Zurich; Monday, 19 December, 2005

Having landed at 10:30 and managed to get to the centre of town by 11:30 it was a little early to go to the hotel; instead, I dumped my bags in the left luggage lockers and headed off into town. I wandered down some of the little alleyways and lanes that run down the east bank side of the river before reaching the Großmünster. The Großmünster stands out in the city as it has two towers, rather than the single spires that the rest of the churches have. It also allows you to climb one of the towers for stunning views over the city.

After spending some time here, I caught the tram out to the end of the Rack Railway and caught that up into the hills overlooking the city. The views of the city, although slightly obscured by the trees, are still spectacular and the ride up is interesting if only for seeing the angle that you can get a non-cable car to go up! I wandered down through the woods and after a twenty-minute walk, I arrived one station back down the line. At this point, as it was now back into residential areas, I caught the rack railway back down to the base station and the tram back into town.

I took the tram up to the university, which is perched on the side of the hill overlooking the city centre, again with stunning views.

By now, it was coming up for 3pm and time to check into the hotel. I collected my luggage from the lockers and caught the S-Bahn out to the station nearest to the hotel (only afterwards did I find out that I could actually have stayed on the tram as it stopped closer!)

After settling into the hotel, I caught the tram back into town and hand a wander in the twig light through the city centre, stopping at one of the Christmas markets to sample the Glühwine!

With sufficient quantities of hot wine and sausage inside me, I headed back to the hotel as my body decided to remind me that I had been up since 4am and it would quite like to catch up on its rest!

Weather

Cloudy Light Snow
AM PM
Mild (0-10C, 32-50F)
3ºC/37ºF