Our plane to Zurich was late leaving Paris. Despite a nine hour time difference, our travel agent was aware and had already called to reschedule the driver picking us up at the airport in Zurich. She is golden.

Even though it was only a 75 minute flight, Air France still served a cucumber and cheese sandwich snack and drink.  We are accustomed to much less from our American carriers.

It was delightfully cool when we left the airport and our driver delivered us to the Hotel Adler. This boutique hotel in old town was recommended by our travel agent.

We got settled into our room and noticed an interesting bed configuration.  It was a large bed but each side had its own cover.

There was an Arizona Highways magazine in the sitting area so we felt right at home.

We walked around a bit enjoying the sites of Zurich. 

When we returned to our room a person was playing a guitar and singing right outside our window in the town square courtyard.   

The courtyard area turned out to be full of pleasant activity throughout our stay. 

We often saw people looking at the mural of old Zurich on the hotel exterior wall.  It felt a little odd at first because our room was close to the mural so it seemed like they were looking at our window!

The next day we had a TukTuk with Fondue tour.  We found our meeting place on the other side of the river but little did we know we’d soon be right back to our hotel!  

The Adler Hotel provided the cheese fondue!  We saw lines at our hotel restaurant each evening with most people lined up for the delicious fondue.

Our guide told us about this steak house. When it was a bar, the band Black Sabbath worked and lived there “when they only knew three songs”. We ate there a couple days later.

This building held the first gay bar in Europe. The business moved locations just recently during the pandemic.

Zurich has the most fountains of any country in the world. The water is drinkable and people fill water bottles from them.  It is also considered an emergency service water source. The side arm on the fountain sometimes provides wine.

The smaller church in front was a former women’s monastery with the larger men’s monastery behind. 

This is the parliament building.

Churchill gave one of his historic speeches near here stressing European unity in September, 1946.    Switzerland’s neutrality is sometimes criticized but our guide told us they cannot deviate, ie. donate to Ukraine, because of their constitution. 

Our TukTuk with Fondue Tour was a highlight, not just of Zurich, but of our entire trip.  Imagine riding comfortably in the back of the TukTuk drinking wine, dipping into delicious cheese fondue and getting great commentary. Perfect.

Later we wandered around a bit more on our own.  

We found a park with displays of children from around the world and their dreams. 

The boy from Liberia had a Cathlamet shirt on.  Cathlamet is a small town in southwest Washington state near where my parents lived in retirement.  It is interesting to think how that shirt was worn by a boy in Liberia and placed on a picture board in Zurich.

The other side of the park had displays of satellite images from around the world.  

One highlighted the airplane graveyard in Tucson, Arizona.  It is very near where Randy grew up and we’ve taken a tour there.

While waiting for our next tour, we stopped at a Starbucks and I had my first pumpkin spice latte of the season – in Zurich! The things one must endure to get access to the WC!  (WC=water-closet=toilet) 

The next tour was not one of the best but we did learn a few things of interest. Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland but is not the capital.

The Zurich train station is one of the busiest in the world. Nearly three thousand trains, and half a million people, go through on the twenty-six sets of tracks every day. There is a full shopping mall underneath the station.

This is one of the most famous chocolate shops in Switzerland.  We did not get to go in on our tour.  We also didn’t have the opportunity to tour Lindt Chocolate Company while we were in Zurich as their tours were sold out. Failure to plan ahead on my part….

I took a drive-by photo (and not a good one) of Tina Turner’s home outside Zurich. Tina Turner lived in Zurich for 30 years, enjoying some level of normalcy.  

This is another poor drive by picture – this time of a Migros grocery store.  Migros is a large grocery chain in Switzerland.  By policy, they do not sell alcohol or cigarettes but someone is selling lots of cigarettes!  There is so much smoking. There is very little trash around Zurich but 90 percent of what there is are cigarette butts.   All restaurant tables, inside and out, have ashtrays.  We moved from where we were sitting several times to avoid smoke in just a few days!

Swiss Francs are very colorful! Our travel documents said we would need 20 francs, in cash, to check into our hotel. We had planned to go to an ATM once we landed in Switzerland, or even to the dreaded currency exchange booth. However, I was telling Randy about it while we were in the security line in Paris and the young woman ahead of us said she had been carrying around 20 francs for a year not able to spend it anywhere. I traded $20 USD for her 20 francs and we were both happy. Problem solved. AND, at the hotel the 20 francs fee was NOT required in cash.

Zurich was lovely and cool and very pleasant.  

We were in Zurich September 13, 2023.

Next up:  We head up into the Swiss Alps and go to the Top of Europe!