Day 7: Zurich to Milan

So we woke up in our amazing hotel to SNOW falling, it was pretttty, I mean if it’s that cold, something good needs to come out of it, right?!  We packed our stuff onto the bus, had our amazing breakfast buffet again, and rode to Citibank for the company visit.

After the visit, we went to lunch at Zeughauskeller, which was the most ‘interesting’ lunch.  It was a really cool German-esque place, very big and open.  We started off with the special onion soup, which I actually really enjoyed.  We also had big bread rolls that felt like rocks.  We were then presented our main course – veal bratwurst with potato salad and onion sauce (here’s the pic from their website)… wellll, if I liked potato salad, I would have liked their potato salad, but I’m just not a fan.  the potato salad, in this case, was used to bury most of the bratwurst that I couldn’t force myself to eat.. I DID taste it, but the texture was just no good.  I’m sure the menu was filled with things that all of us would enjoy, but we got stuck with the veal brats, hmmm. Anywho, we DID get dessert afterward, which was ice cream + whipped cream, and we all ate that up. Yum. 

We then loaded the bus again to head to Milan, Italy.  We had a long bus ride,  but it was really beautiful driving through the mountains.  We arrived at the Hotel Michelangelo at about 6:00.  It was nothing compared to the Marriott, but they had an amazing bathroom/tub, so I guess Italians focus on bathrooms instead of bedrooms.  Our beds were small compared to our room, and less than a foot apart, but still a very nice hotel.

After we got settled a bit, a group of us went to grab some dinner.  We stopped at one of the first places we saw, it was a Pizzeria/Bar, and we ordered 5 different pizzas for all of us to split.  For such a small, uncrowded restaurant, the pizzas were great!  Afterwards, we found a nearby gelato shop, and all got a small cup for dessert. Delicious of course.  We then went back to the hotel and played cards for a little bit, went to one of the many McDonald’s, a block away, and got a small snack.  Called it a night. 

We were in Italy, so naturally McDonald’s had a sandwich called the McItaly:

This is also when I started to look for Mario and Luigi for Rocky, but signs were about as close as I could come:

Day 6: Zurich, Switzerland

So this hotel’s breakfast buffet was absolutely incredible, they had everything you could think of, so, it was delicious.  We enjoyed the breakfast and headed to Zurich Insurance Company to hear from Zurich Financial Services Group.  They provided us sandwiches lunch – the one I chose had only cheese and a pickle (strange), and afterwards, we  heard from the president of Peoplefone, which is a service like Skype based on VoIP communication.  On the way back to the hotel, we  had a speed-tour (that included a stop at a church - Fraumünster) of Zurich, but really, we just wanted to get back to the hotel to explore the city ourselves. 

When we got back, we layered on more clothes and headed to explore.  We went to the main strip of shopping, and found, of course, a giant chocolate shop that was unreal.  We each picked a truffle  to try, and of course – delicious!  (Click for video I found of this shop)

After we walked for what seemed like forever to the other side of the  river, we searched for a place to eat dinner.  We finally stopped at a cute restaurant that felt more like a coffee shop on the inside.  Four of 5 of us ordered what sounded delicious – I don’t remember the name of it, but it said it came with bacon, onions, and cheese.  When we got it, it was, what looked like a pizza, on a super thin crust, no marinara sauce, but a creamy cheesy sauce, with onions and bacon on top.  They were DELICOUS, but I couldn’t finish mine.  This restaurant was great because they took American dollars – the only place we went that did.

Afterwards, we started on the trek back to the hotel, and passed a bar that had a giant margarita on the glass, so we tried it out, because we all had some francs left to spend (by the way, Francs were so pretty! Click here to see ).  We walked in, felt like we wanted to get in and get out because it was so smoky and dark. We got one drink, drank it, and left. I did visit the bathroom, but couldn’t stand the sight of it, so I turned around and walked out – it was disgusting.  We returned to the hotel afterwards, and went to bed.  Overall view of Switzerland – beautiful, just too cold to enjoy most of it :(

Day 4-5: Lyon, France

March 8: So we started off the day with the delicious hotel breakfast, and headed to hear a presentation on the Lyon Economic Development Agency.  Afterwards, we went to a nice restaurant for lunch called le Bistrot d’Auguste.  Our meal included the yummy Lyonnaise salad, chicken and potatoes were the main course and a “fruit-cake” which was more like a fruit pie, with raspberries, peaches, and figs - which was actually pretty good.

After lunch, we went to our second business visit, which ended up being one of everyone’s favorites – Jet Metal Technologies.  The CEO and another man talked to us about the company, and it was a laid back presentation, and actually very interesting what they do.  When we finished, we rode back to the hotel, and Jessica, Linden, Jamie, and I walked around Lyon a bit, and went to dinner at Grand cafe des Negociants.  Our waiter was great, he spoke English, so that was nice. We even had a menu in English, so that made it easier to decide.  Also, one of my favorite things about this place is, before the meal, he brought out a little dish with pretzels and green olives :) yum.  I ordered the “penne au gratin” which is exactly what it sounds like, pasta + cheese, and it was delicious, because really, how could you go wrong with pasta and cheese.  It also had a little cherry tomato on top, which it seemed like every meal we had included a single cherry tomato somewhere.  Since it was ridiculously cold this night in Lyon and I started feeling cold-sick, we walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

 

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Day 5, March 9, 2010: Lyon to Zurich

So we got up and finished packing for our bus trip to Zurich.  I grabbed a  quick breakfast to take on the bus, and we headed to Geneva for our next company visit.  We stopped for lunch in Geneva at Au Carnivore.  This was one of my favorite meals: salad, steak with mustard sauce and french fries, and “spanish cream” which was just creme brulee.  Nothing was bad about this meal, it was probably one of the most American meals we had.  We were all up in a private room of the restaurant which was sectioned off into different rooms, it was a pretty cool atmosphere.  We then walked back to the bus, and this was possibly the coldest temperatures we felt the whole trip, it was unbearable!  We drove a short distance to our next stop, Universite Hospital Geneva We were running about an hour or more late, so the presentation by Slim Slama ran short.  This is also when I had my first coughing attack that seemed forever!  After the presentation, we got back on the bus and headed to Zurich. We watched National Lampoon’s European Vacation, I had another cough attack, the most ridiculous thing ever.  Got to the hotel, which was a five star Marriott, and one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in.  They had American outlets, which was nice!  The group met in the hotel’s restaurant for a meal of salad (yum), chicken + noodles (eh..), and fruit & ice cream on sugar tart (yummmy).  We got done with dinner pretty late, so just stayed in the hotel that night.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES FROM LYON TO GENEVA TO ZURICH