Vacation - Day 1 Zurich

Monday morning, I am an Ironman and now time for vacation.  Today we are staying in Zurich and recovering from the race.  Unlike the races in the US, you do not need to be early to the Ironman store to purchase finisher gear.  We grab a taxi to the race venue, purchase our finisher jackets and head back to the hotel for a date with the bed.

Dinner at the Blue Monkey for Thai food, decent food but expensive.  That is pretty standard for Zurich.  We also stopped by our favorite cocktail bar and had Christian make us a few drinks, time to celebrate.  He remembered us and was ready to make us some gin drinks.  We started with a gin fizz for me and a New Orleans gin fizz for Jen, the main difference being the egg white in hers making it a bit frothy.  Good summer drink and the gin he used in mine, Ferdinands, was excellent.   Unfortunately it is made in Germany and not available in the U.S.  It is distilled with wine which gives it a unique flavor and very smooth.

For the next round, Christian made Jen the best Vesper martini I have ever tasted using Tanqueray while I enjoyed a martinez, excellent as well.  Besides the race, finding this bar and spending time with Christian was one of the highlights of our time in Zurich.

After dinner, we still felt like celebrating and spotted a little pub down an alley way called the Aelpli Bar.  We walked in to find the place empty except for a man playing traditional music on the accordion and a woman in her 60's dressed in traditional garb, looking like an older version of the girl on the Swiss Miss cocoa label.  Jen did her best to find the perfect Pinot Noir to go with the music while I settled on the house draft beer.  It was a bit surreal but all part of the adventure on vacation.  Probably not the best idea to have left Jen behind at the bar in search of an ATM, (bar did not take credit cards) but she survived and thus ended our time in Zurich for now.