If you find yourself in Zurich with a couple of hours to go before your plane leaves and no plans, here's a truly Swiss experience just around the corner waiting for you. Take the boat to Erlenbach (approximately 30 minutes ride) and have lunch at the Café Maierisli only about 50 meters from the boat landing. The place feels just like any typical Swiss village "Café" used to feel before most of them got the generic metropolitan makeover in the nineties which made them lose any individuality they had previously had.The interior in old-fashioned coffee shop style is quite comfortable to sit in and the staff, Swiss ladies from the vicinity, it seems, will make you feel welcome in (spite of) their very typical Swiss brand of polite reservedness. The lunch menu is exactly what it should be and always used to be in places like this, containing old-fashioned treats like "Pastetli" (pastry shells filled with a Swiss version of tiny meat balls in a white sauce), scrambled eggs, omelettes, salads and the like. Servings aren't big but you'll be asked whether you would like anything else, so no worries there. Since the shop has its own bakery attached to it, your bread basket will be filled with fresh dark rye bread, truly filling and a far cry from the usual fluffy white stuff with no nutritional value whatsoever. Also, you'll be certain to get a good quality cake or sweet pastry with your coffee if you fancy it.Prices are quite reasonable for Swiss standards.
