Welcome to my Alpenventure! 2 1/2 weeks in Switzerland! The land of my forefathers! At least some of them...however, I don't have time to venture to where they're from. What can I say? The mountains are calling. I'll have to save that for another time, just like I had to save the Glacier Express for another time.
For what feels like the first time in a long time, my flying journey worked out according to plan! No delay or anything! Thank goodness! It was especially daunting when I was trying to look up what plane I would be on, only to find out that the Monday Swiss 9 flight had an unexpected detour via the Azores after a chemical smell on the plane during their flight. My flight did not have any issues. Whew! When I booked my flight, I splurged and booked an economy plus seat for the way over. Shoot, I'm not sure I can go back! My seat was essentially a domestic first class seat, with further reclining and a footrest. I still didn't get any sleep, but I was more comfortable at least.
When I arrived in Zurich, customs was a bit of a mess. Europe is still working through getting their new electronic passport stuff working. I stood in line for the regular passport control and realized that was going nowhere, so I skipped that line and went over to the electronic passport control machines. I honestly wasn't sure if it worked or not because it kind of felt like it didn't. I was then put in a separate line and about an hour after getting into line, I was through. I don't know why this is being so difficult as I've been through electronic systems in New Zealand and Aruba and they have worked just fine.
After getting out Customs, I headed to the attached train station (as all airports should have!). I booked a ticket into the city and waited for the train to arrive about 15 mins later. I got to the city and walked the 8 blocks (at least that's what Google said) to the hostel I'm staying in in Zurich. During that time I worked up a sweat as I'm rocking a larger backpack on the back and a smaller one on the front, and it was hot! Like mid-80s hot. Zurich has been going through a hot/dry spell. I got to my hostel about an hour before check-in and just waited around.
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| Limmat River from Lindenhof |
After getting settled (and cleaned up a bit), I set out to wander old city Zurich. I'm right in the middle of it, just about 2 blocks from Wasserkirche and the Munsterbruke (Minister/Cathedral Bridge as Fraumunster and Grossmunster are on opposite sides). I crossed the bridge and mostly just wandered. I went up to Lindenhof and up towards the train station. I got myself some gelato because it was hot.
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| The old city moat and pathway. |
I then made my way to the city's old moat, Schanzengruben. I learned about this from a YouTuber (Daniel Steiner) I follow and his video Zurich's Map: Explained. Once upon a time, like many European cities, Zurich had a wall surrounding it. It also had a moat on one side. That moat is still in existence. If you look at Zurich on Google Maps, you'll see a zigzag stream west of the Limmat River. For a segment of that moat, there is a nice walkway, with plenty of rocks at the edge to sit on and put your feet in the water. It was so refreshing. I also got a nice little foot cleansing by the fish eating at my foot skin. Eventually I put my shoes back on and started to slowly wander my way back to the other side of the river and in search of food. I got some pasta at a place not too far from my hostel and went back to the hotel to crash.
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| Archaeological Windows Maps |
I woke up this morning, and forced myself to get out of bed, though I felt I probably could sleep a bit more. I had to get a key to the city before other people got all of them! That is something else I learned from Daniel Steiner's video; the city of Zurich has this thing called Archaeological Windows. Some of the "windows" anyone could find if they knew what they were looking for. Others you have to have a literal key to get into. These "windows" are a glimpse into Zurich's past, as a city that has existed since in its current form since the 800s, and was a site for previous civilizations going back to 2000 BCE. I was given a sort of treasure hunt map with the sites roughly labeled and I had to search for them in the areas mentioned on the map.
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| Ruins of an old Roman Bathhouse under the walkway. |
The first one I came to was in what was essentially a 4 foot wide walkway. Once upon a time, there stood a Roman bathhouse on that site. There were signs on the wall explaining the site and how Roman bathhouses worked.
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| The rather unassuming door into one of the "'windows". |
From there I headed to a parking garage, where they found some items and then I crossed the river to the Zentralbibliothek (library). The library was built right on what was once the edge of town, right next to the city wall. As they were doing work on the library they uncovered a section of the old wall(s) and preserved it, so now with a key, you can make your way down there and read all about the old city wall.
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| Old city wall found during library remodeling and construction. |
Up next I headed to an old house where a panorama of the old city is located in the first floor of the City Archives at Haus Zum Rech. There you can see what the city once looked like. There is some history on some of the old houses in the city. One of which dates back to 1200 CE! And it is still standing!
As I was on this journey, I was also on a chocolate journey. I told myself I was going to visit every chocolate shop I passed. I missed 2 because they weren't open yet, but I think I went into the rest that I found. I had 2 hot chocolates today and a handful of chocolate...not bad for a day of vacation. I was the only person in the shop Conditorei Schober Chocolate, so I talked with the lady there for a bit. Things she had to share: too many people think they can spend a few days in Switzerland on a trip to multiple countries and it is not enough; it has been hot and dry this year and Lake Zurich is down about 50cm, which is affecting transport on the river; Trump doesn't care enough about the climate and how people can do things to protect it; Trump looked like an idiot sneaking away on a cart to get off an airplane and then leaving the rest of his people on it; that Zermatt is too commercial these days and not worth a visit (too bad, I'm going); her husband is a civil engineer who once worked on a bridge in Berlin and a museum there where they had to figure out how to mount an airplane outside in the air, but not damage it; and more.
After my first hot chocolate of the day, I wandered to Fraumunster and went inside. Most of the churches in Switzerland were Protestant Reformed when that happened so all the Catholic decorations were taken out and they were made much more plain. But this one does have some cool painted windows by Marc Chagall, which he did in his 80s and 90s.
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| Chagall Windows at Fraumunster |
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| Rear Rose Window and Organ |
At the Wasserkirche right on the edge of the Limmat was another "window". In the basement of the church you could see the many ruins of previous churches on the site. There are at least 3 other foundations down there. They marked them where they could so you could tell which belonged to which time period.
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| Ruins under the Wasserkirche |
One of my last places I visited with my Archaeological Windows key was an alleyway. A very small alleyway, that was once a sewer ditch between buildings where people long ago deposit their bodily functions to be collected and used as fertilizer. Eventually sanitation got to the city and they built some early sewer systems, which eventually evolved into today's sewer systems. The best part about this "window" was at one end you went through a bigger (yet still rather small) door, and then you walked the length of the block to come out an even smaller door only 40cm wide. When you pop out the other end where no one is expecting anyone to come out of, they give you odd looks!
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| Old sewer ditch of Zurich |
After turning my key back in I made my way to another chocolate shop for another hot chocolate, and then went to get a late lunch, which ended up being a bratwurst and fries. Tomorrow I might actually try to eat more real food other than various types of chocolate (cordial, bar, hot, gelato).
After 8 hours and 8+ miles of walking, and still not being fully recovered from jetlag, I'm exhausted. I feel I have done Zurich and will be fine with moving onto Luzern/Lucerne tomorrow.
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| Rainbows over Zurich. The one just to the left of the short pink building is the one that dates back to 1200. |
