Our last full day in Switzerland
We got up early and ate at a riverside café for breakfast.
The view across the river was gorgeous.
We could see the reflections of all the bridges and the buildings.
The river area of Zurich is really nice. There are covered sidewalks next to the river and it just feels clean and fresh.
After breakfast, we took the bus to MFO, a park the university students had recommended. I had seen a couple of pictures of it and honestly, the pictures didn’t look that special. However, when we actually saw the park in person it was really incredible!
The main structure was a huge metal cage that we could walk on that was covered with vines and other plants.
There was a wide open place in the middle to walk in.
The was a smaller area with a pac man-shaped pond and some special sand.
This sand was made of tiny rounded grains of glass in blue, green, white, and some brown. It was very peaceful and nice.
Since it was autumn, some of the plants had begun to turn to red.
From above, we could look across the top of the cage.
We could also see down the hollow column of plants stretching up from the ground.
I tried to include enough pictures to show how cool the park looks, but perhaps, like me, you will not appreciate it without seening it in person. I guess you’ll just need to go to Zurich and see for yourself ;)
We had lunch at a nearby restaurant which made really good soup and sandwiches.
We also stopped by a nearby grocery store to pick up chocolate for souvenirs and gifts. While we were there, we saw these bright blue flowers. They were so brilliant I think they must have been artificially colored.
That afternoon we took the train to Lucerne for a quick visit.
We walked across old wooden bridges with medieval paintings.
There were flowers lining the bridge and the paintings were really interesting.
On one of the bridges, there was a skeleton in each picture to remind people that death comes for everyone and can come at any time. They were a really chipper bunch in the middle ages.
We also saw the lion statue that was a monument to fallen Swiss mercenaries, a huge cathedral, and many buildings with painted decorations.
The cathedral was so tall! It’s incredible how well they were able to build back before modern machinery.
Out back they had a graveyard with a lot of flowers.
There were several streets with murals on the buildings. My favorite painted building was this one with its bright red flames.
This one reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are.
I liked all of the vines on these.
I think the buildings had shops only on the first floor with apartments above.
The old town area was very nice. In addition to the decorated facades, there were also beautiful fountains.
There was also a panoramic theater we couldn’t go in because it closed early in the day before we arrived in Luzerne.
My favorite thing was when we walked down by the river, we saw a tiny mosaic of Mario from the original video game stuck on the corner of a building. I think it was the work of a graffiti artist, “Space Invader,” who is based in France and earned his nickname by making and posting small mosaics of characters from that game. It was exciting that something I saw in a documentary, *Exit through the Gift Shop, *was actually there.
We went back to Zurich for dinner, but first we watched the sun set over the lake.
It was really beautiful.
I liked how the mountains faded into the sky with different shades of blue.
Nearby, a girl tried to feed some swans a few French fries. One swan decided it wanted more, so it raised itself out of the water and tried to bite her foot which she had hanging over the edge of the wall. She backpedaled and nearly fell, but the swan didn’t get her. It was pretty funny. Swans are not as nice as people often assume.
Back at the hostel, we met up with a couple of fellow guests around our age and went to eat with them. Jonathon and Josue took us to a Spanish restaurant where we ordered tapas.
Then we walked around and took really beautiful night photos since Josue had a really nice camera and was very into photography.
Here is one of the lights on the river.
Here is another of the fancy lamposts.
We ended up staying out really late because we decided to walk north of the train station to find some old Roman aqueducts. Rather than water, now they support a train track.
They were huge, much bigger than I expected aqueducts to be, but they were very cool to see. Modern stores are built beneath the archways.
Finally, we went back to the hostel and packed to be ready to leave in the morning.
.png)
.jpg)