Down on the Street - Zurich Edition

After landing in Zurich, a few of us had about four hours to kill while waiting for another co-worker's flight to arrive - so we decided to grab the rental van and drive around Zurich in order to get some fresh air and sunlight.

It was a pretty uneventful drive, but I did come across a vintage Beetle ("Kafer") towing a "caravan".

It's not that uncommon around in Germany to see compact and mid-sized sedans towing what appear to be heavy trailers. SUVs are scarce and are generally of the compact variety while pickups are virtually non-existant. I did see a Hummer H3 on the streets of Cologne last night.This "mid-sized" SUV might have well been a giant H1 as far as the sense of scale is concerned.

Oh, and the "100" circle tells the others on the road that this vehicle has a speed limit of 100 kph (62 MPH). No need to worry there.

Eurobike & Such – So Far

cannabis-based tea as seen in a Swiss vending machine

I thoroughly enjoy Eurobike, it’s everything a trade show should be – fun, located in a great location and (relatively) affordable. Pretty much everything Interbike isn’t. Located in the small city of Fredrichshafen in southwest Germany and along the coast of beautiful Lake Constance/Bodensee. The venue (“messe”) is spread out amongst about 13 large buildings and comprises just over one million square feet of exhibits. Even getting there is fun (aside from sitting for seven hours in coach from Dulles(t) to Zuich). Once we landed we grabbed a rental car – or more accurately a Euro van.

The Mercedes Vito would fail miserably in the US. No dual-sliding doors, one skimpy cupholder, designed with a t-square and underpowered by a buzzy 109 HP diesel engine with a six-speed manual transmission. All-plastic interior with a hard-surface floor. No in-car entertainment system. Heck, there wasn’t even an auxiliary input for my iPod, so we listened to Swiss radio where they still talk over the beginnings and ends of songs. Even though it was a stripper model, it was still a blast to rail around the German countryside with. But before we got to Germany we had to drive from Romanshorn, Switzerland on the western coast of Lake Constance to grab the ferry to Friedrichshafen.

The ferry ride is a super-relaxing ride across the lake, taking about 40 minutes.

Modern and with a bretzel-und-bier-equipped snack shop up top too.

More to follow…