Thursday 20 December 2012

Photo blog: Zurich

We went to Zurich in early December (the coldest month of the year) to check out the Christmas markets. There are more exciting well known places to go for Christmas markets (e.g. Cologne) but given that I've been to Germany twice this year already (Berlin with the fam then Munich for Oktoberfest) I wasn't feeling the need to go back. So we ended up going to the German part of Switzerland instead :P

stpeters

The most exciting part of the trip was when I failed to notice that the train timetable at Rhine Falls (1 hour from Zurich city) is different in winter from summer, so yes we missed the last train. Add to it being Sunday, there was no bus anywhere either. The sun had gone down, our flight was in 3 hours and I felt the panic slowly set in as it dawned on me there was no way we would be able to get a cab either in such an obscure location. Fortunately, mid-sigh, a nice man pointed us in the direction of the next train station which was 15min walk away (in the snow of course) and we made our flight back to London.

bin candle

Apart from that, it wasn't a terribly exciting city although the Christmas lights were pretty (even a rubbish bin outside a shop was lit up) and I'm glad to have seen mountains and water. Does that sound strange? I guess there's neither of those in London and I occasionally feel quite claustrophobic at always looking at buildings which seem to occupy the narrow twisted streets. To be fair, there are a number of squares and parks which are great for green space - it just so happens that they aren't anywhere convenient to me so its my own fault really.

 

 

 

Other things that stand out for me (in no particular order):

  • The massive Christmas tree inside the indoor Christmas markets covered in what looked like crystals (it was sponsored by Swarovski)

  • The awesome accordian player who sounded like a whole orchestra

  • Climbing the stairs to the top of the Grossmunster

  • The Santas singing carols outside a shop in the old town

  • Eating chocolate

  • The welcome to Switzerland in the airport shuttle which came complete with a guy belting out a tune on the bugle and a cow bells ringing


Here are some of my photo highlights - note these might not scream out Zurich (more things that I found interesting).

Indoor Christmas Markets

indoormarket
reindeer

chicken dec    xmas tree stars


In and around Zurich

fraumunster    grossmunster

grossmunster2flowers
accordianred spiresnow@rhine
light maniasinging santastruffles


falls startrhinerhinefalls2

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