Our First Day in Switzerland: Zurich to Lucerne
Okayyyy let's get these honeymoon posts rolling, shall we? I am trying my hardest to not fall behind! I even stayed up 17 minutes past my bedtime last night in order to get these photos organized!
So, about Switzerland... Adam and I didn't plan anything before arriving. Are you surprised? This seems to be a common theme with us. The only thing we did ahead of time was book an Airbnb for one night in Zurich and then the other two nights we had already planned on staying with our friend Veronika in Bern, so we sort of figured we'd just wing it and figure out what to do when we got there. Luckily, this worked out perfectly, and even with our terrible planning, I still think we made excellent use of our limited time in Switzerland.
We arrived in the evening in Zurich, so by the time we found our place and put our bags down, we were pretty much ready for bed, but because we were pumped to be in Switzerland, we decided to go out and try to find a late-night dinner spot. Our Airbnb was located in a bustling part of town, and we could see people eating at restaurants down below from our room so we went out in search of pizza. We walked into a pizza place that was pretty packed, but when we asked for a table, they told us it was after 10 and they were closed. Hmm, oh? The sign on the door said they closed at midnight and there were literally people eating at tables all around us but okay... So we walked across the street to a Chinese restaurant and, yeah, the same thing. Open until midnight, but the girl working said they closed at 10, yet people were still eating in the restaurant... Okay, so we tried another corner, an Indian restaurant. "Sorry, we closed at 10," BUT THE SIGN SAYS MIDNIGHT! It was so confusing and we felt like dumb Americans. In the end, we sort of figured they must only take orders until 10:00 and then maybe people just hang around and order drinks until midnight? That didn't really explain why so many people looked like they had just been served food though, but, I don't know, these things happen.
We eventually gave up, walked back to our Airbnb, and went to bed. In the morning, we found a cozy spot to have breakfast before boarding our train to Lucerne. Yay, food!
Fun fact about me: I love vanilla lattes. They're my jam, I drink them all the time, but sadly 9 times out of 10, they make me feel really sick. But because I love them so much, I still drink them... I just suffer for a few hours afterward. So, I ordered a vanilla latte at this coffee shop and the woman said, "I don't do flavors... I just don't," which was heartbreaking but because I really wanted a latte in Switzerland, I got a regular one instead and then just poured boatloads of sugar in it. I can't remember if this particular latte made me sick, but I do recall making Adam drink more than half of it because I was afraid of getting sick on the train. (Another fun fact: I have recently switched to decaf vanilla lattes and I don't get as sick anymore, just a little sick. #blessed)
We spent roughly a thousand dollars on our train tickets from Zurich to Bern (just kidding obviously but man, Switzerland is expensive!!!!) and the ride was so peaceful and lovely. Well, up until we got yelled at by a Swiss man for putting our shoes on the train seats across from us. He "figured" we were Americans because we did this. "We don't put our shoes on the seats here," and then he grumpily walked away. Whoops! But yeah, he's right. Dumb American incident #2.
Lucerne was a colorful city full of flowers, music, stereotypical (in a good way) Swiss steeples, and actual majestic swans floating gracefully in the water everywhere you looked. It was beautiful and everything I imagined Switzerland to be.
As I mentioned in my previous post, Adam was sick at our wedding, and his sickness lasted basically our entire honeymoon. Some days were better than others, but he wasn't feeling too hot for the majority of our trip. He didn't let that ruin anything though; he was such a trooper. We did a lot of walking in Lucerne, so we stopped for a bit and Adam got in a quick nap on my lap while I people watched. Not pictured: the big fat pretzels we devoured moments before I took this photo.
The main touristy thing we did this day that involved all the walking (aside from just exploring Lucerne) was travel to Mount Pilatus, but I'm trying to be better about not overloading every single blog post with tons of photos, so I'm saving that experience for another post! Baby steps... Spoiler: it was awesome. More to come! As always, thanks for reading! xo