Zurich

This weekend was a nice, leisurely trip to Zurich to catch up with Sarah Young Goldberg, daughter of Cindy and Gary Young and our long-time family friends, whom I haven't seen in probably 10 or so years. We had a lot to catch up on, so most of the weekend was spent strolling through downtown Zurich, window shopping, and snacking on chocolate interspersed with lots and lots of conversation. It was an absolute blast! I really hope we don't go so long before seeing each other again. Here's a picture of the reunion:

I arrived in Zurich on Friday evening (November 9) and Sarah met me at the train station and took me a little ways out of the city to where she and her husband, Eli, live in Oberglatt (I hope that is right). Sarah cooked an amazing meal for us --- baked chicken, broccoli, and brown rice --- and honestly, probably the best meal that I have eaten so far in Switzerland. Swiss food is pretty yummy, but it is hard for it to not be greasy with so much melted cheese, so this is more the type of meal that one can regularly enjoy.

On Saturday morning, we took the train back into Zurich, and started on our stroll. Here is a view of Zurich Hauptbahnof:

Here are several more views of Lake Zurich and the surrounding areas downtown:

This is the Grossmünster cathedral --- a Romanesque style church from the 12th century with some pretty cool stained glass windows made with agate stones:

This is the Fraumünster --- a church just across the lake from the previous one with even cooler stained glass windows by the artist Marc Chagall (added in 1970).

We then ran into these Swiss horn players in the square --- and completely randomly ran into my fellow Hopkins student, Jennifer, who was visiting Zurich with her brother at the same time:

Sarah and I had a light lunch up above the city, and I took a couple more pictures of the view:

 

Soon it started to get dark, and so I took a couple more cathedral pictures of Zurich at night:

Then we went and had a genuine Swiss dinner at Zeughauskeller --- that was a blast --- before returning to Sarah and Eli's home for the night and more good conversation. I even managed to convince both of them to watch the first couple episodes of my favorite TV show of all time, Firefly --- I hope that they finish it and I will have converted two more people!

All in all, a wonderful trip with wonderful friends (new and old!).