shooting as I brought the camera up to my eye
I took several hundred pictures of the exotic and interesting cars that went by, here's just a sample of some of the best. If you're interested in seeing more, you can check out my "Best Cars of Europe" gallery or to see all the pics check out the Cars gallery.
Clockwise from top left: Old Citroen 2CV, $450,000 Mercedes SLR McLaren (never seen one in person), Fiat Dino 2000 Coupe, Smart car with no windshield
Clockwise from top left: first Skyline GTR I've seen, old Aston convertible, first Audi R8 I've seen, very old Citroen 2CV
Clockwise from top left: cool Alfa sedan, giant Lincoln Continental, cool Ferrari 308 GT4, Lambo Gallardo Spyder
Clockwise from top left: never seen a BMW Z1 before, Ferrari F430, Caterham, Maserati Indy
Flea market across the river
Walking around the flea market at one point a small boy, perhaps 7 or 8 years old, started crying to his dad for some reason. Not a whiny "buy me this" cry, but an "I just poked my eye into a clothes rack" cry. Made me instantly very homesick for my son.
Very cool kid's flea market (I think)
Interesting fellow giving out condoms (notice the little pink "novelty" in his left hand)
Mmm, life is good here
Zurich certainly is pretty
Eventually dinner beckoned. I didn't want to stop car-spotting, so I started a game. If an exotic car didn't go by in 10 minutes I'd go and eat. No Porsches, Astons or Bentleys - had to be Ferrari, Lambo, or some other fantastic vehicle. That didn't work - fabulous cars I'd never seen in person still whizzed by almost constantly.. I shortened it to 5 minutes to no avail. 3 minutes. Oh well, I'll just have to turn my back on the rolling museum and find some food. Dinner was just OK, service was typically efficient and humorless Swiss that made me miss Italy even more.
Some things I was surprised I didn't hear in the city: screaming kids, barking dogs, honking horns, English. Walking around NYC or Philly is a non-stop racket, Zurich was positively serene.
Long exposure
Trolley and Zurich HB
Eventually I had to head back for the hotel to pack and get some sleep for the flight home in the morning. It was really hard pulling myself away from Zurich and getting on the train, knowing my adventure was pretty much over.