Today we started the day early to fit everything in as we only had one full day here now, not two.
Conveniently on the back of the Zurich tourist map was a suggested walking tour that goes past many points of interest as well as down the many streets of the old city. It's gorgeous walking amongst the old buildings that each have their own character. See a few here.
We walked past Prediger church first, pictured here.
Next we found a cow on a balcony...?
The Grossmunster Kirche was the next church on the walk. This was fabulous timing as we arrived just as it was opening. There are guides at the door in English that walk you through the different areas and special parts of the church. The best part however was the 'music' I could hear, which I thought they must have playing from speakers quietly. What it actually was, was discovered in the crypt underneath the alter. A group of men were singing/chanting in what can only be described as the 'sweet spot' of the crypt. The acoustics were amazing and their chanting was the most beautiful and haunting sound I have ever heard.
Next we walked past the Wasserkirche, or Water Church.
Closer to the lake we walked past the opera house. The outside is decorated with sculptures of famous people who were involved in the arts.
Along the river we met a few friends.
Next we walked past the Fraumunster Kirche. This is a small church with a clock tower. There are 'dolphins' on each corner of the church. They don't really look like dolphins, but as one woman on our ghost walk (will explain later) it's not like there are any oceans nearby so they probably guessed what a dolphin look liked (haha).
Through a few more streets in the old city and a walk up the main shopping street. The shops were too expensive to even look at so decided we wouldn't go inside wearing our raincoats (yes it rained on the only day we were in Zurich... Bummer). Shops like Prada and Louis Vutton...
St Peters church was the next stop. This isn't the biggest church in Europe, but it has the largest clock face in Europe at around 8m in diameter. It's beautiful at night. The church is nice inside.
The last large building on the walk was the Sternwarte Urania. This was the observatory. Now it has a pub at the top.
After a quick refueling at our handy Migros supermarket, we headed off to the zoo and managed to quash it in just 2 hours. Another hour would have been great, but we got to get around most of it and see the parts we wanted to. Ok, the parts I wanted to. Justin just agreed ;). Snakes, lions, penguins, snow leopards and monkeys/apes of many sizes, shapes and colours.
Check out what's in it's claw
We finished up the evening by taking a ghost walk around the city. Luckily it was in English, in fact a man from England took it. He told a few stories of death and mystery along a walk of the old city. It was raining so there were only 10 of us on the tour. The stories were interesting, though I could have done without all the jokes. I expected someone to jump out from somewhere on the tour but they didn't. We did see some interesting characters hanging around by one of the places we should have visited, singing away to themselves. We went to most of the same places we had seen in the morning, but it was good to hear some history about the buildings. Also got some nice night shots.
That's Zurich in a day. I'm going to need a holiday to recover from this one! We are now on the train heading to Fankfurt in Germany, then carrying on to Rudesheim which is along the Rhine river. Lots of vineyards there. The scenery along the way reminds me of home. Not so much the old castles, churches and gorgeous wee houses, but we just went past Germany's miniature equivalent of the A & P show.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Zurich, Switzerland
No comments:
Post a Comment