Thalvie Café — Thalwil, Switzerland
Thalwil, Switzerland 🇨🇭
It was the last leg in my trip inside Switzerland. I had only the rest of the day, a few hours before my flight that is scheduled later in the night. My family and I didn’t want to leave this beautiful country abruptly. So, we decided to spend the remaining hours in the outskirts of Zurich region before heading to the airport for our flight back home.
We spent the day in a lovely park called “Park im Grüene” in Rüschlikon, which is a municipality adjacent to our target one in this post. The weather was perfect for having fun outdoors. Early spring, it was sunny with a cool breeze in the air. The park was just a perfect spot for something light and relaxing before a late flight.
The park “in the green” above Rüschlikon, which lies in picturesque position overlooking the lake of Zurich, is a genuine oasis for fun and relaxation.
— Park im Grüene, MySwitzerland
Thalwil is a municipality and town in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. As of 2010 its population was of 17,189. Besides the town of Thalwil, the municipality includes the village of Gattikon. The official language of Thalwil is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.
— Wikipedia
If I happen to visit this region again in the future, I would ensure I give two places a visit. That is besides our cafe of choice which I will talk about later. Both of these stops are wild and natural places that can be excellent for a stroll or a hike on your own, or for a fun day out with the family:
- Wildnispark Zürich Langenberg (Animal Park)
- Gattiker Waldweiher (Wildlife Refuge)
Thalvie Café — Pin 📍
In a virtual tour to the lovely town of Thalwil, I searched for a good spot that can give a nice view of the Lake Zurich, with possibly good indoors, but more importantly an opportunity for outdoors dining. I found the Thalvie Café a great choice, indeed. Not only it has a great artistic decor from the inside, but it has this lovely terrace that can boost your experience. You can also get glimpses of the lake, with paths around that lead to a better view of it.
A date with Art Deco and Mother Nature
With us, life can be enjoyed anew every day with the best quality: during the day, starting with premium coffee specialties roasted especially for us, delicious snacks and business lunches as well as inspiring tea ceremonies.
— Thalvie Cafe
Time to Pause and Ponder
In this part of my trip, I got the chance to pause and ponder. It wasn’t only from work, as my whole trip was to escape work for leisure with my family. But, as some of you might have experienced before, traveling with family and kids requires some work as well. All the planning and lodging, transportation and moving around, bookings and activities, and catering to the needs of your family will have its toll on you, even if you are having fun along. That is why I found the stop at the park above a time for me to relax, pause and ponder.
This is, of course, an important thing to do especially when you are in the midst of work. Professionals, who work to live, even if they find passion in what they do, still need to deliberately put some time aside for pausing and pondering. This is especially needed when we start feeling overwhelmed and our energies draining. Going on, trying to complete one more item in your to-do, or ensuring you make that final touch on whatever you are working on, would benefit a lot from a pause that refreshes and re-energizes you.
A habit of disconnecting in the midst of overwhelm, changing faces and scenes around you whenever possible, breathing deeply and going for a walk, can work wonders. Not only you can get out of the pit you have been digging yourself in, but your mind can think more straight and add new perspectives that cannot be obtained easily while you were so busy acting. Do it, like Einstein used to.
How to think like Einstein
The idea of pausing and pondering got me thinking of the bright mind of Einstein. He is, by far, the most famous genius the world has known. Also, he spent a good amount of his studies in Zurich, so I guess this is another reason why I was thinking about him while writing about a region near Zurich, in Switzerland!
Einstein has mastered the art of pausing and pondering. His imagination wins over knowledge in his own words, and imagination cannot happen if you are overwhelmed and busy working hard. It requires an intentional and deliberate act of disconnecting and letting your mind wander. This is how Einstein used to do which allowed him to reach the depths and discoveries that has changed the world.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
― Albert Einstein
A book I found light and fun to read is titled “How to Think Like Einstein” by Daniel Smith.
How to Think Like Einstein
Best known as the creator of the world's most famous equation, E=mc2, Albert Einstein's theories of relativity challenged centuries of received wisdom dating back to Newton. Without his groundbreaking work in relativity and quantum physics, our knowledge of the cosmos might lag decades behind where it is today.
But Einstein was not only an extraordinary scientific thinker. He was a humanitarian who detested war and tried to stem the proliferation of hitherto unimaginably destructive weapons that his work had in part made possible. He spent a lifetime fighting authoritarianism and promoting personal freedom, selflessly standing up to those who posed a threat to those ideals.
He was also a bona fide superstar and was instantly recognizable to millions who had not the least understanding of the intricacies of his scientific theories. Even now, the image of the tussled-hair 'mad professor' poking his tongue out at the camera is familiar across the globe.
In How to Think Like Einstein, you can explore his unique approach to solving the great scientific mysteries of his age and trace the disparate ideas and influences that helped shape his personality and outlook - for better and worse.
And below, I end with my review of the book that I posted on Goodreads a while back.
Part biography and part how-to guide to living a creative and pacifist life like Einstein’s. I very much liked how the author depicted beautifully the personality of Einstein as a human before being a genius and a scientist.
The book is laid out in consumable chunks that can be read in short settings without the fear of losing context. The chapters are simply lessons learned - and sometimes “not” learned - from the part of Einstein throughout his life. You will see anecdotes from Einstein’s life supported by reports and quotes from his family, friends, acquaintances, and the media. Each anecdote is full of life and wisdom anyone can benefit from, sometimes with a hint of science “gibberish” that is hardly understandable by the regular person.
If you are looking for a lightweight memoir of Einstein’s life with a focus on lessons learned, then I suggest you go and get this light and enjoyable read.
— Abdurrahman on Goodreads
I would also like to take a couple of quotes from the chapter “Take Time to Unwind” which is core to what I have been talking about in this post.
“More healthily, Einstein was also a keen sailor, an activity he first seriously got to grips with as a student on the lakes around Zurich. Its attractions were manifold, but prominent among them was the opportunity for tranquillity. Not for Einstein the frantic action of competitive sailing; instead he regarded it as the sport that demands the least energy...
Although he did sail with friends, he often went unaccompanied, glorying in the chance for some solitary reflection away from his desk and from the demands of other people.”
— Daniel Smith, How to Think Like Einstein
“One year Einstein summered in Rhode Island and took every opportunity he could to set sail on the ocean wave. A local yacht club member would recall years later how the great man would go off for days at a time, seemingly floating adrift. On several occasions rescue parties were sent out to save him only to find Einstein aboard his boat in a state of contented contemplation.”
— Daniel Smith, How to Think Like Einstein
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