Hi Fodorites, we have a 5 hr. layover in Zurich. We will go out of the airport to walk around the town. We get there at around 7am and our flight to Rome leaves at 12:30. We want to accomplish 3 things...picture taking, quick brunch and souvenirs. What's the best souvenir (smallish and light)Any ideas if I'll find anything open around that time? We understand we have to get back around 11:30a to check in. Any ideas or comments will be appreciated. Thanks!

The airport has some great souvenir shops. I'd still recommend strolling through Zürich though.

I would have recommended knives for your light souvenirs but you can't take them with you on your carry-on.

Otherwise, chocolate (available at all grocery stores), T.shirts, caps and saffron from the grocery store (it's quite inexpensive in Switzerland).

I'm sure others will have great ideas too.

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate.
I wanted to have morning tea at the Sprugli cafe in Zurich but they were closed for renovations when we were there last year, I was so sad. Here is the website, look under information, it is open at 7am.
www.spruengli.ch
Just wander along the river for your photo taking.
Have a great time.

I'd second Maudie's suggestion.
Take the train to Zürich central station (named Zürich HB on destination displays).
Get a return ticket already at the airport station, since that is automatically a day pass also for the streetcars and buses in downtown Zürich.

Stroll down Bahnhofstrasse until you get to Paradeplatz where Spruengli's main store is located.
Have the breakfast in the upstairs restaurant, get some chocolate (specialty: "same-day chocolate", made from fresh cream.. good excuse to eat up whole box since you have to!).
Cross the river Limmat on one of the bridges, and explore the historic Niederdorf on the other side. Visit the historic grocery and specialty store Schwarzenbach in the Niederdorf neighborhood.

Stores will open around 9am, except on Sundays.

The best gift I would bring from Switzerland would be the 10 gram silver bars. You can buy this at most banks but some have prettier bars, so shop around. The SKB has a nice one.

You get the bar plus a assay certificate, which is kind of neat.

You can later solder a ring onto the bar, for necklace purposes.

The prices will vary, depending on the silver prices but this isn't a great amount of money.

Plus, they do not take a lot of room in your luggage.

Blackduff

> The prices will vary, depending on the silver prices but this isn't a great amount of money.

Interesting. Just for an idea, how much have you paid for such? or seen being sold at what price?

There's a new item by the Swiss knife people that looks like a Swiss knife, but it's actually a laser pointer and memory stick (2 gig, I think). Nifty looking and I imagine you could take that in carry-on.

Blackduff: I've lived here over twenty years and have never heard of silver bars. The things I learn!

The Swiss used to (and still do) buy Gold Vrenelis for their loved ones as a special gift. You can still get them today at banks. They're gold coins that have collector's items.

http://www.blick.ch/news/wirtschaft/...-zurueck-76329

The English Forum also posted a thread on gold vrenelis:
http://www.englishforum.ch/finance-b...-presents.html

Kappa
Here's a silver bar on ebay for one ounce. They're asking $34.95, which sounds expensive in my opinion. There's about 28 troy ounces and I think silver is selling for about $16.00 per ounce in the market.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-Oz-CREDIT-SUIS...QQcmdZViewItem

Roughly I would think a bar would be sold at a bank for about $10.00. This changes a small bit between the various banks but it's all within the same range.

I used to buy these bars for girls in the office. It was a cheap gift and it's very nice. They seemed to like this present.

Blackduff

http://www.24carat.co.uk/silverbulli...isseframe.html

This is the Credit Suisse bar prices for silver. As I mentioned, it's less than a tener. There are five gram bars too, which are even cheaper.

Blackduff

Hi Blackduff:
Thank you very much for the suggestion about silver bars. So which bank should I walk into and where are they? Is there one near a train station? Again thanks. That's a cool suggestion.

Checkerspot
I'm pretty certain you can buy silver bars at the banks in the airport. But, when you take the train to the Hauptbanhof you will find a host of banks in the central part of Zurich.

Many of the banks have small windows with bars on display. Check out to see the images of the bars and decide which is the most attractive. Certainly many are better than others.

If you want to spend a bit more, you can find frames for the bars, which provide a ring for necklace purposes. The frames usually cost more than the bar itself.

I always wanted to buy a kilo bar of silver and use this on my office. Then I thought someone would steal my bar, so I forgot this idea. Plus, it's a lot of weight to carry in your luggage.

Cheers

Blackduff

Maudie

Thanks for the wonderful ideas. I am already salivating with just the thought of Sprungli....will not miss it for the world. This site is so useful. I love the suggestions everyone's given so far. We are also going into a bank @ Banhofstrasse for those silver bars!!!

Please first make sure you have your boarding pass for your onward flight before you leave the airport. You never know how long that may take (there can be lines), and you don't want to leave that until you return. If your originating airline won't issue it the ticket for the Rome flight to you, go to the transfer desk when you arrive. Your baggage will be transferred automatically. You don't' have to go out to the departure area and the main check-in area to get the boarding pass, you just go to the "transit/transfer" desk within the controlled are (i.e,. before you go through Immigration).

Arriving back at the airport an hour before the flight is generally OK, <u> if</u> you already have a boarding pass and no luggage to check. There are lockers in the airport train station to leave hand luggage if you want, you need coins (they take Euros and Swiss Francs). There is also a manned luggage room there too.

Please tell me your layover is not on a Sunday, or you won't find banks or any shops open other than in train stations and airports. You used the word &quot;brunch&quot; which makes me think you may be there on a Sunday... If it is, the Coop grocery stores may have some items, and so will the duty-free part of the airport (i.e. after you have gone back through Immigration and are in the gate area). Banks don't open until around 10 am.

IMO, the very best shop for souvenirs is Teddy's on Limmatquai, basically below the Grossmunster where you will probably want to go anyway to get the bird's eye view of Zurich from the tower (small fee):

Teddy's Souvenir shop
34 Limmatquai

They have all kinds of kitsch souvenirs and also good stuff, including CDs of Swiss music (a hoot). My nieces and nephews love this place.

For more expensive but very good quality souvenirs, you should go to Schweizer Heimatwerk. These sell very good quality, not cheap, but interesting. They have a shop in the main train station (open on Sundays), and two in the old town, addresses are below, or try their website at http://www.heimatwerk.ch. I think they have an outlet in the airport as well.

Schweizer Heimatwerk
1 Uraniastrasse

This one is along the river and if you continue along the pedestrian walkway past the shop along the river toward the lake, there are some antique shops and other interesting shops as well. This whole area is worth wandering around, you can walk up to the right and get to St Peter's Square, or continue along the river and get to the Fraumunster area (and Teuscher chocolate, see below).

Schweizer Heimatwerk
14 Renweg

This is on one of the main shopping streets on the left bank of the old town, quite close to the Bahnhofstrasse. You can get to the St Peter's Square area from here as well to the left, or at the top of the street, take a right onto Widdergasse and take a walk down Augustinergasse, which I think is one of the loveliest shopping streets anywhere. Lots of oriole windows and gabled buildings.

You can buy chocolate at the airport, I personally would do that there and not waste time in Zurich as you probably will have some time after you have gone back through Immigration and have not yet boarded your flight. You can get Sprungli in the US too so again you may not want to spend a whole lot of time buying it, and you are going on to Italy as well. (Generally to a Swiss, chocolate is considered fresh if it is 3-4 days old, so if you are buying it for gifts when you get back to the US, you might want to rethink that and order on-line when you get home.) However, during my weekend stopover in Zurich in March, the chocolate I am going to buy is Teuscher, as I like it better, their shop at Storchengasse 9 is very charming, and is just off the Munsterhof near to the Fraumunster church in one of the loveliest parts of the old town. Go to http://www.teuscher.com.

Other than on Sunday, you may not find a lot of restaurants actually offering brunch. Also, you may be late for breakfast and early for lunch, so your choices may be more limited but try these:

Farmers Market
Burkliplatz

If you are there on a Tuesday or Friday morning and it's not too cold, you might want to try an outdoor breakfast at the Farmer's Market, which is on the lakefront at Burkliplatz (use the Stadelhofen train station for hits, see below). This is next door to the Baur au Lac hotel. They have a bakery with croissants and a place selling cheeses, and then you can see all the other great fresh stuff on offer. There is a place with coffee and bratwurst too. It might be interesting. Very colourful. It starts at like 6 am and goes until about 11 am. This is blocks from the Fraumunster.

B&auml;ckerei Vohdin
Oberdorfstrasse 12
Tel. 252 49 19

A wonderful hole in the wall (literally) and one of the oldest bakeries in Zurich, this is quite close to the Grossmunster church. This opened in about 1620 (the building was built in the 14th century), and it always amused me that they started operation about the same time as the pilgrims landed in Massachusetts aboard the Mayflower (and this really impressed by niece and nephew). They have a good selection of croissants and pretzels. Strictly take-away (the shop is literally a hole in the side of a building). But you can take the stuff down to the river (and there is a Starbucks on the way to get coffee, see below). The downside is that they are only open like 4 mornings a week, Tuesday through Friday, so these may not coincide with your days. Take the train to Stadelhofen station for this, the bakery is a few minutes walk, in the direction of the Grossmunster cathedral.

Cafe Schober
Napfgasse 4
Tel: 44 251 8060

This probably serves the best hot chocolate in the world. Great pastries too. Bring lots of money. On the right bank of the old town.

Cafe Wuehre
Wuehre 11
Zurich
tel 41-1 211 26 53

A few houses down from the Hotel zum Storchen, closer to the Fraumunster on the left bank, on a narrow pedestrian-only street right along the river.

Caf&eacute; Walthi
Schoffegasse 3
Zurich
Tel: 41-1 262-0906

Great crepes. Extremely casual, not expensive, lots of university students. On the right bank.

Am Weinplatz
Zurich, Switzerland, 8022
Tel: 41 1 227 2727
Fax: 41 1 227 2700
http://www.summithotels.com

Their first floor dining room may be serving what is closest to a brunch daily and this location in the old town is very good for touring. This is on the left bank of the river.

Starbucks
Limmatquai 4
Zurich

Hate to say it, but they have a pretty good pastry and cake selection for breakfast, and this particular location is yards from the Stadelhofen train station (see below) and therefore in an excellent location to start a trip around the old town. They also serve all hours, which you won't find at all restaurants in Zurich. The Grossmunster cathedral is a few minutes walk from here, as is Teddy's Souvenir shop, this is along the river on the right bank. (There are other Starbucks in town, see http://www.starbucks.ch/en-US/_Our+S...urich+city.htm for listings)

Sprungli
21 Banhofstrasse

Famous chocolate shop with a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and ice cream. This is in the business and shopping area on the Bahnhofstrasse, not far from the Fraumunster church.

Rather than taking the train from the airport to the main train station (the Hautbanhof) another way to get to much closer to the lake and to an interesting section of the old town is to take the train to the Stadelhofen station. This is one of the four train stations in Zurich; although most tourists only know about the Hautbanhof. The Stadelhofen train station is about 200 yards from the lake and is on the southern edge of the old town, quite close to the Grossmunster, the river and the Fraumunster (the one with the Chagall windows which if you get a clear morning in March will be great to see at the time you are arriving). The Hautbahnhof is at the top of the main shopping street, but is a farther walk from the main cathedrals and more interesting parts of the old town, IMO.

There is a train twice an hour (on the hour and half hour) to the Stadelhofen station from the airport which does not require any change and takes 15 minutes to get to Stadelhofen, although it stops first at the Hautbanhof (There are more frequent trains which require a change at the Hautbanhof). See rail.ch for schedules. You could either take the train to Stadelhofen and begin a tour here walking up toward the Hautbanhof station to get a train back to the airport, or do the reverse, this would save a lot of backtracking. A map of the old town area of Zurich would be helpful.

Sorry, I left off the name of the hotel restaurant I recommended above, it is the Hotel Zum Storchen, address is Am Weinplatz. You could have breakfast in most any hotel as well.

Cicerone, thank you so much for the very detailed list. In fact I already printed it. . No, we will not be there on a Sunday. It will actually be on a Thursday. Again, thanks.

Blackduff, thank you for your answers. I have seen those silver bars (besides gold ones of course)at banks and maybe at exchange banks at the railway station but have not paid much attention. Next time I will take a good look. Perhaps a gift to friends when I return home next time. Thanks for the idea.

Hello Fodorites:

We are back and we were able to spend a couple of hours or so in Zurich...Banhofstrasse.

Beautiful city even though we were there only a very short time. One thing we found was how kind and helpful the Swiss were. Right now, we consider Switzerland as having the nicest people around. At least as far as the cities we have visited so far. Every single person we asked went out of their way to help us.

Unfortunately though, we were not able to find the silver bars. We went to practically all the banks in Banhofstrasse and all they had were the 1 kilo ones. There were some employees that told us were they think we will find it, but it was out of the way...we did not go there as we were afraid we would miss the train back to the airport. Maybe next time. My kids actually saved money for the silver bars and I felt bad that we were not able to buy some. Maybe next time, we can actually stay there longer than a few hours.

Chocolates...we could not get enough of it. Sprungli did not last beyond Zurich Airport prior to the flight to Rome were the rest of the chocolates did not last beyond the first night!!! Either we did not buy enough or we (my kids, my wife and myself) have a serious chocolate problem.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions...Switzerland is definitely in our list of places to re-visit someday...

Cool! Thanks for writing back. I also checked for the silver bars while I was there (almost 2 weeks ago! time flies quickly!), and had no luck.

There will always be next time...