Getting from Vienna to Zürich involves either a long, expensive train ride, or a short, usually more expensive hop over on an airplane. But we found a special deal, through the airline Germanwings, that would cost well under the price of the train ride, and would not require that we sit on a train for several hours. There were a couple of "catches" to this deal, however. First, we wouldn't be able to leave Vienna until mid-afternoon, and second, the deal included a layover in Cologne, Germany. Yes, the Cologne up next to Belgium. Another catch, which we didn't know about, was that one of the Germanwings co-pilots had a history of suicidal tendencies, and would later, in March of 2015, fly his plane into a mountainside, killing himself and the other 149 people on the plane. I don't know if this pilot had anything to do with either of our flights, but if he did, he fortunately had a comparatively good day.

Getting from Vienna to its airport, which is 12 miles from the city center, can be accomplished in a number of ways, none of which involve mountainsides. We went for the cheapest method, the S-7 suburban train, which gets to the airport in 24 minutes. There is another train, called the CAT train, which is heavily promoted and undoubtedly nicer, but which costs more than double the S-7 rate and takes 16 minutes to get to the airport. The taxi rate is three times the CAT rate, but of course pays for everyone in the cab. Our flight to Cologne took 90 minutes and the flight to Zürich another 65 minutes, with the layover adding another 100 minutes, putting us into Zürich around sunset. We found some dinner at the airport and caught a train into town and walked the rest of the way to our hotel, which was a short distance from the train station.


Zürich is the largest city in Switzerland, with more than 400,000 people. It is not the capital of the country, however – this honor goes to the city of Bern, which is about one-third as big. Zürich is located at the north end of a long, narrow lake known locally as the Zürichsee. The city is divided by the river Limmat, which flows from the Zürichsee at its north end, heading northwestward to eventually join the Aare River and ultimately the Rhine. Zürich is a major transportation hub, with an airport and a railway station which are each the largest in the country. Zürich is also one of the world’s largest financial centers – most of the large Swiss banks, legendary for protectiveness of their international clients, are located in the city. The language generally spoken in Zürich is known as Zürich German, which is somewhat different from German German, as is Swiss Standard German, which is one of the country's official languages (the others are French, Italian and Romansch). On coins and stamps, the name of the country appears in none of these languages, but rather as the word "Helvetia", which comes from Helvetii, a Latin word referring to a Gallic tribe that occupied most of the Swiss plateau prior to the Roman conquest. If this all sounds potentially confusing, it is, potentially. Fortunately, Switzerland is nothing if not a country of commerce, and the international language of commerce is English, which is widely spoken. Switzerland's dedication to commerce does not extend to sharing currencies with any other country. Switzerland uses the Swiss Franc, which was worth about $1.11 in U.S. money during our visit. In a way, this is consistent with Switzerland's policy of military neutrality, which has been maintained since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 (convened to straighten out a number of issues that existed at the end of the Napoleonic Wars).

During the World Wars, neutrality was sometimes difficult to maintain, due to conflicting pressures both internal and external. During World War II in particular, the country was completely surrounded by Axis countries or countries which had been occupied by Axis powers. Nazi Germany had in fact prepared a plan (called Operation Tannenbaum) for the invasion of Switzerland, to be followed by a division of the country between Germany and Italy. The plan was never executed, possibly because there are some useful things (e.g. the stashing away of ill-gotten riches) about having a neutral country nearby. The Allies also found the neutral island in the middle of Europe to be useful at times. Occasionally, Allied pilots of failing airplanes would head for the Swiss border, before bringing their planes down. The pilots and crew would be imprisoned by the Swiss for violating their airspace, but the airmen undoubtedly thought that the Swiss accommodations and treatment would be far preferable to life in a German POW camp.

Today, Zürich is considered to be one of the most livable cities in the world. During our short visit, we found the city to be quite pleasant, though expensive. The following is a menu from a restaurant that served ramen. Keep in mind that while the restaurant's offerings were certainly better than the packaged bricks consumed en masse by starving college students, they were not exactly haute cuisine. Also keep in mind the exchange rate, which was about $1.11 per Swiss Franc.

The morning after our arrival, we emerged from our hotel, the Hotel Seidenhof, with the intention of exploring Zürich's Old Town area. The main public transit in the area seems to be the modern trams that run up and down the main street, called Bahnhofstrasse, which extends from the train station at its north end to the Zürichsee at the south end.


We did not use the trams, however, as everything seemed to be in pretty easy walking distance. We walked over to the Bahnhofstrasse and headed south. There was a lot of classy-looking shopping to be seen on Bahnhofstrasse (mostly out of our budget), including establishments selling justly-famous Swiss chocolate.


In our preparations for the trip, it seemed to us that Zürich was not big on major tourist attractions, and this was pretty much borne out by our admittedly limited explorations. However, the livability of the city may actually be enhanced by the fact that large groups of tourists are generally on their way to somewhere else and don't stay long. We found the main attraction of the city to be the city itself, which is a nice place to be, rather than any particular landmarks. But there are some things to see, and we made a determined effort to see them in the short time we were to have in the city.

The first tourist sight we came across was a church called the Fraumünster, on the west bank of the Limmat. The Fraumünster is a nice-looking church with a tall, pointy clock tower. It's a Protestant church (Swiss Reformed), so it doesn't have a huge amount of interior decoration. It does, however, have a series of five stained glass windows designed by the artist Marc Chagall. Photography was not permitted. The church has an interesting history. It's built on the site of an abbey for aristocratic women that was established in 853. In 1045 the abbey was given exclusive rights by Holy Roman Emperor Henry III (holding markets, collecting tolls, etc.) that essentially made its abbess the ruler of the city. In the 14th Century, the abbey's power waned as the city's guilds gained more say in the city's dealings. The abbey itself was dissolved in 1524 as part of the Swiss Reformation. The abbey buildings managed to survive for a while, though, not being demolished (and replaced by a building for use by the city) until 1898. The church itself has survived, however. Though very much different from its original version, it seems to be a result of many incremental renovations, rather than any complete rebuilds. The last major renovation took place in 1911-12. A square across from the church called the Münsterhof, once the main square and marketplace of the medieval city, also survives.


A bridge called the Münsterbrücke crosses the Limmat River near the Fraumünster. There are some nice views from the Münsterbrücke.


Across the river from the Fraumünster is another historical old church, this one called the Grossmünster. Not too much thought seems to have gone into this name, as it means "big church". This name was probably given to distinguish the church from the Fraumünster across the river (which is smaller). With two churches so close together, one might expect a rivalry to have existed between them, and one would be correct in this expectation. In another time, this might have taken the form of intense football games, but in the pre-Reformation days, this rivalry expressed itself as contention for possession of the relics of the patron saints of Zürich, Saints Felix and Regula. Felix and Regula were members of a Roman legion which converted to Christianity in the year 286. This wasn't allowed, so the entire legion was sentenced to be executed. Felix and Regula didn't want to be executed, so they ran off. They were pursued and eventually caught in the settlement (called Turicum) that would later become Zürich, and they were executed by decapitation. According to legend, their decapitated bodies, apparently unhappy with the surroundings, picked up their own heads, walked forty paces uphill and prayed before properly dying. They were buried on this spot. On the spot that would one day become the Grossmünster. According to another legend, in the 8th Century, Charlemagne was passing through when his horse apparently had a vision, and dropped to its knees to pay tribute to the burial spot of Felix and Regula. Charlemagne directed that a church should be built here, and it was. The present structure was built on this spot between 1100 and 1220 in Romanesque style. Several renovations took place over the years, with the Grossmünster's iconic twin towers being added between 1487 and 1492. They originally had wooden steeples, but these were destroyed by fire in 1763 and were replaced by the present sandstone versions in 1787. To pay tribute to Charlemagne, there is a statue of him part way up the south tower.

Another claim to fame of the Grossmünster is that it's generally considered to be the origination point of the Swiss Reformation. In 1519 a man named Huldrych Zwingli became pastor of the church, where he began preaching about ideas for reform of the Catholic Church. The ideas started to gain popularity, but not all of the Swiss people were on board. The Swiss were (and are) organized as a confederation of semi-independent states known as cantons, and some of the cantons became "reformed" cantons, while others stayed with traditional Catholicism. This led to a division between the cantons, which still exists today. Zwingli hoped to eliminate or at least minimize divisions within Protestantism, so he was interested in reconciling his ideas about reformation with those of Martin Luther. He actually met with Luther and several other theologians in an event called the Marburg Colloquy in 1529. Several points of agreement were reached, but the two Reformation factions could not agree on their interpretation of the eucharist, so a split within Protestantism remained, which has never been resolved. Returning to the split between the Swiss cantons, discussions between the cantons led to disagreements over such issues as the right of reformers to preach within Catholic cantons, and the disagreements eventually led to armed conflict. One such conflict led to the death of Zwingli, who was trying to be a soldier after joining a hastily-assembled Zürich defensive force. Zwingli's successor, a man named Heinrich Bullinger, continued his reforms, which included such things as removal of religious statuary, prohibition of church music, and discontinuation of celibacy among the clergy.

We entered the Grossmünster to have a look around. One difference from the Fraumünster became apparent – the Grossmünster was OK with photography. Another difference was that visitors were allowed to climb one of the towers (for a small fee) to take in the view of Zürich. Nella wasn't up for this, but I climbed the 187 steps of the south tower (called the Karlsturm) and enjoyed the view immensely.





After visiting the Grossmünster, we went looking for lunch, crossing back to the west side of the river. We eventually found a Thai place that didn't quite cost an arm and a leg (maybe just a forearm and a thigh), and across the road from the restaurant we noticed a small Ladurée Shop. Those of you who've read our Paris pages (the Champs-Elysées page in particular) might remember that Ladurée is a Paris-based patisserie that makes some very wonderful (but non-discount) pastries, with macarons being a specialty. We bought a small bag of exotically-flavored macarons and consumed them back at the hotel later. Regrettably, this shop closed in 2017, so if you're in Zürich and feel a need for Ladurée macarons, you'll have to head over to northern Italy (there's a shop in Milan) or to France (where there are several). On the other hand, from walking around in Zürich, it will become clear to you that Ladurée does not have a monopoly on macarons.


We discovered this fact in the course of visiting the train station, of all places. We had plans for the next day of taking a day trip from Zürich (gruesome details to come, in a future page), and walked up the Bahnhofstrasse to the station, where we bought the necessary tickets.

Zürich's train station, as stated above, is the largest in Switzerland. It has 26 tracks which handle up to 3,000 trains and more than 400,000 passengers per day. To serve the hordes of passengers, there is an underground shopping center called "ShopVille" which has more than 200 shops. One of these stores is a Sprüngli store. You may be aware of a company called Lindt & Sprüngli, which manufactures and sells confections (mainly chocolate) throughout the world, mostly under the Lindt brand name. The Sprüngli stores are not part of this company, though they were at one time – they split into two companies in 1892. The company that runs the stores is called Confiserie Sprüngli. The stores, nearly all in Switzerland, sell a variety of pastries and confections, but their signature product is macarons, which are sold under the brand name "Luxemburgerli". We visited the store but did not buy any Luxemburgerli, as we already had a bagful of macarons from Ladurée. We did split a pastry, however, which was excellent.


From the train station, we returned into town to have a closer look at another church we'd seen from the Grossmünster, the St. Peter Church. The St. Peter Church is distinctive-looking because of the uncommonly large clock faces on its tower. These clock faces are in fact the largest on any church in Europe, with a diameter of 28.5 feet. St. Peter is another Reformed church. There has been a church of some description on the site since the 8th or 9th Century and several rebuilds since then. Before the Reformation, St. Peter was the city's only parish church, as the other churches were connected to monasteries. From 1340 until 1911, the church's tower was used as a fire lookout point for the city, and the tower is technically the property of the city, rather than of the church.


Another church we came across was the Augustinerkirche. This church was first built around 1270 as the church of an Augustinian abbey. Worship in the church was discontinued at the time of the Reformation, and for centuries the church was used for non-religious purposes (e.g. storage, a wine press and a mint coinage). The church was rebuilt in 1843-44 for use by Zürich's Roman Catholic community, but when the community rejected the decisions of the First Vatican Council of 1870, the church was expelled from the Catholic church. At this time the church became affiliated with the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland, a member church of the Union of Utrecht of Old Catholic Churches, composed of other churches that were also discontented with the 1870 Council. The church remains in use as a parish church, and was most recently renovated in 1958-59.

Heading back over to Bahnhofstrasse, we came across Sprüngli's flagship store at Paradeplatz, a location it has occupied since 1859. Even though we'd had enough pastries for the day, we went in to look around. The store was much larger than the one in the train station, and had a bigger selection of items.



We spent the rest of the early evening exploring Bahnhofstrasse all the way down to the lake. The lake looked like it would be a nice place to spend some time, but it was getting late, so any further exploration of the lake will have to take place on a future visit.



Normally at this point I would say something about returning to our hotel to rest up for the next day's adventures, but first a blank space will have to be filled in. Between our visit to the Grossmünster and lunch, we actually squeezed in a visit to what is probably Zürich's top art museum, the Kunsthaus Zürich. There was a lot of art to see there, and I wanted to devote a full page to the museum. If you're interested in art, read on…