3 Weeks in Europe, Part 5: Zurich

We only had one day in Zurich, prior to flying home, but it was a truly special day and we were so glad that we decided to spend the day there rather than just connecting through at the airport.

We planned a very full day for Zurich, and felt confident that all would run by the clock and it would be no problem to pull this off, as ALLES runs by the clock in Switzerland. We were not to be disappointed. Our plane arrived promptly on time at a little past 11. We strolled to baggage claim and our bags had just come out of the chute. We picked the bags up, strolled out to the hotel shuttle and the shuttle arrived just then. We got to the hotel , had time for a quick shower and took a taxi to Google Zurich. We gave the taxi driver the address and he said "Oh it is OK to just say Google! We all know the Google." We were even a few minutes early for our lunch appointment with Nelson and Claudia Mattos. Nelson gave us a fantastic tour of the facility, and it is very much as impressive as the Google in Mountain View. One thing that we observed was that all of the various resting, coffee, play areas etc seemed to all be in use. I think that the Google culture fits extremely well with the Swiss work culture, at least as I had experienced this in the early 90's. We ALWAYS had coffee breaks together in the am, after lunch, and so on. It was so very nice of Nelson and Claudia to take time from their busy lives for us, and we really appreciated it. They look great, and it is clear that this European lifestyle suits them. I was sorry that Juergen Allgayer was (again) away in London, so we missed seeing him.

After lunch and espresso we headed out for BahnhofStrasse shopping. We really could not shop until this last day because we kept being hassled for the weight of our baggage on flights within Europe. We knew we would not get hassled by American on our way home in Business Class (even if the tickets were free). So we let ourselves go just a little bit wild with the credit cards, and really for the first time in 3 weeks broke our diet for some amazingly yummy Luxemburgerli: http://www.spruengli.ch/spruengli/geschichte-luxemburgerli.php?lang=en

At 5 we met up with our friends Werni and Bettina, for an evening adventure. I realized on this day that Werni and I have now known each other 20 years, which was just kind of shocking. We get older so fast. We met during the first days of IMS replication software development, when there was still a Swiss Bank Corporation, and as a customer/vendor they developed the software in Basel.

We first took a train to the south end of the ZurichSee (well actually first we had a drink), then we stopped and had a drink. Then we boarded a boat, and returned by slow boat to the Zurich city center and ate a long lovely dinner on the boat while enjoying the scenery all around and watching the lights twinkle on as twilight descended.

This seems to be a fitting place to end what was really one of our finest touring experiences to date. We had believed this to be one of our last of such holidays, but we had such a great time that we think there just may be more adventure in us still.....pictures from Zurich here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawkperson/sets/72157619753877288/