Layover in Zurich

With 12 hours in Zurich, we got plenty of time to enjoy this charming little town. Everything interesting is in walking distance and the train ticket is a general transportation pass so we could ride the trams if we wanted.

The train ride from the airport was short and we walked around the old town on foot, admiring churches and other old buildings. We saw an interesting sculpture gallery with the sculptor inside. The sculptures were mostly rough nude figures in various athletic poses and stretches, it was a sharp contrast to the Eastern art we had more recently seen.

The first thing we did aside from wandering around was beeline towards a small park overlooking the river, really no more than a grassy lawn. There we laid out a blanket I'd "borrowed" from the plane, took off our shoes, and slept for an hour. We were near another young couple doing the same thing, and across the park were some families with babies.

In the Victorinox store in town I bought a Swiss army knife that was just like one I had as a kid, and later I paid half as much again for shipping it to myself.

Following an online recommendation of "things to do and eat on a layover in Zurich" we went to a restaurant near the center of town that used to be an armory and was decorated with many arms and armor. We had lunch of pork & veal and expensive Roesti (Swiss hash browns) for the price of two Japanese meals. I also had the pretty good house beer.

Meandering through the Sprungli cafe downtown we tried to use WiFi from expensive stores. I considered going into the Bally shop and showing them my knock-off passport cover, but Leia showed me it was a terrible imitation. Some of those stores had snooty bouncers just waiting to sneer commoners like us out of the shop.

We saw some more famous Zurich churches from inside and out, and took a tram a couple of stops down to the lake to rest our feet. People were bathing in the river and it seemed like a real shame we didn't pack our swimsuits and towels to join them.

After visiting the lake we took a ferry boat back up the river, also included in our pass. This wasn't very fast but included some more sights. We made it back just in time for our last flight of this trip.