Grüezi, Zürich!

Over the weekend, I made a trek to the other side of Switzerland and went from Geneva and French to Zürich and Swiss-German in less than a three hour train ride. One of the things I love about Switzerland is that so many cities and towns are located on rivers or lakes, and they're all lovely. Zürich is no exception; it's gorgeous!

I was fortunate to have a wonderful native tour guide and a fantastic host, my new friend Andrea. One of our mutual friends back in Denver had connected us, and he was so right to think that we would be great friends! She and I hit it off immediately and get along so well! It was a pleasure to spend the weekend getting to know her and exploring her beautiful city. 

Despite a very rainy Saturday, we walked around town all day, saw many different neighborhoods, and treated ourselves to a delicious lunch of wine and vegetarian appetizers at the Viadukt Market, as well as tasty hot chocolate at the local and renowned Sprüngli confiserie.  

I adore Swiss houses, but this was was particularly pretty with it's huge garden and lots of flowers.

After breakfast at Andrea's place, we walked to the old industrial area, Turbinenplatz, which is now a hip and up-and-coming part of town. The new uses of old spaces were really well done, and there was tons of cool street art in the area, too!

We then explored the Viadukt Market area, which uses the spaces under an old train viaduct for shops and an awesome, high-end market. While perusing in the main market space, we found a little Italian-themed shop run by this really nice gentleman. We decided to have a light lunch there and enjoyed an amazing plate of cured meat, focaccia bread, and inventive and flavorful vegetarian and vegan appetizers, along with a glass of white wine. It was drool-inducingly delicious.

A view inside the main market space

We then wound our way through the streets toward the center of town, where we walked through a couple of churches, including the Fraumünster Church, which featured some beautiful windows by Marc Chagall (no photos allowed, unfortunately), and the Grossmünster, which had a tower you could climb for views of the city (of course we did that, I love climbing towers in Europe!!), and these absolutely incredible "stained glass" windows, made with thinly-sliced agate. In all my years of seeing European churches and cathedrals, I have never seen anything like it! They were stunning. 

The view into town from the top of the Grossmünster tower.

The view toward the lake

This old ship crane from Rotterdam is a new art instillation along the river (very controversial). We thought it was kind of cool, although it would have been cooler if you could climb it! :)

Beautiful Zürich. The Grossmünster church is the one on the right with the two towers.

A rainy view of the Zürich Opera House.

More snapshots from our day are below. The clock on the church tower, just below on the left, is the largest clock face in Europe! I loved all the towers, clocks, tight streets, old trams, and great colors of the city. Our hot chocolate break at Sprüngli was a major highlight as well! That hot chocolate rivaled my favorite hot chocolate in Walla Walla, WA and my second favorite in Lyon, FR. Yum! Such a treat on a rainy day.

In the evening on Saturday, we decided to cook ourselves dinner. With our combined ideas of ingredients and recipes, we came up with a fantastic meal! We started with an appetizer of chèvre cheese and whole grain crackers and melon and prosciutto, and then continued onto a main dish of baked salmon with zucchini and lemon with a side of wild rice. So delicious!! For dessert, we enjoyed several of the Luxemburgerli (Swiss macaroons, claimed to be the originals) from Sprüngli that Andrea had bought for us earlier in the day. They were really tasty- light and perfectly sweet. After sharing an amazing bottle of Italian red wine, a delicious meal, and great conversation, we had full bellies and tired feet from our day of walking, so we called it a day (and a great one, at that!).

I had to catch the train back to Geneva at 4:00pm on Sunday, so we spent the morning exploring the Landesmuseum, which is Switzerland's national museum. I guess they had recently renovated the building and the exhibits, so we got rather lost trying to find our way through the huge building and its three floors. The exhibits were very interesting, though, and I really appreciated learning more about Swiss history and culture.

After our visit to the museum, we headed back to the Old Town area for lunch with two of Andrea's friends at a café called "Henrici: The Rhythm of Coffee". We had quiches and tartes flambées (French/Swiss pizzas), beer, and then a post-meal coffee. It was nice to meet her friends and talk with them about their travels to the States to visit Andrea during her year in Denver and their love of bikes!

Tarte flambée  (with bacon and potatoes) and local beer is a stellar combo. :)

"Guardian Angel" by Niki de St. Phalle, hanging in the Zürich mainstation.

A HUGE thank you to Andrea for a fantastic weekend in Zürich!!! She was the most kind and gracious host ever. I had a lovely time learning about and seeing the city, and I look forward to visiting again sometime and going on more adventures with Andrea in the region! :)