Zurich

Saturday, November 20 - Sunday, November 21 2010

Zurich Train Station

Zurich is another one of those close, weekend trips that was on our list to visit.  It seemed like more and more of our colleagues had made it there and had great things to say about it so we figured it was our turn!  Zurich is about 3 hours away by train and in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.  Ironically, even though we know even less German than we do French, it’s actually easier to communicate in Swiss-German cities because we’ve found that almost all German speakers also speak English extremely well (whereas in French parts of Switzerland it’s hit or miss).  We set out early Saturday morning and made it into Zurich a little before 10. 

Similar to Geneva and Lucerne (and likely most other European cities set on the intersection of a river and a lake), Zurich has a picture-perfect waterfront lined with classic European architecture. For the most part, our entire trip was based around taking in the sites rather than visiting any particular museums or attending any events.  We had gotten several suggestions from our colleagues on things to do so we set off straight away.

Yes, this is a retail store

First on the list was Freitag, a retail store that specializes in hand bags made from recycled material and charging a crap load of money for them.  Seriously, there was a grocery bag there for $85.  We’re all for recycling and reusing but this was a little too trendy for us.  The main reason we visited the store was actually to see the building itself.  Much like its product, the store was also made out of recycled material -- shipping crates stacked on top of each other.  There were even stairs that led to a lookout area on the very top.  All in all a pretty creative concept!

Our next stop was Jules Verne Panorama Bar.  No, we didn’t (necessarily) need a pick-me-up beer at noon. :) As the name suggests, this bar is known for an amazing 360 degree view of the city and surrounding rooftops -- unfortunately it’s also known for not having any seating because it’s so popular.  As expected we didn’t find a seat so we just snapped a couple shots and were on our way.

On to our next viewpoint!  Lindenhof is a small, elevated park in the middle of Old Town that sits on top of a section of the original protective walls that used to surround the town.  It looked like a nice place to sit and relax in for a while, but unfortunately we were on the move.  

One thing we loved about Zurich is that its Old Town is quite large and stretches across both sides of the riverbanks.  Walking through Old Town can be the highlight of a city and Zurich is no different.  As we continued on we saw the clock tower on St. Peter's Church peeking through the other buildings (left) -- a particularly nice highlight of our Old Town walking experience. 

As you could probably guess, our next stop was indeed St. Peters and that clock tower you see is the largest church clock face in Europe, believe it or not (8.7 meters in diameter, built in 1534).  Funny, you would think if there were a standing record like that in the US someone would try to beat it sooner than later.  Maybe they are more respectful of records here in Europe?  We took a quick stroll through the church and noticed right away that there wasn’t a cross anywhere to be found (this was actually true in all three churches we visited in Zurich).  We wonder why, as the cross is such an essential symbol for Christianity?  We should probably write a letter.  Another unique thing we noticed in a couple of the Zurich churches is that their interiors looked like they’d belong in the American colonial times, not so much medieval.  Whatever works!

Another recommendation we received was the Zeughauskeller (“The Armory”), a restaurant that has a main dish called “The Mayor’s Sword”.  It was basically beef cooked and served on a medieval sword.  Uh, yes please.  The place actually turned out to be very German-beer-hall-esque, which added to how awesome of an experience it was.  Stuffed with beef and fries we headed off to our next destination.

Fraumunster

Grossmunster

Besides St. Peter's, there are two other main churches in the Zurich skyline: the Fraumunster (Church of our Lady) and the Grossmunster (Great Church)… German names at their finest!  The Fraumunster is known for some beautiful stain glass windows done by the renowned artist Marc Chagall.  Unfortunately for us there was an event going on there both Saturday and Sunday so we couldn’t get in to see them.  Next time.  The Grossmunster on the other hand has “iconic double spires”, which you can climb for a small fee.  Even though the spiral stairs were a little tight (and by “a little”, we mean extremely) it was worth the climb as the spires offered some stunning views. 

"Love"

At around 5:00 we realized that we actually had accomplished a lot of the things we wanted to do in Zurich.  Being that we woke up so early, we decided to check into the hotel and grab a quick nap.  We were surprised when we entered our room that we drew one of the so-called “City Rooms”.  This basically meant we had graffiti on our wall.  It actually took us little while to read the art -- it says “Love”.  Interior graffiti is definitely a first for us. 

The rest of the night we played it pretty low key, grabbing a beer at the pub across the street and dinner at an Indian buffet / disco (we didn’t stay for the dancing).

Swiss National Museum -
Beautiful exterior, but
exhibits only in German

Sunday morning we decided to check out one of the museums on our list.  Fearing that most of them were in German we opted for the only free one, the Medizinhistorisches Museum (Medicine History Museum).  Our fears were realized when we stepped inside and indeed saw no English.  However, there were a lot of visuals (photos, diagrams, artifacts and cadavers) to look at including deformed (because of disease) body parts and other slightly disturbing things.  The highlight of the museum might have been a kiosk that showed all the Colgate toothpaste commercials from the past 70+ years.  They were all in German, of course, and some were funny (visually) others were weird and there were actually a couple we recognized from the 90s that had a replica US version.  There were a lot of interesting things in the museum and we wish we could have read some of the text to learn more-- although sometimes we were able to learn quite a bit from the visuals.  For instance, there were a number of showcases that featured the evolution of medical tools and procedures, so it was interesting to see how much things have changed over hundreds of years.  The biggest takeaway was that we are blessed to live in the era of modern medicine!

After a stomach churning experience (the last exhibit we saw was raw footage of a kidney transplant surgery... yummy) we were off to lunch.  We probably would have waited a little longer to try and bury some of the images deep inside our heads prior to eating a meal but we had lunch plans with our Expedia colleague (Rob) and his wife (Fiona) who both live in Zurich (although originally from Australia).  Rob works part of the week in Geneva and goes home to Zurich on the weekends.  We met up with them and were excited that the plan was to try out a Thai place that got great reviews from expats.  We got the “Visser regular”, Phad Thai and Red Curry, and can attest that the expat reviews were entirely accurate.  It was great food and we had a wonderful time with Rob and Fiona!

As if we weren’t stuffed enough, we all decided a trip to Sprungli’s Chocolate Shop would be a good and necessary thing.  Clearly it was when you see all the delicious creations lined up behind the display window.   On a side note, we also visited a specialty bakery on Saturday morning and tried out some amazing mini-pastries for the first time as well.  Up to this point we haven’t really been connoisseurs of specialty treats but if this past weekend is any indication for the future, then we are in trouble.  On the right you can see a photo of the French macarons we got from Sprungli's (yes, they look like mini-hamburgers).  Sadly we don’t have pictures to share of the other treats as we were too eager to enjoy them -- you’ll just have to come visit to experience them for yourselves! :)

We said goodbye to Rob and Fiona (more like “see you tomorrow, Rob”) and after a little more wandering, we decided to wrap up the trip and headed back to Geneva early that evening.  While we missed out on a couple things that would have been remarkable to see (Fraumunster church, and a trip up the mountain to Uetliberg lookout for views of the surrounding Alps (it was too hazy both days)), it was a great trip to a wonderful city!