Toucan2

I know that the payback for getting great information on the boards is to write a trip report. My trip was primarily for business, but I tacked on some fun outings that went even more smoothly because of advice on this board.

Although some of the stays/dining were business related, I'll go ahead and post a little information just in case they might be of some use to someone. I doubt I'll get this all done in one sitting, so please be patient!

Day 1 - 9/25/06

My gateway was through Newark. I have not flown through there in many years so I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the terminal. I had a rather long layover so I did go in every shop--managed by Westfields so the prices were similar to off-airport shops. Some include: Swatch, Smithsonion, WH Smith, US Open Store, Duty Free (of course) and several others I forget. I did price Swatch watches to see if the price would be comparable in Switzerland.

There is a food court, as well as several sitdown restaurants, which is a nice change in airports. I had not had breakfast so did have lunch at the Garden State Diner. The menu was really pretty much like any northeast dinner, so naturally I had a Gyros (can't help myself) and tea for 13.81 USD.

The flight was uneventful and I was lucky enough to have the row to myself so could stretch out and nap. Continental Airlines.

Day 2 - 9/26/06

Arrived very early in Zurich. The flight was to land at 8:40 am but I had been through immigration, retrieved my bag, got through customs, got a little cash, caught my shuttle and was at the hotel by 8:30 am!

A note: I selected 100 CHF at the bank machine. I didn't realize I would get a 100 note...in US banks you usually get 5 20's. A friend later told me to always enter an odd number. Not a big deal, but a minor inconvenience to break the 100 in order to pay for small items.

I was not yet in Zurich proper as I had business to attend to first. I stayed at the NH Zurich Airport hotel at Schaffhauserstr. 101, in Glattbrugg. For us this was very convenient to our offices. It actually isn't that bad to go downtown either as there is a train about 1-2 blocks away. It is only 5 minutes from the airport, with a regular, free shuttle.

As I know people track this sort of thing, the cost was 221.00 CHF (before tax) per night. The service was very good, the rooms fine. Clean, not overly large, good hot showers etc. Phone charges were very reasonable. I only made one call home (Kansas City Missouri) from the hotel and it only cost 4.20 CHF.

The rest of the day would bore you I'm afraid as I quickly took a shower and went to the office. Dinner that evening was at Levale directly across the street from the hotel. We simply got a series of mezes for the group and all were good...I can't ever remember all the names, sorry!

Day 3, 9/27/06

More work, but it started with the breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was quite a good array. It was included in the hotel rate. Choices were: Hot Dishes - Scrambled eggs, tomatoes, fingerling potatos, sausage, bacon. Cold Cuts and Cheeses - Salmon, Brie, Pastrami etc. Cereals, Spreads (including Nutella my fav!) Warm baguettes, multigrain loaf, croissants, jelly filled doughnuts, muffins. Fresh fruit tray. Canned peaches and fruit cocktail. A juicer to make your own fresh juice and of course tea and coffee. I so love getting hot milk for your coffee!!

Since you don't want to hear about my work day, I'll skip ahead to dinner at the hotel. Very good. I decided to have "Swiss Tradition." This consisted of Veal Zurich Style and Rosti. It was very good, and 40 CHF. The presentation was lovely as well.

Question: What is the tipping policy in Zurich? I couldn't remember, so naturally I tipped.

I have to go for now, but will return!

Toucan2

Day 4, 9/28/06

More work and breakfast at the hotel, nothing to tell you there that hasn't already been said.

Dinner at the hotel again. Again, the presentation of the meal was really beautiful.I had a beautiful salad. The greens had strawberries coated with parmesan, and edible flowers. It was presented with three "test tubes" of strawberry tomato gazpacho to dress the salad with. Really good and refresshing.

I then had the Beef Filet with roasted vegetables and a Swiss Red Wine. Along with still water, it came to 71 CHF.

Day 5, 9/29/06

The fun can begin! After I check out of the hotel they call for a taxi for me. Although I know it will be expensive I splurge because I'm tired and want to get to my hotel in Zurich, drop the baggage and begin wandering. Taxi was 50 CHF from near the airport to Hotel Altstadt at Kirchgasse 4.

I stayed at the Hotel Altstadt, recommended here on this board. My total for two nights was 520.80 CHF. I really enjoyed this hotel. It's kind of funky, artwork and books by the artist in the rooms. My room faced the Kirchgasse. The weather was pretty warm, so I loved being able to open the windows to get the air, and lean out and watch people window shopping. If I really leaned out further I could see the Limmat.

The room was not ready yet so I dropped my luggage and begin wandering. I walked down and crossed the River Limmat to Fraumunster. Unfortunately, it is closed until next Easter for renovations. I turned past it towards the lake and see that there is a courtyard pass through just the other side of the Fraumunster.

Sorry, have to continue later!

Tweeter

Hi Toucan2,

Thanks for posting. I am looking forward to the rest of your Zurich report, since we may include it in our itinerary for next spring.

Tweeter

Toucan2

Day 5, continued

I walked through the courtyard, enjoying the whimsical faces on the walls, then noticed that on one side, the walls were painted. I don't know the stories of course, but several of the panels had snakes in them, in varying poses, and one panel where there people are holding their heads...in their hands...and not like when you get a headache Their heads were no longer attached of course. I wonder are these the three slaves who were beheaded then carried their heads up to the site of the Grossmunster? This would make sense.

In any case, it was a wonderful little courtyard to stumble across.

I decided to head up to the Hauptbahnhof to buy my tickets, orient myself, and so on. I got distracted by a wonderful textiles shop called TXT, but then moved onward.

I bought a Zurich card plus a city card for 22 CHF. I could get the Zurich card for 24 or 72 hours, but I was leaving Sunday morning so 24 wasn't enough and 72 was too much. The wonderful lady at the counter spent a few minutes with me and decided the combo I got would work out fine.

The Zurich card is such a great deal and I'm glad I read about it on this board. It gave my free transport in Zurich, plus half off walking tours, plus a boat ride. It really paid for itself. I think it does more things too, but those are the things I used.

I hadn't stopped at the right place for a train ticket to Lausanne though, so I headed up to the Tourist office and bought that ticket for Sunday, as well as my walking tour ticket. With the Zurich card, teh walking tour cost 10 CHF.

So, Zurich card in hand, I hopped on a tram, went back to my hotel, and decided to see if it was possible to get my boat trip before my walking tour at three. I had unbelievable timing all weekend. This was about 12:30, I walked down to the lake just as the boat was pulling up, hopped on, and took and hour and 1/2 boat ride. The weather was gorgeous, I sat on the top deck and had a glass of wine (a local reisling, it poured two glasses and was 9.80 CHF), looked the beautiful homes, watched the people along the shore, it was grand

I didn't realize that you could also get a light meal on this ride until I saw people being served or I would have ordered something (by then it was too late). But, if you take this, keep in mind that you could get soups, french fries, weiners and the like.

The boat came back at 2:30, I hopped on a tram up to the train station again. Here I look for a WC and follow the signs to "Mr Clean." It is quite an operation and you pay 2 CHF admission to enter. For this you get privacy and cleanliness

I joined my tour at 3:00. The tour guide was Rosemary Wanne and she was lovely. She did the tour in two languages. There was a small number of English speakers, all the rest were German speaking. And so, she would do the spiel in one language, and then do the other.

I really enjoyed the tour. It gives a good orientation of the city, and you certainly see things you might not without a tour guide. I would definitely recommend doing this. It started in the train station, went out along the Bahnhofstrasse (I should probably look up the spelling) then over through a side street where she showed us a relieve of the three patrons of Zurich, heads in hand.

A very cool part of this was that she took us into the police station. They have permission to bring in groups to see a frescoed (okay, more bad spelling) interior in brilliant reds, yellos, oranges etc. Truly amazing.

There was a stop at a fountain by a restaurant where she explained how good the water is in Zurich, and they proceeded to pour a bit of syrup into glasses and fill with the fountain water. Mine was a cinnamon syrup mixture and was really refreshing.

It was interesting to see throughout the weekend people stopping at the fountains, washing their hands, children splashing in them and so on. It used to be that public fountains were indicated by a blue and white seal. You can still see the seal on some of them, but now all of them are public.

She showed us where the public baths had been, ruins of Roman baths that were discovered when a toy store tried to expand, and of course the Lindenhof. We wandered through many of the streets back behind the Grossmunster as well.

After the tour, which ended about 20 past 5, I walked around a bit more then walked back to Limmatquai and stopped at the Zunfthaus zur Zimmerleut, also recommended on these boards. It was beautiful, so I sat outside, looked up and saw several other small groups of people who had also been on the walking tour. We all greeted each other, before having our drinks and meals.

I had peperoni ravioli with julienned vegetables and and ice tea for 24 CHF. It was very good.

It had been a long day so I didn't do much more, retired to the hotel for the evening.

Toucan2

Day 6, 9/30/06

I'm up early (although not as early as I should have been) because my Zurich card expires at noon and I want to go to Utlieberg (more bad spelling, I know I should look it up but I want to get this written!). Again, this was a trip someone spoke of on the board, and I'm so glad they did or I wouldn't have thought of doing it.

First, breakfast at the hotel. Although not as grand as the buffet at the NH, it is perfectly fine for me. The cost is included in the nightly rate. So: Cold Cuts--Salami, ham, pastrami. Three cheeses including brie. Many breads and spreads available, cereal, juice, coffee, fresh fruit.

I hop on the tram up to the Hauptbahnhof, then catch the train to U.

When everything is new to you, even transportation from one place to another is interesting. So, I enjoyed the ride up to U. At the top, I get off with all the others and follow them to the path up to the top. It's perhaps 10 minutes to the top. There's a "planet" walk that I had seen mentioned, with stopping points and mention of the planets. Unfortunately, I don't know German so I can't tell you what they say about the planets at these tops! The walk I think goes beyond the top and has many more stops for planets along the way.

So, as you approach the top, you see these gigantic concrete reindeer! Seriously, I have to do some research and see what is up with these reindeer. They are maybe 9 feet tall (umm, 3 metres?) very detailed, with mosaic tile around the antlers and chin. There are two globes on each side which I assume are lamplight in the evening. Then, when you get to the top where the hotel is, there are benches with the same kind of reindeer form. I just loved those reindeer.

So, once you are to the top where there are benches, outdoor seating by the hotel etc, there is also a very tall tower you can climb. I believe it said it was 30 metres. Now, I'm not crazy about things like that, but this young family with an infant and a toddler proceed ahead of me, so I know I couldn't chicken out. I'm glad I didn't, as the view was spectacular of Zurich, across the hills and mountains, all was spread out in front of you. I must say I was a little happy it was early morning and a little chilly as I had worked up a bit of a sweat even so.

After enjoying the views and walking about a bit, I headed back down to Zurich on the train. One thing you notice are all the many many trails, and folks of all ages walking, biking, horseback riding. It would be wonderful to have time to do some of the hiking.

Back in Zurich I spent some time shopping (was surprised to see that Swatch watches were more expensive here than in the US), bought some chocolate for friends, and generally wandered.

I wandered into the square in front of Globus where first I see a booth about reincarnation, followed by a Scientology booth, then on the other side were several booths about Green Zurich. They were passing out free samples of fresh squeezed apple cider so naturally I partook. Then I had to buy a bottle. It was so good!

Hopped on a tram down to Burkliplatz to look around the Saturday morning flea market (thanks again to thes boards!). I didn't buy anything, but it was a lot of fun to look around! Bought a bratwurst on the lake and ate with the wonderful bread.

The hotel was very convenient so at this point I stopped there and changed into lighter clothing (really, the weather was wondeful) then looked at more shops up Kirchgasse, then went to the Grossmunster. I'm glad I was watching other people or I'm not sure I would have realized to go down into the crypt. The statue of Charlemagne is down there (or a facsimile, not sure which). Beautiful stained glass windows by Giacomotti, wonderful organ.

More shopping and wandering the streets behind the Grossmunster. Back down to Limmatquai where there are street vendors, including a fruit stand where they were chopping up fresh fruit and selling small fresh fruit salads and chopped coconut. I get one with watermelon and pineapple and sit and people watch a bit.

I had to stop at Starbucks in order to buy my brother a Switzerland mug. The mugs are 20 CHF. I didn't have coffee there though, I stopped back at the hotel, dropped the mugs off, then sat outside of the hotel for a coffee.

At one point I stopped back at the Lindenhof and sat and watched the chess players. When I walked up, two matches were being played. Soon after, however, they all moved over to watch the match where I was sitting. These are the large ground chess layouts with pieces 1= 1 1/2 feet tall. It was interesting to watch, and even more interesting that not one person caught my eye, acknowledged I was there, not even a sideways glance. I wonder if I had intruded as either a female or as simply an outsider. Eventually I moved off. I shopped a bit in that area as well, and found a shop called Leinen Langenthal at Strehlgasse 29. They had nice linens and this is really the main place I bought gifts. I purchased 2 sofa pillow covers and 2 tea towels for 74 CHF total.

Dinner that evening was at Ban Song Thai which was right next to the hotel at Kirchgasse 6. I had Tom Ga Kai soup and green curry, tea and still water for 49.80 CHF.

aussiedreamer

Thank you. I leave in 48 hours. As I will have 1 day in Zurich alone while DH sees to his business appointment, i am very interested in the walking tour. We usually just do our own walking tours........ie, wander around and fluke interesting things. But as I will be solo perhaps the walking tour would be a good option. I'm not 'overly' adventerous when I'm on my own, but you make it sound so easy. Would you have time to give me specifics? Name of tour etc.
Thanks in Advance.

Toucan2

Hi aussiedreamer,

It is the walking tour offered by the Zurich tourist offices. I read about it here, and I think on weekends it is at 11 and 3, and I'm not sure on weekdays if it is just at 3 or 11 and 3. If you go to the Hauptbahnof, to the tourist office (main floor) you can buy tickets there, and that is where the tour groups meet. I think it was Cicerone on this board who wrote about it before, so you might also look for those posts.

I like to wander too, but this tour was really worthwhile. In my additional wanderings after that I went back to some of the spots on my own and spent more time.

Have fun! I really enjoyed my time in Zurich. I'll finish my report later, but I had a golf tournament today so haven't had a chance

Toucan2

Okay, go here: http://www.zuerich.com/index.html

Click on Tours and Excursions, then go to Walking tours and they have the times there. I hope you have Rosemary, she was very good.

Toucan2

Shoot, I keep replying to my own messages. But, I kept searching and found the thread where Cicerone listed all kinds of things like the walking tour, trip up to U, etc. I actually printed this out and took with me. Better than a guide book!

Darn it, I thought I figured out how to paste in the thread, but it didn't work. The thread is One day in Zurich. I'm sorry I can't get the link to post but it is very late for me and I can't figure it out at the moment):

aussiedreamer

Thank you Toucan2......i have already printed out Cicerones 'One Day in Zurich'. I will have to re-read!!
I will also print yours and take.
Our Hotel is right by the Hauptbahnof so it should be easy enough.

Thanks so much.

janisj

Great report! - looking forward to the rest.

FYI here is the thread you were trying to link http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34858320

To make it work, you need to open teh thread, and then click on it's name again. That brings up the URL of the specific thread . . . .

simpsonc510

I'm anxious to hear about your train travel from Zurich to Lausanne. I'll be making the same trip at the end of November. I will leave from ZRH, not the haupt bahnhof, but I assume there will be many similarities in the route. I've been to Lausanne a few times, but always traveling in the car with DH. This time, I'll be meeting up with him there, as I am arriving a day later than he does.

olive_oil

Well, I feel like such a rube. The currency in Switzerland is the CHF? doh! I had assumed it was the euro.

You can learn a lot at Fodor's.

Thanks for the interesting report.

suze

Yup, Swiss Franc

Toucan2

Thanks Janisj on how to link the thread! As olive oil says, you can learn a lot on Fodors

Okay, to finish up my report. I'll back up and say that after dinner 9/30 I did take a walk across the river, up to the lake and back. It was really lovely with locations such as the Fraumunster and Grossmunster beautifully lit. I think there is also an evening walking tour you can take through the Zurich tourism office and if I had had time, I think that would have also been nice.

10/1 - Sunday

I am up early for breakfast, then hop on the tram back to the Hauptbahnhof and wait for the train to Lausanne. I bought first class tickets for 108 CHF.

Unfortunately, it is rainy and the clouds are low so I can't see as much, but still there aer some beautiful views--villages, fields, cow, deer, alps in the distance, church spires with clocks, and the vineyards as you approach Lausanne. I sat on the left side of the train leaving Zurich, and sat in a car with upstairs seating. I would glace to the right occasionally, but I think I got the better view (or perhaps that is just wishful thinking). There was I think one stop, and a couple of tunnels, but I just glanced down and read a few pages of a book during those times. A man came by with beverages and snacks, and of course there is a dining car in the center of the train. I didn't go down, however, preferring to have my coffee brought to me It is not a long trip at all, maybe two hours? I can't remember!

From here on out it is mostly business, but I'll list a few things that might be of interest to someone, somewhere!

I was actually staying in Ouchy, down the hill from the train station and right on the shores of Lake Geneva. Taxi was 13.40 CHF. The hotel we stayed at was the Movenpick. It was quite nice, very spacious rooms, tea kettle, safe, minibar, great hot shower. I could look out my window at the alps, the lake, and of course a clock tower. (I don't wear a watch so I loved those clock towers!)

I'm afraid I can't tell you how much this room rate was as it was all paid for. I can tell you a few incidentals.

Roast beef sandwich on baguette with a salad and Coke was 20.50 CHF at the bar. Laundry at the hotel was VERY expensive. 52.00 CHF for two pairs of trousers, a cotton blouse and a silk blouse (for me, needed for work again so had to do it). The phone was more expensive than the phone home from the NH, at around 30.00 CHF per call to the states.

The hotel does have a nice gym, an Internet kiosk, and business center. The bar was nice and welcoming, there is outdoor seating as well.

The breakfast was much more like the breakfast at the NH, but possibly even more expansive. In this case the hot selections also had a cook behind who would make you an omelet or other eggs to order if you wish. Servers brought you coffee and tea rather than you getting this yourself. Again, for us we did not see the costs, so I don't know. Sorry about that!

Memorable dining:

We dined one night at the Chateau d'Ouchy. This was a short walk from the Movenpick, on the lake side of avenue de Rhodanie (where the Movenpick is located). It was a lovely dinner, great atmosphere. We started wtih a salmon mousse accompanied by sparkling wine, followed by sliced beef with what I can only describe as potato medallions. I'm sure there is a name for it, but we didn't have menus! It seemed like potatos had been mashed, piped out in lovely fluted medallions, and roasted again. Whatever, they were really good! This was accompanied by a local red wine. I can't even remember dessert! It was all good.

L'Esplanade at Aubonne

One evening they bussed us up to Aubonne for dinner at L'Esplanade. There is a French chef here, and again the dinner was lovely. Let's see, a starter of a beet gelee with lettuce shreds served in a shot glass; Sushi with diced vegetables; stuffed calamari served with a black risotto (squid ink perhaps?); veal w/carrot puree and mushroom ragout in pastry puff; dessert was an ice cream infused with some sort of herb.

The setting is gorgeous and I can only imagine what it would be like in daylight. It is high up in the mountains above the lake and we could see the lights glittering in France. There are vineyards right below the wall surrounding the restaurant, and you can walk down some stairs to them. It looked to also have a nice bar, and several other dining rooms.

At the lake: Our coursework took most of our time or I would have loved to explore more. There was an old-fashioned carnival in town, right on the lakeshore that would have been fun. It looks very easy to catch boat rides across to Evian, up the lake, or even use water taxis. There's a carousel there, snack stands, a skateboard park. It looked like there was quite a large sports complex with tennis courts, soccer fields and so on just up the road on the lake side, but I couldn't see if it was public or private.

The White Horse

Looking for a casual pub? This place was a lot of fun, just up the street from the Chateau d'Ouchy. Lots of standards you would expect to find in a pub. Always a surprise to see horse on the menu of course (for Americans that is).

One night a groups also went to a club called The Red Room in Lausanne and had a great time.

Geneva Airport

I flew out of Geneva this time. It is a very short (45 minutes or so) bus ride to the airport, even shorter by train I think (20 minutes). But a bus was provided for our group so off we went. That was fine, as I got to watch the scenery go by and determine that on my next trip I will come early and explore this side of Switzerland.

At the airport, before you go through the first set of security, there are a few shops, a snack bar, restrooms. On the other side, there are a LOT of shops, a bigger restaurant, and the airline lounges. Stay in this side as long as you can because once you go through the second set of security to the gates there isn't much except duty free and restrooms.

Flight to London uneventful.

10/7 and 10/8

This isn't so much a holiday visit as a visit to see my friends and their children, one of whom is my goddaughter. They have moved to Eton since I was last in England, so it is a new place to see.

I really don't do much sightseeing as I need to do things like go to my goddaughter's ballet class with her. You have not lived until you have been to a 3 year old's ballet class.

We did go through nice long walks through Eton, though the college courtyards, and to the playing fields where my friend's team was winning their 15th football match in a row.

However, the very cool thing was that I arrived just in time to go to the annual Master Guest Dinner at Eton College on the Saturday night. What an amazing experience, and certainly not one that I could have done as a tourist activity The dinner was held in the college hall, full of history, and after we got to see a private museum exhibit.

I did manage two quick walks up to Windsor Castle and around to the Long Walk. It was very funny as I rounded the corner in front of the castle and saw Starbucks, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and Burger King!

I did manage some fish and chips down by the river that were very good. I can't remember the name or I'd recommend it to you as it was tucked away, not doing as much business, so he cooked the fish fresh for me. I don't know if the "not doing much business" thing was supposed to be a bad sign, but it turned out well for me

The Long Walk is pretty cool looking; alas no time to actually walk it. Then, tucked away in a corner we took the children to the Bachelor's Acre playground. In the restroom.....signage telling the history of the bachelors holding a fete for some queen or another. Okay, I admit it, at this point I was paying more attention to the children than the history!

This about wraps it up. After Saturday and Sunday morning it was off to the airport again for me. Heathrow checkin actually went very smoothly, no horrendous long lines for me that day.

A few last shops to mention.

I always like knowing about shops other people enjoyed, here are a few I enjoyed in Zurich.

Oliviers & Co
Limmatquai 36 - A great shop with everything related to olives you could imagine. In addition to all varieties of jarred olives, they had olive breads, olive wood kitchen implements and more.

Smiling Paper Moon
Schipfe 51
Absolutely amazing paper models from small postcards you could send that could then be made into models, to models with moving parts, to elaborate castles. It is a little shop right along the Limmat river not far from the Lindenhof.

Also near that was the Albert Shilde handcrafted Swiss goods shop and also the TXT textiles shop I mentioned.

I'm looking forward to my trip back to Switzerland next year, and will be back on the boards looking for ideas then!

suze

Thanks for including Lausanne and Geneva airport. I adore this part of Switzerland and was waiting for you to get there (in your report that is) -lol! I'll have to ask around about the carnival in Lausanne, if it comes every year, those are my favorite kind of things to do traveling. Boat ride doesn't sound like a bad idea either.

simpsonc510

I always buy 1st class tickets on the Swiss trains. I will look for seating on the left side, upstairs, on my way from ZRH to Lausanne. Thanks for the tip.