It was another beautiful morning at the farm. The cows were really rambunctious this morning and made a lot of noise. We saw them being hustled out of their pens and lead to a pasture that was not outside our window.

We packed up the car and we’re on the road in a little bit after 10. Goodbye to our Airbnb farmhouse. Ryan drove and Heather was the navigator. We figured out how to fill up the car with gas and Swiss gas station. Very different from the US we just pull up pump your gas and then going to pay. Much easier than I had expected. We found a place to park in the city and headed out for a walk. We packed up the car and we’re on the road in a little bit after 10. Goodbye to our Airbnb farmhouse. Ryan drove and Heather was the navigator. We figured out how to fill up the car with gas and Swiss gas station. Very different from the US we just pull up pump your gas and then going to pay. Much easier than I had expected. We found a place to park in the city and headed out for a walk.

We first walked along the waterfront. lots of families out for a walk with children. We took pictures of the ducks and swans and the scenery across the lake. They were variety of zip steps and ramps up my down the water that must’ve been hundreds of years old. We found a really pretty sculpture that turned out to be a water fountain so we can refill my water bottles. We are relieved to see somebody else coming by and fill in their water bottle as well so I knew the water was safe.

We walked through the park and along the lake. Lots of families with kids and dogs. In fact people here bring their dogs everywhere into restaurants it into stores. It’s really kind of nice because the dogs are really well behaved. We found the Chinese garden and walked around the outside and looked in. It was very pretty. We then stop by a playground where Ryan stretched out his back and climbed on the rock wall.

We found a cute little secondhand store where we did a little shopping. A woman had a beautiful collie dog in the store and when she was afraid it was in her way, she called to it and the dog got up and walked about 3 feet and then sat by her feet. We started walking back toward downtown, and found a post office to mail our postcards. That was today’s second lesson where we were and that you have to take a number before you get in line. Luckily, everyone was very polite and understood when we didn’t see the sign to do that since it was in German.

We continue to walk back toward downtown until we found a place to eat lunch. We decided to eat at the Globus food court. Globus is a very nice department store that offer the variety of different types of food. How are you got two delicious slices of pizza one with mushroom and one with onions. Ryan got a poke bowl. Heather got a lamb dish with rice. And I got a large salad with feta cheese, heirloom tomatoes, little mushrooms and huge shrimp. It was delicious! After lunch we went down to the lower level in the store and wondered through their gourmet food selections. Lots of fun and free samples! Ryan Sollami and where in a Carolina Hurricanes hat and start up a conversation, and it turns out that his son plays for the Hurricanes. So we had a nice chat with him about his son and Hurricanes.

We walked past the Zürich opera house and then back along the water. We saw our first buskers in the park. There was a man playing a large wooden harp as well as another man playing a small steel drum.

Walking along the waterfront, the boats look like they are straight out of a James Bond movie. All that you need is somebody where in Armani tuxedo at the steering wheel. Also noticed that all the cars here with brand new and are immaculate shape. Ryan noted that about every fourth car that we pass is worth $75,000 or more.

We finally found a Lidl store and promised to find another this evening so we could shop for food for the house. We just picked up a little something to eat and I got a bottle of delicious carrot juice, which no one else seem to enjoy as much as I did. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Zürich peeking in shops and taking pictures of the site. By the end of the day we had walked more than 20,000 steps. That’s about 10 miles. We ended the day first at the train station which has a fantastic underground restaurant in shopping area where we got some ice cream. They had a number of booths set up in the main concourse which we also enjoyed. A soccer star was launching a new line of cologne and they had a place where you could kick a soccer ball at the screen and then a video of a goalie would try to stop the shot. They also had demonstrations by school-age entrepreneurs who are trying to start her own companies. One of the more interesting ones that we chatted with was making edible straws from sugar and cornstarch and water. They were available in seven different flavors .

We left the train station and walk back to the car, enjoying the crowds lounging along the side of the river, saw a few sites and got in the car and drove to our new Airbnb. We first stopped at the Lidl store to stock up on food for the next three days or so. We found the new Airbnb got unpacked, made our dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. We called Patti Amonini and made plans to tomorrow – can’t wait!

A couple of interesting notes about Switzerland. It appears that most of the exterior doors open by pushing in which is different from the US for most doors open by pushing out. That is sure to create some level of confusion for us every time we go into a new place.

We are still enjoying our radio station, but it appears that the frequency as displayed in the car changes on a regular basis so we’re not really sure what station number we should be turning the radio to. Hopefully we won’t lose the station and this won’t be a problem. I really need to take a few minutes and study the international traffic signs that appear on the sides of the road. We’re still guessing what the number of the mean and we haven’t had the problems yet, but it would be nice to know what all the roadsigns are actually trying to tell us.