OTR

August 18 Route Map

Today got off to a unwanted start. 500 meters after leaving the campground there was a steep descent to a small river. I knew exactly what followed, a climb. Not a small one either – 300 meters (1,000 feet), which was about twice the height of the descent. But at least it wasn’t raining, so that’s some consolation.

I didn’t have far to go today – only 39 kilometers. I visited Melanie in Rapperswil, which is at the southeast end of Lake Zurich, and about 30 kilometers away from Zurich. I got there at 11:30 am and since Melanie didn’t get home from work until 5:00 pm I decided to take the train to Zurich and sightsee for a few hours. I just picked a street at random after exiting the train station and started walking. It turned out to be the Rodeo Drive of Zurich – Gucci, Armani, Rolex, Swarovski, and other high-class stores lined both sides of the street. Lots of serious-looking guys in high-priced suits scurrying around. And cars – expensive cars. I was fiddling with my GPS and looked up and saw, stopped right in front of me, a Lamborghini. I also saw several Bentleys, a Ferrari, a Maserati, and the more common cars such as high-end Mercedes and BMWs. So there appears to be a lot of money in Zurich – at least for certain people. After a few hours I took the train back to Rapperswil and visited Melanie and her boyfriend. They took me on a short walking tour past the local castle, and then we had beers on her boyfriend’s sailboat. Dinner was pizza at a restaurant near the harbor. By then it was 10:00 pm and time to call it a day.

This entry was posted on August 18, 2010 at 8:42 pm and is filed under On the Road, Switzerland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.