Zurich

Back in Zurich! on my way to the Alps for a week.

As regular readers recall, I enjoyed the opportunity to live in Zürich for the year 2019-20, including during the first four months of the pandemic. It is a beautiful city, with stupendous opportunities for hiking near and far. I was sad to leave in July 2020, thrilled to return for a week’s visit in December 2021, and dreamt of further visits into the future. So I was excited to find myself walking the streets of Zürich again this weekend, meeting up with friends for a trip to Grindelwald for the rest of the week. I took my usual morning walk to the viewpoint on Zürichberg, rode the train to the view on Uetliberg, explored in Einstein’s footsteps at ETH, strolled Bahnhofstrasse and the Altstadt, sipped hot chocolate at Sprüngli, and dined on wurst and rösti at Zeughauskeller.

David is back in Zürich – here at HB train station.

It was hot and muggy both days, so the residents and tourists alike were out in the street cafés, boating on the lake, all trying to beat the heat. We only had a few brief hours in town, so I share a small gallery of photos. Soon to come: alpine hiking in Grindelwald!

View up the Limmat river, from the bridge near HB, Zürich.

Zurich departure

Scenes from the past week.

After 10 days in Switzerland it is sad to leave, hard to part with the opportunity to explore both new and unexplored areas of the city and the country. It was a pleasure to be back, to revisit old colleagues, to return to my favorite shops and viewpoints and morning walks. I certainly hope I can return again soon! Today’s gallery includes snapshots from various days and scenes in Zürich, including several from the Christmas markets and from the illuminated evenings.

St.Peter’s church seen from across the Limmat river, Zurich.

Zurich again

Our final day in Zurich.

On our final full day in Zürich, I took my usual morning walk to Zurichberg. The sky was cloudy and the valley foggy, once again, but at least this time the fog was a bit above me and I could see across the lake. Not much to photograph today, but as I lingered at the viewpoint and was passed by every morning jogger and dog-walker, I noted a familiar sight approaching. An old gray lady, and her even older gray dog, approached slowly along a parallel path. I recognized them immediately, having encountered them almost daily on my walks two years earlier… but not yet on this return visit. The woman now needs a walker, and moves slowly while the old gray dog follows even more slowly behind. I admired their persistence in their daily outing, and am glad I had a chance to see them again.

On my way downhill, picking my route randomly through the residential streets while aiming my internal compass toward Honold for my daily dose of heisse schokolade and butter gipfeli, I noted this little gnome standing by a tiny little tree, on a curb near trash and recycling bins.

A gnome and a Christmas tree, left out by someone’s trash bin.

It is not uncommon for people to put items out for free use by passers-by; indeed, we gave away many things when we were preparing to leave in July 2020. This little fellow seemed lonely, so I decided to bring him home.

Later in the day, Andy and I made a pilgrimage to Sprüngli chocolatier, on Bahnhofstrasse, for a stay at their sidewalk tables and for a taste of their grand cru hot chocolate, which comes with a mousse light enough to spoon on top but rich enough to sink you for the afternoon.

Sprüngi hot chocolate, grand cru, with accompanying chocolate mousse.

Despite the chilly weather, the outdoor tables filled quickly; it is a wonderful spot to sit and enjoy a warm drink as the holiday shoppers bustle by.

Raclette

One of my favorites.

One of the favorite Swiss foods to be found at every Christmas Market is raclette – potatoes covered in melted cheese, sprinkled with spices, and served with pickles and pickled onions. It makes a very filling snack!

Raclette – potatoes covered in melted cheese, served with pickles – is a classic Swiss snack, especially in winter.

Honold’s bakery

One cannot just pass by.

Ok, there seems to be a common theme emerging in my posts from Zürich this week: food. My walk today began as another foggy morning, and indeed the day never shook off the fog. Perhaps it is all the snow sublimating in these just-above-freezing temperatures.

So when my downhill route took me near Honold, I just had to stop in. Had to. I’ll bet there is even some Swiss law about cold foggy mornings, and excellent chocolate/pastry shops, that requires one to stop in for a heisse shoggi (hot chocolate). I used to visit this very shop at least once a week when I was living here.

I enjoyed the hot chocolate for the rest of the walk, though I did somehow get out without succumbing to the other tasty treats!

Yooji sushi

Tasty, but the costs add up!

Ok, sushi is not what one always thinks of first, when one thinks of food in Switzerland. But tonight we were looking for something a little different, so we stopped into Yooji’s and down to their basement dining room. There, a continuous train of sushi circulates past the customers seated on stools around the central kitchen area. Many tempting treats scoot by…

Yooji’s sushi bar, with a rotating track filled with a variety of sushi.

The price is determined by the color of the plate, as in other such restaurants. One cool feature of this shop is that you can remove a plate from the track, set it on the “infopoint” at your place, and the small iPad-like tablet in front of you will show a photograph and description of the item, in case you are wondering about the ingredients. Don’t like what you see? put it back on the track. Want to order a drink, or something special? Tap the tablet and point at what you want.

After our meal, a stack of plates and bowls derive the cost. Note also the Infopoint.

When finished, the staff come by to account for your plates. Brace yourself for the bill!

Foggy morning

No distant views … leads one to focus closer in.

It was a densely foggy morning, as I climbed to my usual outlook above the streets of Zürich. I was in the fog almost as soon as I left my hotel, at river level, and climbed 212m up through the fog to the Zürichberg viewpoint. Not surprisingly, there was nothing to see today but for the sign illustrating what distant mountains could be seen on a better day (like yesterday).

More of the snow and ice had melted from the pathways, so I took a different route down – through the forest and back to the roadway, at the spot known as Rigiblick. There, I encountered a smiling set of sentries guarding the house beside the path.

Last week’s snow persists high on Zurichberg, where one home assembled a friendly family of snow soldiers.

Directly across the street is the top station for a funicular tram – a pair of trams on a track, attached to a cable, one descending while the other ascends. The sign advertised a departure in 2 minutes, so I hopped aboard and rode in comfort down the steep slope, approximately halfway to my starting point. Below, I look back up the track from the bottom.

This path home is always risky, passing as it does by a Migros grocery store and two wonderful bakeries. I broke down and popped into a bakery for a gipfel (like a croissant) and headed on home, a fine way to spend the morning.

Fondue with morel mushrooms

I keep going back for more.

At Le Dézaley in Zürich, near Grossmünster cathedral. Wonderful.

Alpine sunrise

A grand view from a grand spot.

I returned to my morning walking route, climbing through the streets and stairs of Zurich to the viewpoint atop Zurichberg. Today, I arrived not long after sunrise; with fewer clouds, the sun shone through to the Zurich valley. Indeed, it seemed the orange glow of the rising sun was bouncing off the cloud deck above, illuminating the light fog hovering over the lake Zurichsee.

Sunrise view from the Zurichberg viewpoint, Zurich.

Zooming in to the Alps spread across the horizon, we can see the morning sun illuminating the Eiger and its neighbors.

The Eiger is the dark triangle just left of center.

Earlier, I paused along Spyristrasse at a point where I knew one of the multi-story condo buildings hosted an impressive sight: a three-story cat staircase, mounted outside the building, allowing the cat to come and go from its residential balcony. Today, for the first time ever, I saw a cat sitting atop the stairs, surveying its territory and guarding the homestead from all comers.

A cat rests at the top of a three-story cat staircase on the outside of a condo building; Spyristrasse, Zurich.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Return to Zürich

So happy to be back!

I was sad to leave Zürich in July 2020, after spending a delightful year collaborating at ETH and exploring the many mountains and valleys of this beautiful country. The coronavirus pandemic had arrived only a few months earlier, but I somehow thought it would fade and I could make a return visit to Switzerland a few months later. That was naīve. Another year has passed and the pandemic is not yet done with us; nonetheless, three months ago Andy and I booked our tickets to Zürich so we could visit friends and colleagues and enjoy the city and the mountains once again.