Day 3: Zurich, Switzerland/Lindau, Germany

June 6, 2013

We slept until 9:30 this morning, but feel like we are caught up on sleep now. We showered and had our pop-tarts for breakfast and then went out to hit the sites. The hotel gave us a Zurich city guide which had a “classic sightseeing” route map in it which showed you how to make a circle around the city and see all the “classic” sites which we decided sounded like a great plan.

We mainly stayed in the old city. We walked down Bahnhofstrasse (ß that is a street name) which is a street famous for having fashionable boutiques, expensive watch and jewelry stores, and elegant department stores. Their jewelry in the window of the store was generally priced in the thousands (and Amanda didn’t think it was that pretty). We saw Schippe, an area with many old houses that date back to the 13^th century. Right beside that area was Lindenhof, now a park high above the city with beautiful views. There have been findings that date back to the Romans and Celtics, indicating that the area was once a Roman fort and indeed the park has a history that dates back to 1500 B.C.!

View from the park

View from the park

Looking at the fort/park from across the street

We also saw three historic churches while in Zurich: St. Peter Kirche (ß that is the German word for church), Fraumunster, and Grossmunster. St. Peter Kirche is the town’s oldest parish church, is baroque in style, and has the largest clock face in Europe. Fraumunster was founded in 853 and is gothic in style. Its stained glass windows were redone by a cubist artist (same kind of art as Picasso) in the 1970s. We thought that they looked out of place in the church, since stained glass windows are not typically abstract. Finally Grossmunster was completed in 1220 and was Romanesque in style; however, neogothic towers were added to it after a fire in the 1700s. These two towers are the main landmark of Zurich.

St. Peter Kirche

Inside St. Peter Kirche

Inside St. Peter Kirche

Fraumunster

Fraumunster

Famous twin towers of Grossmunster

Looking across the river at Fraumunster and St. Peter Kirche

Finally, we walked down Niederdorf, a narrow alley lined with restaurants, bars and boutiques that is an entertainment area at night. Our hotel was at the end of the alley and we actually ate supper on it last night without knowing it was an attraction in itself. Speaking of supper last night, we have a fun culture fact for you. Unlike in America, water is not free over here. In fact, it costs as much as a soft drink or beer. So last night when we went out to eat, we decided we were finally going to have a sit down meal, even if everything is twice as expensive in Switzerland. We ate at La Pasta and each had Lasagna which was served with a soup or salad and we drank water. We were given a bottle of water (0.75 Liters) to share and it cost 9.50 Franks ($10.35)! All together our meal was 57 Fanks ($62) and it was about the quality of Fazoli’s or maybe Olive Garden. It was an interesting experience nonetheless.

The alley of Niederdorf

Overall, we weren’t very impressed with Zurich. We like the previous parts of Switzerland better, but we are glad to have experienced it. Once we were done exploring Zurich we headed for Lindau, Germany, our next stop. We arrived in Lindau about 5:30pm and easily found our hotel. It is an old house that has been turned into a hotel. It has to be old because the door is barely taller than we are and the ceilings are probably right at 6 feet tall. What is amusing is that they made the wardrobe, tables and bed lower to the ground so the height wouldn’t be so noticeable. It feels like you are in a house designed for children when you are taller than everything. We walked around the harbor of Lindau a little and ate at a Biergarten for supper.

The view from the train on the way to Lindau

Our food (scallop schnitzel and bratwurst) at the Bier Garten

Baby Swans in the lake

Beer Garden

Tomorrow we will head to Bregenz, Austria (about 15 minutes by train) for the day so I can show Clayton where I stayed last summer and he can meet Brigitte, the woman who hosted me in her home during my study abroad program last summer.