Walking Tour - Zürich's Old Town

Finally, had some time to get to the last bit on my stay in Switzerland.

We went for the walking tour in Zürich Old Town on our 2nd last day, thanks to Uncle Tan's colleague, Danja, who had given us the walking tour pass as well as the ZürichCARD, that is valid for 72 hours (comes with unlimited travel in trains, trams, boats and cable car, free admission to 40 over museums in Zürich, discounts in some shops and free welcome drink in 20 restaurants).

It's ironic that we went for this tour during the end of our stay instead. Well, perhaps it's a good way to see Zürich one last time with a new perspective as we walk down memory lane.

Lunch

Since the walking tour would only start at 3pm, we had our lunch at HALLO! Appetites at ShopVille, located near to the entrance/exit of the main train station (on the other extreme end opposite of Marché). It offers a wide variety of dishes from soups to salads to sandwiches to pastas and pizzas.

Prices are reasonable and you can choose the portion size - small, medium and large. The panini, with the light, chewy and stringy mozzarella is oomph! The set below (soup not included) costs about CHF 7.90 and comes with salad and chips. A filling and healthy lunch that doesn't burn the pocket :) Four out of five stars for the taste.

Another cheap eating place to recommend is Züri Bistro, which sells cheap kebabs, fries, pide etc. My favourite is their chicken schnitzel where somehow, it tastes different from the other schnitzel I've eaten. Not to mention, the portion is huge too. If you miss Asian food, try Suan Long, which similar to our 'zi char'. Taste is reasonable but don't expect Asian prices. And I didn't know that Singapore is famous for "Singapore style bee hoon" here (aka Sin Chow Bee Hoon). If you like thin crust pizzas, try Joey's Coffee and Kitchen where their pizza's are almost like paper. Love their zucchini pizza, yummm!!!

The Tourist Information Office at the main train station - a good place to gather information on other places of interest with the brochures and maps provided. One could even shop for Swiss souvenirs here which are cheaper than those sold in K-Kiosks (aka Cheers or 7-Eleven in SG).

There are about 130 shops here in ShopVille-RailCity of Zurich which are open year round, including Sundays and public holidays with some shops closed on 25 Dec.

Well, I know nothing of Zürich before that, until Uncle Tan had to be there on an exchange programme for 6 months. Hence the unknown fear and anxiety for me.

Best City to Live In

Rated for the 7th time in succession as the city with the highest quality of life, Zürich is a charming city, rich in culture and surrounded by nature. It has the city's infrastructure and facilities, yet alongside, you'll find parks, museums, nature places, the lake and breathtaking view of the distant alps.

Being a cosmopolitan city, Zürich is Switzerland’s most densely-populated canton where one in six of Switzerland’s inhabitants lives here.

It's actually quite like Singapore, minus the high-rise buildings, huge and still crowded malls, humid weather, limited nature places, less civic-minded people...the transport network is well connected and comfortable (less packed), the place is clean (except for the cigarette butts) and is generally safe. They are also well-known for their night activities given its highest concentration of pubs and clubs.

Well, "Zürich" (pronounced as 'zu-rick') should be written with the 2 dots on top of "u", but I guess for convenience sake, people drop the 2 dots. Hence sometimes you'll also see people spelling it as "Zuerich" as seen in their tourism website www.zuerich.com. A very useful website if you want to know almost anything and everything about Zürich.

The Walking Tour

Our first stop is the city's Police Station. I'd say it's the most unique and perhaps most colourful police station in the world where the ceilings are multi-coloured (mostly reds) with beautiful motifs. You need to deposit your ID/ passport at the reception area unless you follow a tour group where the guide will take care of it. No photography is allowed. It's the police station, so don't wanna be caught snapping secretly ;p

Zürich's patron saints

We've passed by this monument a couple of times along the stretch in old town without actually noticing the significance of this sculpture.

They were the patron saints of Zürich, Felix and Regula, who were members of an all-Christian Roman legion that was to be executed en masse in southwest Switzerland. They fled with their servant, Exuperantius, to the city from the massacre of their legion in Valais. They were beheaded at the Wasserkirche for refusing to pray to Roman gods.

Legend says that they picked up their heads and carried them up the hill to the spot where they wished to be buried, which is where the Grossmünster stands if I recall correctly. The Fraumünster was the repository of the saints’ remains and the Münsterbrücke bridge was built to link all three in about 1220.

From the 13th century, images of the saints were used in official seals of the city and on coins. On the saints' feast day, their relics were carried in procession between the Grossmünster and the Fraumünster. The two monasteries vied for the possession of the relics, which somehow, attracted pilgrims and made Zürich became the most important pilgrimage site. The Knabenschiessen (Shooting Festival) of Zürich originates from this.

Pestalozzi Park

A very small open space between Schweizergasse and Usteristrasse, you can see the statue of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827), an educational reformer who influenced school standards in the U.S. According to our guide, he was the guy who made it possible for the girls in Switzerland to receive education.

A quick walk pass Bahnhofstrasse, we reached Old Town and walking towards Schipfe, a former fishing quarter on the banks of the Limmat River which takes its name from the nautical term schupfen (push) which was used to describe how the fishermen pushed their boats to and from the river bank. One of Zürich's oldest districts, the picturesque cobbled lanes are filled with art workshops, boutiques and cafes.


The house of Swiss craft where you'll find exquisite Swiss handicraft works (with exquisite prices too) here.










Time for a refreshing drink with complements from the Tourism Information Office. The cinnamon flavoured syrup tasted the best surprisingly. I wanted to buy a bottle of the syrup back but well, knowing our luggage limits, we had to give that a miss...

Although we've been to the old town a couple of times, there are still some streets we've missed exploring, like the one above with the wooden house.

According to the guide, the residents aren't allowed to make any changes to the exterior of their houses as these are considered as cultural properties which are to be conserved.

Purple colour lovers Ms Ang and Carol might like to stay in this pretty purple house :)

This 'bumper' that you see at the corner of the street is to prevent horse carriages and vehicles from destroying the facade of the houses.


This shop is said to have a huge collection of whiskeys.

Our tour guide, explaining to us the significance of this monument which gives a little insight into Zürich's history. Well, not a very patient guide but I thought was good for she ensured that we (total of 6 members in the English-speaking tour) don't waste time taking "posey" photos like an Indian couple in our group. We didn't dare to ask her age but we guessed she could be well in her late 60s and that's pretty good for she walks faster than anyone of us while doing the talking at the same time.

Lindenhof

This is a good place to relax and play chess :)

The building on the right is Observatory Urania, with a 48m tower and a telescope for you to observe the stars. You can also go for a drink and enjoy the fabulous view from Zürich's tallest bar. Situated at Uraniastrasse 9, the place is open from 9pm-11pm (Tue-Sat) in summer and from 8pm-10pm (Tue-Sat) in winter. Closed on Sundays and Mondays.

It was said that this stone used to hold the statue of William Tell. However, somehow the statue went missing one night. No one could find the huge sculpture to date. I wonder if anyone would turn up with the statue one day, claiming it's Mr Tell......

Well Uncle Tan's version was that "he" came alive and came over to Singapore and somehow was known as "Sir Stamford Raffles" and managed to develop Singapore into what it is today which shares so much similarities with Switzerland. Ya that's my imaginative Uncle Tan :>

Situated on a hill sits Lindenhof, where one could enjoy a magnificent view of right bank of river Limmat.

The Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) could be seen from Lindenhof.

St Peter's church - the oldest parish church in Zürich with the largest clock face in Europe, which is 8.7m in diameter.


We could have passed by this stretch without knowing that beneath us is actually the ruins of a Roman bath!

This was where we were shown the city of Zürich.



This is the apartment where Lenin(the communist politician who is the first de facto leader of the Soviet Union, well-known for his Marxist theory) stayed while he was here.

The Grossmünster

The Grossmünster one of the famous churches in Zürich and forms a picturesque view against
river Limmat. We've took many pictures of it, be it day or night. Although its interior is rather bare as it was entirely stripped of the statues and paintings denounced by Zwingli (picture on the right), the leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, the architecture of the building is outstanding.





We managed to find the restaurant where we had desert with Eunice and her hubby when they were here since we were quite keen about their dinner menu and most importantly, they have very friendly staff and good service :)

Ah Kin ordered the mix grilled veggy and Uncle Tan ordered rosti with chicken and mushrooms.

Ummm...sedap! Especially the brinjal. The rice is yummy too!

The rosti was good, not too oily and the chicken with mushrooms had a unique taste. It was a satisfying dinner with a reasonable price.

We took a walk to Burkliplatz while allowing our tummies to do the work :)

And we chanced upon an exhibition by the students from ETH University.

It was quite a big-scale exhibition where students from mainly the science faculty displayed their works and had interesting experiments for the public to have a try. The above exhibits show how different species of corn are produced. The person in charge gave a detailed explanation on the experiments they had done to determine how cross pollination takes place.

Some kids were busy getting stamps on their activity card for each experiments they had attempted. I thought that's a good way to educate the public and perhaps a good way of attracting future potential undergrads to study there.

Was sharing with one of my friends who's currently teaching in a polytechnic about how relevant their study is to the real world. Being taught by 3 different lecturers from 3 different ethinc background/ nationality during her masters course, she commented that the Chinese lecturer taught her all the theories and concepts; the Singaporean lecturer zeroed in to show you how to solve the questions and derive at the answers; the ang moh lecturer demonstrated how to apply the theories learnt in real life situations. Hmm.....my 'sine', 'cosine' and Pythagoras's theorem had stayed with my maths teachers after my exams..I probably won't be acquainted with them, unless my future kid isn't as mathematically inclined......

Hmm...maybe that's why I'm more inclined to send my kid to an international school, that is if I have a choice and of course, the money.

It was a cold and windy night where despite our layers, we could still feel the chill.