Visiting Zurich: Day Three

See Day One, Day Two (pt 1), and Day Two (pt 2).

I'd been scratching my head over what to do and where to go with my house guests on Sunday. The Swiss propensity to shut up shop on a Sunday means that opportunities for purchasing memorabilia were limited, and sightseeing in town is all very well, but it loses something of the local colour when everything's closed.

So I hit upon the idea of doing the Planetenweg -- or Planet Walk -- along the Uetliberg.

The Uetli-what? The Uetliberg is Zurich's local mountain, and looms large over the city, although calling it a mountain is perhaps overstating the case somewhat, given that on most days you can see the Alps from Zurich, which certainly fit my idea of what a mountain looks like better than the Uetliberg does.

Anyway, as far as I can make out the Uetliberg has three claims to fame.

  1. The railway line that goes from Zurich Hauptbahnhof to the top is the steepest regular railway line in the world that doesn't make use of a rack-and-pinion system or similar to help the train up the tracks.

  2. Uto Kulm, the hotel and restaurant at the top of the mountain. I've had quite a few very good evening meals up there.

  3. The Planetenweg, of which more later.

By the time we'd woken up, recovered from the excesses of the previous night, dragged ourselves to the train station and arrived at the top Uetliberg station it was around midday. Slightly overcast, with a bit of a threat of rain later. Quite good walking weather then.

First stop -- lunch. We walked the 10 minutes or so up the path towards Uto Kulm, and I was able to show my guests the first point on the Planetenweg; the Sun.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

This is probably the point to explain the Planetenweg. It's a scale model of the solar system, at the scale 1:1 billion. So every metre along the path represents 1 million kilometres in actuality. Along the path, sized and spaced appropriately are models of the planets that make up the solar system, along with small plaques giving snippets of interesting information.

Our plan for the day was to start at the Sun, naturally enough, and make it as far as Neptune, taking in all the planets as we went. You may be thinking to yourself "Hang on, that's not right. Neptune's not the last planet in the system, Pluto is. They're not doing it properly if they don't get to Pluto."

Leaving aside, for the moment, the controversy over whether or not Pluto is a planet, rest assured that the Planetenweg's designers had considered this. Pluto has a very erratic orbit, and for a significant period of time it's actually inside the orbit of Neptune. Accordingly, it has three markers along the walk, one at perihelion, one at aphelion, and one at the mid-point between the two.

So, by making it as far as Neptune we were guaranteed of seeing at least one of Pluto's markers.

The rest of the walk from the station to Uto Kulm also takes in Mercury and Venus.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

As you can see, the models capture the relative scale of the planets.

Uto Kulm makes a good vantage point for some sightseeing, with a viewing areas with coin-operated binoculars and also benefits from an observation tower offering panaromas over Zurich and the surroundings. So we paused to take in the view.

Taking in the view

Somewhat overcast continued to be the order of the day, but that didn't stop us from taking some more photos -- well, attempting to anyway.

We also (well, two out of three, I won't divulge who didn't fancy the height) climbed the observation tower to get a better look.

View from the top of Uto Kulm observation tower

We'd planned a brief stop for lunch before striking out on the rest of the path. As things panned out this took longer than expected; partly because Uto Kulm proved to be quite busy, with waitresses rushed off their feet, so being served took a while. Also, partway through the meal the rain which had been threatening for most of the day decided to make an appearance. Fortunately this only lasted 10 minutes or so before easing off.

Getting back on the path and finding the Earth was relatively simple. The plaque and model for the Earth also included a scaled miniature for the moon too -- none of the others on the rest of the walk include satellites.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

Strolling on, Mars and Ceres fell to our footsteps very shortly afterwards.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

Note that Ceres is almost too small make out in this picture. I'm not certain why it was included on the path (especially given that it's not a planet). Anyway...

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

By this point I was starting to get slightly concerned. I was expecting the walk to take a couple of hours, more or less, and here we were having passed by half the solar system already, and after only perhaps 20 minutes of walking. I was beginning to think that I'd have to quickly come up with something else for us to do to keep us occupied for the rest of the afternoon.

As it turns out I needn't have worried. As Douglas Adams wrote, "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." Walking the Planetenweg is an excellent way to get an appreciation of just how large the distances involved are, as we went some distance down leafy tracks (dodging the occasional cyclists who came pounding past).

Got wood?

The route is also littered with various observation points affording views out on to Lake Zurich and the small towns that lie up and down the coast on either side. I did my best to point out sights of interest along the way.

After 15 minutes or so I was beginning to get a little concerned that perhaps we'd passed the marker for Jupiter and not realised it. Then we rounded a corner and there it was.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

With the earlier planet models amounting to little more than small ball bearings it was quite a shock to see this representation of just how large Jupiter is compared to the inner planets. Although, as you can see, it is in some danger of being overgrown.

We'd settled in to quite a relaxed walking pace now, with occasional pauses to capture a particular view on camera, and were becoming adept at hearing the noise of furious pedaling before the cyclists rounded the corner, and it was all really rather pleasant.

Twenty minutes gentle stroll brought us to Saturn's marker. I was wondering on the way whether or not they would include Saturn's famous rings, and I was pleased to see that an effort has been made.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

Although it does put me in mind of those exercise balance balls that are supposed to be good for improving your posture.

The route continued, going gently up and down, passing by many fields, farm houses, and carefully looked after swathes of green.

_MG_7605-2

As a slight astronomy geek (well, geek with passing interest in astronomy anyway) there were two facts about Uranus that had stuck in my mind. One is that it's blue, as evidenced by this image search. The other is that its axial tilt is the most extreme of all the planets. In effect its poles take turns pointing at the Sun during its orbut, so you can imagine that Uranus almost rolls along it's orbital path.

Anyway, I wasn't expecting of these two nuggets of information to make it on to the marker, so I was quite happy to see that they've made the marker blue -- an attention to detail that I wasn't expecting.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

With just Neptune and Pluto to go our walk took on a final definite air of purpose as we strode to the notional finish line. As I explained earlier, Pluto's marker is nearer than Neptune's because of Pluto's erratic orbit. I was slightly miffed that they don't include a scale model for this marker though, just the plaque.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

And then, probably not 100 metres further on was Neptune, and as far in the solar system as we were planning to go. At least on this visit.

Models from the Uetliberg Planetenweg

From the Neptune marker it's possible to look back and see Uto Kulm. In this photo the taller of the two is the Uetliberg TV Tower. For an idea of scale, that tower is 186.7m tall. The observation tower that we'd climbed earlier is the smaller of the two.

Final destination

Having bagged our final planet it was on to the end of our journey on the route, and to the Luftseilbahn Adliswil-Felsenegg (LAF), perhaps another 15 minutes walk distant.

Running for 55 years, the LAF is a cable car that connects Felsenegg station at the top with the town Adliswil at the bottom. Just over a kilometre long the cable cars make the journey in a little under 3 minutes, and thanks to Zurich's excellent integrated public transport system normal travel passes are accepted on the route.

Here's the route we took, from Uetliberg station to the LAF.


View Larger Map

From the bottom it was then a short walk to Adliswil station, where, despite being a Sunday, trains were still running regularly back to Zurich Hauptbahnhof.

Feeling somewhat walked out, we paused for coffee at a cafe, and gave our feet a bit of rest. Suitable recaffeinated and rejuvenated we strolled through the squares and streets on the west side of the Limmat down towards to the lake. By now it was getting on for 6pm, and time to start thinking about an evening meal.

P and J had recently returned from a holiday in Argentina, so I was keen to take them to Churrasco, an Argentinan steakhouse in the centre of Zurich. I've been there several times and had excellent food, and I was interested how well the restaurant held up when compared to their recent experiences in Argentina.

The ambience was perhaps slightly ruined by the associated sauces arriving at the table still in their plastic squeezy bottles, but in all other respects the meal was superb. The fillet steak was fantastic, as only the best fillet can be, and the wine (a Norton Malbec Reserve 2006) was superb. Perhaps a little tight in the bottle, but it loosened up quickly enough.

And then, because we were shattered, home.

Visiting Zurich: Day Two (pt 2)

This is a continuation from Visiting Zurich: Day Two (pt 1).

After cycling around the city and finishing at about 1pm it was time for lunch. Since some of the party were vegetarian we wandered off in the direction of Hiltl, Europe's oldest vegetarian restaurant -- founded in 1898 it's been going strong for 111 years. We took advantage of the buffet, which is priced by weight. You load up your plate, weigh it, and if I remember correctly hand over CHF 4.50 per 100g.

As J pointed out, this is something of a contrast to the UK, where any sort of buffet option normally limits the number of trips you're allowed to make, requiring a careful form of structural engineering in order to maximise the amount of food you can get away with on your plate.

This was a very important skill during our student years.

Lunch was very tasty, and quite filling, but turned out to be lacking that certain something. Discussion determined that the certain something was ice-cream, and with a Mövenpick stand one street over it seemed rude not to...

Suitably sated we strolled over to the Grossmünster for some more sightseeing. I say strolled, "Hopped on a number 11 tram" would be a more accurate way of putting it.

The church interior is quite plain, in large part because of the Swiss Reformation in the 1500s. Accordingly, there's not much in the way of internal decoration -- what is there being largely limited to reliefs on the stonework (note: it's been a while since I was last in the Grossmünster and it seems that in the intervening time they've banned photography inside the building, so these photos are from when it was allowed1).

Architectural detail

The north-west end of the church also boasts two very impressive stained-glass windows.

Stained glass in the Grossmunster

I recommend clicking on that to view the image larger, and properly appreciate the colours in the glass.

At the south-west end of the Grossmünster is the crypt, first consecrated by Bishop Gebhard III of Constance in 1107. Pride of place is afforded to a statue of Charlemagne, which dates to around 1450-1475. This statue was originally sat in a niche approximately half way up the Charles Tower of the Grossmünster (the one nearest the river) -- the statue currently in that niche is a copy of this one.

Statue of Charlemagne

Why Charlemagne? According to legend he built the first church on the site now occupied by the Grossmünster.

The two towers of the Grossmünster dominate the Zurich skyline, and for CHF 2 you can climb most of the way up the inside of one of them for some stunning views. The climb up is somewhat cramped, which poses a bit of a problem for me at 6'6", but the view is definitely worth it.

View from the Grossmunster

After pausing to catch our breath at the top of the tower and take in the view we moved on to our next destination -- the Fraumünster, just over the river Limmat.

ProphetsApproximately 200 years older that the Grossmünster, it was founded by Louis the German, a grandson of Charlemagne, for his daughter. Like the Grossmünster the interior is sparser than you would expect, again that's due to the effect of the Reformation.

Today the Fraumünster's main claim to fame is probably the five stained glass windows that were installed in 1970. Designed by Marc Chagall and 10m high the five windows represent the Prophets, Jacob, Zion, Christ, and the Law. To the right you should see a panaroma of the "Prophets" window (again, taken before photography in the church was banned).

...the red-orange "Prophets" window depicts Elisha watching Elijah's ascension in a fiery chariot. Above that is a blue area in which Jeremiah sits above, head in hands, lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem. At the top is a multicolored God in heaven, sending beams of enlightenment to his prophets. This window is lit artificially, as it's on an interior wall.

sacred-destinations.com

By this point we were starting to get a bit peckish again, and P had already picked out an appropriate venue for afternoon tea -- the Sprüngli restaurant at Paradeplatz. And good choice it proved, as we managed to bag the last of their gluten-free (or, as I discovered "glutenfrei" auf Deutsch) treats as a little restorative.

Next on the agenda (following a 3 hour return home to freshen up and get ready for the evening after the morning's exertions) was dinner, and I'd booked us a spot at King's Kurry at Wiedikon. Since I've come to Switzerland there aren't many home comforts that I miss, but being able to wander in to the centre of more or less any town and get a decent curry is one of them. King's Kurry is one of the very few decent Indian restaurants I've found in Zurich and the surrounding area. The Swiss seem to have an aversion to spicy food.

Anyway, the meal was great, although, note to self: opting for a table outside by the tram tracks is not necessarily conducive to uninterrupted conversation. And then on for cocktails. For what evening would be complete without a cocktail to round it off?

So we jumped in a number 14 tram and probably 20 minutes later were walking in the door of the Safari Bar, where Long Island Ice Teas, Mai Tais, and Apple Mojitos awaited us.

We did, however, drink sensibly, and in moderation, as we had another exercise-filled day ahead of us...

1 Possibly interesting footnote. I took these the day after I interviewed at Google.

Visiting Zurich: Day Two (pt 1)

See Day One.

Saturday dawned bright and slightly overcast. Almost perfect cycling weather, which was handy, as that's what we were going to be doing.

When friends have visited in the past I've played tour guide, going on walks through Zurich and pointing out the sites. But there's only so much ground you can cover, and I've only got a fraction of the trivia to hand that a "proper" guide would have. So I was very pleased to discover the tours run by Zurich by Bike. CHF 25 per person for two and a half hours seemed like a reasonable deal, so after popping by the local baker for Mandelgipfel and Butterbrezel ("There goes three months of Benecol" commented P) we headed down to Bürkliplatz.

We arrived perhaps 20 minutes early, so wandered around the fleamarket at Bürkliplatz for a bit. Definitely the place to go if you're in need of some vintage vinyl, old electronic equipment, and, oddly, a stall that seemed to specialise in promotional shoulder bags from a diverse range of different airlines.

10.30am rolled around and our guide arrived. Zurich by Bike use bikes provided as part of the Züri rollt. This is a great scheme -- leave a (refundable) CHF 20 deposit and borrow a bike for some or all of a day from a number of locations around Zurich. The bikes were comfortable and seemed well looked after, which was reassuring.

My Zuri rollt bike

By then our numbers had swelled somewhat, as I'd invited some other Zurich-based friends to join us, so with guide nine of us set out from Bürkliplatz heading east.

Our tour took us along the Limmat, taking in (amongst other things) the Rathaus, and the Fraumünster.

First stop on the tour

From there we went via Paradeplatz along Bahnhofstrasse, pausing up by Lindenhof to take in the view and hear stories, like how the Limmat got its name.

Admiring the view

Along the Limmat

The route continued towards the Landesmuseum, up via Langstrasse, around and to Bäckeranlage, before bringing us back along the western-centre edge of Zurich and back down to the lake. Here's a reasonable approximation of the journey...


View Larger Map

... and if you use Google Earth then opening ZurichbyBike.kmz should let you fly along the route too.

The tour was almost exactly two hours and thirty minutes, and I can highly recommend it to anyone who wants to find out a bit more about Zurich while getting a little exercise. The route was very easy, being almost entirely on the flat, and, with a few very short exceptions busy roads are avoided. And even on the main thoroughfares Zurich is still quite quiet, even in the middle of a Saturday.

Visiting Zurich: Day One

I've had some house guests over the weekend -- friends of mine I've known since my university days -- and having spent a very enjoyable few days around Zurich I thought I'd chronicle some of what we got up to. Partly to prepare other friends who might be considering the same trip, and partly as suggestions to you, dear reader, for things you might want to do when you're in Zurich.

J and P's flight arrived mid-afternoon, and after clearing customs we had perhaps a third of the day left. Zurich Airport is easy to navigate, and I'd already purchased a pair of 72 hour ZurichCARD travel passes for them while I was waiting, which covered all the places we were likely to go, so we didn't need to spend any extra time hanging around the airport.

The trains to the Hauptbahnhof are always a pleasant contrast to the Heathrow experience, where you would spend 40+ minutes on a clanking, bumpy Picadilly line underground train, as compared to the 10 minutes in relative comfort that it takes here. A quick snack stop at Nordsee was in order -- that's the only problem with flying to Zurich over lunch; the flight leaves too early to have a decent lunch at the airport, and the food on the plane is never that great so you arrive feeling decidedly peckish -- then back to my place to freshen up.

Newly invigorated we headed back in to Zurich for a stroll down the Bahnhofstrasse. P was on a mission to track down a copy of the Swiss Constitution (it's best not to ask), and we discovered the next best thing, the Swiss Civil Code, on the top floor at the back of Orell Füssli. Rather surprisingly it was free.

The walk down Bahnhofstrasse also gave us the opportunity to admire the oversized plant pots in evidence as part of Garten City, and to point out my favourite jewellers, CHRIST (so called, I believe, as that's what you mutter under your breath when you see the prices).

Making it down to the end of Bahnhofstrasse we stopped to admire the view over the lake and off to the Alps, before deciding that dinner was a good idea. So from there to the Zeughauskeller for something approaching traditional Swiss food. To wit, sausages, potatoes, and bread. And quite a nice bottle of wine.

I'd been to the ZHK before, but hadn't really paid that much attention to the all the army memorabilia that's dotted around the place (although the signs near the entrance that say "Warning: No smoking, live grenades" are quite eye-catching). As I was to discover the following day the ZHK used to be an army munitions store, which explains the decor.

The evening was still a little young, so we meandered over to the east side of the Limmat and in to Barrique. I'd been in here earlier in the week, selflessly helping celebrate some birthdays, and it's a pleasant enough place to spend a bit of time. And drink a glass or two of wine, which is what we did.

And then home, because tomorrow was going to be a busy day...