More Zurich and a dash of Vaduz

Some careful planning went in to this trip to get the right balance of time spent in each of the six cities I am visiting. Part of this planning gave me all morning and most of the afternoon in Zurich before taking the next train to the next destination, Vaduz in Liechtenstein.

On that last morning I had some time left on my 24 hour travel card so I decided to head out of town a little way and explore a different area.

I needed a target to head for and some quick research offered the obvious solution, the Heidi Weber Haus by Le Corbusier.

It sits on the edge of a park on the north shore of Lake Zurich just a few minutes away from the centre by tram.

The building is a museum to the works of Le Corbusier but it is only open for a few hours a week and was shut on the day that I went there. I did not mind as I did not have that much time to take in a museum and I could get the lift that I was hoping for from just looking at the building from the outside.

It was more colourful than I expected, I thought that he only did white, but everything else was as modernist as you would expect with lots of glass held together by concrete and an open-plan interior.

Elsewhere in the park there was a brand new playground that again had me wishing that I had brought some children with me and something of a surprise, a genuine Chinese Garden.

The garden was donated to Zurich by the city of Kunming (I've been there) for services rendered.

I did not go inside as I was short of time and I had seen plenty of Chinese Gardens in China. And it was shut.

The park sits along the side of the lake and was busy with joggers and with small children and their carers. In addition to the expected family units I saw two organised groups of around a dozen children each that caught my eye as every child was wearing a brightly coloured band around their necks, much like a mayor's chain. Very safe and very cute.

The park narrowed and widened again as it followed the lake west toward the city. A wide tree-lined boulevard remained a constant feature.

There were loads of benches and several of these were in use even on a dull Tuesday morning in September.

The benches face south across the lake providing both views and sunshine (when available).

The parks continued to have interesting things like a sunken paved area, more things for children to play with and a host of statues, including a very modern and very large blobby thing on top of a mound. I had no idea what it was meant to be, or if it was even meant to be anything, but it made a nice changed from naked men and severed heads.

Heading back in to the centre with no plan other than to get back to the hotel to pick my cases up in time for the train, I found myself once again in Lindehof looking down on the east bank.

Catching the train was uneventful. Zurich station is not that big, the train was on time and I had a reserved seat so there was no need to fight for one.

My next stop was Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, and that meant catching a train to Buchs which is just on the Swiss side of the (invisible) border.

Buchs is probably the ugliest station that I have ever been to.

The last part of the journey was by bus. There was a slight beating of the heart while I struggled to find which bus I needed from which stop but that was quickly sorted and I was soon waiting for the No 12 to Sargas via Vaduz.

The bus, like most buses, stopped regularly and I had to keep a keen eye on street names and my map (a screen print taken from Google Maps on my iPad the night before).

I could have used my iPhone and donated large sums of money to Vodafone's tax-light profits. I didn't.

The smallness of Vaduz managed to fool me and having got off at exactly the right stop I then headed off looking for a proper street called Postgass only to discover that this was the little access road that the bus had dropped me off at.

Still, it gave me the opportunity to see some of Vaduz in the rain while wheeling a suitcase. This is what I go on holiday for.

The biggest upside of being lost (as other people often call my special navigation techniques) was that I found the new parliament building and the impressive plaza that it was set in.

And the most impressive thing about the plaza was the amount of street art in it, all of it modern and most of it quirky. That means that I liked it.

This was my favourite piece and there were others of a similar nature.

The rain clouds meant that it got dark early and so I was able to do little exploring on the first night, other than to find a decent restaurant/bar. In fact I found a very nice one, the New Castle (yes, it had an English name), that kept me happy with a mushroom risotto and some beer.

Then it was back to the hotel (not much further away than the other side of the road) to plan the excursions for the next day having already walked all around the town centre twice. Vadux is a small place.

In and around Zurich

Zurich Old Town is very pretty but not very large so I managed to cover most of it in one day so on my second day I ventured further afield. This started with a trek following the Limmat as it flows north away from the centre.

Very soon I was in stillness and emptiness with the constant murmuring of water as my companion. Frequent bridges linked the two banks and many of these were for pedestrians and cyclists only so traffic rarely intruded.

I crossed several of these bridges just to vary the view.

Heading slightly inland at one point, on the search for some breakfast (i was not going to pay Swiss prices for a hotel breakfast just for a bowl of muesli) I found the remains of a Roman viaduct that has now found another use.

Heading back to the river I found parks, swimming stations, a slalom course and heaps more bridges to cross.

All the infrastructure impressed, both by being there and by being well looked after. The playgrounds in particular made me wish that I had brought some children with me so that I could watch them climb, swing and dig. Watching other people's children is a little creepy.

One of the playgrounds had a small collection of animals including some chickens and a couple of unbelievably hairy pigs.

The final bridge of that part of the walk was Ampèresteg, another modern bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. The shape changes as you cross and the sides are much taller at one end than the other. Little tricks liker that are unnecessary but they add a little frissance to what would otherwise be a simple crossing.

I had a rest at that point and took the 17 tram back in to the centre. I had a choice of tickets and as the 24 hour ticket was only twice the price of a single I went for that in the safe assumption that I could find other journeys to take with the next day.

And I took another ride almost immediately after I got back to the centre, but this was not a tram, it was a funicular railway, the Polybahn.

This takes you up the hill on the east side of the river where the university sits grandly and proudly in acres of open space.

There are, as you would expect, several buildings in the campus and they all carry the tell-tale marks of academia. They are earnest, undecorated and quiet.

The meme is broken just a few times with some unusual statues and a couple of sunken water features.

But the university is not the point of going up the hill, you go up for the view back across the city.

As elsewhere in the city it is the towers that dominate the view with the clock-faces of St Peterskirche just about readable despite being on the other side of the river.

Having gone up the hill by funicular I then slowly walked down it towards the river and lake.

The old town on the east side is slightly older than on the west side, I saw many houses dating from the 1400s,but the characteristics are the same with narrow hilly lanes lined with decorative buildings interspersed with squares.

The character changes as you approach the lake. This takes you out of the old town (there is no ancient wall to mark the boundary but you know when you have crossed it) in to an area of grand baroque buildings.

This is where the opera house lives and the neighbourhood lives up to that standard.

The plaza in front of the opera house is being rebuilt, it may have been a car park, and so it is not very attractive now, hence no photo.

Another tram would have taken me back to the hotel if I had got on the right one. Instead it took me west rather than north so I jumped out at the next stop when I realised my error. I thought about taking a tram back the way that I had come (day tickets are brilliant) until I had a better idea.

A line of defence, now a canal, had been cut from the lake in the south to the river Sihl in the north. The Sihl then flows north-east until it joins the Limmat just north of the city centre. The waterway takes about 1Km to get there as it avoid the crow's advice and zig-zags along, as defensive waterways tend to do.

The sunken waterway has a path on one side that lets you sneak around the city unnoticed, except by all the other people taking advantage of the peace that is to be found there.

It is a lively waterway with boats, swimming areas, sunbathers, walkers and a few casual visitors like myself.

This was a busy, successful and hugely enjoyable day that had taken me away from the city in various directions before bringing me safely back to my hotel again. It was a day filled with walking and water, and that's an excellent combination.

Out and about in Zurich Old Town

My brief foray in to Zurich in the dusk of my arrival day convinced me that the Old Town was the place to start my explorations on my first full day.

I has some guidance from the excellent ZuriPlan iPad app but mostly it was a question of heading down any road that looked interesting.

My hotel,  the St Gotthard, is on the edge of the old town and a very short walk takes you off the main shopping street, the almost relentlessly ugly Bahnhofstrasse that is packed with international chain stores, and in among pretty buildings carrying the beauty of cared-for age.

This is a proper old town with small lanes curving and dividing in all directions so it is easy to get lost in a nice way. These lanes are full of boutique shops, expensive restaurants and boundless character. 

Decorations are everywhere.

Whenever lanes meet the excuse to create a little space is taken and in that space is a drinking fountain with a statue.

Fresco's are common too. My German is nothing like good enough to work out what they are all about but some are clearly a description of what does, or once did, go on inside the building while others are a mystery to me.

Whatever their purpose they all add to the rich character of the area.

There are two ways to the river from here, round the hill or over it. That is not much of a choice really as going over the hill takes you to Lindehof, a park with space to play or just to sit and look over the river to the east side of the town. The cobbled lanes leading there have steps cut in to the side in recognition of how steep the climb is, albeit a short one.

Two adjacent churches battle for attention their weapons of choice being their clock faces.

St Peterskirche claims the largest clock faces in Europe, which is impressive, but I prefer the smaller and more elegant Fraumunster that lies just short distance to the south.

Both towers are visible from most of the high vantage points around the city, and there are many of these, and it is the Gothic frivolity of Fraumunster that is the more distinctive.

Continuing south for the moment, towards the lake, takes you out of the old town and in to the financial district. The wealth here is obvious not least from the size and flamboyance of some of the buildings. The Baroque style is not that common in Zurich but when it does appear it is with characteristic Zurich brashness.

There is a bridge, Quaibrucke, that takes you from from the financial district on the north side of the lake to the east side of the town and this is heavily used by cars and trams.

So I headed north along the river a little to Munsterbruke (next to Fraumunster unsurprisingly) which offers this view of the other bank. That is the Rathaus on the left.

Crossing the bridge takes you directly to the Cathedral. Photography is not allowed inside so you will just have to take my word for it that the stained glass is worth seeing. Incidentally I obey the no photography rule in churches and shops where it has a point and am equally happy to ignore the same rule in theatres where it is pointless.

The Cathedral has two towers and unfortunately you are allowed to climb one of them. Standing on precarious ledges at great height is hardly my favourite pastime but sometimes you have to do that to get the views.

Bravely looking down to the north shows both sides of the river and how the Rathaus is built above it. The Rathausbrucke is the widest of the many bridges across the Limmat and there is space for a small carousel with its blue and white roof (the colours of Zurich) and also for some market stall beyond.

The buildings on both banks face each other aggressively as if only the water keeps them from fighting to prove which side really is the best side of Zurich.

Looking back to the west bank and the view is dominated by St Peterskirche (Fraumunster is just to the left of the picture and has already had its time in the spotlight).

The higgledy-piggledy nature of the roof-scape is evidence of the confusing pattern with which the buildings are spread over the ground.

The variation in height of the buildings does something to mask the variation in height of the ground that rises quite steeply from left to right.

Leaving the Cathedral and heading west again takes you up another hill and in to another nest of lanes. Random turns took me first to Neumarkt and then along the narrow passage Predigergasse towards another church with this extraordinary sundial facing directly towards you.

I did and saw quite a lot more that day, including the old barracks,fountains in the lake, green bicycles, classical and modern sculptures, floating flowers, remains of a Roman bath, battalions of sunbathers and swimmers, swans and a house Lenin once lived in; all of which helps to explain how I managed to take 184 photographs.

To Zurich by train

Another holiday another collection of interesting train journeys.

First was an early Eurostar from London to Paris. I had originally planned at travelling at 10:30am but the tickets I chose were bagged as I was paying for them so I had to go at 8:30am instead. Bit of an early start but no problem.

Paris was something of an unusual destination as I have mostly gone via Brussels and then on to places like Cologne, Berlin and Amsterdam.

In Paris it was a couple of hops on the RER from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon where I had an hour or so to wait for the next train. That time was pleasantly filled in the nearby Le Killy-Jen cafe that provided beer and caprese. Paris provided the warm sunshine.

Next stop Zurich.

I arrived there late afternoon and after a quick check-in at the hotel was out to start the sight seeing.

I headed for the river, always a good place to start.

The sun was quite low by then and the old buildings on the west-side of the Limmat River were looking a little old, grey and miserable.

The "old" bit was justified as some of these buildings date back to the 1500s.

Hints of grandeur to be discovered the next day could be seen peaking above the houses and even their faded fronts showed enough charm to invite a closer inspection in brighter times.

The river is wide and flows freely at this point. It's depth would not scare a cat.

On the east bank the falling sun still had a job to do making sure that we noticed the equally old but somewhat grander buildings that live on that side.

Taking pride of place in the view are the twin towers of the Cathedral. But that is a tale for another day.