Optical Treasure Hunting?

Story #2 - Bikes and Mountains in Switzerland

It was our first day waking up in Zurich. I was looking at the map to decide where to go that day. Everything was far away and all the best spots were opposite each other, a real pain when you are walking. I was going through our guide book one last time when I spotted a small paragraph talking about free bicycle rentals. Instantly intrigued, I continued reading and learned that near the train station, there was a place where we could indeed rent bicycles for free! We payed them 20 euros and after returning the bike, the money would be returned to us. We were thrilled! It would be the first time in over 2 weeks we had ever not walked somewhere. It took us a long time, and we had to ask many people, but we finally found the place and got our fresh set of wheels. I love biking, and this instantly put a smile on my face. We coasted around the city, through the small streets, under the trees. We whistled through parks bordering the aqua blue lake. We stopped and enjoyed the view in one sitting on some steps by the water. A family of swans swam up to us. The babies had just begun to get their white feathers.


Content with our exploration, we decided to pick a destination. The first thing that came to my eye, the "Dolder Grand", a beautiful building up the side of the mountain. It apparently had an amazing view. Alex and I rode across the town, and then we hit the slope.. We could only pedal for a few minutes before it became too much for us and we had to get off. We begun walking our bikes up the mountain side. We were tired as hell, but tried to stay positive. After an hour we finally reached our destination.


To our great surprise, the Dolder Grand was no tourist attraction, it was a hotel, and very nice one at that, non-residents were not permitted entrance. I glanced back at the map, where I noticed that there were small paths running through the woods that surrounded the Dolder Grand. We decided to follow these paths and to try and get behind the building, and maybe from there we could find the view we had been hunting. We parked our bikes and began trekking through the woods.


It was so quiet in there. There was no one around. The air was cool and crisp. When we finally found the exit, we were standing on a road behind the building. The road ran down and T'd into another road. It was on this road that there were two benches, overlooking the valley. There was a golf course below, so no trees were there to obstruct our view. We sat there for a good half hour, listening to music and taking in the view. I thought about a lot of things on the hillside. My life, my family, the world. Then we moved on. Biking down the mountain took us hardly 3 minutes, I didn't even have to pedal once! I know that I will never forget that view or the way I felt when I cracked the truest smile I had had in a very long time.