Trip started in Zurich Sept 25. Hotel Sorell Rex, near Zurich’s Old Town. As of January 2023, Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, had a population of 443,037 inhabitants in the municipality, 1.315 million in the urban area, and 1.83 million in the Zurich metropolitan area.
The Old Town section is small as a percentage of the city, but still, it’s large. Street after street, lined with very old buildings, and even more narrow alleyways, all with businesses, bars, restaurants, coffee. We walked about 4-6 miles every day.
German, or Swiss German, is pervasive. Maybe most people can speak some English, but German is all we heard. 95% of restaurants and shops display menus and information in German. Parts of Switzerland speak French, but we didn’t hear that here.
Public transit is astonishing to the average American from a mid-sized town like Madison. In Zurich we passed thru two major transit hubs, airport and downtown. These hubs are enormous 3 level affairs with 50 different gates and entire Mall sized shopping, mostly underground. We were completely befuddled.
Old town is saturated with “trams”, ie overhead electric local multi-car trains. They aren’t free, but in Zurich and Basel tens of thousands jump on and off all of them hour by hour, and no one checks. (Random checks might catch scofflaws, and the penalties are severe). We did buy multi-day tickets, just in case. Within a day, we were getting around reasonably well.
Bikes: They’re everywhere, esp near transit centers. Around a major center there could easily be 1000 bikes locked up. Bike variety is enormous, bikes with dozens of brand names I’ve never heard of, every shape and size. A lot of e-bikes. A LOT of cargo bikes. Away from transit centers, the density of bikes along every street would be something you’d only see on campus back home. Bikes move through traffic like water, around cars, thru dense pedestrian traffic, dodging electric and regular buses. No one wears a helmet. Bikes poured up and down the street of our 1st hotel, a tight, 2-lane road with railroad tracks (for the electric trams) running down the middle of each lane. Cars and trams shared this street. It was “normal” to see bikes leading the way, with big trams inches off their wheel, or cars squeezing by them. The amazing thing about this is that, in an odd way, everyone just ignores everyone else, and somehow no one gets worked up about it. In America, getting squeezed like this would result in mass instances of road rage.
The density of humans was relentless but it was never a problem. People are polite, it was easy to stroll about, and the trams handled people movement with stunning efficiency. (We were later to find yet more bikes, people, and density in Amsterdam).
We’d heard that there are very few public bathrooms. This is true. These giant malls in these enormous train stations had, literally, 1 bathroom, and its location was a deep secret. Except for one ticket booth, also hidden, there is no “help” for the confused. Until you knew better, the only bathrooms were in establishments where you paid for services. (We quickly learned which restaurants and coffee shops had them where no one would challenge you. And at any rate, I just denied myself fluids to get by.)
It’s beyond the scope here to give detail on every last building in every last photo. Know that there’s deep history at every block.
Photo gallery links show up in a separate tab, in “light box” format. Click any photo for a large version. Close the tab when done, and you should be returned to this tab again.
Zurich Photos Day 1
Our special event on day two was to train (tram) to the outskirts of town, to the highest point overlooking Zurich, called Uetliberg Mountain. The train ride itself was long, and peaceful, and oh so quiet. These electric trains are almost silent inside, zero vibration. It’s eerie.
Zurich Photos Day 2
Third day in Zurich we signed up for a guided tour, with a delightful young lady who spoke excellent English, as well as Swiss German, French, and Portugese. We were her only customers. We’d already walked around a great deal, but she took us into nooks and cranies that were as yet unseen. Also got us on an hour’s cruise on Lake Zurich.
Zurich Photos Day 3
