Journal: Pages 13-14
5th July, Friday: Zermatt - Zürich
Another sunny day for Euro-railing across Switzerland: The celebrated Glacier Express brought me to Brig, where I transferred to another nondescript, efficient run to Bern and Zürich.
As in elsewhere throughout Europe, open-air cafes are ever-popular places to meet, drink beer, munch on a light and inexpensive meal, and to smoke your lungs out. For a fast solo diner such as myself, most of the time is spent inhaling second-hand cigarette smoke whilst waiting for the check.
Hotel Alexander at Niederdorfstraße: a nexus of tourist venues, seedy sex shops and the university one block away from the train station.
Shopping at the fashionable Bahnhofstraße: Zürich's main thoroughfare for shoppers
Mission accomplished (hopefully): I purchased a Longines watch at Sfr 1000 ($700) for my sister.
Other delectable roadside fare: toasted Foccacia sandwich with Provolone and Prosciutto (mmm...), raspberry sorbet -- true Italian delights.
A thunderstorm broke out by sundown, and rain persisted during the following morning.
At 18.00 and 19.00, all the old churches along the River Limmat ring (peal) their bells, creating quite a singular chorus over the din of cars, trams and people.