After a restful night and a K approved shower at the comfortable Tannenhof which included a small but hearty b’fast, we were off on a walk across town to a view point up a fairly steep walkway. I put the climbing rope to good use as we made our way up.
There is a ton of off season construction going on here, which seems to be in hurry up mode for the upcoming Christmas and ski season. We really lucked out on the weather as we found the morning to be a blue bird as they say in our neck of the alpine. Cool and crisp with astounding views of the Matterhorn. We did see a number of early season skiers walking with their gear through town to I think the only tram currently open. I suspect the coverage is fairly thin at this time of year. Checked on the size of the skiable terrain here and learned that while somewhat smaller than Lake Louise, Zermatt is considered to have more expert terrain? Did some shopping along the Bahnhofstrasse before getting our gear rearranged at the hotel. Then we walked back to the terminal and hopped on the train back down to Täsch. Heidi (voice from the onboard NAV) seems to be very confused about where Täsch is, so we switched to Hilda (Google Maps) and found our way down the beautiful valley/canyon to Visp.
Switched back to Heidi there and continued our drive to the Furka car train that runs through a long tunnel from Oberwald to Realp. The drive from there was straight forward with easy navigation, that is until we got to Zürich. What a calamity! Pedestrians and cyclists abound with all the rights and they use it! Typical ancient Old Town with roads going in every direction and seeming incomprehensible markings, arrows pointing every which way. We did find our way to the eclectic Ruby Mimi which is a strange boutique hotel right in the heart of the city. The futuristic check in procedure was a first for me, no recognizable registration desk, more like a kiosk at the end of the bar for self actuated check in and room key cards created by the guests. Had left the car illegally parked in a taxi zone with Karen holding the fort. Was able to drop off our larger bags at the bar while we found our way to the Parkade which was pointed out to me by the bartender. The “See that black car? It’s right there” instructions didn’t really suffice for me as I managed to get a little bit lost in the maze of one way and very narrow streets. Did I mention about the no street signs? We found it, and then got a little lost feeling our way back to the Ruby Mimi on foot. This led to the first bout of Müde, Hongrig und Durstig since getting aboard our river cruise, may have been more just frustration from the anxiety of trying to navigate a strange car in a strange place, even walking was stressful. Got settled in and then walked the short distance to find a popular English Pub (took us right past the Parkade!) for a quick pint at the Lion. Decided we would try the Schipfe 16 restaurant located on the banks of the Limmat-Fluss. Proved to be a great choice, the food was excellent and a bottle of Swiss Pinot Gris grown in local vineyards was most pleasing. Had a nice chat with a manager to learn about the "work integration and qualification" program at this establishment to help alleviate homelessness and substance abuse by helping people get cleaned up and on the road to recovery through dignified work. Back to Ruby Mimi was easy as we are starting to get our bearings around Old Town Zürich. Grabbed a small charcuterie plate to go with the bottle of cheap German bubbly we were gifted on the cruise ship to address the trouble with the stateroom lighting not quite working as designed. Turned out the same lighting problem afflicts our room at the Mimi, but nonetheless we celebrated our last evening of this vacation in style (pajamas sitting on the edge of the bed in yet another close quartered European hotel room).
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