Zurich: the beginning

After several changes of plan, Jan and I eventually decided to spend New Year in Zurich. We booked a room at an IBIS hotel and travelled there on 29th December. After checking in and dumping our luggage, we went for a cheeky Burger King before heading into town for a first look at the sights. It was dark by that time and snow was falling… prefect for testing how good my new camera is in not the best conditions 😉

The Großmünster

Großmünster

Pretty lights!

Christmas lights

Zurich Christmas lights

Church… not sure which.

While we were walking around, we spotted a pub that had a quiz on that night, so after stopping for a beer elsewhere (Feldschlösschen Amber is very tasty) we headed on over the the pub quiz. We didn’t do badly for only having 2 people, managing to come in the top 5.

The next day we went for a wander round Zurich, following a route that Jan had downloaded onto his phone. We started at the main train station, where a statue outside reminded us of why cities normally turn off their fountains in winter…

Then it was off down Bahnhofstrasse, along the River Limmat and up the hill until we reached Lindenhof, from where we had a view over the city.

Walking along the river

The River Limmat

We found a snowman!

Up the hill we go…

Little birds in a tree

Cute snowy bridge

Snowy Lindehnhof

Me resembling an Eskimo, with Zurich in the background

Catching snowflakes

We found a kitty!

Looking down from Lindenhof

Once we’d taken a few photos at Lindenhof and spent some time trying to catch perfect snowflakes, we headed back down the hill on the other side, passing St Peter’s Church and walking through some pretty streets before taking a break at the Sprüngli cafe for delicious but expensive hot chocolate.

First gimpse of St Peter’s

St Peter’s church tower

Lanterns outside the church

St Peter’s Church

I love the colourful buildings

I have no idea what this is supposed to be…

So much snow on this tree!!

Swiss flag

Finally a hot drink!

Once we’d finished our hot chocolate, we headed back out into the snow. Our next stop was the Fraumünster church (literally “Lady’s Minster”). No photos were allowed inside, but here are some from outside:

Fraumünster Church

Fraumünster cloisters

After taking a look at the inside of the church with its famous stained-glass windows (by Marc Chagall), we walked down to Lake Zurich, which is where the fireworks would be the following night. A group of Asians were down there feeding bread to the gulls, which was quite a sight. So. Many. Gulls! There were also swans and ducks, including one very pretty green duck that I spent ages trying to get a photo of.

Gulls going mad for bread

No duck, don’t swim out of my picture!

The red-headed duck was pretty cool too

Pretty gulls all in a row

Gulls at Lake Zurich

Did you spot the gull riding on a swan?

Pretty ducky!

Lake Zurich

Once I finally managed to drag Jan away from the lake, we walked back along the river towards the Niederdorf, or old town, area and headed to the Grossmünster (“Great Minster” – note that in normal German the church name would be spelled Großmünster, but there are no ess-zetts in Swiss German!). Again, no photos were allowed inside, but we climbed the tower and I was able to take some of Zurich from above.

I liked these lights along the river – in the dark they looked like lit up trees

Looking down from the Grossmünster

Zurich from above

The Grossmünster’s other tower

Streets and buildings of Zurich

Zurich from above

Looking down at all the snow

Once we’d climbed back down from the tower, out tour was almost done. All that remained was a quick walk through the old town and a glimpse at the Rathaus (city hall) before our tour took us back to Bahnhofstrasse, where the Christmas lights had now been switched on. Then we decided to build a snowman on a wall next to the city police station. We named him Travis.

Zurich Niederdorf (old town)

Rathaus entrance

Rathaus

Bahnhofstrasse lights

Christmas lights in Bahnhofstrasse

Travis the snowman!

Snowman built and duly photographed, it was finally time for a break! We went back to the Niederdorf and found a small bar/restaurant where we treated ourselves to a beer and some cheese fondue… which I forgot to take a photo of because I’m a bad blogger!

And that’s (more than) enough for one blog post, so I’ll save New Year’s Eve for the next one.