Scenic River Cruise: Scenic Opal

How ironic that I, whose profession is travel, won a raffle for which the prize was a river cruise.  Riverboats were on my wish list but not in first place; and the itinerary wasn’t my first choice for when I would go on a riverboat.  With all that honesty revealed, my wish list has been reshuffled!  So, let me tell you why…

  

We began in Zurich, the largest city of Switzerland, which is a mixed hub for railways, roads and air traffic.  Zurich’s Main Railway Station (Zurich HG) is the largest and busiest station in Switzerland and is an important railway hub in Europe where you can shop at over 135 stores 365 days a year.  Zurich is ranked the sixth most expensive city in the world.  I can attest to the fact that taxis seem to be quite expensive which does promote walking.  

After checking into the Hotel Continental Zurich (member of the Sofitel group), we took advantage of our luxurious accommodations and enjoyed a brief rest after which the quite knowledgeable concierge sent us on our way with maps and instructions to take in as many sights as possible during our brief visit.

DADA, chocolate, cheese, watches and Helvetica typeface…what do they have in common?  They are Swiss exports.  Switzerland’s neutrality in the first World War made Zurich a popular refuge for artists, and one result of this was the creation in 1916 of the anarchic DADA movement.  The movement went on to conquer the world influencing artists and intellectuals in countries as far away as the USA and Japan.

Helvetica typeface was designed by Max Miedinger.  From the feather of Adrian Frutiger came Univers, Frutiger, OCRB and Avenir—the font for Apple products. Bruno Maag designed fonts for Swiss Broadcasting Corp and the Ubunto font family for the open source software Ubuntu.  What would we do without some Swiss cheese with corned beef  on rye  bread?  Chocolate — Lindt 
can’t be beat!

Day two began with a light rain so we enjoyed a leisurely buffet breakfast—compliments of the Hotel Continental.  Prepared by a creative culinary staff it ran the gamut from freshly squeezed juice to coffee (made to order) and every item in between.  Still trying to master the art of “stopping-just before-I’ve-had-enough”; grateful that there were no scales on the premises. 

Umbrellas in hand, we strolled to Old Town along the Limmat River which splits the city into two halves.  With so many museums and points of interest each visitor would have to select the sights according to personal preference and interest.  At Spiegelgasse 1 we visited the Cabaret Voltaire where the DADA movement began.  Nowadays, it also houses a museum, café and shop.

Serendipity reigned.  While walking through Old Town I spotted one of my favorite shops frequented during my European travels—DeSigual.   I felt fortunate that there was a big SALE sign in the window so I had no trouble spending some of my Swiss francs.  Very difficult to pass up this opportunity. 

We had a recommendation for dinner at The Blue Monkey--a fun name for a Thai restaurant—which lived up to its reputation.  Leisurely walking back to the hotel, we discovered a Gelatto hangout with more flavors than I could count on both hands.  Well…I am on vacation, so why not indulge.

The next day we boarded the Scenic Opal, and I anticipated what was to be on my first experience aboard a luxurious riverboat on the Rhine River with a companion I love…my son, Gregory.  I hope you’ll return to our blog in a few days as we sail from Basel to Amsterdam.

800.248.8404 ~ www.reidtravel.com ~ mail@reidtravel.com