Fondue Restaurant

After walking around, Joumana and I were hungry. The hotel had recommended a restaurant that had the best fondue in town. Since we were in Switzerland, it was only natural to have fondue for dinner!

We found the restaurant and went inside. It had a chic clientele and I was afraid I wouldn’t be allowed inside because I was wearing jeans. But there was no problems having a table. The waiters were all nice, except a particular one that had a proud personality.

We would have loved to appreciate the fondue plates we were served. But next to us were sitting two women wearing lots of makeup, who were chain smoking one cigarette after the other. I was sure that the laws in Switzerland didn’t allow smoking in public places, but I guess I was wrong. We ate quickly and left the restaurant, smelling like oil and cigarettes.

We took the tramway back to the hotel. I showered while Joumana tried the spa, and then as we were exhausted, we both went to sleep.

Art Gallery

We used the tramway to get to town. We stopped at the central train station and walked back to Old Zurich.

On our way, through the narrow streets and the passage ways, we saw churches, restaurants, Starbucks coffees and gay sex shops!

We entered an art gallery that had remarkable paintings. I saw an interesting collage of characters and materials in a dental clinic. It was done by the artist Charles Fazzino who specializes in 3D art. His dental painting was being sold for CHF 850, which was approximately 950 CAD. It would be nice on the walls of a reception room of any dental clinic.

Afternoon Nap

At around 11 am we arrived at the hotel and thankfully our room was ready. It was a big and comfortable room with big windows, a wooden floor and a nice bathroom. The accomodation wasn’t as striking as the Glo Hotel in Helsinki, or the Dominion Hotel Boutique in Quebec City, but it was still very charming.

Joumana was tired and went to sleep a bit while I did some reading by the window. After some time, I wanted to try the bed myself, which led me to have a nap as well, for about an hour. We then showered slowly and went back to the city.

Picture taken from: Lady's First Design Hotel.

Café Au Lait

After walking through the beautiful and narrow streets of Old Zurich, Joumana and I were feeling a little chilly and needed something to keep us awake. We spotted a lovely non-smoking café and we entered.

It was a very cute place that made nice coffee and offered delicious croissants. I had a tasty café au lait and so did Joumana. We sat there for about an hour, relaxing and waiting for the outside cold weather to heat up a little.

As I was chatting with Joumana, a few people were coming in and out of the café; some even shared our table and sat with us. I noticed how polite and reserved the Swiss people were. Men dressed very nicely in dark colours, mostly black and navy blue. Joumana commented that they were all dressed like each other!

German was the language spoken in Zurich, although people commonly used French words like bonjour and merci. This reminded me of how those words were added to the Arabic language when I lived in Syria.

After coffee we had some tea to make sure that our bodies were warm enough. We walked a little more around Old Zurich but we quickly realized that we weren’t dressed warmly enough. We therefore slowly walked back to the hotel.

Early Walk in Zurich

Our hotel was located only 5 minutes away from Lake Zurich. As Joumana and I walked along the lake's shoreline, we could appreciate for the first time the Swiss landscape.

It was very cold that morning, but there was no snow at all. The moon was still shining in the sky as the sun was rising. Ducks, swans and many birds were waking up and swimming along the lake’s waters. With the clouds and the fog, the whole picture was beautifully enchanted!

There were two rowers practicing in the middle of the lake. I was surprised how they could not be cold in this weather. But then again they must have been dressed accordingly, and they must have kept warm from rowing so hard and so fast.

The tramways were filling up as people were going to work. Zurich has a good system of tramway and the cars looked very clean from the outside!

Lady’s First

In Zurich’s airport, passing through customs was basically uncomplicated. After getting our luggage, Joumana and I were quickly on our way to the hotel that was called Lady’s First.

The taxi driver who gave us the ride spoke some French, and gave us some explanations about the city as he was driving.

Lady’s First is a Design Hotel in Zurich that we had found on the internet. As we arrived there, we were warmly welcomed by the reception girl. She gave us some explanations about the hotel services. There was a spa with hot baths and massage therapists, but only women could access them because of the hotel’s concept.

The room wasn’t ready yet because we had arrived so early. It was about 8 am and the sun was rising. We therefore decided to do some early city exploration.

Picture taken from: Lady's First Design Hotel.

Flight from Montreal

The early landing of the Swiss A-330 in Zurich was so smooth that Joumana didn’t realize that we had landed. It was 6:20 am in the morning. It was the first time of my life that I flew with Swiss International Airlines and it was pretty comfortable considering we had economy seats. The crew was very nice and they all spoke many languages, including German, French and English.

We had left Montreal at 6 pm so we didn’t really sleep on the airplane. I mostly did some reading of the books I brought about photography, and about Kenya and Tanzania.

After exiting the airplane, we said good bye to Nadège, my old friend from La Ronde who was also on that flight by coincidence. She was on her way to Geneva, and we had one day to rest in Zurich before continuing to Africa.

Picture taken from: Turbo Squid.