Even for Switzerland, Zurich was expensive. We couldn’t find affordable hotels anywhere, so eventually we burned some credit card points to get a room, and cut our stay down to only two nights. Let’s get in and get out with our wallets in tact.

This turned out to be just fine, as though Zurich was lovely and comfortable and beautiful, it wasn’t like there was a ton to do there other than just be. We do love just being, and being in Zurich was very nice, indeed.

Into The City

Our hotel was outside of the city center, out closer to the airport. But, this is Switzerland, and Switzerland has the most incredible network of trains on earth. You can get anywhere in the country by (extremely nice) train, then when you get there, no matter how big or small that place is, it will have extremely nice local trains. Probably several different varieties of local train.

Zurich, being a not small place, had tons and tons of trains, and we had a stop for one of the light rail trams right outside our hotel. A trip downtown was cheap. So after getting settled in our hotel, that’s where we went.

And then, just as we got downtown, a huge thunderstorm descended and trapped us under cover at the tram station with its downpour. Well, so much for walking the old city.

Fondue!

Our plan was to walk the city, then head to a spot to finally try some Swiss fondue. With the rainstorm in our way, we decided instead to just head straight to the fondue!

We went to Swiss Chuchi, at the Hotel Adler, and got one of their fondue pots. We were deep, deep into our summer of cheese now! It was excellent, though obviously far from our cheapest meal. Still, it was a Switzerland must.

Our Own Walking Tour

The next day, we headed back downtown in much better weather to do all that walking. And, per usual for us, we walked all over that city.

We got off the train and headed north along the Limmat river, to the Schwimmbad Oberer Letten, a ‘beach’ and swimming area on the banks of the river. There were plenty of people out sunbathing, or swimming in the absurdly blue, absurdly beautiful river. So many people in the river! I said it before, but there’s nothing like Swiss water. It is so beautiful.

Then, we simply headed back to the old city and criss-crossed all over it. We stopped for a while in some chairs in front of Fraumünster Church, to take a long break. We stopped for a while in Lindenhof park, and Erika took a nap on a park bench. Yeah, she was still feeling some of the effects of that bug she got in Zanzibar, it just hung around and hung around.

And that was it, that was Zurich. Nice, and simple, and relaxed. I think we needed that after so much activity in the Alps. Zurich is a great place for it too, it’s an exceptionally nice city, so very beautiful. It’s not the most exciting place to visit, but I think it’d be a wonderful place to live.

What’s Next?

Well, with some careful planning ahead of time to keep train costs down, some cooking for ourselves at home, and using some credit card points, we managed to not go bankrupt in Switzerland! Hurray!

But unfortunately it was time to go. We loved Switzerland, and couldn’t get enough of the endlessly amazing scenery. We can’t wait to go back and do so much more hiking and touring.

For now, though, it was time to briefly skim through Germany. And we’d start by visiting what, coming into this trip, was already one of my favorite cities in the world: Munich! I couldn’t wait!