We had a three day weekend with Monday off for Knabenschiessen. This event is a boys target shooting match that dates back to the 14 century. The winner is the "King of the Shoot" and recently they have included girls so there is a "Queen of the Shoot" as well. It is for boys and girls from ages 12-14 years old and is a festival that takes place in downtown Zürich. Despite its neutral stance as a country, military service is compulsory for all males and they begin training after they finish high school or Gymnasium. The soldiers keep their guns and equipment at home where it can be readily available (if needed!) and they are required to put in a certain amount of training hours. On any given weekend it is common to hear the sound of gunfire from the various target practice ranges near our neighborhood.
On Sunday we took the train to Winterthur to pick up rental bikes for Travis and Hanna and a tag-a-long for Elisabet. Due to the French influence in Switzerland, the word for bicycle is 'Velo' in Swiss German while it is 'das Farrhad' in German. Leif and I brought our own Velos with us, an awkward challenge getting on and off the trains. Once we got everyone fitted to their bike - made somewhat more interesting by the fact that the attendant spoke no English and we had few German bike terms in our vocabulary- we boarded a Thurbo train to Stein am Rhine. The Rhine river flows from the South, originating in the high Alps, and then through the Bodensee (Lake Constance) continuing West through Basel where it turns North again through Germany to the North Sea. One bit of trivia about Switzerland is that a continental divide in the Alps is the origination point to four major rivers in Europe. The Rhine which flows to the North Sea, the Inn (Danube) flowing to the Black Sea, the Rhône to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Ticino to the Adriatic Sea.
Stein am Rhine is a beautiful little city on the Rhine river and the border with Germany, surrounded by orchards, vineyards, and farms. We took our bike tour along a trail next to the Untersee, the lower part of the Bodensee, towards Konstanz, Germany. The route was marked with signs, similar to the Wanderweg (walking route) signs that are all over the country. All over Switzerland, they have marked out bike routes that are on paved trails, gravel, and sometimes share a quiet auto road. We left the cloudy skies of Zürich behind us and enjoyed a spectacular sunny day riding along the lake, past the farms and castles and through the picturesque Swiss villages. Lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit eaten in the grass of a pear orchard. Fifteen kilometers later we stopped for ice cream, coffee and a quick wade in the lake. Our final stop was in Konstanz, Germany. The border crossing was unattended on Sunday so we didn't even have to stop as we pedaled our way into the city to the lake and the train station. We realized we have crossed into Germany on foot, by bike and on a boat this year (but not by car!).
The kids voted to head back to Winterthur rather than exploring Konstanz and the lake shore, tired out from the 30k of riding. We hopped on another Thurbo commuter train to Weinfelden, CH where we switched to a larger train to Winterthur with the help of a few gracious passengers. The train connections are so smooth and timely in Switzerland that maneuvering with bikes made us a little nervous we might not make it onto the next train. It can be difficult to know where the bike cars are located on the tracks and we ended up crammed into a tight spot by the bistro car, blocking the stairs to the upper section. Luckily it was not so full that people needed to get by us.
By the time we made it back to Winterthur, Elisabet was having a meltdown so we sat at a cafe and ate pizza before returning to Zürich. We rarely eat out here due to the cost, and as we were reminded on Sunday, the smoke. Eating outside is only slightly better when everyone around us is lighting up before, during, and after their meal. We will be leaving Zürich just as the restaurant smoking ban goes into place in January..... in the cantons which have already banned indoor smoking, we found eating out a much more pleasant experience.
