Year: 2023

Basel Sept 29-30, 2023

A local tram in Zurich to the transit center, an inner city train (located the right gate with great difficulty) to Basel, and we were there. Our next AirBnb was actually close enough to walk to, but we got a hard lesson in making Google Maps work for pedestrians in a dense urban environment. A 15 minute walk turned into a 45 minute slog in hot weather.

Per Zurich, the density of bikes near the train hub was boggling. Housing is uniformly dense. Block after block of 4-6 story high buildings, all but the 1st floor housing. Every block looks the same. It’s hard to know where true north is. We made enough mistakes walking the wrong way to realize we needed to get our compass out and orient our phones before we started “following the blue dot”.

This Airbnb gave us our first clue as to why every single block has a hundred bikes parked outside. We had to navigate up 3 floors of a circular staircase, with suitcases. A big difference between European stairs and American stairs. Euro stairs are STEEP. Halfway to ladder steep. And the tread is tiny. Circular stairs are worse. The widest part is not as wide as my foot is long. The narrow part is down to an inch or two. There’s no way a person could bring a bike up and down such. So outside the bikes live, 365 days a year. And virtually everyone has a bike, what with the bike paths being so pervasive and spectacularly designed.

Bike paths are literally everywhere. Some share roads, with a painted lane, but most are separated from cars. Bike lanes are red. Pedestrian sidewalks are not and the twain seldom meet. Bikes have total right of way on the red.

We really liked the feel of Basel, altho it wasn’t as spotless as Zurich. (Nothing could possibly be as spotless as Zurich). Day one we walked a mile to the Basel’s Old Town for a guided walking tour. Day two we rented e-bikes (20 EU for the day), pedaled across the Rhine and then up and down, both directions, including to where our river cruise boat was due to dock.

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Click here for Basel Photos

Zurich Sept 2023

Trip started in Zurich Sept 25. Hotel Sorell Rex, near Zurich’s Old Town. As of January 2023, Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, had a population of 443,037 inhabitants in the municipality, 1.315 million in the urban area, and 1.83 million in the Zurich metropolitan area. 

The Old Town section is small as a percentage of the city, but still, it’s large. Street after street, lined with very old buildings, and even more narrow alleyways, all with businesses, bars, restaurants, coffee. We walked about 4-6 miles every day.

German, or Swiss German, is pervasive. Maybe most people can speak some English, but German is all we heard. 95% of restaurants and shops display menus and information in German. Parts of Switzerland speak French, but we didn’t hear that here.

Public transit is astonishing to the average American from a mid-sized town like Madison. In Zurich we passed thru two major transit hubs, airport and downtown. These hubs are enormous 3 level affairs with 50 different gates and entire Mall sized shopping, mostly underground. We were completely befuddled.

Old town is saturated with “trams”, ie overhead electric local multi-car trains. They aren’t free, but in Zurich and Basel tens of thousands jump on and off all of them hour by hour, and no one checks. (Random checks might catch scofflaws, and the penalties are severe). We did buy multi-day tickets, just in case. Within a day, we were getting around reasonably well.

Bikes: They’re everywhere, esp near transit centers. Around a major center there could easily be 1000 bikes locked up. Bike variety is enormous, bikes with dozens of brand names I’ve never heard of, every shape and size. A lot of e-bikes. A LOT of cargo bikes. Away from transit centers, the density of bikes along every street would be something you’d only see on campus back home. Bikes move through traffic like water, around cars, thru dense pedestrian traffic, dodging electric and regular buses. No one wears a helmet. Bikes poured up and down the street of our 1st hotel, a tight, 2-lane road with railroad tracks (for the electric trams) running down the middle of each lane. Cars and trams shared this street. It was “normal” to see bikes leading the way, with big trams inches off their wheel, or cars squeezing by them. The amazing thing about this is that, in an odd way, everyone just ignores everyone else, and somehow no one gets worked up about it. In America, getting squeezed like this would result in mass instances of road rage.

The density of humans was relentless but it was never a problem. People are polite, it was easy to stroll about, and the trams handled people movement with stunning efficiency. (We were later to find yet more bikes, people, and density in Amsterdam).

We’d heard that there are very few public bathrooms. This is true. These giant malls in these enormous train stations had, literally, 1 bathroom, and its location was a deep secret. Except for one ticket booth, also hidden, there is no “help” for the confused. Until you knew better, the only bathrooms were in establishments where you paid for services. (We quickly learned which restaurants and coffee shops had them where no one would challenge you. And at any rate, I just denied myself fluids to get by.)

It’s beyond the scope here to give detail on every last building in every last photo. Know that there’s deep history at every block.

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Zurich Photos Day 1

Our special event on day two was to train (tram) to the outskirts of town, to the highest point overlooking Zurich, called Uetliberg Mountain. The train ride itself was long, and peaceful, and oh so quiet. These electric trains are almost silent inside, zero vibration. It’s eerie.

Zurich Photos Day 2

Third day in Zurich we signed up for a guided tour, with a delightful young lady who spoke excellent English, as well as Swiss German, French, and Portugese. We were her only customers. We’d already walked around a great deal, but she took us into nooks and cranies that were as yet unseen. Also got us on an hour’s cruise on Lake Zurich.

Zurich Photos Day 3

Trip to Orr, MN

Attendees – Jean W, Joe G, Madeline, Eileen, Tim and a revolving cast of relatives on Eileen’s side of the family

Pictures, in rough order
– Airbnb, just a mile away from the family cabins on Pelican Lake, featuring cows. And a very needy collie.
– Visit to Bucko’s Cabin-on-the-Lake. Valet boat ride provided by TonyV in a 100% aluminum boat resembling a WWII stealth craft. Much food, drink, merriment.
– A drive to Crane Lake, on the Canadian border. Tour of a large houseboat.
– Family gettogether at the Pocrnic Cabin on Pelican Lake
– Random shots in Duluth

Pictures from Tim’s Sony and iPhone, Eileen’s iphone. The shot of the weekend of the stealth boat from Jean’s iphone.

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