Zurich
We are in Switzerland! I never imagined we would be able to travel to this lovely country, but here we are! We bought a Swiss Travel Pass for 8 days so we can ride almost any public transport (bus, train, cable car) included in our pass. It is really nice to just jump on a train or bus and not worry about purchasing the right tickets. Switzerland has a lot of different travel packages, and I priced out all our transportation we would be taking to determine which would be cheapest. I was able to get the Travel Pass for about 35% off, which made it the best choice. We may have come out even or saved a little by using this pass, but it is definitely the most convenient. Anyway, today we explored Zurich. I liked Zurich more than I thought I would, as it was a good mixture of old and new. One note though—Switzerland is expensive!!! Food, souvenirs, hotels…they are all at least double of what we paid in Italy. We took the metro four stops into the city and took a walk around the town. We started our walk through Bahnhofstrasse, a street with lots of fancy shops, and then made our way down Augustinergasse, a historic street where the houses have colorful facades.
We made our way up to Lindenhof hill. This hill had fantastic views of the city and even some older gentlemen playing bocce ball and chess.
The kids had lots of fun playing in the different play areas around the city. The first is a sculpture in the middle of the city, the second swings on Lindenhof hill, and the third a small playground where we picnicked at Spielplatz Lindenhof.
We went to two churches today. The first was Grossmunster, the landmark cathedral in Zurich with the twin spires. The outside was pretty, but the inside was pretty plain. The giant doors were pretty cool though with biblical reliefs. In the basement was the original statue of Charlemagne that was on the outside of the building, but we thought it looked sort of like a troll with a sword.
We also went into Fraumunster church. Although not as imposing as Grossmunster on the outside, this church is special because of the Chagall windows at the front of the alter. We spent quite a while just sitting and admiring the windows. They really were beautiful.
We took a walk through the old city of Zurich and found several hidden gems. Just as in Italy, there are water spouts everywhere with cold, clean water. We filled up our bottles and Willow wanted to see how cold the water was. The kids also saw this cool yellow and blue horse and had to take pictures in front of it.
We had packed some sandwiches (trying to save some money) and had a picnic at the perfectly picturesque Spielplatz Lindenhof. This is where the kids played at one of the playgrounds, and a lovely place for a picnic. On the way to walking to our next destination, we realized that Ronin had lost his camera. So we sat at a dock by the river while JonPaul retraced our steps. Alas, the camera was gone. Ronin is so upset that he lost his camera, but he will now just have to share with Willow.
Of course we had to take some pictures with the river. The first is on the side of the river, the second on the bridge, and the third by Grossmunster. Although they don’t have gelato here in Switzerland, they do have popsicles!
We had some extra time, so we took advantage of the museum discount with the Swiss travel pass to go to the FIFA World Football Museum (aka soccer). This was surprisingly a great addition to our day! We spent two hours here, and we could have probably spent two more. There were jerseys from all the countries, and the kids made sure to find the USA one. It was one of the more boring jerseys. The kids also got their pictures taken with the FIFA World Cup trophy. There were lots of interactive activities, and the best part was the third floor where there were all sorts of soccer-related games. We only got to do three of the six because it was closing time, but this was fun for everyone!
