Well, we woke up a bit later than we should have, but got ourselves thrown together and took care of our bill at the Hotel Nuova Rivera. Papa Sabini set us up with some fruit to take with us on the train, and we walked off to the station... We caught the 7:47am train to Milan, where we had over an hour layover. We poked our heads outside the doors... said "ciao, Milano!" but didn't see any cafés in the area, so we grabbed a quick something to eat there at the station, reserved some seats for us on the train, and hung around waiting to find out what platform our train to Zürich would be on.

We enjoyed our trip through the Alps (especially Penny, who was a bit disappointed at our dirty window and the rain and the lack of pictures!), and arrived in Zürich at around 3 in the afternoon. We got a map of the town from the tourist office at the station, and made our way to the hotel through the rain. It was Saturday, so all the banks were closed, and I was unable to open my Swiss bank account. It turns out that I might not have been able to do it anyway... something about 50,000 francs minimum. Oh well. I had to inquire about it! By the time we got ourselves ready to head out into the big city it was close to 4 o'clock, and all of the stores were closing. I had come up with an idea that we could do some shopping for some cool silverware while we were in Europe... a pragmatic souvenir. But our trip was starting to wind down, and we hadn't had any luck, and missed another chance in Zürich. Oh well.

We walked over to the Fraumünster to see some stained glass work by Marc Chagall and Augusto Giacometti. The church was closed to visitors due to a ceremony which was going on, but would be open again in another hour or so. So, Penny and I walked around the old town looking for an entertainment magazine to try to plan something to do that evening. Penny poked her head inside a bar, pulled me in kicking and screaming to talk to the bartender, who had access to the type of magazine we were after.

Not wanting to be rude, I ordered two beers, and we tried to find some live Müsich in Zürich. We found one cool concert, but were told that the venue was actually something of a club - meaning that you had to be a member to gain admittance. Oh well. We worked our way back to the west bank and to the Fraumünster. The Chagall work was done in 1967, and resides in a chapel at the back of the church. The Giacometti is in the transept crossing. We took in the stained glass works and headed back out into in the rainy city.

Next, we went to a church on the east bank of the river Limmat. The Grossmünster features another stained glass work by Augusto Giaocometti. The church had a beautiful organ, and some beautiful music seemed to be coming from somewhere... I went down into the crypt, and found some sort of chamber ensemble playing some music which just floated effortlessly into the cathedral upstairs. We bought some postcards there at the church... on the honor system, of course; no souvenir booth set up inside the church. Upon seeing that, we both wished that we could have been giving money to churches for postcards all along, rather than the little souvenir stands. Just a great idea for these grand old churches in these well-visited European cities.

We then went to grab some dinner at an Italian restaurant on the way back toward the hotel... Penny rated another pizza and I rated some more lasagne. Then we headed back to the hotel, so that we could get in touch with Julian, whom we would be visiting the next day. Somewhere along the line, we had heard about an Alberto Giacometti exhibit at a local museum, and planned that we could visit that in the morning before we caught the noon train to Hannover. I picked up a brochure in the hotel, and was able to confirm that the museum was open on Sundays at 10am, giving us plenty of time to see the exhibit, get back to the hotel, and then catch the train. But the next day was Whit Sunday (Pentecost), and the museum would be closed. Oh well. We found that there was an earlier train heading toward Hannover, and decided to turn in for the evening, and take the early train instead.

In some respects, Zürich was a bust... but it was a nice stopping point in what would have otherwise been a very long train ride. I can see that the city would have been nice to spend more time in. There were decorated benches throughout the city, and the city as a whole had a very modern sensibility. Last, but not least, when arriving and departing Zürich by train, you quickly realize that this town has some of the best graffiti in the world — head and shoulders above Paris or Milan!