Up, Up, and Away - Uetliberg Edition

First and foremost, for those back stateside, Guete Morge (Swiss German).  If you couldn't read between the lines of my blog yesterday, I really wasn't having the best of days.  Like Vegas, I set out to make my own odds and decided to randomly google "Zurich day trips."  After a bit of reading, I decided on Uetliberg, population I have no clue.   Why Uetliberg?  Good question, well it's about 30 minutes outside of downtown Zurich and I could hike to the summit which is about 2800 feet above sea level.



I also like the feeling of looking over a great city, almost as if I just conquered it and named said city after myself...not quite.  Lastly, it's something I probably wouldn't do back home for a variety of reasons; Me and Heights don't really get along, something to do with my knees getting wobbly and me collapsing to the ground and at the core I'm a city kid, skyscrapers, taxi-cabs, and corrupt politics.  So I set off on my adventure.  I want to apologize in advance because I packed up my new ChicagoBooth bag with IPOD, camera, FLIP camcorder, and gulp, laptop.  Yep, my laptop, so that I could take notes and hit up the office (Starbucks) to start the blog.  I don't know anyone else that does that so hopefully I didn't offend too many hikers.  The people want the pics and Zurich news, who am I to starve them for what they crave. Who am I to deny them their literary pleasure.  Turns out I didn't need the laptop and it was just extra weight.  Oops.   Yep, much better mood, it actually might have something to do with the Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Adelle, Beyonce, Lady Antebellum, and Bushels (shot out to Mal Jones and his band from Uetliberg) that I'm blasting on my IPOD.  Or it could just be me.

That "hill" behind those people is my destination.

It was pretty frigid this morning as I set out on foot for the Haufbahnhof, a.k.a main train station.  My landmark is the River Limmalt.  If I can locate the Limmalt, I can get North and South pretty easy.  On my walk north towards Haufbahnhof, across the river I see Fraumunster Church which sits pretty much across the River from Grossmunster Church.  These churches are legends of Zurich, both playing key roles in Zurich's religious reformation period.  At this point, I'm walking on the east side of the river and pass three Starbucks on my way to train.

The ticket attendant tells me that the train comes every 30 minutes, which means, at that time, I have 25 minutes to kill.  Walking around the station I find an open air market and make my first street purchase.    Hmm, Hmmm good! In Zurich you get your meat with a piece of bread and from what I gather, in one hand you hold your meat and in the other you hold your bread, you take a bite of the meat and then take a bite of the bread, repeat until your hands are empty.   I'm pretty much a 6 to 7 bite guy.

Moo Moo Vacation

There are really no expectations for my trip. I know that it's a must see  and that it's elevated but when the train pulls away from the station I immediately get giddy.  Ten minutes later I see cows.  This isn't a swiss euphemism for anything, I'm talking real cows.   A few days ago, I read an article about how the Swiss milk producers wanted to produce better "happier" milk, so they let the cows go on vacation to nice spots in Zurich and eat the best grass that Swiss Francs could buy. No joke.  But it's funny right...well I know I got a kick out of it.  I thought the entire time that the train was traversing uphill that you don't realize how high you are until you get off the train and overlook all of Switzerland. It was pretty humbling, who knew that things like this were this close to a financial epicenter like Switzerland.

Take a Look:

As you can see, I literally had to walk through the clouds to see these amazing sights.  It was pretty awesome.  On my way down, the clouds were starting to clear, opening up for some panoramic delights, but i'm going to save those for when my wife and I venture up there this weekend.  It is SO worth another peak (intentional), especially with my wife.  Two amazing views, who am I to complain!

This morning I woke with a goal to have a better day than yesterday and worse than the next.  In the process, I realized, albeit temporary, that I live in Zurich, Switzerland.

...and I don't mind it.