Yodeleheehoo! aka Zurich.

If you are outdoorsy, Zurich is the place for you! We just spent an outdoorsy weekend enjoying Zurich - one of the most scenically beautiful places I've ever been...

We had to take a ~5-hour train ride to get there, but if flew by because the three of us slept on the train. We had one change, and then arrived finally at about 8:00. One of the first things we saw when we came up and out of the train station was this: 

Biking is big in every European city, but not so big as it was in Zurich! I guess it was a good preparation for Amsterdam.

During our train change Alex and I found CARAMBAR! This tootsie roll-like candies are French and were introduced to us by our French teacher in high school... Alex has been searching for them this whole trip but we haven't been able to find them in Paris, Bruges, Edinburgh, London, or Luxembourg City, but Zurich had them in their train station! Success!

We headed to bed fairly early so we could wake up and take on the day nice and early on Saturday. In the morning, the first thing we did was go purchase a Zurich card, which covered a 90-minute boat ride, all public transportation, and even museum entry for 24 hours. After that, we hopped on a cable car and headed to Zurich Lake for our boat ride. 

First thing we saw!

Over the course of our boat ride we saw ~15 different rowing shells! Everyone was rowing! It was a gorgeous morning, and cruising along with the mountains in the background and the fog rising off of the lake was a glorious experience. I adored watching the rowers...but it made me miss my sport more than I ever have so far! I very nearly jumped off to join them for practice!

A new kind of rowing I've never seen before...sort of like dragon-boating but with only 2 people?

After our beautiful boat ride, we hopped on a train and ascended the mountain for some hiking. 

We climbed up this tower!

So beautiful. 

While hiking, I kept feeling that everything about Zurich was natural and clean and clear. I felt like I could really breathe up in that mountain (which was extra-good because I had a sinus infection :)

We hiked for a couple hours before we were a bit hungry and tired, so we headed back down the mountain and took the train back. On the way back to the hotel we stopped in a chocolate shop (Ladurée). We watched this guy making chocolate cars! Awesome!

Of course, I got a couple chocolates to try. So far, Swiss chocolate is my favorite. Belgian chocolate didn't really do it for me. Good thing we are coming back here in three weeks! (Fondue anyone?)

Originally, we had hoped to get in a few more activities in Zurich that afternoon/evening and the following morning, but I was pretty immobilized by the time we reached the hotel (darn sinuses!) and once I laid down on the bed I didn't want to get up again. I wanted our Traveling Friend and Alex to do some more stuff, but they ended up just going to dinner and calling it a night. I felt awful that they didn't do more...but in the end I don't think it would've been good if I'd pushed myself too much more, especially after all that hiking!

They brought me back some soup from a natural foods restaurant - carrot and apple stew! It was delicious! Later I found out it was 12 Swiss Francs! I didn't mind so much because it was very delicious and I'd packed most of my food for the weekend...but I was shocked! Throughout our time there, we found that food was very expensive.

We all had an early night and on Sunday morning (after finding out that we don't have DST until 30 March!) we wandered around some more and got postcards and lunch foods before getting on the train for our journey home. 

When we arrived back in Luxembourg it was bright, sunny, and about 60*F! Maybe spring is here for good...?