I was up a little before 7am and Ash a little after. We’d been at the Interlaken apartment for 4 nights and had to get out there by 10am so we were really focused on packing and cleaning out the fridge.

So breakfast was whatever was left in the kitchen – in this case an egg each, some potatoes, chicken and bread. It worked.

We got on the road about 9:30am, headed to Zurich. We passed some lovely scenery on the way – as seen above. It even rained for a little while but by the time we got to Zurich it was gorgeous weather.

Our first stop was the Lindt chocolate factory. I was hoping for an actual factory tour but it was more museum. I’d been to a couple before – one in Cologne, one in Bruges, so can’t say I learned much. That fountain, by the way, was real chocolate: you could smell it. At least the part that flowed from the top and town over the first two waves. The big round platform was solid as was the pool.

But you got to taste quite a bit so that worked for us. In this room, you opened up a spout onto a spoon and let how much of the sample you wanted flow out: from left to right in this photo was white, milk and dark chocolate in a very smooth form.

The next section had 6 kinds of chocolate bars to taste, including orange and salted caramel.

This photo shows about half of the flavors of their round chocolate balls in the pretty foils which you could take freely. Not bad for a $15 entry fee.

And of course there was the store. I admit we bought a few things to bring home.

It was about 1:30pm when we were done and we were ready for lunch. Ash said “look for something on the lake” again, like in Geneva. And there was something practically across the street: Chez Fritz. That’s Lake Zurich if you were wondering. The city is essentially built around it.

We choose the daily specials and both got the gazpacho for starters: cold tomato soup.

Ash had the fish for his main…

…and I got the schweineschnitzel – pork cutlet – better even than the one I had in Zermatt.

A very small crème brulee like item for dessert.

We’d been sitting behind a couple of smokers so when this table cleared they let us move closer to the water so we could enjoy our coffee in peace. There was a lovely breeze blowing in perfect weather at 77F so it was a good move. We sat here for awhile just enjoying the view and doing nothing.

We made our way to a cheese place Ash wanted to seek out and did a little shopping, then made our way to where we’re staying. We have essentially our own floor in this guy’s 3 floor condo. It’s pretty nice; I completely forgot to take photos and ain’t stopping to do it now :)

We settled in for a bit then left to walk the town before dinner. We took a left out of the condo, hit the lake in a couple of blocks, turned right and headed into downtown. There were quite a few people out enjoying the great weather; see the sunbathers on the far right. Not what comes to mind when you think of Zurich, is it?

This whole area was beautiful, with a museum here and there in between some beautiful homes. As the center of banking for the world, Zurich has its share of super rich people.

A view of old town as we crossed a bridge. The bridge you see in the above photo is the bridge I’m on when I take the next few shots that follow somewhat later in the day after we’d walked around quite a bit.

Old town Zurich is very charming, as most of them are. This really reminded me of Ghent, Belgium: the buildings right on the river, several churches close to each other in the central area. Beautiful.

This was after 6pm at this point and everything was closed so we were just out for the views.

A panoramic show picking up two of the 4 churches down here.

The oldest church with some retail in front of it. Classic.

It was approaching 7 and we were ready for dinner. We made our way back to the condo and found this Italian place, Amalfi, a few blocks away in a cute neighborhood we noticed on our way in.

I’m glad I don’t look as tired as I felt. Or maybe I do?

They brought bread, olive oil and balsamic vinegar to start. We ordered the burrata special they had with prosciutto because burrata is just sort of our thing now – if it’s on the menu we’re likely to get it. And this was maybe the best I’d ever had, super fresh and creamy.

Ash had the risotto with shrimp at the top, I had veal and spaghetti with a lemon sauce that was spectacular – and I’m usually not that wild about lemon flavored things. But this was more savory than sweet or sour and it worked really well.

For dessert shared a chocolate tort with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce.

The point of the tort is the ooey gooey stuff on the inside.

We stopped for some milk for Ash on our way back. I took my COVID home test – negative – so I’m ready for tomorrow’s return home, then started the blog. Ash went to bed over an hour ago.

And that, my friends, ends mine and Ash’s first international trip together. Ash has a friend joining him tomorrow evening for another two weeks. They’re here for a couple more days then headed to Florence and who know where else. Ash will end up in Amsterdam as some point because that’s where he’s flying home from.

I leave tomorrow, flying from Zurich to Sacramento via Helsinki and Chicago. It will be a long day. Depending on how my layovers go, I may do my traditional “final thoughts” entry during them or it may wait until the weekend. My goal is always to be done with it all before I land in Sac but I’ve only accomplished that once or twice. So we’ll see you then whichever it is…