Zurich

We slept pretty well last night - why does a day travelling on the train tire you out so much?

Got on line to check that there were still plenty of tickets available for the chocolate museum - they were all sold out - strange as they weren't a couple of days ago - oh hum. We decided to all go tomorrow morning - so I booked 3 tickets for 10.30 tomorrow morning.  This means that today we could have a slow day with no trains - much needed after yesterday.

We had breakfast - which was your typical continental breakfast: bread, ham, cheese & eggs, I do enjoy a continental and tucked right in - probably ate too much.  We then headed down to the station to sort out our tickets.  It was a beautiful day - blue sky and sunny, forecasted to reach 27 degrees.

Zurich is a handsome city, lots of old buildings, cobbled streets, churches with huge spires, a river going through it which empties into a lake.  You get the feeling of wealth about the place: lots of expensive cars driving around, and lots of people obviously well coiffured and wearing designer labels.  We headed towards Bahnhofstrasse which was described as the nice old town full of boutiques and worth a stroll.  First of all, though we came across a Mammut Store where Matt couldn't help himself and bought a T-Shirt from the sale rail and was very happy.  We then saw a store with lots of soft toys, we went in, it was amazing!  Loads of soft toys (all with notices saying not to touch - such kill joys!, then upstairs, was every board game you have ever seen, huge shelves of jigsaws, including one which had 42,000 pieces and needed a table 7.5 meters long by 2 meters wide - wowzers.  The box it came in was ginormous.  We decided to leave it.  However, we got some Swiss Top Trumps to play on our train trips, Tom bought himself a rather complicated Rubik's cube (a decahedron).  We pulled ourselves away from the shop - Tom decided to take the slide down to the ground floor, Matt and I were too shy!  What a brilliant shop!  We also found a Victorinox shop and went in.  Loads of Swiss army knives and at very reasonable prices - they still engrave them too - I thought Tom might be interested in one but no.  Reminds me that I had one which I was very proud of - not sure where it is now?  (Any ideas Mum & Dad?)

We then found Bahnhofstrasse but the shops were all too designer for us (wep played find the highest price tag - the winner was CHF38,000 for a Rolex!), and the people walking on the street too orange, so we diverted off and found ourselves in the old town, much more interesting.  By complete accident we got ourselves to Lidenhof - which is a view point from the old town over the (very green) river Limmat, there was a Roman Fort there once upon a time, but nothing left there now.  It was a pleasant place to view the city from, bit of a breeze too. We then headed back to the old town and got lost wondering the narrow, cobbled streets.  I found a kitchen shop, got excited, but no chocolate moulds in it - shame!  We found St Peter's Church which has the largest clock face in Europe and under it a very well disguised Lidl where we popped in to find some lunch - we got a salad and a bottle of pop each and headed down to Bürkliplatz by the edge of Zürichsee where we found a bench under the trees to eat.  

We saw lots of boats coming and going, and thought we would enquire to see how much it would be for a trip.  We couldn't quite believe the answer - as we have a 50% off Swiss transport pass, it would only be CHF6.80 for the 3 of us - that is about £6.  Wowzers, we booked on and spent a pleasant hour bobbing along in a circle around the lake - our feet were very happy with us.

On our return we headed back towards our hotel on the other side of the water. We visited Grossmünster, a church where you can climb up one of the towers to a viewing platform which was lovely and sweaty in the heat!  Good view though.  Then we strolled down Niederdorf another area full of narrow cobbled streets and old buildings.  We found a coffee roasters, a very old style jam shop, amongst lots of restaurants and cafes.   By now we were wilting a bit, so we got ourselves some cold drinks and headed back to the hotel for cool showers and a rest before the night's activities.

In the evening, we headed down to the bottom of Bahnhofstrasse to Paradeplatz where we were meeting one of Matt's translator friends for dinner at Zeughauskeller - a proper Swiss restaurant.  It used to be an armoury so there were shields, swords, and armour all over the walls.  It was a busy place, plenty of beer, meat and potatoes!  Arlene and David were great hosts and helped us interpret the menu.  I went for herby sausages with potato salad, Tom went for Wiener Schnitzel with chips and Matt plumped for the smoked sausage on sourkraut.  We also ordered a rösti - for Tom to sample.  Then beer for the adults and shandy for the boy (apparently if you are 14 in Switzerland you can have weak beer if you are having a meal - Tom was overjoyed and felt very grown up).

It was a good night, felt a little sorry for Tom as it was hard for him to be included in the conversation - however, he did have a huge schnitzel to eat, which he managed and luckily he took his new Rubik's cube with him, so that helped too.  Also after finishing off the huge schnitzel he said he was full - until he found out that apple strudel was on the desert menu.  Suddenly he had more appetite and ordered it.  We got 2 spoons, but didn't get a look in - he demolished it in no time at all!

We walked slowly through the old town back to the hotel with Arlene and David.  It had been a good day.