Zurich – Small Adventures

Public transportation in Zurich is rather brilliant. I know this may be the wrong adjective to apply to a er.. pedestrian subject but it is the elevation of the pedestrian that Zurich seems to celebrate. There is preciscion and beauty in the movement of people in this city and it???s makes planning to go somewhere close rather a pleasure. In New York and alas even a little bit in Paris, fear lurks underground. The choice of the tram, so that all transport has a view seems inspired even if it was decided to build this system this way for other more geological reasons. As a non-driver and a hater of the private motor vehicle, this place gives me the greatest of pleasures. A fine fine piece of work

So we hop on the 751 bus to Tobelhof, out past the Zoo and the Zurichberger Forrests, past the Grand Dolmer and trudge up the hill to the Ch??salp (cheese mountain?). In what used to be a stable is a warm and friendly resturant in which all of the offerings are cheese based. In spirit it is the Swiss Pizza Hut but of course we are really in another class of place here. The congruencies and common points though are not to be ignored. There are elements in the Swiss national character that greatly remind me of Americans. The middle class veneer, the safety and white bread streets, the cheesiness, the sentimentality, all recall a Leave It To Beaver episode (These same elements all ramped up and highlighted for a piece like ???Plesantville”). And while you may think I am sneering, I am a product of that world in America and cannot help but react in nostalgic and even welcoming manner to it whne I greet it???s Swiss equivilants.

Ch??salp fits this bill. They even dimmed the lights and brought out a birthday cake, with a sparkler candle, while an oombah birthday song blared out on the sound system. The menu is so crammed full of maccaroni and cheese, potatoes and cheese, bread and cheese, and cheese and cheese I groaned from the very act of touching. A Homer Simpson groan – uhmmmmm cheese?Ķ