I awoke to the sound of my alarm, and my sister telling me to turn it off and get out of bed, which I was very reluctant to do. Our cousins had gone to work, and we had instructions to meet them at one of the tram stops by one o'clock. Seeing as I still had quite a bit of time, I took a shower while my sister made us both a double shot of espresso and warmed up two croissants in the oven. (A frozen croissant in the oven while preheating to 150C is just as flaky and delicious as a fresh one.) Over breakfast on the porch, and in between admiring the scenery we tried to determine our plan for the upcoming weekend if our Eurail passes did not arrive on time. We determined that we would rather not think of that scenario and hope that our plans would not be ruined by our colossal mistake.
After doing the dishes, we walked to the tram station to buy another daily pass. We spent more time than either of us would like to admit trying to decipher the German terminal before we noticed a button in the bottom right to change the language to English, which made the process much easier. By the time our tickets had printed from the machine, the tram was arriving. We could vaguely remember the tram number we were supposed to take, but we knew the name of the stop. After getting on the tram, we realized that there were three different ones that came to this station. So, we decided to gamble that this tram would end up taking us to the stop that we needed. Once again, we got lucky and saw our stop pop up at the bottom of the destinations screen.
We met up with Jennifer at the station, and she proceeded to tell us about the area we were in. It was the main university area of the city, and both the main campuses of the University of Zurich and ETH were located across the street from one another. It also turns out that while the universities compete for students, they share resources for the faculties and students. She explained this as we were walking towards the ETH library so she could pick up some materials she had requested. The building itself was almost classical Greek in architecture, but with a few differences that denote the almost universal style of architecture for universities.
The real treasure, from an architectural standpoint, was inside the building itself. From the outside, it looked like there were three different building, but from the inside, they were all connected to each other with what I consider an "inside-out" style courtyard between them all. It looked as though at one point they were not connected and instead of adding walls and a roof to each of the buildings to connect them, they just constructed one massive roof. (I realize this is rather confusing to visualize, but there is a picture below this paragraph which should sum it up.) In the main room of the center building was a room of columns that stretched from floor to each ceiling, with each floor culminating in an arch, to the top of the building, three stories above. All in all, it was a beautiful place to be.
The back of the building, leading into the green space.
Showcasing the old exterior of the building, the new windowed roof,
and the newer additions, such as staircases.
The columns and arches of the main room, with the gorgeous patterned
ceiling.
Leaving through the back of the building brought us into a beautiful courtyard, littered with students studying and eating lunch amidst the reflecting pools, and green spaces. One of these green spaces overlooked a good portion of the city below, and offered breathtaking views of the mixture of old and new styles.
The view from one of the balconies offered a view into one of the city's older districts.
As you can see here, a number of steeples dominated the older part of the city's skyline.
From here we walked to another one of Zurich's seibons, the UBS Polybahn. Named after the bank, this funicular is operated by Zurich Public Transport and offers rides ever quarter hour. It connects the main campus of ETH with the main tram station. At a grade of 23%, this little car carries around 1.6 million people a year up, or down, 41 meters Monday through Friday. In my opinion, the most interesting thing about this funicular is that because there are two cars that have to pass each other, there is a switch system for the track. This confused me for multiple rides until I finally figured out that one cable goes over one side and the other cable stays to the other side. Because the cables pull the cars up, they'll follow the cables which prevents the need for a mechanical switch device. Really interesting if you're into that sort of thing.
After we took the Polybahn down to the main tram station ("Central"), the three of us walked along the river, taking in the sights. There were swimmers in the river, and a few particularly brave souls jumping from the bridges into the river below to the delight of their friends. We followed the river a good distance before we started to get hungry. We stopped to look at the map and Jennifer realized that we were close to one of the more "hipster" areas of town which offered fresh produce and many lunch options.
From the outside, it looked like nothing special, except the vast amounts of people eating their lunches gave away the location's very obvious secret. Inside, however, was a completely different story. If you live in Cleveland, or have ever been to the West Side Market in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland, you can kind of picture this. The only difference is that 3/4 of the stands on the inner ring are gone and are replaced with a flower shop at one end, and a fancy restaurant at the other. All around are lunch options, ranging from shepherd's pies to pizza to pasta, and to the sandwiches that we got. Of course, the occasional ice cream and chocolatier were dotted around the inside as well.
After lunch, we made our way to the Viadukt, an open-air mall that is built into the side of, well, a viaduct. What once carried water from one part of the city now houses the city's most hip shopping, dining, and nightclubs. We said goodbye to Jennifer, as she had both a dentist's appointment and a meeting to attend, discussed a meeting point for later, and then my sister and I set off down the street. Mostly due to her penchant for window shopping, we weaved in and out of stores for the better part of an hour before deciding to head back to the old town to check out a few of the churches that our cousins recommended touring.
Que another tram ride, and my sister continually questioning my sense of direction. (Another thing that would become a theme for the trip, but not exciting enough to mention. Just assume that when we are by ourselves and we head from one place to another, my sister is questioning my map reading abilities until we are actually inside the place we are looking for.) The first tram took us to the central station, and then a quick look at the lines told us we could have stayed on that tram for a few more stops to reach our destination. Because they come relatively often (at least once every 10 minutes during the busier parts of the day) we took the time to fill our water bottles at the fountain, and wait for the tram we just got off to come back again.
Although we could have taken the tram to the inside of the old town, we decided to get off on the outskirts, so we could walk through most of the area as possible. While following the directions on the map to get to the first of the three churches, we came across something that I would not believe actually happened if I had not taken any pictures of it. The entire square in front of this church was bright pink. And I don't mean entire square in a superficial and exaggerating for the enjoyment of my readers entire square, I actually mean the entire square. The keen-eyed reader will realize that the descriptions and pictures to follow give way to the title of this day's adventure.
What I presume used to be a stone square ringed in brick sidewalks, was now a bright pink astroturf square ringed in brick sidewalks. And I mean bright pink. At one end of the square (It was ovular in shape but they're still called squares for some reason) was a giant water fountain, both a nice showpiece, and providing drinking water for the public. At the other end of the not square square was a giant pink cube. It seemed to serve no purpose, save for its own existence. Affixed to every light post and building were white and pink banners which seemed to advertise the coming of some festival happening through the month of June.
The very pink not square square with its bright pink cube. Directly behind
this picture is one of the churches we were looking for. We were so distracted
by the pink square that we passed by it about three times before finally "finding" it.
The other end of the square featuring the fountain.
Showcasing some of the banners along with the fountain.
After our encounter with the bright pink square, we continued wandering around the old town "looking" for the churches. One ended up being closed, and we couldn't find the other for some time because it was right next to the very distracting pink square. However, we did end up finding a local chocolatier, and enjoyed their delicious gelato while contemplating where to spend the next two hours of the day before we were to meet back up with our cousins.
One of the smaller streets in the old town, proudly flying the Swiss flag.
After wandering aimlessly for about a half hour (which drew many complaints from my sister that we weren't actually going anywhere. Which to be fair, was entirely true. But our preferred types of travel are very different. I prefer to wander and explore randomly and at my own leisure, while she prefers to stick to a guidebook and major attractions. This will be another common theme for the trip, to each of our annoyances.) we came across a very small river leading into Lake Zurich. (After a quick look at the map, it appears to be a branch off of the main river.) There was a sidewalk/dock at the water's edge, which we did not know if we were allowed to walk on, but determined that if no one came to stop us than it was probably for public use. We followed this pathway all the way to the lake, and spent some time taking pictures, and admiring the views.
The secluded and possibly forbidden path down the river.
Instead of having pedestrians wait to cross the six-lane main road,
there was a tunnel underneath. Although you cannot tell from
this picture, the walkway was below the waterline.
Once you exit the tunnel you are greeted by Lake Zurich.
It seemed to be a good place to take some "aesthetic" pictures.
The view of the lake from here was beautiful.
This little tunnel also provided views into one of the city's
private harbors.
We stayed here for a good half hour, admiring the views, and of course, Elizabeth had me take some pictures of her for the "gram". We continued our wandering up the main river, away from the lake, and trying to stay away from as many main streets as possible. (One thing I highly recommend in any city as you might find your favorite things along these routes.) One of the breaks in the floodwall gave us some fantastic views of the other side of the river, and Grossmunster, a 12th-century cathedral.
Grossmunster from the old town side of the river.
One of the city's many clocktowers.
When we finally made our way back to the Central tram station we realized that we still had another hour before we were to meet back up with our cousins. We took this time to explore the other side of the river and take in what it had to offer. This turned out to be a lot of window shopping, and gawking at the prices in a city where the majority of its residents are extremely wealthy. To be fair, we did find a few things that we could afford at a small candy shop in which we were definitely the oldest people in the store aside from the cashier, who was very friendly, but spoke no English at all. (I was also a good two feet taller than most of the other patrons as well!)
After finally meeting back up with our cousins, we took the time to go grocery shopping for that evening's dinner. I believe it was a Greek salad that was delicous, but that may have been a different evening, I do not remember. After dinner, we took our final adventure of the day, a walk around the short hiking path near their apartment. The hills were steep, and we were very out of breath when we reached the top of the trail, but it gave us a glorious view of the city and the lake. It also showed us the impending rainstorm that was coming for us if we stayed too long looking at the view.
Altogether a beautiful view. Lake Zurich, the mountains in the background,
and the barley field in front of us all came together to form one spectacular sight.
As you may have expected, with a view like the one above, we stayed and admired it just a bit too long, and were caught in the storm as we made our way back down the trail. By the time we had made it back to the apartment, all four of us were completely soaked, not to mention exhausted. So we dried off, recapped the day, watched another episode of Arrested Development, and went to bed hoping the Eurail pass would be in the mailbox by the time we woke up.
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