Caddy Day in Zurich!!!

After a "rough" Navy week in Germany Michael and I decided to get out of Dodge. I picked Switzerland out of the air and started to try to find a place to stay. Because of the amount of time Michael has spent at the Marriott (2 months when he first got here), he achieved a gold status (that's "gold" not "god") with a bunch of points. There were 3 options for Zurich the most points being in downtown Zurich, so we took it!

Zurich is only about two hours from our house which was great. Everyone has told us how expensive Switzerland is and we got the message crossing the border. To drive in Switzerland you have to buy a sticker for your car at the border. 40 Swiss Francs for the sticker (a little less than $40)!! Just to drive into the country!!! Now in all fairness it is good for a year, so I will be driving into Switzerland on occasion just to make use of my sticker!!

Once we got into the city there are statues and paintings everywhere. Now to everyone else the nude statues are art, to Gracie not so much. Her first response to a nude statue, "EWWWW, that's disgusting, he's naked. Why do they even do that? You can see his privates, they really shouldn't paint the privates" From there she counted the number of "naked statues" she saw the whole weekend. The final count was 30 according to Gracie.

There has been some confusion amongst the kids as to where we are, what kind of money is used as well as where we are going. Can't say I don't understand why, I hardly know where I am. We were trying to discuss that we are in Switzerland and the money used here is the Swiss Franc. With an utter look of confusion Gracie asks, "Soooooo......are we in France?" Swiss Franc was a little confusing!

First stop LINDT MUSEUM. OH my goodness!!! I don't even know how much we spent but we got a ridiculous amount of chocolate. By the way, little fact for you...did you know the Lindt recipe is locked in a Swiss bank safe?? True story.

We checked into the hotel and decided to walk around. The hotel was MUCH more than we expected. When Michael checked in they told him he could have full use of the executive lounge. Not really knowing what that meant we went out to walk around. The hotel was in the perfect location. A park right across the street, and right down the street from Aldtstadt (Old Town) and Hauptstrasse (some of the most expensive shopping in the world...insane if you ask me).

The archetiture was amazing. The shopping ridiculous. I had to take a picture of the prices of some of the stuff in the windows. Unreal! We stopped to get a bite to eat. We decided to grab some appetizers...We got 3 appetizers, a plate of kids portion noodles and 2 small beers each in a bar...total bill 98 Francs!!!! Are you kidding me? This was our first meal in Switzerland. We looked at eachother like how in the hell are we going to eat the rest of the weekend?????

Question answered when we got back to the hotel and checked out the executive lounge. You needed your key to access the room. Helllloooooo Caddy Day for the Murnanes! Beer, wine, soda, water, chips, candy, fruit out all day long, then at specific times they had hot food out. They put out small portions of the food they offered in the restaurant. So basically there's dinner. In the morning eggs, bacon, potatoes, crossiants, yogurt, juices, coffee...it was great. Hello FOR FREE!!!! I think we went into that room at least 3 times a day. Michael and I bought 2 beers out in town all weekend and scrounged off the Marriott the rest of the weekend. By Sunday I think we had been flagged by the Marriott and we will never be allowed there again. We had high rolllers all around us tring to conduct business and the kids are wrestling in the boothes, Michael and I are discussing ways we can "stash" bottles of wine/beer to bring up to the room and we have all been back to the food 4 or 5 times. Yeah we are classy!

Jack's favorite parts of the hotel..the robe, the bidet (he insisted on using it 4 or 5 times) and the bubble bath. That kid's got a taste for the good life!! His favorite part of Zurich...any fountain he could find. We were admiring the architecture of a church built in 900 and he was much more interested in a fountain that drained into the nasty sewer.

Had to take a picture of the beer they offered in the room. Czech Budweiser...Is anything made in America anymore???? What is the world coming to?

Some people had said, "skip Zurich, it's so expensive and there are other places that are just as beautiful". I'm glad we didn't listen. We had an amazing time!