Zürich, oh Zürich

A weekend away in one of my favorite countries, instead of lovely Lausanne, this time it was a quick trip down to Zurich for a little sightseeing and relaxation. I have only passed through Zurich twice before this trip and having only walked through the city for a few hours the first time I didn't really know what there was to see in the city itself. So it was a great chance to explore a (relatively) new place with Nick. And it was his first visit to Switzerland ever, something I actually find hard to believe given that Austria is so close, but hey, I guess there are a lot of states I haven't seen in America.

We arrived on Friday night to a lovely drizzly sky and grabbed a quick bite to eat down the street from our hotel. Saturday was kind of cold and drizzly, but we still spent the morning and afternoon wandering around the city, down the Bahnhofstrasse (one of the more famous shopping streets in Europe, very expensive) and through some of the smaller streets. There are some beautiful antique shops in Zurich. I wish we had the same kind of thing in Frankfurt. I could spend hours poking through them. Probably the shopping highlight for Nick was this tiny little scotch shop we found on one of the side streets. They had everything in there that had to do with scotch, whiskey and bourbon. Dinner, I am slightly ashamed to report, was fondue and raclette (my choice because somehow there's nothing better than melted cheese on a cold, rainy day. Totally touristy and not at all local to Zurich, but still good.

On our walk back to the hotel, and actually through much of the day, we saw scores of riot police wandering through the city in full riot gear. And across the river we heard an enormous amount of chanting and drumming. Given that Switzerland just had a rather contentious and somewhat violent election, I asked Nick if he thought it was a political rally. He figured either political rally or soccer match. Little did we know.

Sunday it was another drizzly day, not so great for sightseeing and this being Switzerland, everything was closed anyway except for the coffee shops. So after checking out of the hotel we went to find a place to camp out for a few hours and have a coffee. On our search for warmth we ran smack into the source of the drumming during the weekend, a Carnival marching band in full costume. And they were joined shortly after that by another band that played with them. When we decided to head to Zurich for the weekend, little did we know that it was the start of Carnival and all over the city there were bands wandering the streets in full on Mardi Gras style costumes playing for whomever they stumbled across.

It was unbelievable. So fantastic to see these people young, old and everything in between. I had no idea that Carnival marching bands were so big in Switzerland. Check out a little clip of our experience:



So some tips for Zurich if you so desire a visit there:

Hotels:
Hotel Rössli
Rössligasse 7
8001 Zürich
Tel: +41 44 256 70 50
Fax: +41 44 256 70 51
*Where we stayed, a very nice hotel, really central and convenient. I would definitely stay here again.

Hotel Otter
Oberdorfstrasse 7
8001 Zürich
Tel: +41 44 251 22 07
Fax: +41 44 251 22 75
*A cool looking boutique type hotel, it definitely looked like an interesting place to stay. Very funky room designs and a cool bar downstairs.

Shops and Restaurants:
Scot & Scotch
An amazing little shop that specializes in scotch and whiskeys from all over the world. I actually found small batch Kentucky bourbons here!

Sprüngli
A subsidiary of Lindt chocolates, Sprüngli has both a shop where you can purchase some really lovely chocolates and pastries as well as a cafe upstairs. The hot chocolate is fantastic as is the Gesztenye püré which is a Hungarian chestnut puree served in a small pastry with whipped cream. Very tasty.

Hiltl
The oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe (from 1890).

Zeughauskeller
Totally touristy, but not bad food. It was a huge space, which was great when the marching bands started to pour in for dinner because they all played a set before eating.

Things to See:
Bahnhofstrasse
One of the busiest and best known shopping streets in the world, it runs from the Zürich Train Main station down to the lake. It's great for window shopping if your bank account doesn't agree to shopping on one of the most exclusive and expensive shopping streets in the world.

Also check out the Wikitravel guide to Zurich. Very helpful.