Last full day in Zurich

I am staying in hostels as much as possible. I may be sharing a room with 5 or 9 other people, but it gives me a chance to meet folks from all over the world who share a spirit of adventure. 

Last night I met Ian. He is a 19 year old, fresh out of high school, that has the bunk bed above me. He starts Duke University this fall and has somehow received a $15,000 grant from Duke to travel and keep a blog for 3 months. He has spent an immersive month in Japan already and is now traveling around Europe blogging about how it is to be a 19 year old single traveler. This morning he is out for a 10k run. His goal is to do a 10k in every country he visits. Sounds like a heck of a job. 

He also makes a lot of noise clanging around in this steel pipe bunk bed in the morning. 

I've spent time visiting with people from Spain, Portugal, Australia, and many other countries. 

I also met Robert and Dylan from the University of Alabama. I told them I watched their movie (A Complete Unknown about Bob Dylan's early years) on the plane to Paris. They probably hear that a lot. 

Here's a handy tip I learned from a Rick Steve's article. When paying with a credit card, if you are given the option to pay in the local currency or dollars always choose the local currency. Shops can set their own exchange rate which may be different from official. That may be to cover some of their currency exchange costs. The bike store had an exchange rate of 77 cents to the Swiss Franc while the current official exchange rate is 83 cents. Probably a good reason to pay in cash also. 

Also, get a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees. Visa and Mastercard are accepted everywhere. I haven't seen Discover accepted anywhere. 

I went out for a ride around the city today. Loving the bike and how well it handles!  Here's my route: 

Green dot is where I started and ended. 

First stop was the Grossmunster church, practically next door. It is the iconic one with 2 towers. Here's a wiki article about it. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grossm%C3%BCnster

Must lock up the bike first. I have been told that nobody is going to steal a 400chf bike, but I worry anyway. It is my transportation and investment. 

This is the church where the Swiss Reformation started. A lot of the fancy Catholic stuff was disposed of to make it a plainer Protestant church. 

Still impressive

For 5chf you can climb up one of the towers. The first part reminded me of ascending the dome of St Peter's at the Vatican in Rome. Here, though, the steps got better further up. 

Views from the top. 

And a nice place to sit after that climb 

The stairs aren't any better coming down. I counted 190 steps. 

The chapel

And the organ

Interesting stained glass. Is it a vase or two faces?

Nice model of the church

After the church visit I just wandered around the city. One thing about a bike, you can get lost a lot easier and faster than on foot. Thank goodness Strava will always point me back to where I started. 

There are fish in the river. These 2 gentlemen were fishing for perch. 

We saw this movie on Prime or Netflix. Quite funny. 

Well marked bike paths

This is a rolling Thai restaurant. People were dining at a table in the back. 

Fountain near my hostel. Fellow is refilling his bottle. Statue on top is wearing goggles! 

Do the Munsters live here? 

Lake Zurich

That's me! 

Feeding the Swans and ducks at the lake

Lunch today. The bottle caps stay attached when opened so they get recycled too. 

Pretty poppies

First Fahrt Is free!  Hmm. I may need a better translation. 

Lamborghini!

Help! I've fallen and I can't get up! 

Just in case you need a new POÄNG

That's it for today. Tomorrow I move to my guesthouse in Göschenen for a couple nights then start my ride. But dinner is on my mind right now. 

Auf Wiedersehen!