Rhine Falls, although beautiful and not lacking in size, didn't really give us a wow effect. We walked around it in a couple of hours, asking for some boiling water for tea at a cafe along the way. Most cafes have a "No picnic" sign, meaning "don't eat your own food at our tables." But they usually poured us boiling water from the coffee machine for free, and only once asked for 1 euro, which is more of a symbolic fee here.
The boiling water from the coffee machine, to be fair, isn't usually boiling, but only about 85-90 degrees, but at least you can brew some oolong.
We brought a full tea set with us, but it turned out to be more of a hassle than a pleasure. We used it a couple of times, and in total it weighs close to a kilogram.
I constantly write "euro" instead of franc because the exchange rate is very close. It's very convenient. I know that five years ago this was done on purpose, then the rate was unpegged and the franc skyrocketed. Not sure how it is right now. The Swiss still love cash. And although contactless cards are accepted everywhere, usually all sorts of vending machines take cash too. This is tied to the locals' love for privacy: you're better off not taking photos, and especially not recording other people, you could get slapped with a fine or a lawsuit. Generally, this time I had the most dirt-cheap insurance, but next time I'll get one with civil liability coverage. Because it's kinda nerve-wracking to scratch a Porsche or Ferrari and then spend half your life paying for it. I should mention that locals change cars every few years: they usually lease them, and if the condition is good, you can give the car back to the bank and get a new one. That's what everyone does. Wonder if you can do that with bikes too :-)
Another thing I remembered is that in stores, at the self-checkout, when you've scanned an item and put it on the little shelf to grab later, that shelf often doesn't have a scale. And although there's an intimidating sign saying they do random checks to make sure you paid for everything, I personally never saw it happen. We usually shopped at the co-op chain, which is far from the cheapest, but on the upside, the goods there are high quality. The chain is essentially not a company, but a cooperative, meaning an association. You shouldn't confuse it with other co-ops — as it turns out, every country has its own co-op. In Britain, Italy, and so on. In Switzerland, the co-op has an orange-and-red logo.
At the Co-op self-checkout, by the way, you can choose not to take a receipt — caring for nature, after all. Co-op generally really loves this kind of stuff, they even get awards for it. I'll add that I liked the brand "Happy Cola," specifically the sugar-free mandarin one. Drank it every day. As Garik says: "a little bottle of cola in the morning kickstarts the stomach."
What can you do, to get moving even a little bit, we had to drink brutal amounts of coffee and cola, since making tea on the go wasn't working out. Next time, I'll take my transparent single-serving mini-thermos brewer and will be begging for boiling water everywhere. The coffee, by the way, is pretty good in some places, for my basic tastes — I love a weak latte. The tastiest one, though, I drank at a friend's place, from his coffee machine.
I haven't talked about the prices for food and drinks, so I'll share a bit. Eating at a restaurant usually costs around 20-30 francs, that's for one dish or a set meal. A 0.5L bottle of cola or water will easily set you back 3-5 francs, unless you buy it in a supermarket. Then it might be 1.5. The absolute cheapest sandwich or kebab costs around 9-12 francs.
A couple of pieces of raw chicken fillet in a supermarket for 15 francs usually leaves a strong impression on the psyche of unprepared people. Interestingly, some tourists leave negative reviews for all sorts of places purely because of the prices, for example, for a cable car. It's a bit weird for me to see this — had these people really heard nothing about Switzerland prior to their visit?
We walked around the waterfall, crossed it on a small ferry for 4 francs, and headed on. Garik requested another long steamboat ride, and I complied. It's a drag to constantly be glued to your phone, planning, but there's a certain thrill to it too. You feel like you're remembering something, and that you're useful. So I'm generally not against it, as long as my efforts actually came in handy and didn't go to waste.
Since there are no large lakes north of Zurich, the only plan that came to my mind was to go to the very east of Lake Zurich (Zurichsee), and from there sail back. To do this, we first had to return to Zurich by train, admittedly, but oh well. We didn't make it to the very west of the lake, because it's blocked by a bridge. We started from the town of Rapperswil-Jona, first to Pfäffikon, then to the island of Ufenau. All of this in a rush, but that makes it even more fun.