Anything's possible…
…was the strapline for my last expedition. In Zurich's Oepfelchammer bar, at 10:42pm on Thursday night, I found to my horror that it's simply not true. Not unless I'm willing to dislocate both shoulders, that is.
Just off the cobbled Rindermarkt, this bizarre 200-year-old inn, apparently once a favourite watering hole of Zurich's literary son, Gottfried Keller, has a tiny wood-panelled dining room upstairs. Legend has it that if you can swing up on the ancient beams, wriggle your way through a gap between beam and ceiling and finally (hanging upside down by your feet) down a glass of beer, your drinks are on the house.
I once held the chin-up record at Sandhurst and I'm famed for my ape-like grip, so I assumed this would be a piece of cake. But no matter how hard I tried (see blurry photo), I just couldn't squeeze my shoulders through the gap.
'It's impossible' I muttered, as I sat down to polish off my dessert, but just before we left, a local student (admittedly a pretty skinny local student) showed us how it was done. Double-jointed, I reckon.
— Filed under Miscellany