Further Groovy Travels

Most of the first day (which also happened to be my birthday) was spent traveling and resting, I was determined to spend my only day in Zurich making the best of it. The Boogg didn't happen until the evening, so I had some time to explore. Because I am me, I headed to the main shopping district, Bahnhofstrasse. It was a gorgeous day and the scenery...amazing.

I did make my way to Bahnhofstrasse, but discovered that most of the shops were closed. Apparently, Zurich takes it's spring festival very seriously

I walked around a little, enjoying the weather and came across this lovely water fountain. Since there wasn't much to see, I found a bench and people watched for a bit, then headed south.

I sat near the water at Lake Zurich for a bit, then decided I needed to do something totally touristy. I checked my phone for things that were open and found the Lindt museum and factory outlet, located a short train ride away. Actually, I first thought it was a trolley ride and bought a trolley ticket, only to find I needed to take an actual train. Wasted about 10 bucks on a useless trolley ticket. I soon got the correct ticket and got on the correct train.

I made it to Kilchberg and followed the plethora of signs to the Lindt Home of Chocolate. It was getting warm, and the walk wasn't short...but I got there.

There is a museum there, but I didn't feel like spending more money on a ticket. I also know plenty about chocolate already as my family was in the candy business for years. I decided to prioritize where I was spending my money...on chocolate!

This is the giant chocolate fountain in the lobby area. Pretty impressive. The museum is up that spiral ramp to the right (or you could take an elevator. I headed to the factory store...

Where the Lindt truffles were in plentiful piles everywhere. They did have a 30% off deal on the bags of the truffles you can get in stores...but I wanted to try all different kinds. So I filled up a bag with two of each kind.

This was kind of cool too. All the truffles in a rainbow of bins. I got the truffles, two ginormous chocolate bars, and some liquor filled bars. Of course....

Then, I headed over to the Lindt cafe where got a Dubai sundae and a choccochino with a rather large shot of Baileys. I joked with they young man making my drink that he could put more Bailey's because I wasn't driving...I took the train. He said "as long as you're not driving the train." Both were delicous, but I was very full after.

On the walk back, I just had to take a photo of this cute house. Springtime in Zurich is lovely as a lot of flowers are in bloom, they had some lilacs in their garden.

Here is a close up. They were a deep purple and smelled divine. I love lilacs, especially the smell. I know I say my favorite flower is daisy, but I might be lying.

After the train back, I made my way back to where the boogg's bonfire. This is one of the guilds taking part in the parade...they were stopped at a red light...LOL.

As I got closer to the lake, I spotted the boogg on the top of his woodpile. You can see the crowds are very...crowdy.

I made my way to the square and found a spot with a clear view. There was a wire fence between us and a high hedge. We could hear the marching bands and the guilds, but could only see the tops of their heads and maybe a float if it was high enough. We were all waiting for 6:00PM when the bell would toll and the bonfire would be lit.

Right after 6, we started to see smoke and flames. I think that they stuff a lot of hay and very flamable small brush in between the logs in order to accellerate the fire.