Zurich, round 2

I stayed in Zurich when I returned to Switzerland to visit Lucerne. As I have already written about visiting Zurich here, I mainly just wanted to let you know that I ran into a Christmas market there!

For the entire Christmas Market season (Advent), I planned/have in my plans visits to famous Christmas Markets in the area.

And considering that by and large, Christmas markets run during the Advent season (with a couple of exceptions here and there), I wasn’t expecting to run into one in Zurich (or Lucerne, for that matter) the weekend before Advent started.

But then I get to Zurich and I see the gorgeous lights filling the major streets, but especially Bahnhofstrasse.

So, after returning from Lucerne that Saturday night, I continue touring and wander the streets of Zurich along with the hundreds of others that had the same idea as I did to see the lights and different markets around town.

The main Christmas Market is actually in the train station of Zurich.

You may scoff and say that an indoors Christmas market is not legit, but I appreciated getting to wander the (partially) indoors market after I had myself frozen in Lucerne.

Plus, Swarovski probably wouldn’t have decorated a huge Christmas tree with 5000+ of their crystals had it been outside.

As you would expect, the prices at the market were ridiculous, but I did indulge in my old standby…candied almonds (the stall I went to had SOOO many different varieties, from Amaretto to cinnamon to Irish Cream to plain sugar and everything in between with FREE samples! Bonus!!).

I wasn’t very hungry when there, but the raclettes (which appeared to be more like a fondue sandwich) that they were serving up at some stands looked to die for!!

And then the next day (Sunday), I had a lazy day just roaming around the streets and I ran into a SINGING CHRISTMAS TREE!! It was adorable but totally chaotic (nobody knew where to stand and only like half of the kids knew the words to the song).

Zurich’s Christmas market was definitely a nice surprise! Although not the most impressive, partially because it doesn’t have gorgeous buildings draping it on all sides as it is indoors, the huge Swarovski Christmas tree makes up for what it lacks and makes it truly worth a visit.

Be prepared for several more Christmas market posts to come! 🙂

Lucerne, Switzerland

I was quite excited about my trip to Lucerne/Luzern from Zurich the other weekend because the pictures of it are gorgeous, but I think the universe conspired against me, making it a bit more difficult to fall in love with this touristy town.

For starters, what I was most excited about was being able to go on a cogwheel train to Mt. Pilatus to get the most amazing views of the Alps, the town, and the lake. Unfortunately, a few days before getting there, I find out that the cogwheel train is closed for the season and then I find out that the gondola is closed as well due to construction for the new one. So, unless I wanted to hike it (not really feasible with the timeframe or weather I had), it wasn’t going to happen.

I then find out that the tickets there from Zurich had doubled in price to get there (big surprise! I should have known considering the pricey city/country that I was in…And to never trust trains!)

Then, when I get there, it is totally fogged over. You literally couldn’t see the mountains save a couple peaks for about 20 minutes in the late afternoon. If it wasn’t for that short period of time, you could not have been able to tell that they were there.

To top it all off, there was a bitter, bone-chilling wind coming across the lake.

Maybe if I was there in the summer (with the gorgeous flowers all along the bridge like you see in all of the pictures of the town) and it wasn’t foggy and I could have gone up to Mt. Pilatus, I would be singing a different song.

But don’t get me wrong. It was a lovely town to walk around for a couple of hours, and I enjoyed taking a stroll along the shores of the lake, but I couldn’t spend several days there. At least not in the fall/winter.

The main sights to see in town are the lion (Löwendenkmal),

the church (St. Leodegar),

and the bridge (Kapellbrücke).

Unfortunately, I missed climbing the towers (I didn’t know I could go up there), which I now realize are a must-do. Maybe that means that I’ll have to give Lucerne another try. Next time in the summer/with better weather, please! I’d like to actually SEE the town and its surrounding landscape!!

Although the Christmas lights on some buildings and the mini (and I mean MINI) Christmas Market in the train station were a nice touch if you come during the season!

Zurich, Switzerland

Because chocolate!!…and cheese!

(Anyone else remember Rugrats, with Angelica singing “choco….chocolate cheese” Just me? I’m fine with that.)

So, my host dad works in Zurich during the week and comes home during the weekends, so that means that I am allowed access to his apartment on the weekends if I am staying in Zurich.

Right off the bat, I knew that I would need to visit Zurich sometime during my three months in SW Germany to not put that open invite to waste.

Three weekends ago, I did just that.

(See, I’m catching up bit by bit!)

A couple of things I knew before going…it has good chocolate, it is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and it’s gorgeously situated on the lake at the base of the Alps.

Fortunately, unfortunately, and fortunately (respectively), the above three were proven to be true.

Chocolate

To preface, I have to mention that I have a strange relationship with chocolate. I don’t write it off completely, but I don’t normally like to eat chocolate bars or chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream or very many chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookies.

But when you are in Belgium or Switzerland, it would be a downright shame not to have yourself some chocolate!

The main shops to look into, so my internet search came up with before arriving, were Teuscher (my favorite), Honold (meh, from my choices), Lindt (because everyone knows it…I never made it, but I’ll try again this weekend, when I go through Zurich to Lucerne), Sprüngli, and Schober-Peclard (known for it’s hot chocolate…I’ll have to try it this weekend!).

I ended up really liking what I got at Teuscher, as it had FANTASTIC truffles. Everything I got there was great and the workers weren’t as stuck up as some of the other fancy chocolate shops. (Just because the person ahead of me is buying 100 CHF worth of chocolates doesn’t mean that I’m cheap scum if I only get a fraction of that!! Just saying…) Oh, and their stores were already decorated for Christmas, so they got extra points in my book! (Ignore the lady shopping for chocolates inside!)

I accidentally got this one booze and olive-filled thing at Honold. Coming from someone who HATES olives of any sort, that was quite the turn-off. Plus, definitely not expecting the alcohol.

What Sprüngli is known for is not exactly it’s chocolates (although those are good from what I tried, don’t get me wrong) but what are called Luxemburgerli, which are these cute, little macarons. Those things, I loved! And bought them in excess. (At about 1 franc each, it’s a downright steal in Zurich!)

I’ll end this with saying that I think I like Belgian chocolate better, if only for the price!! 😉

Money, money, money…

Oh, it really must be funny! If you can afford to eat out in Zurich, that is.

Not once did that happen.

Thank goodness for cheese, fresh rolls, and yogurt drinks from the supermarket (and having a supermarket open on Sunday in the train station), otherwise I would be a poorer soul writing this now.

I was not about to fork over a MINIMUM of 35 CHF for a meal (not even slightly exaggerating).

I was delusional in my hopes that because CHF is essentially the same as USD, that it would feel cheaper than using a Euro.

WRONG!

I really should have known, given that the 5 CHF IS A COIN!!!

A flimsy one, for that matter.

However, I really could have gotten away without spending much more than about 20 CHF for the weekend had I not bought any chocolates and other sweets.

Just stick to the markets and enjoy some Swiss cheese!

Beauty

Zurich is gorgeous, no getting around it!

If not for the prime location on a lake and in the mountains, the old town is amazing!

I took a free walking tour of Zurich (I actually almost considered taking it in Spanish because there were two groups!), and got to see some great sights!

The first of which was Fraumünster, which used to be a convent and is now a protestant church.

Not to be rude, but protestant churches are’t really interesting to see on the inside. They’re quite bland. We did tour this one, though, to see it’s modern stained-glass windows (I was not a fan) and then saw this one painting outside of the church because…

*story time*

These two people (now saints), Felix and Regula, had their heads chopped off outside of where Fraumünster sits and, according to the legend, stood up, picked up their heads, and walked across the river to where they laid to be buried. This burial site became the location of the Grossmünster – the main church – and the location of the initiation of the Swiss Reformation.

I had a quick look inside the church, and it was plain. Today, these ultra-modern (not to mention hideous. Sorry, but modern windows + old church don’t mix well for me) stained-glass windows replace what was destroyed during the iconoclasm part of the reformation.

One thing that I did really like about the Grossmünster, though, was that it had a tower that I got to climb up to see “views of the city” except I didn’t realize how foggy it still was, so I didn’t get the best views, but it was still pretty nonetheless.

We also went by St. Peter’s Church (thus seeing all three major churches of Zurich…so weird to me that none of them are Catholic cathedrals – despite its name!! Maybe I’m still used to Spain and Italy…) who’s claim to fame is that it has the largest clock-face on a tower in Europe (it’s on the left in the pic above). Apart from that, nothing special.

St. Peter’s is located near Lindenhof hill, which we walked up to see a wonderful view of the river and old town.

Say what you want about how good Switzerland is with money, but they bought this rusty crane to put up as ART! To remind visitors and locals of their maritime past. I can’t image all of that money put to better uses…

We then crossed the river to get a better look at the crane to see the old town, which is so colorful and vibrant.

Our guide told us to look for three main things to determine if an old house is original or not: a date, a name of the house/location rather than house numbers above the door, and a shoe scrape (for cleaning your shoes). If one of the houses in the area has all three (or in many cases 2 out of 3), you can be sure that it’s original. I thought that this was neat because that meant that there were many people living in these houses from the 1400’s and still looking good! Almost all of the below houses on this hill made the cut!

After the tour and additional walking around time in the old part of the city, I enjoyed a nice, decently cheap bratwurst along the lake as the sun set!

(BONUS! I found a free AND clean bathroom as well as free water from any of the many fountains…anyone who has been in Europe for any length of time and isn’t eating at a restaurant knows the pains of finding a free bathroom! And free water anywhere. Unless you drink bathroom sink water. Unashamedly, I do. Haven’t gotten sick yet!)

My second day, I enjoyed going up to the Üetliberg mountain and having AMAZING views over the Alps/Zurich, despite the haze.

Here’s a short, dumb story for you. See, I was too cheap to pay a 5 CHF tram ticket, thinking it would be nice to walk. I can use the money I save for chocolate, I tell myself! After hiking down Üetliberg (Zurich’s mountain), I decide to walk into town. I was planning to follow the tram tracks, but signs pointed me in a different direction towards a bike/walking path (I was heading towards the train station to get my bearings). 2.5 hours and getting majorly lost/a walk through a sketchy part of town/worrying that I might miss my bus/never seeing any hint of the train station, I get to where I would have been 2.25 hours ago, had I just spent a bit of money…That’s what being cheap will do to you! (Turns out I went waayyyy past the train station. Oh well!)

Konstanz

My first full day after arriving at my host family’s home was full of excitement and a trip to Konstanz.

As the biggest city town on the lake, it makes sense that the lake is named after it…

Lake Constance if you didn’t get that.

Or, more properly, the Bodensee.

Where see means lake.

I have a feeling that that will always bother me.

Anyways, since that first full day here, I’ve been to or through Konstanz several more times and am certain that I will visit/pass through it a few more times in the coming few months.

It’s really not that big (it’s smaller than my hometown), but it feels like a big city.

But maybe that’s because I lived in a town of maybe 200 over the summer and a couple thousand now.

But also because of its shopping.

You see, Switzerland is crazy expensive and Konstanz is essentially situated on the border between Germany and Switzerland (there’s even a spot in town where you can have half of yourself in one country and the other half in the other…I haven’t found that spot yet, but will have to do so!) so all the Swiss people come over to do their shopping and then they don’t have to pay taxes.

But the size of the city center/old town is quite big and touristy.

You have your cathedral,

plazas,

and cute little side streets everywhere you look.

Konstanz isn’t only a town where Germany and Switzerland meet, but also where the Rhein/Rhine meets the Bodensee/Lake Constance.

Here, the closer water is the river while the water beyond the bridge is lake water.

Fun fact that I just learned. This year marks the 600th anniversary of the Council of Constance – the council that ended the Great Schism/3-Pope controversy.

Another thing I just learned is that this scandalously-clad, rotating statue (called Imperia) was erected to commemorate the Council. In each of her hands is a naked king wearing only his crown (Emperor Sigismund called the council) and a naked pope wearing only his mitre (Pope Martin V, who became the new pope after the council).

It’s so brash, but if you think about the Great Schism and that this Imperia is a seductress, you’d think it’s a *little* less weird…

Speaking of classy statues in Konstanz, I present you with this one:

All in all, Konstanz is a cute, colorful, lake-side town that warrants a visit or however many more that I will make across the lake. If not just to get a closer look at Imperia.