Country #60: Switzerland

A few years back, a well-travelled friend of mine casually asked me how many countries I had been to. I brought out a notepad, made a list, deliberated over it for awhile and gave him an answer. He then produced his slightly shorter list, which he had had at the ready all along. What's ensued from that day has become an ongoing competition with an ever evolving set of rules and regulations (ie. merely landing at an airport does not count, you must leave the airport property; landing on a country's territory and landing on the country itself only counts as one; countries must be recognized by the UN) and not to mention, the occasional accusation of cheating. Not content to play with just one person, I have thrust my atlas at many an unwilling participant and demanded that they tally up their "scores". The result is that there are now about a dozen of us playing Count the Countries. That makes it especially thrilling when I can add a new land to my list, like I did yesterday. It was a short trip and I only had about 13 hours to explore, but that was still enough to make Switzerland lucky number #60 on my list of countries visited. (Disclaimer: My mother tells me, and has even produced photographic evidence to the effect that one of our family trips included a stop in Zurich, however since another rule states that you must remember being in a country in order for it to count, I have left it...and Portugal and Luxemberg...off of my list).

Knowing that my stay in Zurich was going to be short, I arrived with a walking tour printed from the Frommer's website which would take us past 9 highlights in the downtown area in under two hours. Soon after landing at ZRH, I set off with some friends to see the sights. My one Polish friend was remarkably focused on the task at hand. Unfortunately, for him the task at hand, was to find a frosty beer...or really any beer, I think a warm Schlitz's would have done the trick...so the idea of actually seeing all nine sights was quickly dismissed. I chose two must- sees, the Fraumunster, which is a church containing five stained glass panels by Marc Chagall and the Lindhof, which is the remains of a Roman fort which promised postcard worthy views of the Limmat river and its right bank. We managed to make it to the church only to find out that it was already closed, a fact that I fear I will be reminded of in heavily accented English for some time to come. After wandering through many a picturesque alleyway we also found the Lindhof. The view, as some of the posted photos will attest, was indeed lovely, although there really was not much to the fort. By chance and misdirection, we eventually ended up passing by 3 of the other items on the walking tour (a square, city hall and a bridge), bringing us to a grand total of 5 out of 9...not too shabby with a beer hungry Pollack in tow. The walking tour done, and never to be mentioned again, we set about finding a beer garden complete with a liderhosen-clad oopah band and later a jazz cafe set amongst a block of questionable strip joints. All of this left us with a total of four hours to sleep prior to our flight back home and left me with a well earned # 60 (and Shawn an equally well earned #41).

If anyone reading this would like to join in on Count the Countries, feel free to leave your tally in the comments section. Please note that visits to the International Pavillions in Epcot do not count and may result in penalty points..