If you’re going to travel through Europe, you’re going to have to break some eggs. Or, maybe, occasionally, NOT break some eggs. We skipped the Benton-breakfast (we…had no eggs left and had opted not to replenish them yesterday) and went out for breakfast instead.
We then stopped and did a little grocery shopping for lunch and some hygiene-type items before heading back to the apartment, where Benton drove into some thesis wrap-up work, Lucy dove into some work she needed to get done, and Tim headed out to check out the tower and playground that Benton and Lucy had stumbled across at dinner last night.
Lunch was in the apartment, and then Benton and Tim dove into getting lodging and travel details knocked out for the remainder of the trip (today is the day that all lodging is booked for the remainder of the trip!).
We headed out for an early-ish dinner of fondue. It’s really a winter dish, but when in Switzerland… And, Lucy had tracked down a few places that came highly recommended, and her research paid off!
Following the fondue (which, we realized, meant we all had had a daily set of meals that was 90% comprised of bread and cheese, and another 8% of meat), we walked up to a “bar with a badi” on the river to meet up with Tim’s analytics colleague, Lukas. Lukas and Benton went for a dip, while Tim got drinks and manned the table, and then Benton and Lucy went for a dip. We hung out for a few hours, which included a discussion as to whether the atmosphere of that badi (drinks and flowing river water/swimming and very chill socializing mid-week near the city center) was something that was common in the U.S. Benton posited that Barton Springs was maybe the closest thing he could think of, and Tim agreed. It was pretty special, and it was fun to spend more time with Lukas and get some inside scoops on Switzerland/Zurich: laundry, the history of heroin use, automotive law compliance (very high), bicyclist law compliance (very low), and more!
Then, it was back to the apartment to call it a night.
An interesting/memorable experience of the day:
Benton: How Zurich had addressed the rampant heroin usage in the area where the badi was—by simultaneously cracking down hard on the public use of heroin while also opening free methadone clinics. This seems to make a lot of sense.
Tim: The waiter at dinner noticing a pesky bee and commenting that it would just poke around for a few seconds and then fly away. The waiter left, and the bee proceeded to land on Benton’s plate, pick up a crumb of meat, and fly off with it! And Lukas breaking out into “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” as he explained that he learned it when he was a kid being taught English, and he had no idea what the words were actually saying.
