Strasbourg, Basel and Zürich

Last night I chatted with my roommate, a Korean named Han. I promised him that I would give him the remainder of my Strasbourg tourist pass which admits the holder to various sights. After breakfast together, we walked to the Cathedral. I was going up to the viewing platform and he would spend some time looking around until my descent. We were a few minutes early for viewing hours so I helped him make a call with his phone card from a payphone.

It was a tiring climb to the platform and the morning air was chilly. You can see distant mountains but in the near distance were only city rooftops. It seems that the cathedral is tall enough to be visible from the other side of the Rhine on a clear day.

I came down via the other tower; one tower is for ascending, the other for descending. We walked back to the hostel via the outer ring. In a radial layout such as Strasbourg's, if one takes a different return path this means walking some distance along the periphery. It was a quiet morning. We crossed against the light once and got booted off the cycle path by irate cyclists.

Han accompanied me to the station. We had 20 minutes before my train left. I gave him my email address and he gave me a Korean stamp as a keepsake.


It was 90 minutes to Basel. I had a vague recollection that part of Basel station was in France so I formed the idea that I could lunch in France before crossing into Switzerland where it would cost more. I asked a train guard upon alighting. Mais vous êtres deja en Suisse, he said. Ah, I was mistaken; when you reach Basel station you have already left France.


After entry formalities I asked a lady in the tourist office how to get to the city centre. She told me about the tram. I didn't feel like a time-consuming round trip so I looked around the neighbourhood. I didn't see any menus I liked but the mention of rösti gave me an idea to have that as a late lunch at a restaurant in Zürich station where I had enjoyed this dish 8 years before. To tide me over I had some würstli and brödli at a station snack stall. (li is a Swiss diminutive/endearment suffix.)


Swiss trains smoothly slalom the curves like expert skiers. But at Zürich station, alas the rösti restaurant was nowhere to be found. So I settled for a pizza at a Hut which cost me SF21,40, which was about €14 and too depressing in Ozzie dollars. At the appointed time I met H at the expected platform and he took me home where I was installed in the attic room. Apparently their suburb suffered more airport noise now which they were vigourously protesting.


I must been very fatigued because I napped until 2100. My hosts, H and T, were very considerate not to wake me and when I finally came down, they sat me down to a meal of raclette. Conversations with H are never dull. He is very well informed about current affairs and religiously reads all the newspaper opinion pieces, even those that have accumulated while on vacation. The topics ranged from people we know, to Australia, to Iraq and others. Before we knew it, it was midnight and bedtime.


The tranquility in their quiet suburb of Zürich was so profound that I imagined I could hear my own heartbeat.