Zürich (02/03 - 02/05)

Last weekend I visited the financial capital of Switzerland (and perhaps the world?)! Our journey began with the train ride from Nyon to Biel/Bienne and then from Biel/Bienne to Zurich - a grand total of 2h30m.

 

View from during train ride

We arrived in Zurich and were faced with the problem that everything was in Swiss German - we couldn't even figure out where the exit was (luckily following the mass exodus of people was the easy solution).  The walk to our hostel wasn't long, but boy was it freezing!

City Backpacker hostel

The rest of the night was spent wandering about Zurich and getting a feel for the place.  We walked alongside the river and found a little pasta place that was only 10CHF for a pretty big meal - luckily 2 out of the 3 people working there knew English.  Some of the tidbits I learned about Zurich from my host family: people in Zurich really like to use English so they won't mind speaking it to you (sometimes in Geneva I feel some animosity), also they think people who speak high German think they're so much better than the Swiss Germans and view them as snobby.

Zurich at night

I actually fell in love with this city instantaneously - even more so than what I've seen of Geneva thus far.  This is probably due to the fact that Zurich still has an old city feeling to it with cobblestones and numerous churches - but at the same time there is so much development and wealth in the area as well.


The next day we got up early and wandered about Zurich, here are some of the cool things we saw:

One of the many churches in Zurich

Famous Bahnhofstrasse (where we could afford nothing)

largest clock face in Europe - St. Peter Church

One of the old streets with viewing boxes

Fraumunster

Springly's famous macaroons

This is how cold it was out...

Me on the bridge with the main parts of Zurich behind me

Grossmunster

After exploring all of the churches we bought a thrifty lunch at the local Migros and spent a little down time at the hostel.  Rachel arrived in Zurich at 1pm and we met up with her and visited a couple more sites - in particular, the FIFA headquarters and the look-out point behind the main building of Zurich University.

Me with the FIFA sign

yep, it had its own street

Jasmine, Sarah, Rachel, Eryn, Moogie, Me and Rachel (the whole Zurich gang)

All of the flags..

Zurich University, main building

View of the city from the top of the hill

Let's just say, it was hard to be out in Zurich for too long every day since the wind was horrible and we all got frozen to the bone.  Our hostel was located on a pretty hopping street so we went out to the bars that night - it was an interesting experience to say the least.  The next morning checkout was at 10am so we all got up by 9:45 and wandered down to the common room.  Before leaving Zurich, we went back up to the hill by the university and then visited the Swiss National Museum.  It was a wonderful trip and I would definitely recommend visiting Zurich to anyone - except it may be nicer to go when the weather isn't so cold.

Swiss National Museum, Zurich