A quick day trip to Winterthur
Trip Start
May 04, 2010
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13
14
Trip End
May 16, 2010
Winterthur, Zürich, Switzerland
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Our friend Dan suggested the photo museum in Winterthur and it's only a short train trip from Zurich so we headed in that direction. We had lunch at the Nationale, right outside the train station. Our guidebook didn't mention it - the little guidebook we picked up at the station seemed to think its hours were its best quality. But we had a truly great meal there - one of the best meals we've had the whole trip and for less than half of the price of some of our dinners.
Leslie had creamy asparagus soup. It could not have been more wonderful. For a main course she had tuna on penne pasta in cream sauce. Fresh herbs made the dish truly lively and memorable. Peter was as adventurous as always, and had the veal neck on potatoes with spicy gravy. Do not be afraid of veal neck, we say. It's good.
The town has a museum bus that makes a circuit of the city's museums once an hour. We waited around a bit but it didn't come in 15 minutes time and it was cool and windy so we decided to just walk. The interesting part of town is quite small so it was no problem finding our way to the first museum: the Oskar Reinhart Museum (part of his private collection). It was an excellent collection of portraiture and landscapes and included some early Picasso, Manet, Gauguin, Cezanne, and more Anker and Holbert. Peter wished he could have taken a picture of the interesting metal and glass stairway to the top floor. It was a work of art in itself.
We love art and history museums. We agree that the Swiss, by and large, do an exceptional job of creating attractive and unusual displays. The explanation / context is not always provided, but the displays themselves are often fanciful and intriguing. (The Swiss National Museum, mentioned in an earlier post, was the best.)
Next we walked to the Kunstmuseum but it was closed. Oh well, it was almost 5 pm and we wanted coffee. We stopped at a cute spot with picnic tables on the sidewalk in the old part of town: Tibits Take Away. We had a coffee and a cookie called an amaretti - super good. It was a great spot for people watching. When we first sat down there was no one about on the street, then like magic a bunch of families appeared, with little kids on wooden "bicycles." The bikes have wheels but no pedals, they just push them with their feet. And a bunch of teens appeared in unusual costumes with colorful dyed hair. Maybe a high school play had let out?
It was now rainy and getting cold. Time to go home. Winterthur, even the old town area, is not nearly as picturesque as other towns we've visited, but it had kind of a sweet family atmosphere. We'll have to go back another time to see the photo museums.
