Lidos, Louie's, and Lazy Rivers

A random weekend in August, Travers and I headed up to Zurich to catch some sun, and enjoy a different Swiss city for a couple days.  We took the train up on a Saturday morning, and after an easy 3 hour ride, we arrived in Zurich, and quickly dropped our things at our hotel before heading towards the water.  Zurich has a few spots along the lake called lidos, which are essentially floating decks. We chose one that was fairly packed, but found a small spot on part of the deck to lay out. We ordered two of their specialty drinks and proceeded to tan for an hour or two. We hopped in the freezing cold lake water to cool off about half way through, but eventually laying on a deck can get somewhat uncomfortable, so we decided to leave and see what else was going on in the city.

We walked to the old town area and got sandwiches at one of our favorite restaurants, Louie's. Here they make delicious sub sandwiches, with freshly grilled chicken or beef, lettuce, tomato, onion and their special spicy sauce on top. We've been to Zurich a handful of times and always make sure we get a sandwich here. Its that good.

As we walked from Louie's to the river's edge, we were able to watch the annual river float, where thousands of people hop in the lake with a small floating device and let the current take them down river.  We didn't participate, but we saw tons of people floating by us as we strolled by the river. We eventually made our way to the end of the river where everyone gets out, warms up, and hangs out. We watched the crowds of people for awhile, at first wishing we had done the float, but after seeing how cold people looked as they got out, we were glad we had just watched it from the sidelines.

Later that evening, we found another lido of sorts that turns into a bar at night with fun lights and lots of people. This bar straddles the river and is made of multi-levels of decks. As it was a warm night, there were lots of people hanging out and enjoying the unique atmosphere.

The next day we hopped back on the train, stopping in Bern before heading home. Bern's river is well-known for floating at any time of the summer, so we thought since we hadn't done the one in Zurich, we'd do it in Bern.  We made our way from the station to the river, where a huge grassy area was filled with tons of people enjoying the sun, having picnics, and jumping in the river to do a float.  We bought a small beach ball for our floatation device, and started the 30min walk upstream to where we could jump in and then float back downstream to the grassy area.

Our first time down, the cold from the river took our breath away, but sharing time on the beach ball, made the float easy enough and before we knew it we were back where we started.  Deciding it was too quick of a ride, we walked even further upstream before hopping in the water again. This time, we floated for what seemed like ages, getting a bit winded at times, but eventually making our way down river to the exit point.  It was so fun to have the river just push us along, and seeing so many people enjoying themselves too made it all the more fun. We did it one more time before deciding we were too tired and cold to go anymore. But it is a definite must on a hot summer day.  After warming back up on the grassy area, and munching on some schnitzel for lunch, we got back on the train and headed back to Geneva. A perfect quick weekend getaway!