Early today as I watched while the skyline was shaking, I heard a rumbling
Early today the mechanical city was waking
And I ran out stumbling, mumbling
Out through the laughter of children and dogs
Did you see our brother
He was here the other day
But he only came to say that he can't breathe here
Did you see his lady, she was reaching for his hand
Just as if to tell her man that she can't either
They're bound to go
And the sun may find me running after them, seeing something far away
We won't be back
--"From Silver Lake," Jackson Browne
On Sunday morning, the day of Kim's departure, I got up early to meet my train to head off to Zürich and meet my parents there. It was altogether quite simple: U-Bahn to Marienplatz, S-Bahn to Hauptbahnhof (2 stops), walk up to my train, presto, easy. The train trip was about 5 hours, which was on the longish side, but altogether much more comfortable than airplane travel. It was beautiful, we went through all sorts of small little towns. I remarked on a little grocery store in a tiny town in the mountains called, in German, the Oasis, with a little painting of a lush paradise in the desert. I loved the juxtaposition there. The train also went past the Bodensee, which is a HUGE. HUGE. lake at the foot of Lindau, where we made one of our stops.
I arrived just before noon in the pretty and charming old Zurich Hauptbahnhof, where I met my father. Together we cabbed back to the hotel, which marked the first time I had been in an automobile in 10 weeks: it did seem a bit unfamiliar. I was surprised how much in Zurich was closed on Sunday, even many cafes and restaurants were closed (about half, or a little less than that, I would say). In Munich, all the shops are closed, but you can at least eat at a cafe or restaurant. Zurich is a beautiful city, though, situated just on the lovely Zurichsee in the mountains, and everyone seems to speak at least three languages. You will know of course, that the Swiss have their own little brand of German, Swiss-German, which is just plain weird. See my title of this post; this is actually an ad in Switzerland where they've abandoned the "t" and added a "ch" for the "ist" (is).
I was very interested to scope out the differences between the Swiss and the Germans, or, more specifically, the Munichners and the Zurichers. Zurich is much, much smaller than Munich, though the people were more outgoing and more inclined to kindness to "outsiders" than I feel would be the case in a German town of the same size. (Of course, Zurich is a combination of many influences, so maybe it's not quite fair to make a comparsion, since there can't ever really be a German town "like" Zurich.) I was at the hotel buffet pouring some orange juice and the waitress needed to get in my area, so she just touched me on the back to let me know she was there. In Germany, you would be greeted by a very loud and harsh "VORSICHT!" while they would mutter "youstupididiot" under their breath. Also, the waiters we had at various restaurants (not all expensive--well, not by Zurich standards, anyway--everything in Zurich is teuer, teuer, teuer, which would depress me if I lived there and wasn't a millionaire) were all just more open. I had asked one server about the meaning of a flag, and she went off to ask another server to get the right answer, and was just in general more open than I felt I have encountered in Deutschland. More neighborly? Perhaps is the right word. Here people are much more inclined to erect fences than to share. But, I'm not really sure which influences are responsible, and Zurich could be such an European singuarlity that it can't be replicated nor fairly compared to other European cities.
We had dinner with two of my mother's colleagues, who have both lived in Switzlerand for about 5 years. One has a gorgeous Golden Retriever dog. The dog has a tram card! I saw it with my own eyes. The dog comes to work, since apparently it is illegal in Switzerland to leave your dog alone for more than 4 hours. Your neighbors will report you. Wow, talk about government intervention. You cannot buy a house in Zermatt unless you list your primary residence there, and it's very hard for non-Swiss citizens to break in the little club there, since they want to let Swissies enjoy this mountain paradise. Things are done differently here. I wonder what the Swiss 6 o'clock news is like: "A dog was lost today near the river, however a Loyal Swiss Neighbor helped the owner recover it. It had a hurt paw and was taken to the vet for immediate treatment."
After spending about 2 days in Zurich, we left mit dem Auto out of Switzerland and into Liechtenstein, which was really neat! Liechtenstein is just across a river from Switzerland and accepts the Swiss currency as well as the Liechtenstein franc. Famous as a tax evasion place, Liechtenstein has more registered companies than citizens. Apparently, a host of German citizens had been stashing away some cash here in this quiet valley, and a disgruntled employee of a Liechtenstein bank offered to sell the German government names of German citizens who had accounts in Leichtenstein, and the German government took the bait. (Spiegel Article on the "2008 Liechtenstein Affair" ) The source was paid 5 million euros for this information. I personally feel uneasy about a *government* would negotiate with someone who was violating confidence laws. How would the German government feel about an employee of Deutsche Bank selling out names of clients to a foreign power? I know you have to work with unsavory individuals sometimes to get more unsavory ones, but no one's life was being threatened here. Reading the Spiegel article is interesting though--there's very much the sense that those who have committed tax evasion are "ignoring the responsibility they have to the common good," as the article says. Hahhahahaa, I dare you to find that quote in a major American news publication. Bei uns this concept does not exist. So that's a cultural difference for you.
We also drove through the beautiful mountains of Austria, Innsbruck, and up through Southern Germany, where it began to RAIN. LIKE. NO. TOMORROW. We had thought we'd evade this rain by the time we got to Munich, as Munich is far enough north of the Alps not to get that crazy weather, but we were wrong. It was the end of May, and it was cold and wet. Thunderstorms like that may be the du jour in Lousiana, but not in this town. I do love rain and storms. . . . as I've spent less and less time in Louisiana I become more and more shocked by their occurence. It'll always be a gift I take from the Bayou State, the upbringing I had in times of storms and lightening.
I spent the following week with my parents. We did the usual, restaurants and so forth and also went to the very impressive Deutsches Museum which is a museum of science and technology. There were whole ships there, whole aircrafts, exhibition on the Wright Brothers, history of publishing, glass blowing, photography, physics, chemistry, space--impressive stuff, well done, and not boring at all. It was huge, I kept getting lost. I had an ermäßigung for being a Studentin so it was only 3 euros (8,50 euro regular admission) Sweet. Definitely going back. My father remarked about the technical detail of this, how many jet engines there were. Germans are very interested in the fine details--they want to know how things work = Siemens, BMW, etc.
We also went to Augsburg to see the Fuggerei, which was neat. Very cool settlement; I can't believe it's been there that long!
Next up: Two days later I go to Vienna, Austria, to reunite with two of my Trinity friends!
Photo: view from Restaurant Seerose out to the Zürichsee.
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