Tag: Zurich

31 March – 2 April 2019; Zurich: Walking tour, the Zoo and heading for home

We used an iPhone app for our self guided tour of the old city. We discovered this app in Geneva and found it to be a useful tool. It uses the GPS location data from your phone to guide you along a route with audio that kicks off once you reach the required destination. You can download each tour as a package when on Wi-Fi so you don’t have to use mobile data as you wander around the city. There were two walks and a run listed for Zurich. We settled for the old city walk. 🙂

Colourful flags on old city walk

The walk starts and ends at the railway station and traverses about 9 Km. Again, the weather was perfect for this activity but there was a haze that washed out the skies. Chris was sure her images from our last visit here in 2012 were a lot sharper.

Almost looks like Newcastle

A ferris wheel had been setup near the waterfront of Lake Zurich.

Riding the ferris wheel

Chris grabbed some photos as we looped over the top of the arc that would not be possible otherwise.

A view along the River Limmat

When we got to the Fraumunster Church that contains the stained glass panels by Marc Chagall, we were disappointed to find it temporarily closed. We have seen these magnificent panels on our previous visit and so this was not devastating but it would have been nice to visit with them again.

We completed the walking tour and had a salad with a nice bottle of wine in our apartment watching the ABC news and pre-budget speculation on iView.

A visit to the zoo

Our final day in Zurich was spent at the zoo. We left our apartment and took the tram into the railway station and then walked to a nearby shop which was supposed to store our bags for the day while we visited the zoo. But when we got there, the proprietor refused to accept our bags. Chris had made the booking on-line but the shop keeper said he was not getting paid by the on-line system and so he was not going to take our bags. This was annoying as we had waited till the store opened and then had to drag our bags back to the railway station and store them in lockers there paying for the service – again. As we rode the tram out to the zoo, I was drafting an e-mail asking for a refund. I expect pigs may sooner fly.

Waiting for Godot

The zoo was a strange mix of old and new. The site is compact, with residential housing just over the fence, and sits high on the hillside overlooking Zurich. The older sections felt like the Taronga zoo of old with cramped cages and pits with bars. The newer sections were bright and vibrant with lots of educational aspects for young children.

Yellow-banded poison dart frog
Golden Lion Tamarin
Which way home?

A recent addition to the zoo was a new enclosure for the koalas which looked like a crude facsimile of the Sydney Opera House with sail-like roofing. When we visited, the koalas were being fed and the crowd seemed transfixed by the commentary of the keeper who went on and on in Swiss German for as long as we were there. Even the koalas looked a little bored – but then again, they always seem that way to me.

We left the zoo and made our way back to the railway station, recovered our bags and then caught a train to Zurich Airport.

Leaving Zurich Station

We checked in and then reclined for an hour or so in the Emirates lounge before departing Zurich nearly an hour behind schedule bound for Dubai and then for home. The flight was not full and we were able to block the two middle seats in the centre row (of four) and Chris was soon asleep lying across the seats. I continued with season three of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

I am writing this update in the Emirates lounge in Dubai. Our trip from Zurich was smooth as silk in an Airbus A380. Our final sector to home is also on an A380 and it is sad to see that this wonderful aircraft is being decommissioned around the world after just a little over 20 years of service (and being replaced by more fuel efficient wide body planes like the Boeing 777).

Kerrie Nolan has exceeded our expectations in organising the weather for this trip. Aside from Annecy, every stop has been blessed with perfect travelling conditions, blue skies and lots of sunshine. And she has been efficient too – as we were sitting in the lounge in Zurich waiting to board the plane, the rain started and the tarmac was soon awash with water.

I will be providing a final update once we reach home with the usual trip data points and some fun pictures.

Thanks for all your comments and interest in our travels. I hope you enjoyed our updates, which aside from our visit to CERN, I’ve tried to keep short and informative with some colour and movement.

We’re looking forward to seeing you all again very soon. 🙂

Lots of love – Chris and Greg Belcher.

31 March – 2 April 2019; Zurich: Arrival and art museum

We were unaware that Switzerland moved to daylight savings time at 2 am on Sunday morning 31 March. Fortunately, my iPad’s clock was set to the correct time zone and the alarm went off as you’d expect. However, as we were packing, we discovered our watches did not agree with our devices – which caused some consternation and mild panic. After some checking on the interwebs, we discovered the reason for the discrepancy, reset our watches and dragged our bags to the early morning bus taking us to Zurich.

The sun was just at that perfect angle and the air was still. When I started over the Rathaussteg Bridge heading to the bus, the following image jumped into my iPhone camera. Auf Wiedersehen Lucerne.

Chapel Bridge, Water Tower and Mount Pilatus

The transit to Zurich was scheduled to take an hour but for some reason it took only forty five minutes. Perhaps the traffic was thin due to sleepy headed Swiss folk getting their time change wrong. Lessons learned and opportunities for improvement – never use a cuckoo clock as an alarm clock. 🙂

We took a tram to our accommodation and then, after leaving our bags, grabbed some rental bikes and rode across the city to the Lake Zurich waterfront before riding to the Kunsthaus Zürich (Museum of Fine and Contemporary Art).

Steeple of St. Peter with the Fraumunster Church in front

We have visited Zurich before; in May 2012. We spent five nights here at that time and went on a number of day trips away from Zurich into the mountains and surrounding areas. We did the regular touristy things during that trip and so were free with our selection of things to see and do on this trip – except that we had to visit the Museum of Fine and Contemporary Art – again.

Stairway to …, Museum of Fine Arts

We reprised Chris’ “best painting in the room” competition and by this time I was getting pretty good at guessing what Chris would pick. It didn’t help and I still lost 37 to 23. The selection of old masters is extensive and despite the fact we’d spent a day here on our previous visit we did the same again, and it was just as good as I can recall the second time round.

Wheat field with Cypresses – Vincent van Gogh

Tomorrow, Monday, all the museums will be closed and we are planning on going on a walking tour of the old city.