I’ve recently returned from the holiday of a lifetime with my daughter. We spent three weeks away, with the majority of the time spent in Austria (the destination chosen because Vienna was hosting Eurovision, the ultimate purpose of our trip).
We flew into Zürich. I had been to Switzerland before, but not Zürich, so was excited to explore the city. I was immediately charmed by the distant views of the Alps and the pretty Limmat River, winding its way through the Alt Stadt.
The highlights:
Zürich is a city full of flowers – aside from the number of florists (seemed like there was one on every corner), the patches of meadow planting in urban spaces and the spectacular chestnut trees lining the river, all in full bloom, were stunning.
It would have been rude not to go to the Lindt factory! Yes, there were lots of free samples (I imagine they think the amount of chocolate you can eat on tour is self-limiting but it was quite literally our first activity so we were ready for action). Full marks for providing trolleys in the gift shop.
Almost a full day spent in Kunsthaus Zürich. Stunning quilts by Jeffrey Gibson, the Zardoz monster slide by David Chipperfield, Pipilotti Rist’s Pixelwald Turicum, and many other memorable pieces.
I was particularly interested in the info about individual pieces and provenance during WWII – it was fascinating and I probably spent more time reading about pieces that had been removed than those that were there!
Satisfied the architecture nerd in me at the Le Corbusier Pavillion. I loved the main spaces that invited the outside in, but the exhibition about Le Corbusier’s contribution to urban planning and the role of architecture in creating a sense of power was excellent.
I must make mention of our (attempted) visit to the Freitag headquarters. Unfortunately they were in the midst of a five-day renovation. It had been at the top of my textile-and-fashion-sustainability-studying daughter’s list of things to do in Zürich. I was determined to get to at least one of their stores (again, it was more challenging than I anticipated as stores aren’t open all day, every day in Switzerland as they are in Australia). Anyway, we found a store. My daughter found a bag. Their internet was down and were only accepting cash. I had no Swiss Francs. Could I pay in Euros? Off I went in search of an ATM. Quite sure the staff assumed we would not return, however, we’d come this far and I was determined. Back we went, cash in hand, to discover that the person we had been talking to was Daniel Freitag himself. Absolute trip highlight for my daughter (who was a little star-struck).
I love an international swimming opportunity so a dip in Lake Zürich at the historic Seebad Utoquai (a wooden ‘bathing palace’) was thrilling (when I arrived, the life guard looked at me doubtfully and said that it was cold – nope, a manageable 15 degrees). I shared my swim with swans 🙂
Other swimming things (which I have to save for my next visit) – floating down the Limmat (with lots of entry and exit points) and the historic Max Frisch-designed diving boards at Freibad Letzigraben (it opened for the summer the day after we left).
And lastly, the fun of simply wandering the city. So many charming details. (I say ‘wandering’ however we were clocking 25,000 – 30,000 steps a day)
What we ate:
Oh joy! I had forgotten it would be white asparagus season! Delicious asparagus with Hollandaise sauce is a meal in itself IMO. We also had cocktails at Kronenhalle (an historic destination for artists and writers) and cheese fondue at LeDezaley.
My daughter (who loves to bake) had a long list of places to try in each of the cities and towns we visited. In Zürich, the highlights were Babu’s (breakfast pastries), John Baker (an incredible Alpkäse sandwich – Swiss cheese, lettuce, wafer-thin slices of apple, and almond butter) and Collective (cream buns and other delights).
Other details:
Zürich is a notoriously expensive city (probably lucky that it was our first stop, so there was no point of comparison at that stage) but we stayed in a well-priced apartment in a great location – City Stay – Nordstrasse. We also purchased a Zürich Card as soon as we arrived which covered all public transport and entry into lots of museums. If you’re doing all the tourist things, it’s good value.
And a shout-out to Susan, whose post about her holiday in Austria gave me the idea to use Zürich as our starting point, rather than Munich (a beautiful place, but one that I have been to a few times).
And last but not least…
Zürich’s water fountains. I made a point of drinking from every one I came across. Unfortunately it wasn’t until the last day that I discovered you could do a tour of the fountains – next time!
How wonderful! I now feel like I’ve been there myself (note to self: remember fountain tour if I’m ever in Zurich).
I think there are also apps that map all of the fountains but honestly, with so many you didn’t have to go far before finding one (in fact, we stopped carrying water bottles because there were so many fountains).
Lovely to see a holiday post Kate … loved the stories and the pics.
There are more posts coming!
I’m so glad this worked for you, Kate, and what a lovely memory for your daughter! Looking forward to your Austrian post(s?).
It was fantastic – so glad we started in Switzerland.
There are more posts coming – Innsbruck, Salzburg and maybe two for Vienna (a Eurovision one and a more general one).
What a wonderful trip, the John Baker sandwich sounds delicious (I’ve looked at all their pictures!) and I love your water fountain sampling!
Have to say that the bread at John Baker was delicious (we ate great bread everywhere but the Baker sourdough was memorable).
How fun! I see fondue, but did you try raclette?
I’ve had raclette before but unfortunately not this trip – too few days!
You can only eat so much! When we were in Alsace visiting my French and German friends, my French friend insisted I have raclette. Yum!
What a wonderful trip and description of it. I enjoyed the photos.
Thank you 🙂
I loved following your trip on insta, but seeing it all recapped here was even better! Jealous of the Corbusier visit. Did you get brainwashed at uni by a lecturer called Ross King? He used to bang on about him at every opportunity which sparked my interest.
Haha! Ross was my thesis supervisor so yes, absolutely brainwashed 🙂 The temporary exhibition about urban planning and power (with many references to Le Corbusier’s relationship with the Nazi party) was really interesting. The building itself and the furniture and fixtures were beautiful.
Oh wow… He used to be my favourite lecturer.
He was a great supervisor. At the beginning of the year he asked me, “Do you leave everything to the last minute or do you work steadily all year? Either is fine but if you’re of the last minute variety, I don’t want you spotting me on campus and hiding because you think I’ll harass you!” As it was (and still is), I am ‘last minute’ in terms of the writing – I’m doing lots of thinking and formulating but when it comes to putting pen to paper, I like the pressure of a deadline. Ross accommodated this brilliantly – we had lots of discussions about the material I was studying (public relations messaging within the forest industry) but it wasn’t until the end that he demanded evidence that I was actually writing!
Zurich is a bit of an enigma of a city. Sadly, I dislike Lindt chocolates, so that’s something I wouldn’t bother doing. But that Le Corbusier… OMG from the picture you took, it looks like a tricked out gas station. I don’t care for it, at all. Sorry. Glad you had such a good time, and sorry you didn’t know about the water fountain tour, which sounds like such fun!
No need to be sorry! The joy of travel is that it is ‘choose your own adventure’. Luckily for me, my daughter and I have largely similar interests in terms of how we spend our time in a foreign city, so our time felt well spent. I was pleasantly surprised by how green and floral the city was – really beautiful.
That sounds like such good fun – you’ve probably seen Zurich more thoroughly than me and I lived near Geneva for 7 years in total, but visited Zurich largely for business.
Sounds like you had a great time, even with the cash only problems. That same thing happens in Germany all the time. We live in the last millennium.
The cash thing wasn’t really a big deal – I had deliberately relied on my credit card and not got any Swiss Francs given we were there for only a few days… and that would have been fine had we not had that very unusual situation!