Zurich

I guess you know you are getting used to traveling when you show up in a new Swiss city and don't take one picture. Well, scratch that. I did take a picture of a hotel that we were meant to stay at but didn't. Instead we used their computer to find us cheaper accommodation. So I guess that pretty much sums up the randomness of my recent trip to Zurich. A random business trip turned snowboard weekend with three guys that wouldn't ordinarily be in the same place.

A side note...due to my broken camera, all pics were taken with my new BlackBerry cell phone.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bribergey/Zurich?feat=directlink

The culprits involved were myself, an American mountain boy transplanted in the metropolis of London for work; Eric, an east coast turned Coloradan visiting the London office for a week; and Anthony, an English sales manager in our London office. The purpose was a trip to Zurich to present our software to a premier financial organization looking for a worldwide solution to event management. The other purpose, a quick weekend trip to get some turns in the Alps for a day before heading back to London. The three of us now sit on a train on our way to the slopes. The snow covered landscape getting thicker and whiter as we climb along Zurich Lake out of Zurich and into the alpine countryside. The peaks making themselves visible through the thinning fog and blue mountain streams cutting through the white surroundings. Quaint Swiss villages pass by in a matter of seconds, displaying their classic Swiss architecture, and the buzz of the other skiers who got up at 6am to get on one of many mountain trains is abound.

Yesterday was a long day. A weird day. In fact, a pretty surreal day. Normally when I depart for a trip abroad, I have some details arranged. I know how I will get from the airport to my destination. But I guess in order for that to happen, I also need to know my destination which I didn't. Eric and I arrived in Zurich at 10am and had an 11am meeting with Anthony and the prospect at their offices. Anthony was meeting us there as he was already in town, so Eric and I quickly got through the airport and got in a cab. Unsure of our destination, Eric showed the driver an address on his phone which he thought to be the address. Fortunately he was right. We got there just before 11am, met up with Anthony, and went to check in. Long story short, our meeting was actually scheduled for noon so we walked to a small cafe in the pouring
rain and spent 25 Swiss francs on 4 cokes. Sweet.

I think what I got out of the meeting was an accurate impression on Swiss-German culture. We had a very nice woman who lead the meeting and got us all together, yet stayed quiet for pretty much the entire time. But she gave us sandwiches and smiled a lot, so I liked her. Then there was the procurement guy, which prob explains enough, but he spent the two hours not listening to a word we said until his lecture about how they want to make us rich, but not too rich, so we better offer a good deal. And then there was the man wearing a conservative black suit with a bright orange tie, who seemed to show interest in every topic for about 2 minutes before he asked us to move on. The end result? Probably us voluntarily dropping out because we don't
want to deal with them.

After the meeting, we took a cab to the hotel where Anthony stayed the night before, planning to get some rooms for ourselves. We proceeded to find out that the rooms were 250 francs per night which seemed a bit pricey for our budget. So we used their computer in the lobby to hotwire a deal for us which ended up being at the Holiday Inn. It was brand new, near a train and tram station and had a surprisingly good, yet random, restaurant. The first order of business was to eat, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging in our hotel rooms and figuring out where we were going to ski.

As u can imagine, skiing in Switzerland is very easy. The trains from Zurich offer a number of train ticket/ski pass packages. Flumserberg, one of the closer resorts, was recommended to us by a couple of people, so we went to the train station and booked our tickets for the next day. As it had been raining heavily in Zurich all day, we had high hopes for the snow conditions in the mountains.

The next morning we caught our 7:25am train and headed up to Flumserburg. We got our rental equipment, although I did bring my own boots, and headed up the hill. The train dropped us off in a small resort town on a huge lake at an elevation of only 400 meters. There wasn't much snow there, but the mountains jetted up from the lake and topped out at about 2500 meters, so u can imagine the stunning and stark difference seen by looking straight up. Although there was no skiing all the way down to the town, there was a gondola lift that takes you up to the ski area. As we travelled up the steep, unskiiable terrain in the gondola, the conditions quickly transformed into a winter wonderland with over a foot of fresh powder. The sun was even peaking out and at that point we knew it was going to be a great day.

And a great day it was! For some reason, the skiers at this resort liked to stay on piste; this means they stayed within the lane of each run and rarely went off piste to enjoy the untracked deep powder. What this meant for us was fresh tracks all day! Even the last run of the day provided some exceptional snow conditions and we were shocked all day at how amazing the snow remained since no one would ski the good stuff.

The mountain itself was fairly small, with 16 lifts, but provided plenty of excellent terrain. The majority of our day was spent on one side of the mountain which peaked at 2222 meters and included some excellent off piste, powder, and black runs which kept us going all day. A highlight was our stop for lunch at the Graube Hutte (nicknamed the Grub Hut). After we walked in, we were surprised to find a traditional Swiss restaurant instead of the normal self service chalet you generally find on the slopes. After we waited for a table, we found that the menu was entirely in German. After we asked for some recommendations, the waitress brought us the chef who was the only one who spoke enough English to help us. He gave us some recommendations and I decided to get the rippli, smoked and then boiled pork served with sauerkraut and bread. When it was served, I found two gigantically thick slices of pork served on a large bed of sauerkraut. The meal was so amazing that we all decided to order dessert as well. I chose a deep fried apple dish covered in cinnamon sugar in a pool of warm custard. The entire meal was absolutely amazing and definitely goes down as one of the best meals I can remember. It was truly incredible in every way from presentation to uniqueness to flavor to ambiance. A great surprise to find on the slopes of a small ski resort.

I think each of us fell asleep at one point on the train ride home, and we arrived back in Zurich absolutely beat and dreading our early start the next morning. We had some dinner at the hotel and got some sleep before meeting downstairs at 5am the next morning to head back to the airport. The trip was quite a bit different from my normal trip, probably because I had a lot of added convenience (like taxis) due to work. It was also strange that I didn't really see any of Zurich at all. It seemed like a beautiful place, so maybe some day I'll be back!