August 1st is National Swiss Day! Essentially, Switzerland’s version of the 4th of July, but acknowledging the formation of Switzerland in the 1300s by way of a 3-way pact rather than by a declaration that started a war. It’s only been a national holiday since 1994, but it’s definitely a day when businesses are closed and, since it was a Monday, people were enjoying a long weekend.
We got our laundry messiness from yesterday sorted this morning, which meant we actually ran laundry and delayed our planned departure until it had run and we could pull it out and hang it to dry.
We took a couple of trains to a trail that we could hike up to the top of Uetliberg—a steadily steep hike on a wide and well-surfaced trail. The view over Zurich and Lake Zurich was pretty impressive from the peak. And, in apparently pretty typical Swiss fashion, there was a snack bar (open) and a restaurant (closed for National Swiss Day) at the top. There was also a triangular tower that could be further ascended (for 2CHF), which Tim and Lucy did.
From there, we hiked for ~1.5 hours along a ridge to another peak—Felsenegg. It was a nice view, and there was a restaurant (open), but no snack bar. Part of the reason we walked there was so we could ride a cable car down the mountain to another train station. The cable car wound up being pretty small and underwhelming.
At the base of the cable car, we stopped in a grocery store and picked up bread, meat, cheese, and drinks, and we then took a train and a couple of trams to get down close to Lake Zurich, where we went to the Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen, a “badi” (public bathhouse). Really, this was just a very large waterfront park with various swimming areas and amenities. We found a shaded spot to sit down and have our little picnic.
Then, it was back to the apartment for a little bit of relaxation before heading out to grab takeout pizza (which took a couple of attempts—National Swiss Day resulting in our first choice being closed) and head to a hill that Lukas had recommended for watching the fireworks related to the holiday. We finally realized that there are not city-run massive fireworks displays like there are on the 4th of July in the U.S. Rather, lots and lots of people across the city set off their own (much smaller) fireworks. So, being on a hill looking out over the city gives an interesting view of lots of uncoordinated fireworks being set off. We ate our pizza, drank some wine, fought off some bugs, and watched Mother Nature periodically make the fireworks look pretty puny with her lightning display.
Tim and Lucy then headed back to the apartment, while Benton headed down to the opera house by the lake to get a closer view of the fireworks being set off. And that was a wrap!
An interesting/memorable experience of the day:
Benton: The rainbow that appeared as the sun was setting: the full rainbow was visible from one end to the other, and there was even a faint double rainbow.
Tim: The cat we passed during our hike—it was walking up one of the peaks as we were walking down, seemingly with a small group of people (but not on a leash, and it was leading the way).
