Am I Still in Europe?

Forgive me for jumping back and forth between the narrative of my trip to Europe and what is going on now in Mexico.  On Saturday evening, when I returned home, I really wasn't hungry since they had served two meals on the flight.  However, Alejandro had not eaten, so after we returned to the apartment, we went out to a nearby restaurant.  Where did we go?  To the "Fondue Haus".  So, having just returned from Switzerland, I had another Swiss meal.

 

Then yesterday, Alejandro wanted to go to City Market, an upscale supermarket with a branch not too far from the apartment.  The store had been advertising an "Oktoberfest" event featuring products from Germany.  So, we put on our raincoats and took our umbrellas and walked through the rain about twenty minutes to the store.

Throughout the store there were displays that had a German flag and a sign saying, "Guten Tag. Enjoy the best of Germany."

Some of the products were imported from Germany, others were German-style foods made in Mexico.  For example, this case featured imported German cheeses and German cold cuts made by a Mexican brand.

The in-store bakery made all sorts of German cakes, pastries and breads.

When Alejandro and I make an occasional visit to City Market, we usually indulge in some gelato at their café.  This time, they had a number of flavors inspired by German desserts, such as Sacher torte, Black Forest cake, and Stollen.

Needless to say, we had to try out some of the German flavors.

I purchased a number of items while we were at City Market... most of them imported from Germany.  I brought home two jars of sauerkraut, a loaf of bread made in their bakery, a bag of wide egg noodles (something I have never been able to find in Mexico), and a bag of spätzle.

(In case Helen, the wife of my Swiss cousin Walter, reads this...  "Yes, Helen, I do intend to use the spätzle maker that you gave me while I was visiting.  I bought the bag of spätzle for when I don't feel like making home-made.")

Luxury Street

We will now return to the narrative of my trip to Europe.  You may remember that we left off in Zurich.  I had visited the art museum, wandered around the Old Town and had dinner in a historic restaurant.  It was then time to head to the train station, and head back to the home of my cousin Brigitta who lives in Uster, a short train ride away.

I followed the Limmat River to where it flows into Lake Zurich.

From the head of the lake, I took Zurich's most famous street Bahnhofstrasse to the main train station.  ("Bahnhofstrasse" means "Train Station Street".) The street is largely pedestrianized, but beware.  The city's trams also run along the street.

The street dates from the second half of the 19th century, when the city walls were torn down, and the ditch in front of the wall was filled in to create an avenue.

The street is lined with elegant buildings which date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

However, Bahnhofstrasse's fame comes not from its architecture, but from the fact that it is one of the world's most exclusive shopping districts.  It ranks right up there with Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and 5th Avenue in Manhattan.  The most expensive designers have shops along the street.  Also all the astronomically expensive Swiss watchmakers, like Rolex, Patek Phillipe, and TAG Hauer have their shops here.

 

At the end of the street is the main train station.

I had walked the entire length of Bahnhofstrasse, and you know what?  I had not bought a single thing.  

   

Jet Lagged

I am back home in Mexico City after my 18 day trip to Europe.  Jet lag has hit me harder than when I would travel from Ohio and back.  There is an additional two hour time difference between Mexico and Europe, plus the flight is longer... almost 12 hours.  My body is still on German time.  Hence, even though I didn't sleep much last night, I am already up and writing this at 6:30 AM.  My body says that it is 2:30 in the afternoon.

On Saturday I was up at 6:30 in the morning (that would be 10:30 Friday night Mexico time) to shower, do last minute packing, and have breakfast in the hotel.  At 10:00 AM I took the hotel shuttle to the airport.  

This dinosaur found Frankfurt airport to be very confusing. I had checked in online the day before, and Lufthansa sent my boarding pass to my cell phone.  But I still had to check my suitcase.  At the airport I couldn't find any counters with human beings.  It's all automated.  I scanned my boarding pass at a machine to get my luggage tag.  I put that on my bag, and then went to another machine that took my suitcase and spitted out my receipt.  I finally found one Lufthansa counter that had people, and waited in line to ask if I could have a paper boarding pass.  (I hate fumbling with my phone when I am boarding.)  They sent me to a kiosk, where an employee helped me print off a paper pass.

Then I had to go through the security process which took almost an hour.  First I waited in a long line to scan my boarding pass.  Then I had to wait in another long line to go through passport control where they put an exit stamp in the passport.  Then you go through security, but at least in Frankfurt you do not have to take off your shoes, or remove electronics from the carry-on,

Then I had to make a long trek to my gate.  By the time I got there, my 1:35 PM flight to Mexico was posted on the sign.

We were all lined up to board. (I was in boarding group 3 for Premium Economy class.)  But then boarding was delayed by about a half hour, apparently because of staffing problems to clean the plane.  Once again, I had a window seat over the wing, so I was not able to take very good photos.

  Around 2 PM we left the gate, taxied to the runway, and finally were in the air.

The flight was long, but fairly comfortable.  The Premium Economy seats on Lufthansa have more room than Economy Plus on United Airlines.  But nevertheless, I was unable to sleep.  We were served two meals that were rather good.  One of the meals was typically German with small bratwurst and red cabbage.

Nearly twelve hours later at 6 PM Mexico time, we descended for our arrival at Mexico City International Airport.

The line at immigration at the airport was not too long.  Because I have a residency visa, I was allowed to use the line for Mexican citizens which was somewhat shorter.  The long wait was for the luggage.  The bags started coming out on the carousel shortly after I got there, but there are a lot of suitcases to unload from a jumbo jet.  So, I waited a long time before my bag appeared.  I walked through customs without any questions, and on the other side of the sliding doors, Alejandro was there waiting for me.

We drove to the apartment.  It was raining heavily, and there were, as usual, flooded spots on the roads.  Traffic was terrible.

I was not hungry, but Alejandro had not eaten, so we went out for some supper.  By the time we got to bed it was 10:30 PM... 6:30 Sunday morning German time.  So, I had been up for 24 hours.  I was tired, but I woke up at 1 AM (9 AM in Germany).  I managed to fall back to sleep for a couple more hours, but I was awake again at 4, and finally got out of bed at 5:30.  Hopefully by tomorrow my body will be back in sync.

Tomorrow on the blog, I will write more about my travels in Europe, taking up where I left off in Zurich, Switzerland.  

Going Home

I still have plenty to write about for this trip to Europe, probably about ten more entries, but I will pause here to report that later today I am flying home to Mexico from Frankfurt.

Yesterday I was up early to finish packing, check out of my hotel in Basel, my last stop in Switzerland, and walk across the street to the train station.  (Just as in Frankfurt, I booked a hotel convenient for train travels.) The train would take me back to Frankfurt where I would spend the night at a hotel near the airport.  

Inside Basel's main train station

Ever the early bird, I was at the station at 7:30 A.M. even though my train was not leaving until 9:06.  I had plenty of time to grab something for breakfast.  The Swiss supermarket chain Migros has an enormous food court in the station with stands selling everything from Italian pasta to Thai food.  I had an avocado / egg sandwich, a scrumptious croissant filled with apricot (I could make a whole meal out of the wonderful baked goods) and a hot chocolate.  Why would anyone go to McDonalds with so much quality "fast food"?

When my train appeared on the big board, I made my way to the platform.  It was a high speed ICE (Intercity Express) operated by the Deutsche Bahn, the German state railway.  In spite of the German railway's growing reputation for delays, my train arrived on the dot at 9:06.

As you can see from the sign on the platform, Frankfurt was not the train's final destination.  It was continuing on to Berlin.

The ride from Basel to Frankfurt is a little over three hours.  We arrived at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) a couple minutes ahead of schedule.  I then needed to buy a ticket for the S Bahn (suburban train) to go to the airport.  I went to the travel center operated by Deutsche Bahn and bought my ticket from a machine with the kind assistance of an employee.  I went to the lower level of the station, waited about ten minutes, and the S Bahn arrived.  It's just a 15 minute ride to the airport.  My reservation was at the NH Frankfurt Airport Hotel.  (NH is a chain of European hotels.  They are in Mexico also, but I have never seen one in the U.S.)  I had earlier communicated with the hotel via email about where to catch their free shuttle service.  They answered immediately with the information.  The Frankfurt Airport is enormous, and it took me a while to find the hotel shuttle stop, but once I was there I did not have to wait long to be transported to my hotel.

My room was clean and modern... nothing spectacular... but fine for an overnight stay.

    

Today my flight will leave at 1:35 P.M. and I am supposed to be there three hours ahead of time.  The duration of the flight is around twelve hours... longer than the flight from Mexico City to Frankfurt because of headwinds.  Mexico City is 8 hours behind Germany, so I will arrive home at 5:30 P.M.

So, now it's time to take a shower, do the last bit of packing, have breakfast at the hotel, and take the shuttle to the airport.

Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland!  

An Afternoon in the Old Town

 My day in Zurich, a week ago yesterday, began as a gray, gloomy morning, but by the time I left the art museum, the sun was shining.  It was a perfect afternoon to wander around Zurich's picturesque "Altstadt".

The Old Town is along the banks of the Limmatt River where it empties into Lake Zurich.

The Old Town is dominated by the twin towers of the Grossmünster.  Begun around 1100, it was the city's cathedral, until the Protestant Reformation.  The leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, Huldrych Zwingli, preached from its pulpit against the corruption of the Catholic Church hierarchy and established the liturgy of the Swiss Reformed Church.

  Since I had visited the church on an earlier trip to Switzerland, I did not go inside this time.

Former guild houses along the bank of the river

This building, dating from the late 1600s, is built partially over the Limmat River.  It served as Zurich's city hall until 1803 when it became the seat of the parliaments for both the city and the canton of Zurich.

The other side of the river is dominated by St. Peter's Church, which has the largest church clock face in Europe.  The clock dates back to 1538.

Another church on that side of the river is the Fraumünster. Until the Reformation dissolved all monasteries and convents, it was an abbey for aristocratic women.  Parts of it date back to the 1200s.

I returned to the park on top of a hill where Brigitta and Peter had taken me the night before for a view of the city.  The daytime view was even better.

I did a bit of research later, and found out that the hilltop is called the Lindenhof.  It was the site of a Roman fortress.  Nearby, a second century tombstone was uncovered.  Its inscription is the oldest written record of the city of Zurich, which as a Roman settlement was known as Turicum.  I happened to have photographed it without knowing its significance.

Some random photos taken while I wandered the streets of the "Altstadt"

It was time to eat, and I found a restaurant called "Zeughauskeller" which is in a building that was constructed in 1487.  The "Zeughaus" was the city's armory where weapons were stored and repaired.  Legend has it that William Tell's crossbow was stored there.  Since 1926 it has been a restaurant.

The interior is decorated in a medieval style.  The restaurant was not crowded.  The customers that were there were all American and Asian tourists.  Unlike Mexico, where the afternoon is the time for the main meal of the day, the Swiss dine in the evening.  (In fact, it can be difficult to find a restaurant open in the afternoon.)

I began with a white wine cream soup, which was very tasty.  That's a mug of "apfelschorle" (apple juice with sparkling water) in the background.

For the main course I had a dish that is traditional for Zurich... "Zürcher Geschnetzeltes", strips of veal in a white wine cream gravy.  It was served with "rösti", shredded, pan-fried potatoes.

I don't remember what my dessert was called, but as you can see it was a decadent creation with lots of whipped cream.

Blood-Stained Museum

Last Thursday, I took the train from Uster where my cousin Brigitta lives, and spent the day in Zurich.  I visited the "Kuntshaus" (literally Art House), one of the largest and most important museums in Switzerland.  The museum consists of two buildings across the street from each other connected by an underground tunnel.  The museum focusses on European art from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, however it seemed disjointed and confusing to me, without a clear flow from one period to another.  You might find a painting by Monet in one hall, and then another Monet and some other Impressionists in another hall.

There is a large collection of paintings by Edvard Munch, the Norwegian artist best known for "The Scream".

"Portrait of Children" 1905

"Music on Karl Johann Street"  1889

Many of the well-known names of art were represented...

"Seated Woman With Hat"

by Pablo Picasso  1921

"Hollyhocks"

by Vincent Van Gogh 1886

"Val de Falaise"

by Claude Monet  1885

I noticed that the signs for a number of paintings said that the provenance was being investigated. In other words, it is not clear if the works were acquired through legal channels.

Then, when I went to the second building there was a separate collection with a large number of top-notch paintings by well-known artists.

"Water Lily Pond - Green Reflection"

by Claude Monet 1920

There were three of the large Monet waterlily canvasses.

"Landscape"

by Paul Cezanne 1879

"Self Portrait"

by Vincent Van Gogh 1887

"Summer Hats"

by August Renoir 1893

These and many other paintings were collected by Swiss arms dealer Emil Bührle.  He made his fortune selling arms to Nazi Germany, and in the post-war years was involved in illegal weapons deals.  During the war he amassed a fortune equivalent to 6 billion in present day U.S. dollars.  He went on art-buying sprees in Nazi occupied Paris.  It is unclear how many of the paintings in the Bührle collection were sold by or stolen from Jews during the persecution under the Third Reich.  The museum, at least, admits to the controversial nature of the collection.  However, in 2023 a panel of impartial researchers hired to study the provenance of the paintings resigned in protest over how the museum is dealing with the issue.

The entire controversy left a very sour taste in my mouth.  Even if the paintings were proven not to have originally belonged to Jews, the collection was amassed by a man with blood on his hands.  I couldn't help but wonder how many Allied troops were killed by the weapons that Bührle sold to the Nazis, or if the machine gun that nearly killed my father in the Battle of the Bulge was manufactured by his company.