A Mr. & Mrs. trying to live with the Swisses: "Zurich. ... is zu reich and zu ruhig – which is a play on German words for "too rich" and "too quiet."."

I am in Zurich for work right now, so over the weekend John packed up our Switzerland guide books, a warm jacket, and came over on the train to spend the weekend here with me.

Friday night we did a world tour through old town Zurich where we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, then a Swiss bar, then an Irish bar. We both got the beef fajitas at the Mexican place and had a liter of tropical margaritas. I have had Mexican food twice since I have been here, and it really just isn’t the same. Although the margaritas were definitely trans-continental.

We then stopped at a Swiss bar looking for some good beer on tap for John. True to Swiss culture, they only had three bottled beers, and a wide selection of expensive wine, so we left. I am not even going to tell you how much drinks are in Zurich. It is depressing, and you’ll just want to drink away your sorrows, which is counterproductive.

We stopped at an Irish bar on the way home, John got a good beer, and we were both happy.

Saturday we took Rick Steves’ walking tour through Zurich. We walked on top of ancient Roman baths, strolled along the famous shopping street and didn’t buy anything, and hiked up the spiral staircase in the largest church in the city for a great view.

We then continued the walking tour along the lake, and John tried roasted chestnuts for the first time. He was excited because now he knows what they're talking about in "Let It Snow".

Clearly the naked statue law is federal and applies to all of Switzerland. I always feed birds naked.

This morning we got up bright and early to go to Mt. Rigi, a mountain in the Swiss Alps about an hour away. We took a tram, train, bus, bus, cable car, cogwheel train, and then another cogwheel train to get there, which we think is pretty impressive in a German speaking land. On our way someone noticed John’s Seahawks hat (go Hawks!) and said hello and that he was from the Bay Area. John congratulated him on the big win yesterday, and then he told us that he had recorded the game and hadn’t watched it yet. Oops! Our goals for the day had been to make it back to Zurich and not to have any bloodshed, so we left quickly.

The first cogwheel train in Switzerland. One of us thought this was REALLY cool.

We made it to the top of the summit, and it was absolutely beautiful. We walked around the area at the top, had bratwurst and beer for lunch of course, and then searched for the ice caves that I thought were there. We then found out that those were at a different mountain that we had been looking at going to. We are also buying a sled for next time.