Zurich, Switzerland was a little bonus on my big European trip. Ten day in Belgium and ten days in Germany was the the plan until I discovered it would actually be cheaper to fly out of Zurich than Stuttgart or Frankfurt, so why not travel another two hours by train (the same it would be to fly out of Frankfurt), but also knock out another country from the list.
This was my very first time being completely alone on a trip. There was no one I knew in Switzerland. There was no one waiting for me. It was just me. I had done hostels before, and while I wanted the hostel experience to meet people, I was a little hesitant to do it on my own so I got a single room in a hostel like hotel, Hotel St. Georges. The workers there were very nice, it had a nice atmosphere, and I was able to meet people at breakfast, so it was perfect!
Day 1
The journey started with a train ticket from Stuttgart to Zurich. I love the train experience and luckily this one went very smoothly (I credit that to the Swiss.) Once I arrived at the train station, my first stop was to get a Zurich card at the tourist information desk. I knew that I was going to buy this before even arriving.
The Zurich card is great for tourists. It pays for itself as buying the 24 hr or 72 hr card is about the same price as it would be for you to get the city’s trains plus the train to the airport. It also gets you free or reduced admission to museums, although most museums are not open Mondays, which was my full day there, so I did not get to go to any of the museums. It also gets you discounts on other experiences and shopping! The thing I loved about the Zurich card is that it got you unlimited free travel on all forms of public transportation (for 2nd class though). I didn’t use the trains much around the city, but I did need to take the train to the Lindt Chocolate Museum as well as the airport. The one thing I also really wanted to do in Zurich was take a lake cruise on Lake Zurich, which I got to do for free with this card. All of this to say that I highly recommend getting this city travel pass.
My first day in Zurich was not entirely a very exciting one. It was mostly taking care of the logistics like getting my Zurich card and then walking to my hotel. I got in a little after 2pm and had a 20 minute walk to my hotel. It is definitely an experience dragging your big suitcase by yourself around a foreign country, but I had gotten used to it by this point after being in Belgium for a week and then Germany for another. I settled in at the hotel, leaving all of my stuff behind and used the rest of the afternoon to explore a little bit before it got dark. One thing I didn’t want to do on my first trip all alone was be out by myself when it is dark, even though Switzerland is a very safe place. It made it easier though for myself to take the evening to relax after being so busy travelling through Europe.
The weather wasn’t particularly great this first day. It wasn’t necessarily cold, but it was definitely not sunny, which makes for not your typical pictures of Switzerland, but I still enjoyed it. I mostly stayed to the left side of the Limmat river,where my hotel was, this first day. This meant I didn’t get to really get into the Old Town. I did get to explore two other really prime places in Zurich though. The first being Lindenhof Hill. On the sunny days this park provides a beautiful picturesque view of the old town of Zurich. It still was a great view, but did no give me the pictures of really wanted of the city.
Plenty of people, tourists and natives, were enjoying themselves in this park. The tourists obviously in line to get their instagram pictures of the cityscape and the natives enjoying themselves and their company on the walking trail and the park benches. I even just took a moment to sit on one of these benches and pretend like I lived in Zurich and I was just casually spending my evening enjoying myself at the park. I also walked around the Lindenhof neighborhood and it was gorgeous. This is also what led me to my next stop in the city.
Bahnhofstrasse was the next neighborhood I explored. This is Zurich’s shopping street. This means all of those stereotypes about the money in Switzerland we all hear, this is where you experience that. Not only does this street house many of the country’s and the world’s most important banks, but also has many high end shops. I didn’t go into any stores, because I would never be able to afford it, but I wanted to window shop and see what it was like to be a wealthy European. Obviously you could find some more affordable stores as well if you really wanted to go shopping, but I was running out of room in my suitcase. I already filled up my once empty carry-on full of chocolate from all of the countries I had visited on this trip that were all well known for their chocolate.
Once the evening started to hit and I couldn’t figure out what else I could do before dusk, so I decided it was time to hit up the grocery store for dinner. Since things are relatively more expensive in Switzerland I decided that I would spend one night having a really nice dinner at a restaurant and the next getting food from the grocery. I found one near the train station and grabbed the things I needed to have an easy meal of bread, meat, and cheese since it seemed to be my favorite thing to eat in Europe. Hilariously I came across some American bread. Obviously as a bread snob it is not what I bought. Instead I settled for a Swiss rye. I also grabbed some Salami because there is nothing better than European Salami and then I had the hardest task of all. Cheese.
The story of my Swiss cheese is one of my favorites to tell. I wanted a good cheese since I was in Switerland, but I did not want to ask what to get, because I figured cheese is cheese and I like cheese. Even cheeses other’s don’t typically like, I do. I learned that this is not the case. I knew nothing about cheese in Switzerland. The nice cheeses were so expensive so I bought the cheapest. I checked out and pretended like I understood what the cashier was saying to me. They could not know that I didn’t know what I was doing. I took my meat and cheese along with my dessert of chocolate merengues and non-alcoholic wine (that’s another story… Swiss groceries are hard) and headed back to my hotel.
I made myself comfy on my balcony and in that moment when I opened my cheese I realized I had messed up big time. It was so smelly! I struggled to eat that stinky cheese. It was so bad that I couldn’t keep it in my room. I also didn’t have a fridge so at the end of the night I left my remaining meat, cheese, and butter outside where it was a bit cooler. Now here is where I can’t make things up. I had no idea what to do with that cheese. I couldn’t throw it away because it smelled so bad, but also I couldn’t finish it. Luckily in the morning I didn’t have to do either, because it was gone. By some miracle my stinky smelly cheese was gone. Some animal probably took it, but wow have I never had a ‘if I just ignore the problem then it will go away’ moment like. And thankfully what ever took my cheese left me with my yummy Salami.
Day 2
The next day was so much warmer and sunnier! Its was the perfect spring day. I started my full day in Zurich not too early. I got breakfast down in the cafe of the hotel. I could have probably found a cheaper breakfast elsewhere but I was too tempted by the meat, cheese, and bread buffet. I had unlimited access to all of my favorite European breakfast foods. And you can’t forget the muesli or the Cappuccino. I really miss a plain good European Cappuccino sometimes. It also wouldn’t really be Switzerland if my Cappuccino wasn’t served with a piece of Lindt chocolate on the side.
After breakfast I walked to the train, but this time a smaller station close by rather than the main central station. I took the train for 9 minutes to Kilchberg, the closest stop to the Lindt Chocolate Museum. You can also take the bus or boat as well, but I was saving my boat ride for a full all around the lake experience. The boat and train also require a 10 minute walk after the stop while the bus is right by the museum, but I wanted to find the train station since I would be needing it the next day to go to the airport.
I had a noon chocolate tour at the Lindt Chocolate Museum. Entering the museum you can’t miss the giant chocolate statue. I scanned my ticket to enter, was given an audio guide, and dropped my bags off at the lockers. The thing I love about Europe is that they have lockers at museums so you don’t have to carry around your stuff. It is not like that in the United States, unless our museums do have it but it just isn’t as common as a thing to use.
I started my tour which was really incredible. It starts with how chocolate is made and you are transported to the green forests of Latin America. Then you start to learn the history of chocolate in Europe and the major brands that arose. There is an emphasis on Swiss chocolate and what makes it difference from other chocolates (I will say that I have tried a lot of different chocolate and Swiss is my favorite.)
After the history part of the museum you are brought to an exhibit that shows you how it is made and you get to try a milk, dark, and white chocolate from the chocolate fountains. On the way out you’ll have the option to grab some of the truffles with some unique flavors. I grabbed one of each to try of course.
After waiting in line for 20 minutes, (I had a nice chat with the Irish couple behind me in line) I got to the famous chocolate vending machine. You never know which piece of chocolate you will be given. It is also really fun to watch the machine as it moves through the different parts.
Before heading out I went to the chocolate store because of course I had to. I stocked up on chocolate! I got a few different chocolate bars, some truffles for my family and some for myself as well. Lindt chocolate is my favorite!
You could spend hours in the museum but for the sake of time I only spent about a hour and a half in the exhibits and by the time I got all of my chocolate I had spend a total of a little over two hours at the museum.
I took the bus to Bürkliplatz and looked up the boat times. I decided to do the 3:00pm boat cruise so I had some time to kill. I got a snack at a little stall by the docks and walked by the lake just enjoying the sunny day. On the boat there are a lot of options for where to sit. You can sit indoors at one of the tables, but I wanted to be outside so I sat at the top. On the boat they have waitresses that go around taking drink orders, which is really on an honor system because you could get off at any of the stops without paying (of course I paid). I got a fancy iced tea which really completed the experience.
I was on the boat for the entire round back to Bürkliplatz which was about an hour and half. It was a great way to see more of Zurich beyond the city center. All of the other stops were definitely not as busy as Bürkliplatz, but you could tell the people getting on these stops were not tourists. They were locals enjoying a beautiful day on the lake. My favorite sight on the cruise was for sure the mountains in the back ground. Zurich isn’t quite in the middle of the Alps as other cities in the country are, but you could see them and their white tips in the background.
When I got off the boat I decided to walked around the city center and see a bit more of the old city. During this time I went inside Grossmünster, the big church in the middle of the city. It is a protestant church and probably the first major one I had seen in Europe. I love catholic cathedrals. They are so beautiful and something I always go out of my way to see in Europe. Grossmünster was nowhere near the same level as any catholic church I had seen.
It was a bit bland inside. Protestants don’t use art and statues the same way Catholics do, because they believe it can be a form of idolatry. This is always something I knew growing up with a Catholic mother and Lutheran dad, but I never had really seen that difference until that moment. I think you can still appreciate the church and its purpose, but it is not exactly what I was expecting considering how beautiful the exterior was.
I had time to spare and you know I love climbing towers (they always give you the best views of the city), so I decided to pay the few Swiss Francs to go up into the tower. It was getting late so luckily I had just enough time to do this before they closed the towers. It really was a gorgeous sight. I was able to see to the right the river with the buildings of the old city next to it along with all the homes in the distance. To the left I could see the extent of Lake Zurich and the mountains in the background. So while the church itself wasn’t very extravagant, the view of the city made it worth it.
It wasn’t quite dinner time yet so I explored the parts of the city I had not seen yet and did my souvenir shopping. Usually I like to buy souvenirs from markets and local artisans. I try to stay away from the souvenir stores, but that was the only option I really had on a Monday evening. I ended up finding some unique things anyway. I always buy a postcard and a magnet. I found some things for my family members that I hadn’t got anything for yet on my trip and then bought myself a cuckoo clock. I know its cheesy but I loved it. It had a sheep hanging down from it.
It was starting to near dinner time, which meant soon the sun would set, so I would need to find a place to eat so that I wouldn’t be walking back to my hotel in the dark. I had been putting off dinner because I was nervous to eat at a restaurant all by myself. I have gone to cafes and fast food places alone. You know, places where you can just order at the counter and sit down or take it to go. I have never been able to eat at restaurants by myself. If I wanted food and had to eat by myself, I usually would take it to go. I hated sitting down at restaurants by myself, but I was in Switzerland and I was not going to spend both of my evenings in my room. I wanted to try real Swiss food so I sucked it up and found a restaurant.
I decided on Restaurant Le Dézaley Zürich. It looked nice and not too expensive. I found the restaurant and the host let me know that they also had a terrace up by Grossmünster I could sit at too. I said of course and found my way up there where I was the only person. After a while a couple other people came but it was definitely weird being alone and having the waiters up there all to myself. They were young men close to my own age and were very nice so I didn’t feel too awkward about being alone.
I ended up ordered Rösti and sausage in an onion gravy, which was a very traditional Swiss meal and something I wouldn’t normally order. I think we tend to only think of Fondue and Raclette when we think of Swiss food and I would have more than loved to have had both in Switzerland but I was glad to try something new. I also order sparkling water one last time and a glass of white wine. It was served with bread (my favorite) as well. It was a very good meal and I was so happy I braved going to a restaurant by myself because the atmosphere is exactly what I needed for my day in Zurich.
After dinner I walked back to my hotel and got ready to head back home the next day. I enjoyed some more of my chocolate meringues and watched some Swiss tv which I did not understand because I don’t speak German or French. While I was relaxing and checking into my flight for the next day I discovered that I had been placed on standby. I was so upset. I have only been on standby once and it was when I was 17 visiting Germany and my flight had been changed last minute. I should not have been on standby considering I paid full price for this flight. I swore that evening that I would never fly Aircanada again. I am usually a Delta person, but I decided to be more open since it was cheaper. I did not appreciate being placed on standby though.
I braced myself to have to spend another day in Zurich if I didn’t get a seat on my plane. Everything ending up working out in the end though.
Day 3
The next morning I said goodbye Zurich and got on the train to the airport. The train there was very slick. The train stop was close to my hotel and I arrived very close to the departures at the airport. When I checked in and dropped my baggage off the desk worker was great. They assured me I would get a spot on the plane when I brought up my standby concern. I would just have to go to the desk at the gate to get my seat number. Then I relaxed and proceeded my airport routine. I went through security, found my gate, found some food, and continuously checked at the desk for my seat number. Finally during boarding I was able to get my seat. I ended up having an exit seat.
Usually I love exit seats, specifically on domestic flights because you get more leg room and the chances of people not sitting next to you was higher. I didn’t really love this spot though. There was practically nothing in front of me until the next section of seats started which meant people waiting for the bathroom would stand in front of me. There also was also the screen situation. It took me forever to figure out how to access the in flight entertainment and the tray table for meals. Eventually I found them on the side, but sadly that meant I wasn’t able to watch anything during take off and landing. I really shouldn’t be complaining though because I was determined to get a cheap flight for this trip and thats what I got knowing it meant I couldn’t choose my seat. I just didn’t imagine that would mean being placed on standby. It honestly could have been worse though.
I do highly recommend the Zurich airport. It was great and I didn’t have any issues with the actual airport itself. Zurich is a transportation hub which makes it great for flying and Switzerland also has a great train system and other modes of transportation. It made the whole trip less stressful knowing I wouldn’t miss a flight or train because of a delay.
I would love to go back to Switzerland to spend more time there. Sadly the stereotype of Switzerland being expensive is too. Especially food was kind of pricey, so I couldn’t really afford to have spent much longer there, but I would like to go back someday when I have a bit more money and see other parts of the country because it is absolutely beautiful and I love the culture and atmosphere. Everything and everyone seemed happy, but that could have just been the spring sun bringing us all back to life. All I know is that it made me happy!
The Journal of Wanderlust 