Abenteuer Vierzehn: Zentrum Paul Klee

Ok, so this post'll be a short one, because frankly the subject really isn't that interesting. Honestly, I'd forgotten I'd done this until I was looking back through the pictures on my phone.

BUT I want to get all my old adventures posted before I go on my big Spring Break adventure extravaganza, so here goes.

About a month ago, while it was still FREEZING, I took a trip to the Zentrum Paul Klee. Paul Klee was a Swiss-German cubist who was born in Bern. There's an art-center and park dedicated to him on the outskirts of town. Generally having nothing better to do on that blustery Wednesday morning, I decided to go check it out.

This is what the building looks like from the back. As you can see, there's farmland built into/over it.

This is what the building looks like from the front:

Pretty cool  architecture, all-and-all. Inside these structures lies administrative offices, a children's arts and crafts center, a cafe, and supposedly a huge collection of works by (get this) Paul Klee.

Unfortunately, as I had forgotten my wallet, I was condemned to the cold outdoors--which wasn't so bad because outdoors housed a free sculpture park. Unfortunately, all the sculptures therein were abstract sculptures. Each came equipped with a complex description of its metaphorical fortitude; unfortunately, as these explanations were all auf Deutsch, I had no idea what anything was supposed to be. Maybe you can explain them..?

Abenteuer Dreizehn: Die Rheinfalls

The Rheinfalls is the largest waterfall in Europe. It's located in a quaint little medieval town called Schaffenhausen, which can be reached conveniently via an inner-city train from Zürich.

The train ride to Schaffhausen is beautiful.

 Unfortunately, Schaffenhausen lies almost directly on the German border. Because of this, my cellular device decided to send me a lovely "Welcome to Germany" message--which had me worrying for the duration of my convenient train ride that I had accidentally hitched a ride to a different country.

When I got to Schaffenhausen, however, and noticed the incongruously high prices of literally everything, I was happily reassured that I hadn't left Switzerland.

Schaffenhausen is a beautiful little medieval village, filled with helpful, kind people who were ecstatic to meet someone from as far away as Bern, let alone the United States.

Had I had more time, I would have loved to stay and explore the town. As it was, however, I was on a mission. A mission to find the waterfall.

Why was this so important to me?

Because it happened to be Saint Patrick's day, and on Saint Patrick's day, they light up the waterfall green. 

After stopping for directions from the woman who ran the grocery store, Gary and I were on our way. Our journey led us several miles along the banks of the river Rhein.

These flowers grow like weeds here. They're one of the prettiest thing in Europe, in my opinion.

Gary enjoyed the view

He also enjoyed swimming in the Rhein

On the way, the current picked up, the water grew louder, and rocky islands cropped up in the river's midst.

When we reached the head of the falls, we crossed a tiny pedestrian train bridge to reach a castle that overlooks the water.

Looking down wasn't a good idea:

Reaching the castle on the other side was cool, though. I spent a few minutes exploring the courtyard.

Then I made my way down to the waterfall.

Next to the big waterfall, there was a tiny one which powered a paddle-wheel:

At the bottom, both waterfalls met to form a small outlet, like a lake:

The tower is a very nice bar and restaurant. You know, the kind a college student can't afford to breathe next to. 

Having reached the bottom of the Rheinfalls, I now had to wait for approximately an hour and a half alone in the cold an progressive darkness for the falls to be lit. I kept waiting for a crowd to form; weirdly, none did.

Finally, when all had gone dark, a single ship with two green lights sailed out into the harbor. That was the signal. Gradually, one by one, green spotlights lit along the waterfall's banks. An emerald glow slowly seeped out across the water. It was stunning.

Unfortunately, as my camera works very poorly at night, my photographs make it look like a special effect from Ghost Busters.

Hey, hey Gatsby...hey about that green light...

If you'd like to see a good picture of what it actually looked like, or if you'd like to learn more about why they light up the Rheinfalls, please check out the official webpage here (it's auf Deutsch, but the picture is good).

As for me, I just consider myself lucky to  have seen the largest waterfall in Europe (and to have survived the walk back through the dark in one piece).

Abenteuer Zwölf: Zürich

This was how my day in Zürich began:

That's right--a cream-cheese pretzel thing. This cream-cheese pretzel thing was, however, no ordinary cream-cheese pretzel thing; rather, it was a cream-cheese pretzel thing of celebration.

Namely, celebration of the fact that I'd managed to single-handedly find my way out of the Zürich Hauptbahnhof.

The Zürich Hauptbahnhof is the biggest train station I've seen in Europe so far. I mean, it's winding and multileveled and enormous. Picture every shopping mall you've ever walked through combined with every airport you've ever been stuck in for more than ten minutes, add a few groceries stores, liquor stores, cafes, and incongruously fancy designer clothing stores, and you've got a vague approximation of the Zürich Hauptbahnhof. It probably took me at least fifteen minutes just to find the light of day again.

Hence, the celebratory cream-cheese pretzel thing.

When I finally made my way OUT of the train station, this is what I saw:

River walk along the Limmat

This is the second thing I saw:

I have one of these at home waiting for me

I could tell right away that, even though I only had a few hours, I was really going to like Zürich.

At first glance, Zürich is basically just a bigger version of Bern. They have their own giant river, giant bridges, steep hills, ornate churches...Zürich is also in the German-speaking area, so its architecture and language are very similar to Bern's too.

Zürich is also one of the main banking capitols of Switzerland. Knowing this when I arrived, I had fully anticipated the legions of bankers strutting around in their ties and suits. What I hadn't anticipated was

Werner's Head Shop, open for business

All the hippies! For every suit, their was at least one barefoot person with dreadlocks. For every insurance agency, there was at least one Alpaca clothing store or instrument boutique. It was really fantastic.

Another amazing thing about Zürich was all of the sales in the clothing stores. I found more cheap clothing in Zürich than I have anywhere else in the whole of Switzerland. This was exciting to me because I was really starting to worry that, in this country, things like sales simply didn't exist.

Anyway, I spent the remainder of my time in Zurich walking along the river and lakeside, seeing what else I could see.

 

Gary enjoyed the riverfront

 I came across the Zürich Grossmünster during my meandering--a church which supposedly was founded by Charlemagne and which later was the birthplace of the Swiss Reformation. It's also supposed to house the burial sites of Saints Felix and Regula. 

Unfortunately, however, after the Bern Münster and the Milano Duomo, it really wasn't terribly impressive-looking. 

One cool feature of the Zürich Grossmünster was its windows. In the Zürich Münster, a lot of the stained-glass windows are filled with ultra-modern-looking circle and spot patterns. Apparently, these windows are the work of Swiss artist Sigmar Polke. I guess that makes them...

                                                      Polke-dots?

Here are some more pictures I took in Zürich:

Europe's next summer blockbuster--ENDLICH im Kino!

A plaque dedicated to the memories of those brave manatees who gave up their lives protecting Switzerland from the last Sharknado  (or maybe just an artist's depiction of what Lake Zürich used to look like..?)

Lake Zürich now. I believe it's manatee-free? 

The Zürich Opera House, with busts of all the famous German composers along the top

Unfortunately, the Opera House was the last stop in my tour of Zürich--upon reaching it, I had to hurry back and catch the train to my next adventure. And where was my next adventure, you ask?

Simply put, the Rheinfalls. 

The largest waterfall in Europe.

Abenteuer Elf: Milan

My entire life, more or less, I've wanted to go to Italy. You can, therefore, imagine my excitement on the day I hopped the 7:30 train to Milano Centrale.

The train ride itself was fascinating. One could tell instantly when we entered Italy--the architecture changed, the houses became more colourful and more run down, the color of the stone in the mountain shifted from black to sandy brown, and the dense pine trees became interspersed with palms and cacti.

The ride from Bern to Milan lasted for about three and a half hours. When we got off the train, we had arrived in the most fashionable train station I've ever seen. I felt like I was in a palace.

When we stepped outside, the effect became even more pronounced.

No wonder Milan is among the top fashion capitols of the world.

We had an approximately 40 minute walk to the city center from the train station. On the way, we stopped into a little corner cafe for brunch. What we saw inside amazed us--

croissants for under one Euro.
Restaurant food we could actually afford. 

 Compared to Bern, we felt like we'd found Narnia. I ordered chocolate pan and a cappucino, and was not disappointed.

The man in the cafe was incredibly kind and helpful. When he found out we were Americans, he insisted on asking where each of us was from, walking us outside, and giving us directions to the city center. He even tried to teach us some Italian. Almost all of the Italians we met during our stay were similarly kind and helpful. Needless to say, it made me really appreciate Italy.

After breakfast, we wandered down the street towards the city center. We walked passed a private garden in which oranges and lemons were already busily growing.

In Milan, it seemed like everyone had a garden. Gardens lined every balcony and most roofs. And by gardens, I don't mean occasional little pots of flowers. I mean full-grown trees and hanging vines so large they obscured the windows of downstairs neighbors. It was really pretty.We passed some beautiful old architecture on our way down the street, too.

I also saw a genuine European:

Finally, we reached the first stop of our day: the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, also known as Italy's oldest shopping mall. It certainly didn't look like any mall I'd ever seen.

Inside, shoppers had a wide selection of stores to patronize: Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton...you know, the kind of establishment where you have to pay a deposit and set up an appointment three months in advance just to windowshop.

The mall had four main isles. In the center, the promenade was covered by a huge glass dome.

The floor under the dome was covered in mosaics.

One of these mosaics, in particular, draws a visitor's attention.

There is a mosaic bull on the floor off to one side which is a tourist attraction all unto itself. According to local legend, if you stand on a certain--ahem, area--of the bull and spin three times, you gain good luck. This legend is so prominent that a crowd always surrounds the bull, and a three-inch deep hole has been worn into it.

Of course, Gary and I had to earn ourselves some good luck:

I would have paused for a better picture, but I didn't want to hold up the long line.

After spinning on the bull, we left the mall and came across possibly the most awe-inspiring thing I've seen in Europe thus far: the Duomo di Milano.

The Duomo began construction in 1386 and is the fifth largest cathedral in the world. Aside from being the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, it also houses the relics of Saint Charles Borromeo and one of the nails from the Crucifixion. Outside, the Duomo is surrounded by a huge square, remarkable for its thieves, tourists, and the most fashionable McDonald's I've ever seen.

In this square, we encountered the infamous friendship-bracelet men--a notorious brand of European con artist who walks around handing out "free"friendship bracelets and then charges you hundreds of dollars for the honour of having said bracelet tied onto your wrist. When accosted by one such man, I yelled no and, not speaking any Italian, continued to yell no and walk away until he literally threw the bracelet at me in frustration.

In other words, I annoyed the con man into giving me a free bracelet.

Anyway, back to the Duomo--

After the ordeal with the bracelet men, my friends and I queued up to go inside. Normally, I refuse to take pictures inside cathedrals--however, inside the Duomo, I couldn't resist snapping a few quick shots.

After a tour of the inside of the Duomo, we decided to see the top of the Duomo--for a small fee, we bought tickets to go up on the roof.

I have almost a hundred pictures of the roof of the Duomo. I'll see if I can narrow it down a little here.

The very top

After spending a couple of hours on the roof, we made our way back down to explore the streets. The road that runs behind the Duomo is obviously a pretty tourist-heavy area: food carts, souvenir stands, and street performers are everywhere. It was fun to see.

Another rosebush person

We stopped for dinner that afternoon in a lovely little cafe where we could sit out by the street and enjoy real Italian pizza and, even better, real, melt-in-your-mouth Italian tiramisu!

It's nice to visit countries where you can afford to eat.

After dinner, we wound our way back to the train station where, unfortunately, we had to catch the first train home. Luckily for us, there was still enough time before our the train to buy wine and gelato.

I liked Italy. Can't wait to go back over spring break! (More details coming soon).