Schipfe

Day 34:

Today was one of the best days of our trip thus far. Not only was the weather phenomenal, the city was beautiful, and the people were nice.

We woke up pretty early due to some construction (we swear they are following us), and went to the grocery store to pick up our next few meals, as this is the most expensive city we're likely to be in. After eggs, bacon, and prezel buns, its difficult to bring a day down. We wandered from our small district 6 on the hill to the main part of the city in district 1. We came upon Kirche Unterstass in our little district. It was a cool little church with a red-faced clock on the tower. Turns out it was the site of a 14th century church, but since the Swiss have so many dollars at their disposal, it was instructed to be destroyed and later rebuilt. It definitely looked nice, though.

In order to get to center city, we had to cross the Limmat. Its one of the clearest rivers we have seen in mainland Europe. We stood on the bridge for a while, just admiring the water and the fish, while avoiding bicyclists. When we made our reservations for tomorrow's train, we met the friendliest person behind the reservation desk. Can we also say that Swiss money is the coolest we have come upon so far...

Across the street from the main station was the Schweiserisches Nationalmuseum. For Europe, it was an impressive building for a national museum, for the US, it would blow away anything we've seen. It was built just before the 20th century, in the style of a French renaissance chateau. There were towers with multicolored shingling, details around the windows, and all around just pretty awesome. Not to mention the central station itself... mid 1800s, a labrinyth of levels and tracks that has us lost for the better part of an hour...

Next, after wandering the streets of Old Town, enjoying the sights of the river and town, we came upon St Peter Church. The site is known to have housed a temple for the Roman god Jupiter in the 8th Century. In the 11th, it was replaced by a romanesque church, before being replaced as the first Protestant church in the early 1700s. It also has a clock tower with the largest church clock face in all of Europe. It was a completely different style of church than we're used to during this trip. There were crown mouldings, bright colors, and looked surprisingly modern. It was a refreshing change, but we definitely still prefer the gothic style.

From there, we made our way to a restaurant (AKA our easiest access to a toilet), and had some surprisingly impressive organic Swiss beers! With the toilet part out of the way, we walked up to Lindenhof hill, where we were able to get a great look at the city from above. We hung out there like some rebel teenagers until we figured we should move on.

We somehow walked straight to the Kirche Fraumünster. This church was built on the remains of an abbey built exclusively for women in the mid 9th century. It is known for being founded by Louis the German, and its stained glass, however, we weren't allowed to take photos inside, so google needs to help out in thay aspect...

Right across the river was the Grossmünster, the biggest church of the city. Legend had it that the site of this church was chosen by Charlemagne. The current church was built just a few hundred years later, in about 1100. Again, no pictures were allowed inside, but its still fascinating to experience being in builidngs with such history.

From there, it was pretty much a straight shot to the apartment. We called it an early day because the amount of effort we have put in is really starting to catch up with us at this point. We had a nice dinner of sausages and veggies, and now it is bedtime. Tomorrow we are travelling on what is described as the most luxurious train in Europe. We're excited.

Also, Zürich is crazy expensive, but also a must see. It's beautiful, filled with history, and not too touristy. It gets a big thumbs up from us.Read more