Switzerland 1: Zurich

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog, but it’s not because nothing’s been happening. I’ve been crazily busy. It’s the end of the semester, so there’s a ton to grade, I’ve had to iron out some visa issues, and I was away last weekend, so I got really behind. So I’m going to slowly catch up. First, by writing about Zurich.

Ah! Zurich!!

I haven’t been out of Spain since I came here, and Switzerland was on the top of my list. And I had a great weekend, which will take me at least two entries to explain, but the first thing that struck me was – wow! I’m not in an Hispanic country. I don’t think I realized until I spent a few hours in Zurich how different Spain really is from the United States – and how much Switzerland is like the United States. At least the Midwestern part, which I spent many years in. Everything was orderly and clean, the people were very friendly.

But first, the trip to Zurich from the airport centered around this 72 year old woman from South Africa who I met on the tram. She has just come from Amsterdam, where she had a horrible time, and then KLM had lost her luggage, so she was extremely unhappy, as you can imagine. Plus, when she worked, she owned 5-star hotels in South Africa, and has traveled throughout the world. So I let her tell me about her horrible trip to the Netherlands, which I don’t have to explain here, and in return I pestered her with questions about traveling, and she gave me amazing information. The most relevant at the time was that I was staying at the best hotel in Zurich, not the most famous, or the highest rated, simply the best. And their restaurant was the best restaurant in Zurich. The Hotel is called Kindli – and props to that South African, she was absolutely right.

The hotel is located right in the middle of Zurich, and so it’s close to everything, which isn’t saying much considering how small Zurich is. But it’s just below this beautiful park that overlooks the Limmat River. I have some pictures to the right.

After walking around that evening, I went to the restaurant at the hotel. Yum! Here was the menu. First, I asked the waiter to recommend a glass of wine, and he recommended this amazing Burgundy. It was lovely, and very warming. For my first dish, I had some marinated tuna – essentially sashimi – on some radishes. Very Japanese, and incredibly good. I can’t believe how much I miss good Japanese food, even though this was a Swiss version. Then for my main course, I had asked the waiter to recommend something traditionally Swiss. I got veal medallions in a mushroom cream sauce with a side of rosti, which are basically hash browns, and where Americans got the idea. In fact, as I was eating this meal, I was thinking this is the closest to good American food I’ve eaten since I’ve been in Europe, and it makes me think that perhaps there’s an unstated Swiss influence on American cooking. For dessert, I had the best cake I’ve ever had. It was a very simple lemon cake, but it was so dense that you practically needed a knife to cut it, and yet it was incredibly moist. I went back to my hotel room very satisfied, and since Switzerland is not a late night town – by any stretch of the imagination – I felt fine just going back to my hotel room, taking a bath, watching French/German/Italian TV and going to sleep.

The next day was my big Zurich day. I was a little worried that there wouldn’t be enough to do, and it’s true that if you’re not into buying very expensive clothes and jewelry on Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich isn’t overflowing with things to do. But honestly, the weather was so beautiful, and the scenery was fantastic, that I spent about 2-3 hours just chilling, including falling asleep in a park for about 30 minutes.

Having said that, Zurich really is an interesting city. There are a lot of churches, and the city has a medieval feel similar to Barcelona, but since there are so much fewer people, you have a much more peaceful feeling as you’re exploring the city. I first went to the Landesmuseum, which is the Swiss national museum, for a quick history of the Swiss people. It was very interesting, and a little confusing. Switzerland has a fairly unique history because they spent about 100 years fighting each other and outsiders, and then stopped. They haven’t had a war in 500 years, which I believe is the current record. Things I didn’t know about Switzerland.

1. The Celts were the original people of Switzerland, and during the heyday of their Empire, they got to the British Isles (which is why the Irish, the Scottish, and Welsh are Celts), and to western Spain, which is why there are so many blonds there. They were conquered by the Helveticans, and they, in turn, were conquered by the Romans.

2. They really were the first modern democracy, although I don’t think they thought of themselves that way. But basically 500 years ago, after fighting over religion and ethnicity, they somehow decided that they would have a federation made up of cantons, that each canton would have it’s own government, that they would have a loose federation to coordinate efforts, and that they would honor the differences in religion and language throughout the country. This was 250 years before the U.S. thought of these same ideas, but of course the founding fathers got these ideas from reading the writings of a Swiss man, Rousseau.

It was really interesting. After that, I walked up the Limmat River to Lake Zurich, ate lunch and watched the people, and then went to a park to take that nap. Then I walked around the medieval section. I have some pictures to the right. They have a lot of churches in a very small part of town, and supposedly they’re very active, much more so than the churches in Barcelona. This is Protestant territory, and you can tell by the structures: simple, square, without much adornment.

The weather, as you can probably tell by the pictures, was stunning. It was about 75 degrees, and everyone was outside. There are a ton of businesspeople in Zurich obviously, but even they, in their suits, were taking in the sun. Meanwhile some boys were jumping off a bridge into Lake Zurich. It like something from a movie.

It was just a great day. Then I took the train to meet my friend Fritz in Lucerne, but more on that in my next blog.