Day 2
- When: July 12, 2024
- Where: Zurich
Some days you’re just not feeling it, and this was one of those days.
I dragged myself out of bed around 11, having finally fallen asleep at maybe 4am. Any plans for the day were shot; I just didn’t have it in me to explore a church or museum, or find a city hike, or take a boat, or anything really.
I made myself wander for a while. At Pret a Manger (which, funny enough, is German owned and headquartered in London) I found a nice salad and ate it there while people-watching. I spent most of the afternoon in the hotel reading and being lazy. For dinner I walked for 30 minutes, peeking at menus and into restaurants, but didn’t like my choices so I ended up at the tapas place at the hotel. It was fine but not nearly as good as the tapas place Don and I found in Basel last year. Around 8 I headed out in the rain for gelato but once I got there it was closed. The closed desert shop coupled with the soggy 20 minute walk back to the hotel put a tidy bow on the day.
One other note: more often than not jet lag knocks me on my ass. The first 48 hours we were in Iceland last year I was a wreck. Even the second day there I felt like I had a wicked hangover, with none of the drinking. I won’t even mention my three trips to India, with that 12 1/2 hour time difference with the SF Bay Area. So knowing this, I thought that Zurich would be a better place to “zone in” before moving on to the touristy towns part of the trip. In retrospect, I wouldn’t do it this way again. Instead, I’d take a train directly from Major International Airport to a small town or village somewhere, the kind with one market and six restaurants. I’d get a cozy room with a kitchenette and amazing view and detox there for my first two nights. If there’s a hotel with half-board nearby, even better. Living and learning.