Deutschland, Deutschland, Ja Ja Ja!: Zurich Switzerland (June 4th and 5th, 2012)

My parents finally got a chance to take their Europe trip once my mom was finished with the school year. One of the things my Dad wanted to do was see all the areas around Zurich, Switzerland where something significant happened to some of the main Anabaptist reformers of Europe. This was decided a bit at the last minute so there wasn’t much time to squeeze another trip in there so we only had 2 days. Sadly, Skye didn’t get to join us, the archives just have way too much stuff he needs to look at. Thankfully Zurich isn’t very big and we were able to see a lot!

We left Trier at 5:22 am and three connections later we arrived at noon in Zurich. We found our hotel, which was very easy once we actually located the area on the map. Our hotel was right by a tram stop that went to the Hauptbahnhof and the center of the city so it was absolutely perfect.

We set off for our first Anabaptist sight which was the area where Felix Manz was drowned in the river. They drowned him for being a leader in the reformation, basically, and they thought drowning would be appropriate since that’s where he had been baptizing new followers. We thought we would find a plaque or memorial of some sort but weren’t able to see anything, though according to our map and the directions the tourist office gave us, we were right in the area.

We moved on to the Grossmünster where Ulrich Zwingli preached many sermons. The parsonage where he lived was right behind the Grossmünster. The square behind the church is even named Zwingliplatz. (However, we hadn’t found the parsonage yet though it was right there). We talked to a man in the Grossmünster and he explained a little more where the sights were that we were searching for. He even explained where the drowning plaque was since we were unable to find it. Thankfully this stuff was all in the Altstadt so we were exploring the area at the same time. Zurich’s Altstadt is one of my favorites! It has tons of cute tiny winding streets with all kinds of businesses, cafes, and apartments in them.

The next sight we came upon was the home Konrad Grabel lived in. This was also just a memorial plaque on the building so we took about a million pictures and had a coffee at a cute cafe beneath the plaque.

Now we were searching for a place where George Blaurock lived. This one we never found, though it did lead us through some AWESOME tiny steep streets with stairs and awesome old architecture. However, we did finally find the parsonage where Zwingli lived that I mentioned earlier.

One of our last Anabaptist sights left to find was the Statue of Zwingli and the Water Church (Wasserkirche) where he also preached many sermons. That one was easy to find and much more visited. It was just on the river, it was evening and partially cloudy out which made for great pictures. The other churches were in the background across the river and the old, old trees next to the statue framed them perfectly and it was very picturesque! We decided to search for the last and least important sight later when we stopped for dinner.

Now we would follow the self-guided tour on the map through the Altstadt and make our way back to the Felix Manz plaque where he drowned, and back to the Hauptbahnhof where we would book our tour for the next day. It was nice that we found the Anabaptist sights right away, then we could have the rest of the time to explore the city and do whatever we wanted.

We saw the Opera House, then Lake Zurich and the Swiss Alps behind it, AMAZING! Then we walked along the river to the Fraumunster (which was closed at the time) and through a platz that used to be the financial district. We walked through more windy hilly streets, through the expensive shopping area to St Peter’s Kirche. This one was closed also! But ok, it wasn’t actually closed-closed, they were having a concert. I was pretty disappointed! I wanted to see inside St Peter’s and the Fraumunster! But I decided it would be ok to see them the next day since everything in the heart of Zurich is small and close to the train station. We made it to the Felix Manz plaque, took another million pictures then booked our tour.

It was finally dinner time! I had downloaded this awesome Zurich Guide app on my ipod which was very handy. They gave a list of restaurants with local cuisine and we chose one with swiss fondue. It was really good! It was kind of a bizarre experience though. First we stopped by and they told us we had to have reservations or wait an hour. But it was already 9pm, so we searched around for something else with no luck. Finally my mom marched right in there to ask again while my dad and I waited outside because we were scared. But low and behold she got us a table! Just like that. She must have turned on the charm and impressed the waiters! We ordered the fondue to share at the table and he told us it was filling and you wouldn’t need anything else. It wasn’t like the melting pot where you get something from all the food groups. It was just bread and cheese. Amazing as it was, it was a bit over-priced for what you got. But we were full and happy with our local Swiss experience.

The next day we did our 4 hour tour. The tour began with a classic trolley ride through the city. Even though we had already explored the Altstadt it was nice because we got to hear what everything was all about on our audio guides. This way we didn’t have to worry about not getting great pictures since we already had the day before. Also the bus had a break at the Fraumunster, so we got to go inside! Yay! It has famous Chagall windows that were beautiful! After the Trolley ride it included tickets to the top of a mountain for a beautiful view of the city from part of the Alps.

These were both nice, but I got the feeling that Switzerland just wants to make money more than wanting to please you. (opposite of UK where tourism was very thorough and well done.) Originally, when booking the ticket I had asked if we could get to the Alps area without taking a tour. She said it would be very difficult, too difficult. That’s basically all she would tell me, but come to find out we could have easily gone up there with the Zurich transportation passes that we already bought. So this was very frustrating. Also, our bus driver gave us the boat tour tickets instead of the mountain tickets and tried to tell me I had to pay extra. He had previously taken our receipt as the tour tickets so I had nothing to show him that we had already paid for the mountain one. He just didn’t believe me and didn’t understand that we had already given him our receipt (little to no English). Finally he just said “it’s ok” and gave me the tickets. However, I didn’t like that he didn’t believe me. Luckily my mom found the credit card receipt and I showed that to him later and all was fine. But gosh it was so frustrating! All in all, though, it was a nice tour and the views were fantastic!

During the trolley tour we passed this shopping center that they said was reasonably priced and my mom and I both noted it because I am searching for a specific colored dress for this summer. We had two hours before I had to catch my train so we decided to see the inside of St Peter’s Kirche, then go to the shopping center.

St Peter’s Kirche has the largest clock face in Europe! It’s really pretty! It is now a protestant church, as most of Zurich is after our guys, Zwingli and Manz were around.

The shopping center was a disappointment as they only had a few clothing stores. It was kind of like a Target or something, only chopped up into different stores that were the same store. Make sense? haha. It was kind of like a mall but most of it was the same company. They had electronics and household things. Not many clothes. But it wasn’t completely a bust, we found some really good food and ate a big lunch/dinner before catching our trains/planes back to Deutschland.

I caught a 4pm train back to Trier and my parents caught a 7pm flight to Berlin where they spent a couple days before we met up again in Norway.

It was great to spend some time with my parents and Zurich is an absolutely beautiful city! I loved it! It was so easy to get around and has so much to offer! I would be ok with Skye getting a job at a University there! Wouldn’t be too shabby living near the Swiss Alps! Then, of course, I’d have to learn Swiss German, so I suppose I should master High German first!

Area on the river where Feliz Manz was drowned

Such a pretty city!

Grossmünster and Rathaus

Grossmünster!

My Dad in front of the Grossmünster doors

Inside of the Grossmünster

Home of Konrad Grabels, he lived in a cafe! (j/k)

Ulrich Zwingli statue

MMMMMMMM YUM! Traditional Swiss cheese fondue!

This is the Fraumünster, the steeple looks similar to St Peters (but the clock isn't as big of course!). The three long skinny windows on the left are the Chagall windows.