She was a long cool woman in a black dress…

24 August 2022

This morning I found myself quietly sitting on a bench on Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich, quietly watching the early morning commute go by. I was amazed. For more than one reason.

‘What are you doing in Zürich?’, I might hear you ask. Well – we’re also slightly amazed that we find ourselves here. It’s a bit of a long story, involving children and grandchildren in Canada, and the universe’s general inability, lately, to provide sufficient services to allow one to obtain the necessary visas to be able to visit said family. But because the universe must have felt a little bad for failing us on the Canadian visa front, it somehow managed to deliver some shiny Schengen visas in our passports. And so, why not France then? We always had some rather awesome intentions of seeing more of France. The intentions may not have been to do it on such a whim, but you know what they say – have passport (and some visas), can travel.

The other reason for my utter amazement, is how absolutely immaculate the Swiss people are. Men wearing exquisite suits, women wearing the most stunning outfits, as if they were on their way to a cocktail party. And this on a Tuesday morning, when most of us can barely muster up the courage to wear our newly invented ‘entry-level’ clothing. And I eventually stopped counting the (rather sexy) little black numbers worn by meticulously groomed ladies. And they all walk. Well – most of them do. But clearly the motorised kick-bike fashion has taken Europe by storm. Tall, distinguished men in very elegant suits would just quietly whizz past you on their kick-bikes. Fascinating.

So – our itinerary had us arrive in Zürich early on a Tuesday morning, explore the city for a while, before we catch a train to Mulhouse, France, where we will spend the next 3 days.

Zürich is beautiful, of course. Beautiful old buildings line the Limmat river, before it runs into the Zürichsee. And life seems like it could be bliss here. But what struck us most was the lack of noise. Whilst people busily hurry to their places of work, and whilst they seem happy and content about it, they do it quietly. And the kick-bikes and bicycles glide around silently. They sneak up behind you, so you end up learning that it is never a good idea to suddenly change course, in fear of a stealth-mode commuter potentially not being able to react fast enough to not end up causing grievous bodily harm. Even the trams move around silently. Zürich felt like it was almost too clinical. A city of the most exquisite people living the best life.

We took a stroll up the shores of the Zürichsee, enjoyed a light lunch with a view of the lakeside activities around us, and eventually gather just enough energy to catch a train to Mulhouse. (hey – we did spend the previous 24 hours navigating flights and airports, you know. So we had every right to be exhausted! )

I will reserve my impressions about Mulhouse until I have had a chance to unpack the proper camera. And no – my initial impressions had me very worried that it was not a good choice to spend 4 days of our holiday. But for now, I will just say that we had a lovely supper at a Spanish restaurant, and plan to do some daytrips from our base here in Mulhouse over the next three days, so watch this space.

Sometimes, you just have to let the unintentional curveballs the universe throws at you, help you with dealing with some of your unresolved intentions. We are so looking forward to seeing more of France

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