Swiss Studies… The big finale– cruising on Lake Zürich! (part eight)

Saturday came at long last. I can’t say I wasn’t happy about it. Bill finished his time at the C.G. Jung Institute, and we had one last day to enjoy Zürich together. If you’ve been following this series, it should come as no surprise to you that we chose to spend our last day on the lake. But, instead of swimming, which is what I thought we might do, we decided to take a 4.5 hour cruise around the lake on a very nice boat.

This isn’t the first time Bill and I have done a lake cruise. Back in 2008, we visited Thun, Switzerland, and bought boat tickets that allowed us to cruise Lake Thun. I think, back then, we got second class tickets. We were broke back then. In 2021, we used the lake “taxi” to get from downtown Zürich to Küsnacht, so we could visit the C.G. Jung Haus/museum. We’ve done lots of river cruises, too, though we’ve never done one that last longer than an hour or so.

I enjoy lake cruises, because they offer the chance to take pictures from different vantage points, and because they’re relaxing. You can sit there with a beer and just enjoy the scenery. Maybe you might have lunch, too, which is what Bill and I did.

We took the tram to the opera house, then walked along the lake and over a bridge to the ticket office. I think, for the two of us, first class tickets were about 43 euros each. They covered the 4.5 hour cruise, as well as the tram ride back to the apartment. If we’d wanted to, we could have used that pass to pay for any public transportation until 5:00 AM Sunday!

Below are some pictures I took on the way to the dock…

Our cruise left at about 11:00 AM. It was perfect, since we’d be on the boat at lunchtime, and that would mean we wouldn’t have to hunt for anything before boarding. The ship was very nice, and included a full restaurant and toilet facilities. On the first class deck, there were many chairs to sit on, while I noticed benches on the second class deck. To be honest, I think the benches were probably more comfortable. The benches were flat, rather than molded and tilted. The chairs were kind of hard and at sort of a weird angle.

We were able to find a table next to the side of the boat, which allowed for easy photography. On both levels, there’s an indoor area for people to sit and have a meal. We had perfect weather, so most people were sitting outside. One guy even wore Lederhosen, but he was also speaking German. However, it didn’t look like he was wearing authentic Lederhosen.

I was pleased to see that the menu on the ship had dishes that were priced much like the land based restaurants are, even though they had a “captive audience.” There were salads, fish dishes, meat dishes, and snacks available, and a full bar. They also had specials. Bill opted for a Caesar salad with chicken and bacon, and I had the roasted chicken special with potatoes. Naturally, there was wine and water, too…

We saw lots of boats on the water, everything from little pedal boats to big vessels.

*Yes, dogs are allowed on the boat, too!*

Our cruise took us all the way to the extreme southern end of the lake, which is where the charming, car free, lake side municipality of Rapperswil is. We didn’t get off the boat there, but I can definitely see us exploring it at a later date. It has a castle, restaurants, little hotels, and lots of Swiss charm. Rapperswil is known as the “town of roses” on Lake Zürich. It really is a pretty little hamlet. Of course, we also passed people sunning themselves on beaches, a small fest, and what appeared to be a nature preserve, where people could hike in the forest and then cool off by the lake. It took about two hours to get to Rapperswil from Zürich, and then another two hours to get back to the dock, where we started our trip.

We got off the cruise at about 3:00 PM. Bill decided to go ask the ticket folks if our tickets for the boat also covered the trams. While he was in line, a group of Aussies approached me and said they loved my “Trump Sucks” t-shirt, which I decided to wear on the cruise. We had a moment of levity and solidarity, as we expressed our mutual disgust for Donald Trump. And this week, it’s gotten even worse, and more apparent that indeed, Trump really does suck on multiple levels.

Ordinarily, I might not feel like I should wear such a provocative t-shirt in public. I probably wouldn’t dare do it in Texas, where a lot of MAGA Republican nutjobs live, and one might decide to off me with one of their high powered weapons. But here in Europe, the t-shirt appears to be a hit. I also wore it yesterday, while walking Noyzi and Charlie, and noticed big smiles from my neighbors. When I told my mom that I had that shirt, she groaned, but I told her that Europeans seem to be relieved when an American tells them they aren’t Trump supporters. He’s definitely NOT popular over here. I will confess, though, that I wondered if it was a good idea to wear the shirt. Again, it was one of the less sweaty ones I had with me on this trip. I got a few more photos on the way back to the apartment.

We had plans to light out of Zürich early on Sunday, so we spent a quiet evening in the apartment, packing everything up, and eating leftovers. I had a great time visiting Switzerland’s largest city, but it was time to go home and see my dogs, wash my clothes, and get back to my regular routine. However, if Bill plays his cards right, and things go according to plan, it’s possible that Zürich will soon become a very familiar place to us. And that’s kind of crazy to me, because when we lived in the Stuttgart area, it was only about a 90 minute drive from where we resided, and we never visited, even once! And now that we’re about four hours away, it could become more familiar…

But, of course, a lot depends on what happens in the next year… I guess we’ll just have to stay tuned for that.

The last post will be a short one about our drive home. Watch this space!

adventure, C.G. Jung, Education

Swiss studies… Bill decides to go to “summer school”… (part one)

Several months ago, Bill told me he wanted to spend about a week in Küsnacht, Switzerland, a suburb of Zürich. He hoped to attend a summer intensive course at the C.G. Jung Institute, a learning installation founded in 1948, and centered around the study of Jungian analytical psychology.

I knew this was coming, because Bill had been talking about wanting to take this summer course for years. We first came to Zürich in the summer of 2021, and Bill and I visited C.G. Jung’s house, on the banks of Lake Zürich. Bill also started speaking to a Jungian therapist that year. The work he’s done with the analyst over the past four years has done wonders for his mental and emotional well-being. He thinks he might have a knack for Jungian psychology. He definitely has an interest in it.

Naturally, I agreed that it would be a good thing for Bill to go to the Jung Institute. Once we had the dogs booked in their usual Hundepension, I set about looking for a place for us to stay for the week. We had specific needs for our lodging. I wanted it to be in a place where it would be somewhat easy for me to get around and see and do things. It needed to be near a tram station, so Bill could easily get to the Institute. We planned to drive our car, so the place needed parking. And I hoped for air conditioning, which even in “spendy Switzerland” isn’t always a given.

I was about to spend about $10k to book a regular hotel room on Expedia.com, when I noticed a listing for a place called Apart-Hotel Hugenschmidt. On Expedia, the Apart-Hotel Hugenschmidt had no availability for our dates. Under normal circumstances, that might have been the end of my curiosity and I would have kept looking. But then I decided to check Booking.com, as sometimes they have things available that Expedia doesn’t. On that site, I could book a one room suite at the Apart-Hotel, which included a kitchenette and a living room– better for a week than a hotel room. The price was also roughly one-third of what I was about to pay for the hotel, and there was parking available, and air conditioning.

We booked the Apart-Hotel Hugenschmidt, and then, just to make sure all was well, Bill called them to confirm that booking and reserve a parking spot. It was a good thing we confirmed the parking, as the hotel, which first opened in 1969, only has two spaces! Besides small apartments, the Apart-Hotel Hugenschmidt also offers regular hotel rooms of varying luxuriousness. A person could opt for a spacious two bedroom place, or get a single economy room with a shared toilet in the corridor. Although shared toilets used to be somewhat common in European hotels, I haven’t seen a place with a communal toilet in years!

With that settled, we looked forward to our third trip to Switzerland this year. Regular readers might recall that we went to Basel, Switzerland in January of this year, just to get away over the MLK weekend. We stopped in Villa Morcote, Switzerland on the way to Italy in March. And now, we’ve been to Zürich– specifically, the Seefeld quarter of the Mühlebach district.

Our trip began on June 28th and would end on July 6th. For me, it would resemble business trips on which I have accompanied Bill. When I go places with him on business trips, I usually end up doing a lot of loitering and picture taking while he tends to his work. This trip was not for his current job, but it could end up leading him to the work he’ll do in the future. As I mentioned up post, Bill has a real knack for psychology. I think of him as a healer. He’s an unusually kind, sensitive, empathic, and introspective person. Analysis has given him insight into who he is, and that has given him much needed peace.

On the morning of Saturday, June 28th, Bill took the dogs to the Hundepension, while I packed my bags. Then, we set off for Zürich. The GPS sent us down the familiar way to Stuttgart, where we used to live. Although we have lived in Wiesbaden since late 2018, we still go to Stuttgart to see our dentist and sometimes Bill goes there for business. And yet, even though we continue to visit, I’m always shocked by how much has been built since we left. I was especially surprised as we drove through Sindelfingen on A-81, a road Bill used to take every day to get to his job. There’s a whole shitload of construction going on there!

Below are some photos from the drive:

On the way to Switzerland, we stopped a rest area to get lunch and enjoy a pee break. It was nothing special, and we’d been there before. I took a couple of photos, anyway…

*Seelachs and chips… Could have been better.*

The Apart-Hotel Hugenschmidt is a family run business. It doesn’t have a regular front desk. We were asked to let them know when we were going to arrive, so someone would be there to meet us. Bill told them we’d get there between 5:00-6:00 PM. We were well on our way to making the time as we approached the Swiss border. An older gentleman in a Swiss Polizei uniform looked like he was flagging us down, so Bill stopped and opened his window.

The cop said, “Do you want to go to Switzerland?”

Bill said we did.

The cop said, “On holiday?”

Again, yes…

“Bye!” the cop said.

I guess he didn’t actually want to talk to us, after all. Too bad all borders aren’t that easy and uncomplicated.

We got to Zürich at about 5:45 PM. It was sunny and hot, and I noticed a lot of people in bathing suits, carrying pool toys and such. I had come prepared to enjoy the lake. I had a bunch of towels and two bathing suits in my bag, and I envisioned jumping in the water. I thought maybe we’d go to one of the public beaches… and I’d totally forgotten that the hotel was actually in Zürich, rather than closer to Küsnacht.

It took a few minutes to navigate through the busy city, and then once we found the right street, the turn off was so sudden that Bill missed it. Fortunately, the next street took us straight to Karlstrasse 5. Bill nervously pulled into a parking lot across from the hotel for an apartment building, where all the parking spots are taken by the residents. The proprietor was there, waiting for us, and she unlocked the gate behind which our car would be for the week. Bill pulled into the tight space, knowing that we were destined to be blocked in. 😉

After we parked, we signed into the hotel, picked up our keys, and got a tour of our new digs for the week.

By the time we were checked in, it was past six o’clock. And although there are several good restaurants near the Apart-Hotel Hugenschmidt, Bill and I were both pretty tired from the drive. We decided to visit one of the two COOP grocery stores near the apartment to pick up essentials, then ordered pizza from an outfit called Pimp Your Pizza. We got Pizza Hawaii and Pizza Missouri… ordering large, so there would be leftovers. There were leftovers, alright! That pizza lasted almost the whole week! But it was surprisingly good, especially on the first night!

We watched German dubbed American movies on TV, while we enjoyed the pizza and Swiss beer. Then we went to bed. The bedroom in our suite had a fan, which was helpful, but not as good as air conditioning would have been. The unit just has one air conditioner, and it’s in the living room. It doesn’t cool off the whole apartment. Most of the year, this wouldn’t be a problem, but we happened to visit during a heatwave.

Ah well…

The next day, we discovered the lake through a new perspective. Stay turned for the next post for that!

C.G. Jung

Our time in Die Schweiz was definitely not Scheißig… part six

The boat arrived at Küsnacht-Heslibach at precisely 1:35pm. Bill and I got off and started the short walk to the Haus C.G. Jung. As we were disembarking, I noticed a little beach right next to the pier. It looked inviting and, indeed, people were swimming and sunning. I noticed a few ladies had brought their playful dogs, which made me miss ours. We could have gotten off at the previous stop, but it would have been a longer walk to the house. The Küsnacht-Heslibach stop is just around the corner from the Jung house.

Before I knew it, we were at the end of the driveway, walking down to the house itself, a stately and unique mansion with well-manicured gardens and a lawn. I noticed there was a swing set there, no doubt for Jung’s descendants, who still call the place home. How nice of them to allow Jung enthusiasts to visit! The house was built in 1908, much of it paid for by the inherited wealth Jung’s wife, Emma Jung-Rauschenbach, brought into the family. They had five children. It seemed like they had it made, especially since Jung was a well-regarded psychiatrist who had studied with Freud, was an artist, and knew several languages.

Well… nobody’s perfect, and that also applies to people like Carl G. Jung. He had an open affair with his assistant and former patient, Toni Wolff. Emma tolerated the affair, and the three seemed to work harmoniously so that Jung could create his science of analytical psychology. I don’t pretend to know a whole lot about Jung– he’s really more Bill’s interest than mine. But as someone who has seen a psychologist and studied social work, I did find the museum very interesting for a lot of reasons. Artists will also enjoy it, since many of Jung’s works are displayed on the first floor, which is the self-guided part of the tour.

Carl Jung was a very unusual person with great vision. His house has a tower that he wanted built. He’d actually hoped the tower would be a library, but that didn’t work out. The tower has stairs instead of books. On the brief guided tour, we did visit Jung’s library and inner sanctum. When we walked inside, I noticed it reeked of tobacco. Our guide said that Jung was a heavy smoker. I thought I smelled whisky, too. It wouldn’t surprise me, although the guide didn’t mention a love of alcohol. I asked her how many languages Jung spoke, since I noticed books in several languages, including English. She said he spoke German, French, English, and had studied Greek and Latin. I was amused to see a book about yoga in the library… our guide said he’d read pretty much every book in the carefully arranged library.

Our group probably consisted of about ten people, all of whom were younger than Bill and I are, and none of whom appeared to be American. One couple was very young– the female half was pretty and had a very beautiful figure, which she showed off with an obscenely short skirt. Or maybe they were actually shorts. I don’t know what they were, although she did distract me when she bent over to look at something and gave me a full on view of her privates. I was really glad she’d worn underwear. The funny thing is, when I saw them approaching, I had a feeling I was going to end up seeing something I shouldn’t. I have some empathy, though. When I was younger, I made some unwise clothing choices, too. And I’ve never had a figure as pretty as hers.

We were supposed to leave our bags and cameras in lockers provided by the museum. A couple of people brought their phones with them, and one lady took forbidden photos inside the museum. A chaperone was quick to admonish her. I thought the way he did it was kind. He said she could keep the image she’d taken, but not to take others. Then, much to my amazement, she asked if she could climb the ladder to the top shelf of books! That request was denied! It is allowed to take photos outside, on the grounds.

The grounds at the museum are very beautiful and peaceful. It was a pleasure to walk around them and take in views of the lake. There’s also a public restroom outside of the house, which came in handy. Below are some photos from our visit. Tickets for adults are 22 Swiss Francs; kids from 0-11 years old can visit free of charge. I think they’re worth the price if you’re into Jung. The tour guide wasn’t the most energetic or entertaining, but she did seem very respectful and knowledgeable about Jung’s life and work. No one tried to stump her, though.

We walked back to the dock, where we had about half an hour to kill before the boat came back for us. I watched the lake and got lots of video. I was trying to capture lightning on video, but it didn’t work out for me. I did get lots of thunder and plenty of people enjoying the lake, even as the storm approached. I kept hearing the voice in my head from all the lifeguards who demanded that everyone get out of the pool! I was surprised no one was doing that in safety-conscious Switzerland. Below, you can see how I amused myself with my big, fancy, digital camera… I need to play with it some more and learn to take better pictures.

A little of what I was seeing on Saturday.

It started raining as we waited for the boat. At first, it was pleasant and refreshing… but then it started to get heavier. By the time we got on the boat, it was coming down. I was suddenly glad Bill had given me an umbrella, even though I had complained about having something else to carry in my purse. We ended up sitting outside, barely managing to score chairs under an overhang. After a couple of stops, we were able to move into the restaurant, where I had another beer. 😉

After we got off the boat, we decided to go eat. I was kind of hoping for something interesting, but we ended up at what appeared to be a Swiss beer hall based on the legend of William Tell. Yes, it was very tourist friendly, but I did get to have some surprisingly tasty Swiss style “mac n’ cheese”. Bill had a veal schnitzel… and yes, we drank more beer. The restaurant was called Das Zeughauskeller, and if you walk down the main drag past the Hermes store, it’s doubtful you’ll miss it. Our table was reserved from 6:00pm, which gave us plenty of time to enjoy a sumptuous Swiss meal.

We made our way back to the hotel– first paying the huge parking fee– where we relaxed and watched Father of the Bride on TV. The TVs at the hotel got all sorts of channels– there was something for everyone! Bill and I enjoyed watching BBC. I also enjoyed the bathtub again. All in all, it was a good day.

The Traveling Overeducated Housewife

…the wanderings and ramblings of a boring housewife…

Tag Archives: Haus C.G. Jung

Swiss Studies… The big finale– cruising on Lake Zürich! (part eight)

Swiss studies… Bill decides to go to “summer school”… (part one)

Our time in Die Schweiz was definitely not Scheißig… part six