Badshaa’s Blog - Travel and more…

As you guys know, I am a travel addict. So after my trip to Rome, I was pretty busy with work….but at the same time I collected a lot of Miles with my train discount card. Therefore I got a free return ride to one of the neighbor countries of Germany. And as I have never been to Switzerland, I booked my train ticket to Zuerich

I also tried for the first time Couchsurfing. “The Project is the largest hospitality exchange network, with over 1.6 million members in 234 countries and territories”

There I found a a friendly host, means a student flat with the swiss girls who offered me to stay at their place for 2 nights in Zuerich.

I took pretty early the ICE from Frankfurt to Zürich and arrived just before lunch. One of my hosts (Sarah) picked me up at the central station, took me to the city, where we met her flatmate Denise and directly got a taste of a swiss bakery

We walked through the city and I immediately realized why this city is so expensive and so beautiful. It’s a great combination of a lot of things which I will show you in the following

At the apartment we also met the third flatmate Anna-Lea. I even got a key to the flat…My new swiss friends showed me on a map some places where I could go for sightseeing…..

But first things first… some info on Zürich:

“Zürich or Zurich (see Etymology below) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland’s main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne. Zürich can be counted as one of the world’s pre-eminent global cities. According to several surveys from 2006 to 2008, Zürich was named the city with the best quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe. Zürich is also ranked the sixth most expensive city in the world.”

said that… no expensive price in the city could shock me…everything costs more in Zürich… the bus ticket, the sandwich, the chocolate…everything.

So directly from the place of the girls I took the train to on of Zürich’s hills/mountains. The most famous one is known as the Uetliberg:

“The Üetliberg (also spelled Uetliberg) is a mountain in the Swiss plateau, part of the Albis chain, rising to 873 m (2864 ft). The Uetliberg offers a panoramic view of the entire city of Zürich and the Lake of Zürich. There is also a hotel in the name of “Uto Kulm” on this small mountain. The two towers on the mountain are a look-out tower (rebuilt 1990) and the Uetliberg TV-tower (132 m, rebuilt 1968). The summit is easily accessible by train from Zürich.”

Here are some impressions…

getting up the mountain….

the big viewing tower…. the time when I arrived, it was a bit foggy….

but luckily by the time I got up the tower… the fog was nearly gone…and I had a perfect view over Zürich:

TV tower next to us….

nice view at the lake of Zürich…

and we could see until the alps…..isn’t that wonderful?

the fog looks like a waterfall….

and it goes deep down…:

after that I went back to the city…. and as the nature around the city, the city is also great:

Banks in Switzerland:

After the first day sightseeing and impressions in Zürich I had a nice dinner in the city and then went back to the flat to meet my Swiss couchsurfing friends. There we spent a great evening with movies and talking/chatting…

The second day (25th) started quite rainy… unfortunately…. But still worth walking through the city and visiting the Zürich lake:

after some sightseeing I met again with Sarah and Denise to visit an art museum “Museum für Gestaltung” to see an exhibition of the fashion photograph Michel Comte. Actually I was not sure if I would like it, cause I am not that much into photography and also not into fashion…but surprisingly it was awesome… this guy really has some talent and the photographs were amazing, also the revelation on how the original was a bit photoshoped….

See this is the great part of Couchsurfing. Without my hosts I would never have found out and gone to that exhibition. Sarah, one of my host studies photography, thats why she was interested into that exhibition. I learned a lot about photography and fashion that day. Also about Switzerland, as the Photographer was born in Zürich. You can see, Zürich has a lot to offer….

After the exhibition we went for some shopping so that I could cook a nice dinner for the girls

Day three was my last day…and I was lucky that the weather turned out well again… no rain, yeah!

view from the “Polyterasse”

Swiss federal institute of technology Zurich

typical architecture inside the city….

The “Grossmünster”:

“The Grossmünster (”great minster”) is a Romanesque-style church that played an important role in the history of the Protestant Reformation. It is one of the three major churches of Zürich (the others being the Fraumünster and St. Peterskirche). The core of the present building near the banks of the Limmat River was constructed on the site of a Carolingian church, which was, according to legend, originally commissioned by Charlemagne.^[1] Construction of the present structure commenced around 1100 and it was inaugurated around 1220.”

The best thing is the view that you have from the Grossmünster over Zürich:

I also went to the opposite church with the blue tower, which has the name “Faumünster”

“The Fraumünster abbey of Zürich was founded in 853 by Louis the German for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the lands of Zürich, Uri, and the Albis forest, and granted the convent immunity, placing it under his direct authority.” I also had the chance to see the famous Chagall windows…..

typical red tower:

you can also have an old faishoned way of visiting the city:

now the view from the other side of the river….

before I left for the central station to catch my train back to Frankfurt…. I had to get some of the famous Swiss chocolate. Everyone knows, Switzerland has the best chocolate in the world.

One of my hosts previously worked in the chocolate heaven which is called “Confiserie Sprüngli“…..Believe me when I say, that you can get the best, the most fresh chocolate, pralines in the world at this place.

So I bought some of the pralines and some of the famous Luxemburgerli. I saved some for my family and the rest helped me to make the train ride back to Frankfurt one of my best train rides ever

So if one of my friends should ever visit Zürich and plan to get me a present…..pleasseeeee get me some of the Sprüngli pralines…..

I love travelling!!!!