This past weekend was slightly more of a fiasco than I was expecting, but, of course, all's well that ends well.
During the week I received a letter from one of my neighbors inviting me to coffee on Sunday morning and a choir concert (Hayden's Four Seasons) on Sunday night. I thought it sounded great, so I started making plans to have an adventure on Saturday and stay around Winterthur on Sunday to do laundry and other assorted tasks. Thus, I decided to go to
Zermatt to see the
Matterhorn, since I've never seen it. I would just like to mention that this is about 300 km or four hours one way on the train from where I live. I started out bright and early on Saturday morning: the sun was shining, and the weather forecast looked good for Zermatt. All of the ride there it was sunny, except for the last 30 minutes, when fog and clouds and rain rolled in. Finally I arrived in Zermatt and could see... absolutely nothing! As I wasn't prepared for the rain, I spent approximately 45 minutes in Zermatt before catching a train to ride the four hours back. Luckily, I have a
GA (General Abbonnement) rail pass, which means I can go essentially anywhere in all of Switzerland and not have to pay, so this day-long voyage to see a foggy town didn't cost me anything (thankfully). And the train ride was actually quite beautiful!
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| The Matterhorn must be up there somewhere! |
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| Me in Zermatt. |
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| View from the train. |
When I got back to Winterthur, I took a long walk, since I was basically sitting all day long. One nice thing about being in the country is that nice walks are really not hard to find.
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| Walk near Winterthur-Seen. |
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| View down towards Winterthur. |
When I arrived at my house, I had a note from my neighbor wondering where I had been! It turns out that she was writing Sunday but meant Saturday- so not only had I stood her up in the morning, but I missed the concert in the evening! I was pretty disappointed to have missed the concert, but I ended up going back in to Zurich to have dinner with my coworker Elena and her boyfriend Giuseppe, who are both from near Milano, Italy. It was really nice- they cooked some wonderful pasta and we had nice conversation. Since I had been totally alone all day long, I was really thankful to talk with some people! Of course, I was so thankful that I lost track of time and ended up missing the last train out of Zurich. Living out in the country does have some disadvantages, I'll admit. Elena and Giuseppe were super fantastic and drove me home in Giuseppe's car (he was just visiting for the weekend).
On Sunday, I visited my neighbor, Franziska, to apologize for missing her and to finally meet her. She was really nice and invited me to have breakfast with her and her husband. It was great to get to know them and to talk about Switzerland and things such as this.
After taking care of business, I took another long walk on a path out of Winterthur that starts literally 10 m from my house. It is almost impossible to get lost- just follow the yellow diamonds painted along the way and the signs for the Wanderweg. The weather was really fantastic, and I really enjoyed being outside and in the country. So... all in all I had a nice weekend, despite the fiasco that was Saturday. Yay for new friends and adventures!
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| The wanderweg. |
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| Fall is coming! |
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| Following the yellow diamonds along the wanderweg. |
