Switzerland at Christmas: December 2017

About a year ago, my mom read a two page spread in a woman's magazine that talked about how beautiful Switzerland is at Christmas time and decided that we had to go see the snow and the markets. So, we planned that for this year; we left on the first day of Hanukkah, just like good Jews should.

December 13

We left mid-day from National Airport, getting to JFK as the sun set

and then arriving in Zurich on December 14 at about 8 am in the morning.

December 14

The only thing you can do after traveling all night and arriving in a foreign country, especially when you can't check into the hotel until mid-afternoon, is push through the day.  By the time we did things like cleared border control, collected our luggage, and caught a taxi to our hotel to drop off our luggage, it was about 10 am, and so stores were starting to open. Our hotel was right off the Bahnhofstrasse,

supposedly the most expensive street in the world because of the jewelry stores (and, I would guess, all the high priced, designer clothing stores), which is fun to window shop along,

is where this statue of a rhinoceros, which I believe is based on Durer's (German, not Swiss) 1515 rhino sketches

and also leads down to the Limmat River.

There are a surprisingly large number of swans and ducks swimming around.

I don't know why I'm surprised-- I think I just thought they would have gone somewhere warmer.
We were mostly just walking around, getting a sense of the city (and, trying to stay awake). There are several bridges which cross the river to get to Zurich's Old Town, which is more picturesque than the Bahnhofstrasse.

We had actually made our way over to the Old Town because our hotel concierge had told us there were lots of great places to eat-- which would eventually be true, but wasn't particularly true because there wasn't much open for breakfast. However, after wandering around for a while on winding, cobblestone streets which we sometimes quite steep, we found Chez Marion

with a lovely view out the window

where we had tea and coffee

and "toasties".  I had actually been expecting them both to be open faced, but only the one my mom ordered was (there's bread under the egg).

That is a large circle of goat cheese perched on top. And, a really yummy yogurt dressing on the salad. 

From Chez Marion, we wandered and wound up back near the train station

 where one of two large Christmas markets in Zurich is set up.

We walked around for a couple minutes, but mostly to establish that this "angel statue" (as it was described to me in an email) was the location where we were going to meet our food tour guide later that evening. (We had a bit of a debate about whether this was the said angel we were looking for, but eventually decided that the wings constituted it being an angel.)

We decided we should come back to the train station early in the evening to wander the market before meeting our tour guide and so headed across the street to the Landesmuseum Zurich, or the Swiss National Museum, which is housed in a 19th century neo-Gothic mansion.

I should note that Swiss in German is Schweiz, which is quite close to our last name (Schweitzer)-- and so we saw close variations of our last name all over. (Also, everyone who saw our last name on passports or credit cards wanted to know why we don't speak German. That question actually started at border control earlier in the day and was asked pretty much every day we were there.)  It contains a permanent collection about the history of Switzerland which is told through interactive displays, like this "book"

which should have been able to tell its story in English, though no amount of hitting the EN button made it change languages. I still found the technology fascinating-- an overhead projector knew when the user turned a page and changed the video accordingly.  A lot of this is hard to photograph because of the interactive technology. For example, there was also a relief map which looked like not much but when viewed through binoculars allowed you to follow different demographic changes throughout Switzerland's history like religion, average income, political leanings, etc.

There were also two temporary exhibitions while we were there: 10 x Swiss Graphic Design: From Draft to Print

and Einsiedeln Abbey: 1000 Years of Pilgrimage. The graphic design exhibition featured ten 20th century graphic designers, though most of the exhibition-- both the actual art and the explanations-- were in German, so it wasn't really clear to me what made them exemplary Swiss graphic designers.  It was on the first floor with the permanent history exhibition.

A long staircase to the second floor which houses temporary exhibitions has lovely circular windows which offer picturesque views of the building.  The neo-Gothic character of the building is really only visible from this angle. On the inside, the renovations to make it have pretty much erased it.

The other temporary exhibition on Einsiedeln Abbey was a lot more extensive and included a lot of signs in English to explain the significance. It's a Benedictine Abbey and Marian Shrine located not far from Zurich and is one of the most important places of pilgrimage as well as renowned for its famous Black Madonna.



The exhibit included illuminated manuscripts

Monumental Bible: 11th/12th Century

and crown jewels

Crowns for the Virgin Mary and Christ Child

a "Turkish" rug donated in 1683 by Emperor Leopold I of Austria who had seized it as booty (so, basically he donated a stolen carpet),

and garments for Our Lady which have been donated to the Abbey since the 15th century.

The have been used to dress the black Madonna.

This was a video playing on the wall of the Madonna dressed in all the garments on display. 

After the museum, we decided to go back to the hotel to shower and get ready for our food tour that night.  We still had to wait a little while because apparently the TV in our room wasn't working, but eventually we got in (and the TV was working).

Our toiletries included a rubber ducky.

And, the view from our window included a cow on a balcony.

After a slight rest, we returned to the main train station to walk through the market which includes a 50 foot tree with thousands of Swarovski crystals.

Around the tree is a display of Swarovski memorabilia like Boy George's hat

and past designed Swarovski ornaments as well as this year's unique design.

The tree also "performs" a couple times an hour.

Walking around the market were also 4 characters on stilts (there were crowds of people around them all the time and they pretty much kept moving, so here are pictures of 3). I am unclear exactly what these characters represent (I would guess an angel and Jesus for two of them... I don't really have a guess for the woman in green).

At 6:30, we met our food tour guide, Daniel, under the angel statue.

This wasn't really a typical food tour in that included fewer stops than most.  It was also uncharacteristically private-- just me and my mom.  Apparently, food tours aren't popular around the holidays.  It started a restaurant in the train station: Brasserie Federal

with beer and appetizers.

Sampler of microbrews which I was largely supposed to drink by myself since my mom doesn't drink.  It is a relatively small selection considering they have more than 100 Swiss beers.

Instead, she was given this traditional Swiss soda which was a bit like ginger-ale.

A variety of Swiss meats and some pickles.

Cheeses as well as a bread with a bit of fruit/nuts in it (but not sweet).

Brown bread for the meat and cheese.

From here, we went on a walking tour of Old Zurich, which at night around the holidays has lights everywhere.

This tour really was more of a scenic tour with dinner included than a food tour.  Daniel, our guide, is actually a guide who generally gives history tours of the city who was freelancing for the food tour company, and so was full of information about city and Switzerland in general.  And, he took us to some really great scenic locations for pictures.

St. Peters, the most famous church in Zurich because it has the largest tower clock face in all of Europe.  You can't see it in this picture, but the clock is in Roman numerals and the 4 is written "IIII" instead of IV.

Most of the time we were walking around, it was snowing quite hard-- a very heavy, we snow.

Not the most scenic image, but you can see how hard it was snowing while we were walking around.

After we walked around for a while, we wound up at Enzian

for a traditional but modernized dinner of sausage with caramelized onion and fried potato pancake.

I believe there was supposed to be another formal stop-- I think at a bar for some kind of dessert beverage, but the snow meant that a lot of places were closing.  And, my mom had for some reason decided to wear regular shoes rather than the insulated, waterproof boots we had both purchased for the trip, so her feet were really cold and wet by this point. So, instead, we stopped by one of the few open stands for Gluhwein, which is basically mulled wine. All over Zurich, it was served in paper cups, though at many Christmas markets, it's served in a commemorative mug which are collectible (or, you can return them for a refill or a little money back since part of the cost of Gluhwein is a deposit on the mug).

The red is Gluwein. The yellow is more of a non-alcoholic cider. 

Because of the weather, pretty much everything was closed, so we headed back to our hotel to go to sleep-- by this point we had been up for much more than 24 hours.

December 14

Because we had been up so long the day before, we sort of overslept-- or rather slept rather late and missed the hotel breakfast.  Zurich is a really lovely city, but actually one full day is pretty much all you need to see it and hit the touristy spots, so we decided to use it as a base to go visit other places. The train system in Switzerland is amazing-- and if you go to the train station in Zurich, you can pretty much catch a train every 15-20 minutes to anyplace you want to go. On Friday, we decided to go to Luzern.

This was definitely the nicest weather day of our trip, so even the pictures from the train looked pretty with sun shining on the snow from the day before.

Luzern itself is gorgeous.  And really easy to tour, especially since the tourist information center is right outside the train station (which is not true in a lot of other cities-- which doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is nice to be able to step off the train and get a  map of a city easily, especially in Switzerland where it's hard to get access to wifi. It's not that wifi isn't readily available; however, often to get access to free wifi, the service wants to send a confirmation code via text which, if you didn't pay for international service for the week, is impossible to get as a foreigner.)

The recommended walk of Luzern pretty much starts you by Lake Luzern.

The Alps are visible all around it, making for really lovely scenic pictures.

Since we missed breakfast, we decided to start by crossing the bridge to where there are restaurants along the waterfront. There are actually several bridges to cross, a couple of which are historic and others which are not.

Chapel Bridge, constructed in the first half of the 14th century. The dome structure is a water tower which was built around 1300.  My tour map says it's the most photographed monument in Luzern, though I'm really surprised considering that the Lion Monument (see below) is also here.

We ate at Mr. Pickwick Pub, which turned out to be a chain, but we didn't know this at the time.

Nicely, it was warm enough to sit outside, in the sun  (In the picture of the food, you can even see my coat lying on the bench because it was actually that warm.)

Ploughman's platter and Steak and Ale pie with chips.

with a great view.

From lunch, we followed the self-guided tour around Luzern which took us first (in our iteration of it since we didn't really start at the beginning) to Hof Church

originally a Romanesque church.   Today it is Luzern's parish church.

The front door is really ornately carved

and opens and closes on its own in a way that is a bit a creepy.

From there, we walked up to the Lion Monument, which is pretty much the emblematic image on souvenirs from Luzern.

The shadows at the time we were there made it a bit difficult to get a good shot. 

The "Dying Lion of Luzern" commemorates the heroism of Swiss soldiers who died attempting to protect the Tulleries Palace in Paris in 1792.

Near the lion are also public restroooms, which would't be notable except that Switzerland may have the cleanest public bathrooms of anywhere in the world-- even the temporary port-o-potties set up near the Christmas markets. And, this one was particularly technologically advanced and funky looking-- and sparkling clean.

Opening the door to leave sets off a self-cleaning process.

From the Lion Monument, we walked to the city wall, or Musegg Wall

which has nine towers, four of which are open to the public from April to November, but not while we were there. Parts of the wall date to the early 1500s. We walked from there back down to the lake crossing over the Chapel Bridge

Picture from "inside" Chapel Bridge

to visit the Jesuit Church

The Jesuit Church is on the left side of this picture

which was built in 1666 and is the first large baroque ecclesiastical building in Switzerland.

We also visited the Franciscan Church

which was located in the middle of Luzern's Christmas market.

The church is the building in the right of the picture.

This Christmas market also had a booth with actual moving displays.

At the market, we got snacks, kokosballen (sort of chocolate covered marshmallow and cookie)

Kokosballen

and then we headed back towards the lake as the sun began to set to see Needle dam

which was built around 1859 and which still regulates the water level of Lake Lucerne today with the removal or addition of timber needles. As the sun went down, the buildings around the lake lit up more.

View from Spreuer Bridge

We crossed the final historic bridge, Spreuer Bridge, the oldest timber bridge in Switzerland,

completed in 1408.  There are 67 paintings depicting the Dance Macabre which were added between 1626 and 1635

as well as this shrine.

From the bridge, you can also see an example of one of the sill and weir systems that funneled water to wheels for the city's mills.  The mill site was destroyed by fire in 1875.

That was the last site on our self-guided tour, so we headed back to the train station to go back to Zurich where my mom wanted to visit and have dinner at the outdoor Christmas market located outside the Opera House. 

We had been told by our food guide, Daniel, that we should have raclette-- and that ideally we should have it at a Christmas market. So, we went to the Fondue Chalet (which did not have fondue)

for raclette, which is basically melted cheese poured over potatoes and some pickled vegetables.  It was packed (which I take to be a good sign when it comes to food establishments), but fortunately a couple people were leaving one of the picnic-style tables so we took their spot.


Here, you ordered food at the bar and then took your ticket to the "kitchen"

Raclette cheese melting

to have it made. It also meant that I could watch our raclette being made.

Raclette: cheese being poured over potatoes

While I was watching all of this (and my mom was holding onto our seats), I wound up in a conversation with a very strange man-- probably the only person we met who barely spoke English, though I'm also pretty sure he wasn't Swiss.  I couldn't place the accent.  He kept wanting to tell me that he's a musician, has been to New York and that the US isn't all bad.  Normally, I like talking to locals, but this was really strange. What was stranger was that later he came and found me at the table we were at and started up our conversation again, basically repeating everything he had told me while I was waiting for our food. And, the other people who were seated at our table weren't reacting particularly well to him either.  I wound up "chugging" the rest of my prosecco so that we could leave, so it was a bit of a rushed ending to our Fondue Chalet experience.

We wandered around the market a bit more, but really, Christmas markets are quite crowded at night-- more than a place for shopping, it's a place for people to hang out and eat and drink Gluhwein, which means it large groups of unmoving people handing out is narrow aisles. We did pick up pastries

 which were like strudel, in a wide variety of flavors, topped with vanilla cream.  They were really decadent and yummy.



And then we went back to the hotel-- and set alarms so that we would actually wake up in time for the hotel breakfast the next day.

December 15

We actually did wake up for breakfast which was provided in the small restaurant downstairs.

For lunch and dinner, this was an Asian restaurant-- we never did have Asian fondue, though I"m still curious.

It was a mix of options.

Two kinds of egg, cheese, croissant, cottage cheese, and muesli. 

For this Saturday, we had decided to set off east to St. Gallen.  The weather had dramatically changed, so we set off in the snow, which was actually ok because St. Gallen is a really charming small town and looks even more so on a snowy day.

Tourist information center

We found our way to the Old Town center of St. Gallen because I managed to find a map at the train station which got us to the tourist information center (in Old Town) which was largely good because the map I found in the train station fell apart as it got wet in the snow.  The booklet I was given at the information center was much more substantial and held up in the weather.  (You don't think about these things until you are fumbling with a quickly disintegrating paper map in the middle of a snow storm.) There was actually a small market set up in the tourist center with vendors selling local chocolate and wine and other goods. I met the owner of a small winery in the Rhine Valley who was quite proud of his cuvee (which I bought for a couple of friends).  And, the woman selling chocolate (which we also bought) saw us trying to take photos of ourselves outside and offered to take some for us.  They weren't great-- but give a sense of weather and how bundled up we were.  And, it was really sweet of her to come running outside to help us.

The biggest tourist attraction in St. Gallen is the Cathedral and Abbey.

The cathedral was built between 1756 and 1766.  It's been Episcopal since 1847. A guide book described it as containing "spectacular excesses of wedding-cake trim" which I get.

Even the side entrance is relatively ornate.

The Abbey itself isn't tourable with the exception of the Abbey Library. It was built between 1758 and 1767 and contains early medieval writings and manuscripts. It houses more than 170.000 books spanning more than 1000 years as well as Egyptian mummy dating from 650 BC and a replica of a globe from 1570 depicting the world's continents in inaccurate size (though still kind of astoundingly accurate given that it was 1570). The original was stolen by Zurich about 300 years ago; the replica was given to St. Gallen in 2009 (though I have no idea where the original now resides).

The library is amazing (also, someplace I imagine someone probably wanted to film the Harry Potter movies)-- and no photography is allowed. However, when you first enter the building, there is a selfie spot

which if you frame correctly can sort of look like you're taking an actual photo, if you ignore the fact that this really does look like a picture of a picture.

It looks a little more real if you actually take a selfie, maybe?

It's not a terrible picture considering I had just come in from the snow and have hat hair.

The Abbey Library is at the edge of the old town, where the Church of St. Lawrence, the reformed city church, is also located.

The inside isn't nearly as frothily ornate as the Cathedral (it's Gothic instead of Baroque)

but it does look more "lived in," like there is a regular congregation, with decorations like this.

Much of what there is to see in St. Gallen is the charming buildings.

This might be my favorite photo from the whole trip.

 If you end up outside of this area, you get to a rather commercial one with fast food restaurants that seem quite a bit like McDonald's. But there are little alleys along the main road where local, cute pubs and restaurants are located-- and we found one, Brau Gasthof,

to have lunch in.

It is very much a local pub-- with local beer (and hot tea).

It's big "thing" seemed to be pretzels, including sandwiches served on them.

Roast beef on a pretzel with tartar sauce

Cheese pie and a pretzel

After lunch, we wandered back out into the snow, which had lessened a bit and wandered back towards the train station, which took us past the Textile Museum which has exhibitions showing the importance of the textile industry in St. Gallen.  It also has a broad take on the work textile-- not just fabric but other materials as well. It is all things textile-- the tickets were even printed on fabric.

The museum is located in the Palazzo Rosso and has been the textile library and museum since 1886.

Loom

These dresses and suits have actual lights in them.

There is also a collection of embroideries, lace and fabric from the Middle Ages to today.

Example of how "textile" means more than traditional fabric.

Another example of alternative meanings of textile.

From the textile museum, we headed back to the train station and back to Zurich.  The idea was to get fondue at Le Dezaley which is really well known for its fondu-- so well known that once we found it (it's hidden down an alley, though there is a sign pointing to it once you're close), it would have been at least an hour wait for a table.  There was a line winding out the door-- surely a sign that the fondue was good, but we were really hungry and didn't want to wait. So, we wound back down the cobblestone streets of Old Town Zurich to a small cafe we had seen, Cafe Schaffel.

 The cafe itself is quite small and really cute. And our waiter, who was also clearly the manager (and maybe the owner) was really charming.

It's sort of an Italian restaurant, but then it had other offerings as well.

Linguine with spicy marinara

Burger with fries

It also had really good tiramisu.

It was really good-- good enough that I'm sorry we shared one instead of each getting our own.

And, that ended our Saturday (though more for me than my mom, who was kept awake for most of the night by the caffeine in the tiramisu-- which she at least believed was what made it such great tiramisu).

December 16

Almost everything in Switzerland is closed on Sundays, including all stores and museums. The one thing that isn't closed, however, is the zoo in Zurich.  And so, though we were leaving for Basel that day, we decided to go to the zoo first since there wouldn't be much to do once we got to Basel.

The zoo is located at one of the highest elevations in Zurich which means it has nice views.

It is also near the graveyard where James Joyce is buried (though I didn't go visit the grave because it was located in the corner of the graveyard farthest from the zoo).

The first exhibit after you enter the zoo is the emperor penguins, which are also definitely the big attraction.

We were told that if we waited until 1:30, we could see the penguin parade-- before that, many of them seem to want to stand around and pretend to be statues.

Inside, we caught the end of the first penguin feeding.

Other zoo highlights included the flamingos, which I wouldn't think would like the snow, but the picture looks lovely.

There are also other highlights, like the apes and monkeys

and wolves

and bears.

There are also llamas wandering around-- because sometimes you just need to walk your llama.

And, the elephants are also attraction.

But, the main show is the penguin parade, which happens at 1:30, if the weather is cold enough I'm guessing the ground is too hot at certain temperatures for the penguins to march.

This is the penguins walking out of their exhibit.

This is as much of the penguin parade (pinguinparade) as I could get-- it draws a crowd.

The penguins march around the zoo for 30 minutes before returning, but we didn't follow the crowd (which was sort of like a pied piper moment) or wait to see them return. For some reason, these 3 penguins didn't go with the others.

They seemed very confused but what had happened.

We decided to get lunch before we left the zoo, so we went to the Zoo Cafe, which had surprisingly good food,

Cheese pies-- one with broccoli and one with ham

And then we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage so we could catch the train to Basel.

Once we got to Basel, we took a taxi from the train station to the hotel (it's actually a really easy tram ride, but the tourist information office was closed when we got there and I couldn't find a map anywhere.) When we got there, the driver pointed through the crowded square and told us the hotel was "over there."  It was impossible to see because the entrance to the hotel, located in Barfusserplatz, was smack in the middle of a large Christmas Market, one of the largest and oldest in Switzerland.

This is Basel's Christmas Market website's aerial view of the market. 

We wound up circling the block a little until we found the entrance (which would have been really obvious any other time of the year when it wasn't obscured by booths)

 to Motel One Basel, checked in, and got to our room

with its lovely televised fire, which also crackled.

And then, we headed out to find dinner.  My mom picked a place across the street from the square, just out of the hub-bub, Stockli

which turned out to be totally adorable

and served fondue-- so we finally got fondue!

In most places you can order something else to dip in the fondue if you want, but no one really seemed to be doing this. So, basically, it's a pot of melted cheese and bread. Not healthy-- but good!

Because it was Sunday, there wasn't really anything open, except the market

which we wandered a bit, but like other markets, it was really crowded and difficult to maneuver at night, so we went back to the room, where I surprisingly found football on the tv (not the game I wanted, which would have been the Redskins game-- but what was being shown in the US on Fox as the game of the week-- Packers and Panthers, which is also good since I live in North Carolina). This is Swiss football commentary.

There are no German words for football terminology, not even simple things like "first down", so it's a really strange mix of English and German.

And that ended our Sunday.

December 17

For our first full day in Basel, we had booked a Chocolate Tour for noon, which gave us the morning to wander around.  First we got breakfast at a Starbucks (which we though would be less expensive than the hotel breakfast, but still wound up costing close to 30 chf) and then wandered towards the Cathedral in Munsterplatz.

Most of the original Cathedral was destroyed in an earthquake in 1356 and then it was rebuilt over the next 100 years in the more favored Gothic style.

We had time to wander around, so we went down the side street of the plaza, 

which features a lot of old houses and buildings with the dates they were built above the doors.

There are also small "plazas" with views of the Rhein as well as the other side of Basel (or "Little Basel" as the locals call it).

There are bridges to cross over to the other side

Little Basel feels a little more modern and commercial, though was the one place in Basel we found a traditional souvenir shop. (Souvenir shops are actually hard to find in Switzerland-- there are a few and there was one in each city, but there aren't a lot.)  There was this church, Peterskirche, a Protestant-Reformed Church since 1529.  

The church itself was a bit plain but has lovely stained glass. 

The original was also destroyed in the earthquake like the Cathedral; this building was built between 1388 and 1494. 

We headed back to the Cathedral area, which is also where the offshoot of the larger Christmas market near our hotel is located.

We walked around the smaller market and then went to stand in front of Catherdral's main entrance to meet our Chocolate tour guide, Stephanie. 

Our tour was with two other people, a woman and her son, but was still smaller than most food tours.  Our first taste of Basel chocolate was of this traditional spice biscuit called lackerli. 

We started off walking back through the square and past a couple examples of older Basel architecture

to our first stop, Confiserie Bachmann,

where we took a behind-the-scenes tour of a small chocolate factory to see how it's traditionally made.

Chocolate being mixed

The kitchen-- our guide Stephanie is the left of the picture

Demonstration of how chocolate is cut

Chocolate chilling. 

Finished truffles.  These are passion fruit, which we got to try, along with raspberry ones (which you sort of see to the left). 

After touring the kitchen, we got to try chocolate bread. 

Our next stop was Xocolatl which is both a chocolate shop and cafe.

Chocolate from Switzerland. This shop had artisan chocolate from all over the world. 

Here, we had hot chocolate, which was a whole process to choose since there were multiple options that included choosing chocolate percentage (36% is white chocolate and then as the percentage goes up, the chocolate gets darker and less sweet because it's mixed with less sugar), flavor profile and where the chocolate was sourced from. 

Just one page of the hot chocolate options-- these were "straight" hot chocolate. Other pages has options that were mixed with other things. 

My mom had white chocolate sourced from the Dominican Republic.

I had one that was 75% chocolate sourced from Peru. 

After our hot chocolate, we headed back out towards a main road, where the Basel Town Hall is located

as well as Schiesser

a chocolatier and tea room that established in 1870

Downstairs display case

Upstairs cafe

where we tried a bit of this chocolate.

Chocolate gets discussed a bit like wine does-- the taste of it has to do with where it's grown and what else is in the soil (if you look closely at the menu, it describes what other flavor hints are in the hot chocolate in the same way wine or coffee descriptions often do). And, certain parts of the world, like Ecuador and Peru, are apparently better places to source chocolate beans used in higher quality chocolate. 

We continued our tour, winding around a few quaint side streets, 

This is also where Johann Wanner, a famous Christmas ornament store is located. 

including one which has Basel's walk of fame, including Roger Federer's plaque (which is as close as I came to a Federer sighting, sadly). 

We wound around a few more streets in the old town to Brandli

where we had truffles.

And then we headed to Sprungli

which has been around since 1845.  Sprungli is the more upscale chocolate shop owned by the family that also owns Lindt.  There are two brothers, one who is in charge of Sprungli and one who is in charge of Lindt, which is more mass-produced. At Sprungli, we picked up macaroons to go (which we were supposed to eat the same day, but which my mom and I kind-of forgot about and then found, a bit smushed but still good, in her suitcase after we got back). 

From Sprungli, we went to Beshcle,

where we had probably the most decadent desserts of the day.

Vermicelles: the "spaghetti" on top is hazelnut flavored. 

St. Honore: the top is caramelized and it's topped with two pastry puffs with cream.  This had no chocolate-- and might have been my favorite thing of the day (though, it's a toss up with the hot chocolate).

One would have thought this was the big finale, but it wasn't.  We had pretty much walked a full circle by now, so we wound up back by the Cathedral, walking though the side walkway

to get back down to the river, where we took a ferry

to the other side (Little Basel).  It was cold and kind of drizzly at this point, so we rode inside. On our way across, we had truffles that Stephanie had made herself that morning.

Our last stop was at a cafe, Con Letras, which Stephanie used to own (or, she rented the space but owned the business)

where we had tea and coffee and a final sort of debrief on chocolate and some of the differences we had experienced during the day (cocoa beans, percentage, etc.)

The two closest bars are flavored. The one on the left is white chocolate with macha and the one on the right is milk chocolate with orange. 

and tried a couple flavored chocolate bars. We ended our tour being given gift bags of more chocolate including a bar of chocolate, cocoa nibs, hot chocolate, and a couple other goodies (all of which made it all the way back to the States because as much as I love chocolate, 3 1/2 hours of eating chocolate was a bit of an overload). We said goodbye to our tour group-- the other two were going back by ferry and by this point my mom and I had had enough of the child on the tour, who was relatively well behaved for a while, but kids can only have so much sugar before they can't control themselves and he had hit his limit back when we had the vermicelles. So, we walked back across the bridge to the area we had been in earlier because my mom wanted to visit Johann Wanner. 

Johann Wanner has been around for about 40 years and is filled with all sorts of ornaments, many hand-blown, largely divided by color. 

We wandered around and went shopping in a few more stores, including this one which had novelty items-- and the only Trump moment of the whole week. (Really-- no one mentioned Trump or US politics to us the whole time we were there.)

After wandering around for a while, we went back to the hotel to recover a bit from sugar overload.  I wouldn't have thought we would be hungry after eating chocolate for more than 3 hours, and I don't know that I was really hungry, but I did want real food. So, we headed out to find someplace to eat and found Centro. The outside sign said pizzeria, so I was expecting something much more casual, but it turned out, once you climbed up the stairs, to be a nice Italian restaurant.

We each had a salad and then split a pizza fired in a brick oven.

Olives, mushrooms and artichoke on the pizza because I needed even more veggies than the salad provided after so much chocolate.

The Basel Christmas market was in full swing when we got back-- and served Gluhwein in the traditional mugs most markets have.  They are quite cute, and my mom wanted one and so she "forced" me have a Gluhwein so that she could keep the souvenir mug.  This time I tried the white Gluhwein which I do like a lot more than red.  

The 2017 souvenir mug

That sort of served as dessert on a day which definitely didn't need anymore.

December 18

We decided to have breakfast in the hotel, which was held in the lobby.

We had been talking about going to Colmar, France for the day, but there were also more things in Basel we wanted to see and so we decided to stay put and go see several museums in Basel, starting with the Toy Museum. 

The Toy Museum is housed on 4 floors, each one with a different there. You take an elevator to the top and then work your way down through the exhibits, starting with teddy bears. And lots of them. There are more than 2500 teddy bears, often displayed in some kind of tableau.

Bunches and bunches of teddy bears

Teddy bears in a bathtub

There was also a floor dedicated perfume bottles, which is a special exhibition (and, I'm not quite sure what it has to do with toys) on display through April.

And, there was also a season display of Christmas tree decorations, some of which were baked goods being used to decorate the tree.

But, the highlight of the museum is its display of dollhouses and shops which are elaborate dioramas of life in different places and times, including an amusement park series

millinery shop 

(broken down) circus tent

period dining room

and, my favorite, monks in a tavern.

There are other tavern/bar tableaus as well.

And, a clock shop.

As well as more traditional, multi-storied dollhouses.

From the Toy Museum, which was both open earliest and closest to our hotel, we walked to the Paper Mill Museum, or Basler Papiermuhle, which is totally worth the walk and a visit.

The museum is located in what used to be a functioning, medieval  paper mill and still has a functioning water wheel.

It's divided onto four floors, working from lower level up, that move from paper to writing to printing to books. And, each floor also has an interactive activity related to the theme of the floor.  The first floor is displays about paper making with working, early machines

where we got to make our own paper.

complete with watermark,

which is the Basel coat of arms-- the staff used by the Bishops of Basel.

There are examples of early "paper," before it was refined, like this manuscript made of tree bark.

as well as other forms of paper, like this toilet paper display.

The second floor is writing which moves through the history of writing to the Gutenberg press and typography.

This was a demonstration of how to make a stamp.

There was a room where you could practice writing messages with quill.

Once you write your message, you can then choose an envelope and wax stamp seal for that letter (though this costs extra-- and my mom and I had just practiced writing our initials, which didn't really seem worth sealing).

On this floor are also older manuscripts like this Torah scroll.

The third floor is printing, which includes many displays related to typesetting, which is what my grandfather did and reminded my mom quite a bit of visiting him at work.

It also had this working display of an early, automatic press.

And, on this floor, we could set our own type using these letters

 and print on the paper we had created on the first floor.

This floor also included more modern devices, like the 1984 Macintosh, which I totally remember having.

The sign notes that this was the first Mac used in Switzerland as well as the first desktop computer with an interface for graphic design and a mouse. 

The top floor is devoted to book making-- and the activity on this floor is marbling.

There is also a nice view of the old city wall from the marbling room.

We each got to marble our own paper.

My mom's is on the left and mine is on the right. 

There is a cafe located next to the paper mill-- the Papiermuhle Restaurant Cafe-- which was actually a recommended restaurant in tour guides and Yelp.

In the foreground is spatzle with squash; behind it is quiche and a salad with a really great dressing.

After lunch, we headed towards the Tinguely Museum which is a bit of a hike along the river, though taking public transit would have involved a few changes and still a walk. First, though, we stopped outside the museum to get a better look at the city wall.

It's one of three city gates and the piece of wall which is being preserved as part of the city's heritage.

The Museum Tinguely is a museum dedicated to the works of 20th century artist Jean Tinguely and those he has influenced. He is best known for his moving sculptures which are mostly made from scraps and "trash" though the museum also included videos of his performance art-- some of which were like magic shows/illusions which were fun to watch. Others were more experimental-- like a video of a woman in a bathtub smashing food against herself, which I must admit, I just don't get.

By far, the art that was most fun were the moving sculptures which you activated by stepping on a button on the floor.

The museum also included work by other artists. One display was of art that looked like it was done by kids (but was not)-- this one very closely resembles a painting I did in pre-school of my poppy (my mom's dad).

The largest exhibit being work by Wim Delvoye which included an installation of stained glass

The sculpture in front is a separate piece from the stained glass. It's a piece called "Helix DHAACO 90 52 cm x 9L".

and one of carved tires.

But, where it's most clear that he was influenced by Tinguely is in his own, giant, moving sculpture.

We left the Museum Tinguely and walked the other side of the Rhine (the side that is Little Basel) back to the hotel, passing this bridge post of what is a mix of bird and dragon-- which is mostly notable because this particular statue appears quite a bit in Basel.

It's the Basilisk, a mythical dragon holding the Basel coat of arms.

We returned to our hotel after scouring the area a bit for where we wanted to go to dinner later.  We decided to go to Kohlmann's, which was located on the edge of the square outside our hotel. It was quite crowded,

clearly a popular choice.  They served a really good rustic bread with some kind of spread which was quite good.

I had a stuffed chicken breast and my mom had a salmon pizza.

Stuffed chicken breast with spatzle (yes, a second helping for the day), cabbage and a really good cranberry sauce.

Salmon pizza

We split a tart and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Those are whole cranberries on top-- I liked them but Mom thought they were too tart.

And that ended our last day in Basel.

December 19

This was our last full day in Switzerland, so we had to make our way back to Zurich so that we could catch our early morning flight out the next day.  Instead of staying in the same hotel as before, we decided to stay in the hotel attached to the airport, the airport Radisson, to make leaving the next day easier.  So, we headed there first to drop of our luggage. It was definitely the most modern hotel we stayed in.

It even had an ice machine, which is notable only because we were in Europe and I don't think I've ever seen an ice machine in a European hotel before.

The TV in the room was set to welcome us (or me, since I made the reservation).

We left our suitcases and took the train one stop back into Zurich and headed first to a store that sells cuckoo clocks which had been closed when we had passed it. My mom really wanted a cuckoo clock-- we had seen one them in Luzern and hadn't bought them there and she had been regretting it since, so was excited to know that we could get one in Zurich.  There, we got her one that hangs on the wall (her Hanuka present from me) and me one that sits on the mantel in my house.

It really does make cuckoo sounds (about 7 seconds in).  There is also a music option.  Mine is on silent most of the time because it's quite loud and I can hear mine from everywhere in the house-- all day and night.

After buying our clocks, we headed back up the street to have lunch in a tea room, Honold, which wasn't quite like what we were expecting from a tea room.  

Downstairs is a pastry shop; upstairs is more of a cafe with canape sandwiches you can pick from a counter

Egg Salad Canape

 and then other items, like salads, from a menu.  We were really excited by the salad.

The dressing was some really yummy vinaigrette.

 The one thing we hadn't done on our first day in Zurich was visit the Church of St. Peter (pictured earlier from the outside).  It's the church with one of the largest clock faces in Europe.

It's the most famous church in Zurich and so I really thought we should go in it. It's rather plain inside though, at least compared to other churches we went in.

From here, we wandered through Old Town one more time, past this church

which we also went in; also plain, but the candles were nice.

And past more building and balcony art

as well as a cannabis shop

which is strange because it's not legal in Switzerland (though there is a robust debate about making it legal). However, apparently it is legal to over-the-counter if the THC is less than 1%, so maybe that was the work around? 

Our final stop before taking the train back out to the airport was at a cafe, Schurter, for a snack.

Here, we had coffee, tea and a really decadent piece of pie.

I like the tea infuser and cup.
The pie isn't lemon-- it's more of a cream.

These are the last photos of Zurich I took-- it's sort of near "rush hour" and so many of these people are also headed toward the train station (which is also a tram hub).

Back at the hotel, we rested a bit and then eventually headed down to dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was sort of an Italian restaurant named Filini.

There, we had pasta.

Bread basket

My pasta which was not what I was expecting. It's basically spaghetti marinara. The menu description mentioned basil and pesto, so I was really expecting something green and pesto-like. 

My mom's past choice was better-- it has duck. 

The most entertaining part of eating at the hotel, however, is watching women get wine out of the giant wine storage that makes up the lobby decoration. 

So, the wine storage changed color, but it's also several stories tall.  And so, when someone orders a bottle of wine, women dressed all in white (you can see one in the picture on the left) perform a cirque du soleil like act while climbing the wall to find the bottle. 

They do this every time someone orders a bottle and also on the hour (and maybe the half hour as well).  The planned hourly ones are choreographed to music (I'm guessing since they take the length of a song). 

This was our last Swiss experience as we got up the next morning to cross the "bridge" into the airport for our 9 am flight back to the States (where it was significantly-- and surprisingly-- colder than it was while we were Switzerland).