Paradeplatz

An 11am scheduled departure made for a low-stress morning. I snuck in a run since I'd be spending the next many hours completely stationary, and we completed final preparations / tended to the dogs before their grandparents came to pick them up.

Laura thoroughly enjoyed watching the fighter planes take off from the airport, while I did my best to ignore the various conversations happening around me from Epic staff flying out to their customers.

We sprung for premium plus seating for the extra leg room on the flight from Chicago to Zurich, and I traded a woman for the exit row seat for extra-extra leg room. Laura and Caty were a few rows behind me, and sound asleep well before takeoff.

4,444 miles later (and 7 hours later due to the time zone change), we landed in Zurich. No one got a ton of sleep due to crying babies or a general inability to sleep in all but optimum conditions, but we had to power through until the hotel had a room available. And so we spent the morning walking around Zurich, winding through crisscrossed streets to look into the shops. After wandering aimlessly, we popped open a map to find some landmarks, and meandered over to the opera house, and then down to the Limmat to watch ducks and swans float down the river. We strolled down the boulevard until we encountered a local outdoor market and took in the smells of the flowers and local cheeses being hawked. The jet lag was hitting hard, but luckily a room opened up, so we crashed hard for an afternoon nap.

After a late lunch, we hopped on the train to the main event for the day -- the Lindt Home of Chocolate. Laura and I both enjoyed the museum portion, but for Caty it was all about the samples. On the walk back to the train I came to regret the pre-flight run as our step count hit levels we only achieve on vacation.

Dinner was at Zeughauskeller, an old armory converted into a beer hall which featured Wilhelm Tell's arbalest /crossbow on the wall. Caty and I devoured a plate full of sausages, and I knocked back the Haus beer and a dunkel for good measure. We trudged our way back to the hotel, hoping for a long deep sleep.Read more