Zurich

the celebrated steeples of Zurich

     Zurich, Switzerland would probably not be high on the agenda of those travelers attracted by well known and famous sights to see. There really aren't many to speak of, except maybe one or two church steeples. But, how many steeples can you marvel at? Perhaps because of Switzerland's renowned neutrality and the conservatism of it's famous Swiss banking business, nothing especially exciting seems to have happened there. I was also impressed by the number and frequency of "VERBOTEN" signs. Verboten means prohibited. The idea of an up tight anal retentive society crossed my mind when I mentally compared it with laid back Amsterdam.  Consequently, it isn't a particularly exciting tourist destination either.

$120 steakhouse -
almost had indigestion

reflection

      But that isn't to say that Zurich isn't a town without charm. The main drawback for the less well-heeled visitor (as I never seem to tire of repeating) is the high cost of just about everything (even a simple hot dog costs around 8 Swiss francs (the rough equivalent of $8.00)--and that was in a small town outside of Zurich on the shore of the lake). The old town where we stayed is all paved with narrow cobblestone streets and small squares (all pedestrian only, no cars allowed) full of brand name boutiques for the well heeled shoppers and high end restaurants where a steak dinner for two including wine can run as high as $120+. It was the only sit down restaurant we ate in.  I saw a man's leather topcoat that was selling for $3,000. (I balked at paying $1,000 for a Burberry topcoat at an upscale department store here in my town last year.) I also saw a rather unusual cross-racial advertising poster in the same shop window.

waiting for the tram after the opera

        The central district of Zurich is small enough to be easily walkable and the tram system is extensive with frequent trams within the 1st District of the city. A 24-hour day pass costs about $8. The day pass can be used for trains, buses and boats as well as the trams, and any combination of them. For an additional $4 fee you can extend the day pass to go to the airport, which is outside the 1st District, by tram. This is super convenient if you have only a backpack or one small suitcase. It's also unusual, since it was the first time I have experienced tram service to an airport. We used a day pass in various combinations and bought an extension ticket on our last day in Zurich since we had several hours to while away after leaving our apartment and before heading for the airport.

farmers market

4 pairs and 1 oddball - Lake Zurich

        We asked the apartment manager if we could stay later than the normal check out time, but he had another long-term guest (good rental income for him) coming the same morning and asked us to vacate by 10:00 a.m. instead of the usual 11:00 a.m. He agreed to keep our bags until 4:30 p.m. when we were ready to head for the airport. After leaving the flat and storing our bags we had the better part of a day to, for want of a better expression, kill.  So we wandered around the farmers market, took a boat ride on Lake Zurich (the water of which is unbelievably clear and clean and a dark aqua in color), rode a tram to the end of the line and back and I shot photos of anything that interested me and caught my eye (which I often do anyway). At the appointed time the manager had not yet shown up and after waiting 10 minutes we called him on our cell phone. He arrived and apologized another 10 minutes later. Picked up our bags as prearranged and took a tram to the airport, boarded our flight to Incheon, South Korea and arrived back home around 9:00 p.m. after the usual total of about 16 or 18 hours travel time door to door. It was great to get away from the heat and humidity when we left Japan in early September and nice to get back to cooler drier air back home on October 2.

cobblestones and pricey boutiques -
our Swan Alley Schwanengasse is on the left

a bird almost in the hand

ironies

Chinese, the new tourists on the block

$8 hot dog

gourds

schwannen

perspective

ouch!

summer's end

      As for Zurich, if you like to go to the opera and/or if you happen to be the proud holder of a numbered Swiss bank account, Zurich might just be the town for you.

       Oh, and this last photo was just too sweet to pass up. It was a bit chilly and the lovestruck (I assume - unless it was a publicity shoot) groom gave the bride his jacket to keep her warm. Too bad the camera lady got in the way, but that's the way it is with candid shots.

     PS: The initial cooler weather on our return has not lasted. Another series of typhoons (#27 or #28 I believe) has swept in more hot and humid air. Nostalgic for the cooler air of Europe!



     

the music was always there...

    In response to my recent opera critique post about the Zurich Opernhaus a commenter asked how and when I developed an interest in opera. The question got me thinking and so I decided to publish my response here on Noilly Prattle.

        It's hard to say exactly. You grow up with music without really paying much attention to it. Oh, of course there was the rock-n-roll craze in the 50s and then the folk music of the hippie era that I grew up with and was very much a part of. But many tunes from operas were always there in the background; just didn't know they were from operas. Think of the triumphal march from Aida, or the toreador song from Carmen or the theme music for The Lone Ranger TV series from William Tell for example. 

Triumphal March from Aida

Toreador Song from Carmen

William Tell Overture

         I saw and listened to a video recording of Mozart's Don Giovanni on NHK (Japan Broadcasting Company) back in the early 80s and got hooked little by little. As for Road Buddy, she, too, was familiar with Western classical music through hearing it in school and also loved American popular music (learned her basic English that way), but didn't take as early an interest in opera, per se, as I did. She was still very much into rhythm and blues, especially Eric Clapton, and belonged to a fan club of his in Japan. 

        Our town is pretty much a roll-up-the-sidewalks-after-5:00 p.m. kind of town. Also, unlike in Western societies, couples don't go out together in the evenings. The world of entertainment here is not structured that way. Generally, here men go out drinking after working hours with their colleagues (a kind of male bonding and slave to the company issue) and women have lunches together with their girlfriends (probably because many marriages are arranged and there isn't a strong romantic bond between married partners). It was one of the things I found remarkably intriguing when I first arrived in Japan. 

       Our relationship, of course, wasn't an arranged one, I not being Japanese. We met and chose to be together and we behave more in the Western style, especially when we travel to Western societies. But I digress. I was listening to NHK broadcasts of operas while she was still into Eric and would travel overseas now and again with her fan club to attend his concerts--mostly in London. As the English speaking interpreter for the group she went with all expenses paid. Although I also like Eric's music, I am not a fan type guy and wasn't a member of the fan club. I guess little by little the fan club thing began to wear thin and she went less often to concerts overseas. If Eric came to Japan she would occasionally attend with the group. Eventually she stopped going altogether and began to pay more attention to the operas I was watching.

our symphony hall

        I like to go out in the evenings once in a while and sorely missed the lack of a social life here. Then, one year, an opera company from Eastern Europe (I think it was Poland) came for a one night stand in our symphony hall. The tickets were 15,000¥ a pop, but I love to go to the theater (opera is just musical theater basically) and thought the price was worth it. The company put on Lehar's The Merry Widow and we were both utterly charmed by it. That started the going-to-the-opera ball rolling. A few more companies came occasionally and sporadically and put on one nighters in our symphony hall and we got addicted. Then they stopped putting on operas here so we decided to go to the places where they have opera houses and companies and seasons instead of waiting for Godot to come to our town. That meant going to Europe.

       I hope this perhaps unnecessarily verbose explanation answers my commenter's questions.

3 nights at the Zurich Opernhaus

Zurich Opernhaus (on the left) 

    We hadn't planned to go anywhere this summer while I was recovering from surgery and I had steeled myself to sweat out the execrably hot and humid Japanese summer at home. But one morning in the midst of the worst doggish days of this past summer we decided to get away from Japan after all since I felt my leg was mending well enough for a road test. We decided to head for Europe to catch the first few days of the Fall opera season at the end of September at the highly acclaimed Zurich Opernhaus--the culmination of a month's sojourn.

       The thing that stands out most in my mind about Zurich is the cost of everything--expensive. Too rich for my blood and wallet. We rented a studio flat conveniently located in the old city and within easy walking distance or a few tram stops to the opera house for four nights with shows on the first three nights--Rigoletto, La Straniera and Don Giovanni--all conducted by Fabio Luisi. 

Saimir Pirgu and Pink Feola
as Gilda and the Duke

        Many of the operas we had seen on videos that were taped in Zurich were of a very high quality overall. That is the main reason we wanted to attend some live performances there in spite of the very high price of the best seats. We booked seats in the medium price range online. Of the three shows we attended, the first one, Verdi's Rigoletto, was, for me, the best one. The cast, which included up and comer Saimir Pirgu as the Duke of Mantua was well matched with no weak voices. Coloratura soprano Pink Feola as Gilda gave a moving rendition of Caro Nome and baritone Andrzej  Dobber's rich voice and fine acting was both nuanced and powerful either in scorn and cynicism or in humility and abasement.  

principal cast of Rigoletto

Gruberova in the center as
the Strange Woman

        Bellini's La Straniera was, it seems to me, a project (not one of Bellini's best known or best operas) to accommodate the well known and loved but aging coloratura soprano Edita Gruberova. Though her voice is still a marvel, it is getting a bit rough around the edges and, to me at any rate, somewhat disappointing. (Road buddy, however, was more tolerant than I.) With a star of the magnitude of Gruberova, one hardly notices the other singers. Personally, I prefer a show of lesser known singers who work well together. With a star like Gruberova, although I don't believe she intends to, she upstages merely by her reputation and, of course, fan base.

Edita Gruberova

principal cast of La Straniera

Mark Verba and Marina Rebeka as
Don Giovanni and Donna Anna

        Mozart's Don Giovanni, is a difficult opera to produce since the principal roles require a cast that includes six perfectly matched singers--a feat not easy to achieve. Accordingly, this Don Giovanni with Mark Verba as the Don, was not a howling success with uneven performances throughout. In fact, Ruben Drole as Leporello would have been a better Don than Verba. His baritone was richer and more powerful in both the highs and lows. Soprano Marina Rebeka was excellent as Donna Anna, as was bass Rafal Siwek as the Commendatore. The tenor, Heidi (yes, it's a boy's name) Stober as Don Ottavio had a sweet enough voice but lacked power and authority in a very difficult role of lap dog and whipping boy. Julia Kleiter as Donna Elvira somehow missed the mark and gave a professional but, to me at least, unmoving performance--perhaps a bit too much anger and not enough ambivalence in her key aria In quali...Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata.

principal cast of Don Giovanni and conductor Fabio Luisi

Heidi Stober and Rafal Siwek as
Don Ottavio and the Commendatore

       In spite of its high repute as a world class opera house (and as I believed based on videos I had watched), I feel that the Zurich Opernhaus is no better and no worse than other houses I have attended in Munich, Santa Fe, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Berlin, Vienna (well maybe the Vienna Staatsoper is worse) at far more reasonable ticket prices (except Munich and Santa Fe). But, that's just a personal observation and preference.

The Rhein

      I've seemingly always heard about the "castles on the Rhine".

at the Globe

leaning towers of Amsterdam?

      After several months of intensive rehab for a broken femur I felt the irresistible urge to get away and test out the resilience and endurance of my broken leg of recent memory. Our son was living in London and we wanted to see the start of the new season of opera at the Zurich Opernhaus. I wanted to visit Amsterdam and see the castles (called "Burg" in German) on the Rhine. Road buddy and I worked out a one-month's itinerary to cover the things we wanted to do. We decided to stop off first in London to meet our son for a few days, do some sightseeing (around London and Canterbury) and attend a Shakespeare performance at the Globe Theater.

        Unfortunately, our son was transferred back to Tokyo shortly before we were scheduled to leave Japan and we were not able to meet up, but we stayed a few nights in The City, visited Canterbury and did attend a performance of Henry IV at the Globe Theater. Flew to The Netherlands and spent a relaxing couple weeks in a great rented apartment in laid-back Amsterdam and sampled some of its delights. Since we were so close to the Middle Rhein (that's how the Germans spell it) we took a train to Cologne, rented a car there and drove down to Zurich to attend three operas on three consecutive nights before returning to Japan.

Kölner Dom (Cathedral of Cologne, Germany)

Burg Shoenburg - wall shot
from parking lot

Rhein view from
room window

      We spent the second night of our four-day drive in Oberwesel at the Burg Shoenburg, a restored castle now used as a hotel. Parking is a big problem in the small towns along the Rhein. We wanted to leave our car parked somewhere, take a train upriver to Bingen and board a Rhine River boat there and sail back downriver, view the castles on the Rhein and disembark at Oberwesel. Accordingly, we drove up to the castle around 10 o'clock in the morning and parked in their on-site parking lot and asked if we could leave the car there until check in time, to which they graciously replied "of course". The hitch was that we had to climb down to the town on a mountainous foot path and climb back up the same path on our return. I wondered if my bum leg could handle it but thought: What the hell, nothing ventured nothing gained.

footpath from the castle to the town of Oberwesel

great views from our seat

       We took the train to Bingen and had to wait around for about an hour and a half to board the boat. Got a great seat one deck up from the bow of the boat on a warm almost cloudless day. The boat, going downriver with the current, took about an hour to arrive at Oberwesel. My pictorial impressions follow below. Regarding the path to the castle, coming down was relatively easy on my leg; going back up was more difficult, but proved to be reasonably doable. I felt reassured that my leg was mending well and I would be able to keep on traveling well into my 80s--in shallah.

Ehrenfels Castle Ruin

 

Burg Rheinstein

Mäuseturm 

Burg Reichenstein

Burg Sooneck

Burg Stahleck

Hotel Kronen - 15th Century
one of the oldest restaurants in the region

Burg Gutenfels

last but not least Burg Shoenburg - our castle hotel 

      We were pretty worn out (me especially) when we finally climbed back up to the castle and checked in. Burg Shoenburg is a really top class hotel and, although we looked a little worse for the wear and tear and I had only a backpack, we were treated like visiting royalty with the utmost courtesy and personally escorted to a lovely room with a view of the Rhein through real leaded glass windows. The windows are in a small alcove which has two narrow window seats and a small table. There was a carafe of sherry and two glasses on the table--complementary. There were real bound volumes of books (not a paperback in sight) in a bookcase in the room and in the beautifully restored castle library. They were all, however, in German...but the carafe of sherry was glinting redly in the setting sun and beckoning us to partake.

the castle library which can be used

      The rest, as they say, is history. 

 the complimentary sherry--about halfway through

window seat and table w/ wine carafe in background

GPS

     I sing the praises of modern electronic marvels, useful gadgets in a sea of often techno-junk. Specifically, I'm talking about the automobile electronic navigation device known as the Global Positioning System .

        Driving a car in Europe can be a daunting experience, especially in the maze-like streets of old cities that were never intended for cars. A couple years back I rented a car, for the first time in Europe, in Spain to drive from Seville to Granada through Carmona and Cordoba. The highways were not particularly troublesome, well marked and well maintained. But the cities, that's another story. We got thoroughly screwed up in Cordoba where a major road into the city that I had planned to use was blocked off, under construction. It took a long time, wrong turns, 180 degree flip arounds and a lot of body language to finally find our hotel near the Mezquita. Same story in Granada, missed the exit from the motorway and with more time, wrong turns and body language finally got to our destination.

        Fast forward to the present road trip from Cologne, Germany to Zurich, Switzerland. With the memory of driving in Spain, it was with some trepidation that I ventured to rent a car in Cologne, but we wanted to see the castles of the Middle Rhine River region and take a boat trip on part of the river as well as visit a couple other sites: Kloster Eberbach (where they filmed part of the movie "The Name of the Rose" based on the Umberto Eco novel of the same name); road buddy wanted to see the town of Eberbach which has some relation to one of her favorite manga authors; Hohenzolern Castle and the lovely old town of Tübingen. I hope to have more to say on these places with photos later.

        I hadn't planned on opting for a GPS since I wasn't familiar with how to use it, and I also didn't know if it could do English (really behind the times where electronics and information technology are concerned), plus I'm a Google Maps true believer (I had planned the whole route and printed out the driving directions). But the Europcar agent said I could have the GPS without additional charge since it was in the car anyway. I talked to the man who took us to the car and he programmed the GPS for our first destination, Boppard, Germany. He didn't show me how to program it myself. I should have asked.

        It was such a marvelous device, got me right to our hotel in Boppard, which had no private parking. Had to circle around again until I found an available public parking space. At any rate, I was kicking my ass for not having asked the rental car attendant to show me how to program the GPS, because I had fallen hopelessly in love with it. To make a long story short, we screwed up our courage and figured out how to program the device, which turned out to be absurdly simple.

       It took all the guesswork and anxiety out of driving the rest of the way to Zurich and was, for me, a revelation. Now, I wouldn't hesitate to drive anywhere in Europe with a GPS in the car. The extra cost is well worth eliminating the wear and tear of driving with uncertainty and fear of missing turns and getting lost in a strange place. That is truly one of the pitfalls and the pits of driving in Europe.

     One word on the German highways known as autobahn. The Germans are speed freaks and there are no speed limits on the autobahns. I would be going 130kph and other cars whizzed by me as if I were standing still. I estimated they must be doing 150 or 160+kph.

      The car has been returned and I had to part with my new love. We are in Zurich for four days to attend the opera and are back on foot and using public transportation. Nice!