Zurich 1

Largest city in Switzerland, located at the northwestern
tip of Lake Zurich, the 6th largest lake in Switzerland
with the 1st being Lake Geneva. Population of 380,500
people in the municipality and almost 2 million in the
metropolitan area. Official language is Swiss German, which
sounds completely different from both Austrian German
and high German (which people in Switzerland will speak
if you ask them to. Practically everyone knows English and
signs/instructions/inscriptions are often in German, French,
Italian and English.

Tall steeple to the right belongs to the Fraumunster, with

the largest clock face in Europe.

The double tower Cathedral is called Grossmunster and

in front of it is the Wasserkirche (water church). If you

cross the bridge Munsterbrucke (4 other bridges

also cross the Limmat to the old city), you get to the

Fraumunster cathedral which contains 5 amazing

glass stained windows and a rosette by Marc Chagall.

Other Chagall works can be found at the Kunsthaus just a

few streets right of the Grossmunster. I caught a Monet/

Van Gogh/Cezanne exposition. The line was really long but

I got to see some of their best-known works, including

Monet's 3 gigantic waterlily paintings.

I saw the Swiss Knie circus at the end of my trip. The

marquee was located right beside Zurichsee, outside

the city center. Sat in the 2nd row so performers

interacted with me a lot. The show, titled Imagination,

was given in German/French/Italian and made fun of

German, French and Italian people, which was hilarious,

and I got to see a ton of animals.

Swiss National Museum, across the street from the Hauptbahnhof.

Interesting sort of Art Nouveau facade. Shops are great

here, but I guess as one of the wealthiest cities in Europe,

that is to be expected.

Nice view beside The Haus Konstruktiv, which contains

the Rockefeller dining room.

The streets around the main train station are very busy,

especially the Bahnhofstrasse, a shopping street.

View from Lindenhof, a former Roman customs post and

the highest point in the Old City.

Walking up from Burkliplatz, berth for the Lake Zurich

boats.

Typical office building.

Closeup of the Fraumunster.

Closeup of the Swiss National Museum.

Opernhaus (opera house).

Prediger Kirche. Building on left is an old gild office. Bridge used to be named

vegetable bridge but it changed to city hall bridge (city

hall is on the right, outside the picture).

Swans...because the city is not pretty enough already.

View from Zurichberg, accessible by cable car.

My favorite city...I still have several places to go but Switzerland has a very distinctive, hard to define quality that separates it from the rest of Europe. If it were not chilly and the Lindt & Sprungli factory was open to the public, I would still be there right now, which would be problematic for several reasons. The surveys are right, the quality of life does seem to be ideal and many important people live(d) in Zurich. Beispiel, Einstein taught at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (designed by Gottfried Semper) and Tina Turner presently has a house there. Food is very expensive so I recommend subsisting on chocolate, pastries and coffee. Is chocolate in Switzerland really that good? Yup.