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I thought the mountains in Colorado were amazing, but now that I have seen the Swiss Alps I stand corrected. A popular tourist thing to do is to take a high-altitude hike and then toboggan down the slopes. I had originally planned to take the train, but after trying to understand the train schedule without much luck I decided to take an organized bus tour and joined a group and their guide. It may have cost a little more, but at least I didn't get lost. As for the hike and taboggaining, I thought if it was popular then I should find out if it is fun or if there is another reason that it is popular.
As it turns out the best part is going really, really fast down the mountain. I could have lived without eating before the ride and I'm sure everyone with me would have agreed that I should have skipped lunch. Oh, well. Lesson learned.
After my taboggaining trip I decided to go into a little cafe to get a cup of hot chocolate. It was the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my life! It could have been the Swiss Chocolate, or the altitude or maybe even the fact that my stomach was empty. However, I could drink that hot chocolate forever.
My next stop after warming up with the hot chocolate was to travel by train into Zurich to spend the night and get ready for my flight the next day. Before leaving Switzerland I wanted to explore the scenery. The www.myswitzerland.com site recommended seeing the local parks while in Zurich, so I did.
I took my time exploring Rieterpark and since it was a clear day I could see the Glarus Alps from several points in the park. The most impressive part of the park was finding out that some of the trees there are over 150 years old. From the park my hotel was a long walk, so I decided to take the train. I think I got lost a time or two and probably got off at the wrong stop, but eventually I made it to the Sheraton Zurich Neues Schloss and fell into bed after a long day. Since I was still hungry and really tired I decided to order room service. I had the best $18.00 CHF hamburger and chocolate cake without having to leave my room! Not a deal, but still very good.
Paying for things in Switzerland was easy. The exchange rate for the US Dollar to the Swiss Frac (CHF) is 1 USD Dollar = 1.074 CHF Franc(s). I didn't feel like I got any good deals, but the math was an easy enough conversion that I could do an estimate in my head whenever I needed to pay for anything.
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