Switzerland (Day 4) Pt.II

By 2.00 PM we finally arrived at Zurich. Right away you can see the Limat River flowing through the city. Our first stop is the Church of Our Lady (Fraumünster). This church is well known for its stained-glass windows or better known as Chagall windows in honor of the artist who created these windows, Marc Chagall.  So this church is similar to the church in Bulach (see post Switzerland Day 1). It has a clock tower with a Neo Gothic detail.  This church is also one of the symbols for the city of Zurich.

Right across from Church of Our Lady (Fraumünster)

Chaggal Windows
Source: www.google.com

Another church that you must visit in Zurich is the Grossmünster Church. This church is located right across Fraumünster, all you have to do is cross the bridge over Lake Zurich and you can see a tall Romanesque like twin towers. The inside of the church is really large and here comes the best part of the church, you can climb hundreds flight of stairs to the top of the tower. The stairs leading to the top of the tower is really narrow and it goes up in a circular motion all the way to the top. You might feel suffocated at first but then you get used to it.  Once you’re at the top, you can finally breathe the cool air and enjoy the spectacular view of Zurich.  

Grossmünster Church
Source: www.google.com

The view from the top of the church

If you are really into big churches, you can also visit St. Peterskirche as it is one of the three major churches in Zurich.

St. Peterskirche

Like other cities in Switzerland, the Old Town is one of the main attractions. The town has many alleys to explore with different shops and restaurants around the corners.

Old Town
Source: www.google.com

Last but not least, we visited Lindenhof. This part of the city is the historic home of the Roman Castle and Empire. It is situated on top of a hill. When I read it on the internet, I thought it would be in a form of an old fortress, but now it is actually used as a park. Many people come to just sit around, enjoy the view of the city, etc.  There is also a small playground for little kids to play.

Lindenhof
Source: www.google.com

So that is the end of our day in Zurich. You can also visit Zurich’s Historical Museum, but we decided to skip it because we will be visiting a lot more museums in Italy.  You can also go to Lindt’s Chocolate Factory. We also skip this because we have visited the same Lindt Factory in Germany, but I recommend all of you to visit this factory once you’re in Zurich.

Lindt Chocolate Factory Zurich
Source: www.google.com

Coming up, I would like to post transportation around Swiss, the food and also people in Swiss. Oh, and I will also post my trip to Italy as soon as I can. Stay tuned fellow travelers!

Switzerland (Day 4)

It’s the last day in Switzerland. A mix of emotions, happy and sad at the same time, but maybe someday I could come back and explore more of Swiss while the weather is sunny and bright. Throughout the days we spent in Swiss, light rain would fall on the city. And the worst part is, a week before we arrived the weather was terrific. Today we were supposed to go to the Jungfrau mountain, sadly the rain starts pouring down heavily in Bulach. I checked Jungfrau website and it turns out the weather on the mountain was partly cloudy with a chance of rain. We decided that we don’t want to hike on a bad weather. In addition, we can’t leave Swiss without going to its capital city Zurich. 

For the first time since we’ve been in Swiss, we finally got a chance to ride their public transportation! Ms. Patricia has to go to work so she can’t drive us. But she assures us we’re not going to get lost in Zurich since all of the train lines are very clear and it is completely safe. Well, of course it’s safe, Swiss has almost 0% criminal rate in their country. Their city is very clean and there are no beggars in sight. Now back to our trip! We rode our train from: Bulach Station - Zurich Hbf – Rapperswil. It is best to get the ZVV map to look at which route goes where. For more information on the ZVV train in Zurich go to : www.zvv.ch

First impression of Rapperswil, the city is very quiet. As we walk along the road, we realized this city has only few people and the restaurants seem to be closed. But there are one or two people riding around on their bikes. We also met some tourists along the way. I came to the conclusion that the city is deserted because people are probably at work. Rapperswil located near the river bank so there many attractions that are done by boat. Since it is an unfamiliar city to us, we decided to go to the tourist information right away. From here they will give us a map and tell us the main attractions in Rapperswil. Our first stop is the Rose Garden. Now this little city is known as the “City of Roses”. Before you reached the Rose Garden, you can already smell the lovely scent of roses from a few feet away. When we got there, all I can say is WOW! So many beautiful roses in shades of pink, red and white.

Me among the Roses

Another attraction you can visit in Rapperswil is their castle. You go outside of the garden and go up a couple of stairs to a hill. While you are on top of the hill, you can also go down to see the deer in the Deer Park. The view of the lake from up the hill is amazing! Well, the Castle in Rapperswil is a big castle and when you go inside you enter a large terrace where you can see a good view of Lake Zurich and Altstadt. Sadly, bad luck again (we've been getting a lot of those lately), the castle seems to be closed. It’s no wonder the tourists in front of us were gone so quickly, they've probably tried to go inside but the doors were closed. This castle is home to the Polish National Museum and just outside the castle stand the Polish Freedom Pillar (Freiheitssäule). After further research about this castle, I feel so sad I can’t go inside the castle. I love castles and based on reviews from different people on the internet, Rapperswil Castle is so beautiful.  So dear travelers  don’t miss your chance like I did to visit this castle.

Polish Freedom Pillar (Freiheitssäule)
Source: Wikipedia

Rapperswil Castle
Source: Wikipedia

Next stop is another Rose Garden. You go down the hill and on your way back to the center of the city, you can’t miss this garden. This Rose Garden is no ordinary garden; the roses have a stronger scent so that blind people can come to the garden and enjoy the smell of roses. The different types of roses in this Garden are also completed with Braille writings for the blind. Once we got back to the center of the city, I asked the tourist information why the castle is closed. They were surprised and told us that it should be open and the employees of the castle take their break at 12.00 PM until 1.00 PM. That’s strange, because we were there at around 10.00 AM. They also tried calling the employees at the castle, but there were no response. They apologized though for the inconvenience.

Although we didn't get to enter the Castle, we really enjoyed our time in Rapperswil. The quite city is really lovely. So we decided to go to Zurich by ferry! That’s right a ferry ride down Lake Zurich. The transportation in Zurich is not only trains or buses, but also ferries. TIP: When you buy the ticket for train rides, it is also valid for ferries. But be warned, ferries ride take more time compare to trains. If you're in a hurry, a ferry ride will not be suitable for you. Then again, you can look at the amazing views that Lake Zurich has to offer.

About to board the Ferry

On the deck of the Ferry

We took a 2 hour ride by ferry from Rapperswil to Zurich. Since it’s really cold, we decided to move to the inside of the boat. Not only was it cold but it started to rain, again! Thankfully when we got to Zurich the rain stopped and the weather got warmer. Things are finally are looking up.