Come for the chocolate, stay for the…water?

Joe: Did you know that the small city of Zurich has more than 1,200 drinking water fountains? Walking down the street, it is typical to have multiple Porches, Mazerattis (what’s the plural of Mazeratti?), motorcycles, dozens of bicycles, and a drinking fountain in sight. Of these, we have availed ourselves mainly of the water (truth be told, we’ve done a bit of biking too). Maya stops to interact with just about every fountain we pass.  
But the water isn’t just for drinking. See that little head sticking out of the water?  That’s Maya at the Flussbad Oberer Letten, swimming/drifting down the Limmat, the river that drains Lake Zurich and runs through the city. Turns out, swimming in the river is a thing in Zurich. The river runs fast, and it is a ton of fun. 
Continuing with the water theme, Maya and I took a short train ride down the west side of Lake Zurich to an indoor (mostly) water park called Alpamare. It rocked. This place is an institution; the youth of Switzerland have been getting their wet on at Alpamare for decades. In the wave pool, Maya noticed another family speaking English and tactfully swam in close proximity for a few minutes before mustering the courage to say hello during a lull in the (wave) action…and it happened again.  I traveled to Europe and met some lovely people.  And they were Australian. The Aussies  are, as a class, both fantastic travelers and super amicable folk. In my younger days, I have found myself touring Europe with Aussiedler, though it was never pre-planned. Just last October, Maya and I were given a fancy automatic coffee maker and 2 kilos of coffee by an Australian couple (more successfully) playing the same contest in the Zurich Hauptbahnhof as we were. Maya and I were content with our winnings – cups of espresso and coupons – but the Australians had won big, then generously gave their winnings to us! Today, once again, I found myself hanging with Aussies…Maya quickly befriended the entire family, and we spent the next four hours having “our best day yet” in Zurich before training it back into town.