Zurich, Switzerland

While the focus of this holiday is Greece followed by the Amsterdam-Budapest river cruise, we took advantage of a Swissair stopover in Zurich to explore another place that’s always been on the Bucket List. During these few days of living in the land of Roger Federer, we’ve grown to love this place. It’s friendly, multicultural, clean, and beautiful.  Typically European, uniquely Swiss.

The dominant colour is green. Everywhere you look there are parks, gardens and trees. Some trees are huge, towering overhead to provide a wide canopy that would surely be appreciated on a hot summer’s day. Unfortunately we were in no need of any such shade, we didn’t see the sun until the day we left. It rained for three days and remained cloudy for the rest. Perhaps that’s why this country is so green.

A rainy day in the Swiss Alps. 

We spent a day on a tour into the Swiss Alps that we booked a month ago. From Zurich (at 408 metres above sea level) through Lucerne (435m) and Interlaken (556m) by bus, we then climbed into the mountains by rack railway, passing Kleine Scheidegg (at 2,061m), Eigergletscher (2,320m), Eigerwand (2,864m), Eismeer (3,158m) and finally Jungfraujoch (the highest railway station in Europe at 3,454m). We’d been going up since leaving Zurich. The final destination Jungfrau is now a big tourist attraction, indeed we had to battle hundreds of tourists. It is touted as “the Top of Europe” with commanding and panoramic views of the Swiss Alps in all directions. Unfortunately we saw absolutely nothing. Visibility was down to a measly three metres because of rain, snow and mist. The railway line is directly adjacent to the 1,800m north face of the famous Eiger mountain. I’m sure it really was within touching distance, as the brochure said, somewhere beyond that thick fog. The weather made it a hugely disappointing day.

Grindlewald, on a rainy day.

At least the scenery below the snowline was more visible. Precipitous rock walls gave way to steep slopes of pasture, and the grazing cattle were actually wearing clanging bells around their necks in distinctive Swiss style. The villages we passed through (one was actually called Grindlewald) consisted of steep roofed chalets scattered haphazardly amongst rolling green fields. They apparently become extremely busy during winter as tourist skiers triple their population. There’s no snow at this altitude today, just rain. Buckets of it.

Boats on the shores on Lake Zurich.

Wandering the streets of Zurich we discovered that it’s a very liveable city, indeed it has been voted that over many years. Situated on the shores of Lake Zurich and its outflow, the Limmat River, water plays a big part in the city’s lifestyle. Forests of masts from boats moored in many marinas are testament to this. We were warned that it’s an expensive place, and this is indeed the case. The taxi from the airport (which is relatively close to the city) cost $95 Australian. Diesel is equivalent to $1.91 AUD (the average price back home is in the mid-$1.30s). A cheap meal in a restaurant is $40AUD and a gin and tonic $22 AUD.

Beautiful Zurich town, on the Limmat River.

However, the Swiss economy is obviously booming, judging by the number of cranes on the city skyline. There is construction happening everywhere as new buildings are being erected, while many existing buildings are shrouded in scaffolding. Zurich has a global presence in so many financial and business spheres, with seemingly every bank and big company represented here. We saw the European headquarters of Google and the world headquarters of FIFA. The public transport system was very easy, with trams, buses and trains accessible on the same ticket. Sadly smoking is still tolerated in public spaces, which we still can’t get used to, after finding the same in France and Italy. I couldn’t help but notice every pregnant woman on the streets, maybe because my thoughts are constantly with my daughter back home.