Despite threats of rain, we actually had beautiful weather for our hike in an area near Chur, on the east side of Switzerland. When we first saw this lake, I couldn’t believe how blue and clear it was. It only got more impressive as we got closer, since when I touched the water I realized it was warm and would make for great swimming even so early in the season.
Sarah and Lisa after taking in the view:
If you look closely in the lower left corner you can see a bit of the zig-zag road that cars and buses take up the mountain:
On our final morning in Switzerland we spent a bit of time wandering Zurich, and we joined what seemed like everyone else in town in taking a walk along the Limmat River, which runs through the city’s center. It was a fitting way for us to end our trip, since it felt a bit like we’d been traveling back in time all week. First Sarah came from Connecticut (her town recently celebrated its 300+ birthday), then I showed her around Oxford colleges (several of them 800+ years old), and finally we were faced with a city that had been permanently settled for more than 2000 years, and that had Roman ruins underneath its streets. In a series of events that seems to call for a sense of humor, we began our week with an evening mass at Blackfriars in Oxford (Sarah let me tag along), and we ended with a visit to Zwingli’s church in Zurich, as I frantically tried to remember whether my kind of Protestants were led by him or felled by his sword. The church, Grossmunster, is beautiful. The original church building was, legend has it, commissioned by Charlemagne, and the present building dates back to 1100, with a Roman burial ground in the lower levels.
From one of the many bridges crossing the river we got a great view of the city’s three main churches: the Grossmunster, the Fraumunster (green spire), and St. Peterskirche (largest church clock face in Europe).
Erin
Alan Schmierer