#Esslingen ZH

[greenbagjosh]

Sunday 9 August 1998 - prebreakfast TV - ride to Forch - Röstipizza for lunch - ride down the roller slide and the funny elk-light fixtures - train ride home and a ham focaccia for supper

Sunday 9 August 1998

Hi everyone, Hope your week is going well. It is supposed to be cooled down by today. Twenty years ago today I did a quick country train and bus ride around Zürich, after a long day in Zürich itself. Eventually I went back home to München.

Overview

watching Ottifanten and an Otto Waalkes sketch comedy show on TV

shower and breakfast in hotel

check out, walk to Rümlang S Bahn station, lock clothes bag in locker

take S Bahn to Stadelhofen, then S-18 to Esslingen via Forch

take bus from Forch to Uster, and S-Bahn from Uster to Zürich HB

lunch at the Brasserie Johanniter

S-10 train to Üetliberg, walk up to see the Uto Kulm observation area

train to Zürich Selnau, walk back to HB

take train with Sommer Spezial ticket to München Hbf

head home with U-5, U-4 and bus 37 home

arrive home and no one complains (thankfully)

make it to work for the final week And that was the summary of what I did on Sunday, 9th August 1998.

That was some noisy night last night, I am lucky to be back in my comfortable room with no roommates to have to listen to (loud music, snoring and so on), and I have my own TV set.

Breakfast was served until 10 AM at the hotel, so I watched a little TV before going. Since I am still such a big fan of Otto Waalkes since July 1991, I watched an episode of Ottifanten, which are anthropomorphic elephants, the main character voiced by Otto Waalkes himself. Then there was the live action sketch comedy show, with his "English for runaways" inexact English-to-German translations, plus the Kakao sketch.

After seeing Otto on TV, I took a shower, then had breakfast. The breakfast was better than at the hostel, the items were more delicious and the bread rolls were fresh. Well worth the extra 10 CHF I paid. After that I checked out with my clothes bag, and I took my day bag with the remaining sodas for the swig bottle. It was a twenty minute walk to the Rümlang S-Bahn station. My ticket was still valid for Zürich and Rümlang until 12:30 PM but I wanted to out of that zone for the day. In that case, what is the appropriate ticket to buy for all zones of the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (Zürich regional rail district)? More likely than not, it would be the 9 AM ticket available daily and for about 18 CHF for all zones, valid only up to the last train of the day, likely just after midnight.

From Rümlang, I took the S-Bahn via Glattbrugg and Oerlikon to Zürich HB, where for 6 CHF I could store the clothes bag away for the day until it would be time to take the train home. I had until 5:15 PM that day to explore the Zürich region. So I thought, why not take the S-18 all the way to Esslingen ZH? To do that, I had to take the S-Bahn from platforms 21 to 24 to Stadelhofen, and change to the S-18 at its own stop near the theater (which on 24 July was playing The Truman Show). In 1998 I did not know about the Tram museum at Burgwies, close to Balgrist, which would be open at 11 AM. That would have been interesting. I made it a point later to visit, and between September 2011 and December 2016 I have since visited twice. Going further, the S-18 ran on the same tracks as the tram line 15 up to Rehalp, and after that, it went on a surface route up to Zumikon-Waltikon and went underground for Zumikon and Maiacher, before coming out of tunnel for Forch. After Forch and up to Esslingen, the train route was mainly single tracked. The day was nice, mid 70s and had interesting scenery, not too hilly. At the end was Esslingen and I had to take a bus, line 842, through Mönchaltorf ZH to Uster. I had been to Uster on 4th of July 1997 but only by accident. That incident was due to the fact that I did not alight the S-Bahn train at Stettbach as I should have. But this time Uster seemed familiar and I knew where I needed to go and where to alight.

The S-Bahn from Uster to Zürich, goes northwest past the Greifensee.and Dübendorf, before it goes into tunnel at Stettbach and emerges at Stadelhofen. Then there is another tunnel section from there to Zürich HB which is platforms 21 to 24. I alighted at Zürich HB and it was time for lunch. I wanted to go back to my favorite restaurant at the time, the Brasserie Johanniter, on Niederdorferstrasse 70. They were not so full as the previous night and they offered me a table outside. I had a Hürlimann 1 Liter, and on the seasonal menu, they were serving Rösti as a pizza. I could order a "quattro stagione" (four seasons) pizza on a bed of the hashbrowns. It was actually quite delicious, too bad I did not take a photo of it. With a full liter of beer, you have to take at least an hour to enjoy it. I think it was about 2 PM that I paid the bill and left for Üetliberg.

In 1998, the SZU, Sihltal-Zürich-Üetlibergbahn used the same platforms as today, but instead of platforms 21 and 22, the platforms were called just 1 and 2 back then. I took the S-10 the entire distance to Üetliberg via Triemli. It was a four-zone journey and my 9 AM ticket covered it with no problem. When I arrived at Üetliberg terminus, I left the train, walked up the steep pedestrian trail to Uto Kulm, and for the first time I saw the most bizarre light fixtures around, namely the Bruno Weber Hirschlampen. These were four lights on the antlers of giant elk. Also there is some planetary display on the trail. The Uto Kulm resort hotel is at the top, and costs around 200 CHF per night, which I could not afford then. The observation platform and tower are still open to the public. From there you can see from north Zürich into the Albisgütli where there is the late summer Knabenschiessen event, and further along Lake Zürich towards Rapperswil SG and Pfäffikon SZ. I had to take about twenty minutes to get a good view of everything and appreciate the many years I had known Zürich (my first visit was 1976 when I was about four).

It was getting close to 4 PM and I had to go back to the rail station. I thought I would have some time to walk from Selnau to the station, it was not a long journey, and being Sunday, the traffic would be light. I arrived about 4:45 PM and searched for some place to buy Victorinox knives but I could only find cheap store-brand replicas. They would have to suffice. I managed to collect my clothes bag, get to the train to München Hbf and board the right train car, as stated on my Sommer-Spezial ticket. My seat was in an open area of the first class compartment and with a window all to myself. At 5.15 PM the train left Zürich HB, I left seeing the Zürich insurance billboard just outside the station, and away it went. I took a few photos here and there, particularly getting close to St. Gallen. There was a bistro wagon going through the cars, and I could not pass up the ham and cheese sandwich on a focaccia-shaped bread roll. The train reached Bregenz about 7:45 PM. That was the only time the border guards were on the train, and the rest of the way it was uneventful. I think I took a nap between Lindau and Buchloe. As you might expect, the electrification did not start until the train passed Geltendorf, which is kind of the imaginary border of Oberbayern and the Ostallgäu. The sky was getting darker and about 9:50 PM the train pulled into München Hbf. There was no point remaining in the station so I headed home, first on the U-5 to Lehel, and caught the U-4 to Arabellapark, then the bus 37 to my apartment in the Freischützstraße. I entered quietly and no one told me off about my alarm clock.

And the next morning? It would be the final week of my Werkstudenttätigkeit, so all loose ends had to be tightened up, and paperwork had to be filled out for end-of-project, and I had to also take care of my apartment rental and last three nights in Paris for Summer 1998 before flying home. And buying this and that. So the next story may not be until Wednesday the 15th August. The 18th August is the "grand finale" of this saga.

Hope you enjoyed so far, Gute Nacht and bonne nuit!

PS Desirée is afraid of the dark, especially when she's in a park… (that was one song I heard repeatedly in Summer 1998, she had "You gotta be" in 1994)