After waking up and having breakfast at the Kameha Grand, we took the tram to walk through Zurich‘s historic city center. We visited a few churches and Christmas markets around the Limmat, the river that runs through the city, as well as the Lindenhof and Polyterrasse viewpoints.
Morning
After waking up at the Kameha Grand in Zurich, we went downstairs for breakfast.
Breakfast is buffet style with an egg station and was complimentary as we are Titanium members of Marriott’s Bonvoy program.
After breakfast, we returned to our room to get ready to head out. We didn’t have any particular itinerary planned other than to try and see some of the city.
The view from the room was just of an office building across the street. There isn’t really much to see here in this part of the city.
This display by the elevator shows the Best of Switzerland. Not sure why there’s a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in there!
ETH
We walked out to the Glattpark tram station to catch the next tram into the city. We ended up taking line #10 into the city. We decided to get off at the ETH/Universitätsspital stop, not far from the Hauptbahnhof.
We noticed these small flowers blooming. Visually they have a bit of a resemblance to cherry blossoms. We don’t know specifically what these flowers are though.
We walked down the street to the south to reach the Hauptgebäude (Main Building) of the ETH, the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).
We noticed an odd golden sculpture across the street. We ended up crossing to take a closer look.
It almost looks like one of those guys covered in paint who stand on the city street for tips. Also, we realized that this building is a hospital and that spital means hospital in Swiss German. We didn’t realize that when we got off at the Universitätsspital tram stop!
Crossing the street did give us a nice view of the Hauptgebäude though!
We crossed the street again and continued walking to the south to go around the building.
We saw another sculpture. This one seems like a woman in a bathtub. We didn’t go closer to try and see what it really is!
As we walked around to the south side of the Hauptgebäude, we saw this. It seems like it might be an insect house? We saw one before in Annecy.
We walked to the southwest corner of the Hauptgebäude where we had this elevated view of Zurich! There were some trees in the way though.
We turned north to access the back side of the Hauptgebäude.
We walked just a bit more to the north to reach the Polyterrasse. This large terrace provides a fantastic viewpoint over the historic city center to the southwest. The many church towers and spires rose prominently above everything else. Also visible on the right is the Lindenhof, another elevated viewpoint on a hill in the city that we hope to visit later.
The view directly to the west is perhaps not as interesting.
Turning around, we were now in front of the back of the Hauptgebäude.
We walked to the northern end of the Polyterrasse.
Looking back, we could see the vast terrace that we just walked across. It was pretty empty at around 10:40am.
We decided to take the Polybahn, a short funicular, down into the city. We got to the station just to the north of the Polyterrasse as it was arriving.
A view of the city as we descended, crossing over a road.
The bottom funicular station is right by the Central tram station.
Eastern Altstadt
The Central tram station is on the east side of the Limmat, a river which runs through the city of Zurich. It starts at Lake Zurich, on the southern side of the city’s old town area, and flows north into the Aare.
From here, looking to the northwest, we could see the roof of the Hauptbahnhof, partly hidden behind a Coop supermarket.
We started to walk to the south on the east side of the Limmat. The majority of the Zurich’s downtown tourist sights are ahead.
We went out onto the Mühlesteg, a pedestrian bridge to the south that was visible on the previous photo. Looking to the north, the Central tram station is on the right side of the bridge in the background. The entrance to the Polybahn is over on the right, just visible at the base of the first building at the corner.
The view to the south was directly into the sun!
We decided to walk all the way across the bridge. Looking back to the east, ETH’s Hauptgebäude can be seen above the other buildings by the river. The Polyterrasse cannot be seen, which makes sense as we could not see the Limmat from it.
Looking to the north, we could see the eastern end of the Hauptbahnhof. But that’s not where we want to go!
We continued walking to the south but along the western bank of the Limmat.
This interesting domed tower was to the southwest. We saw it while we were up on the Polyterrasse.
We soon reached an intersection. The Schweizer Heimatwerk was on the opposite side. This is basically a fancy gift shop that sells items made in Switzerland. This shop was on our list of places we wanted to visit but we decided to keep going and possibly return later.
So, we didn’t actually make it back to this store. And at the time, we forgot that this location was in an episode of the K-Drama Crash Landing on You. We’ve visited a few CLOY locations in Switzerland so it is a bit unfortunate we didn’t go into this one!
We crossed back over the Limmat on the Rudolf-Brun-Brücke. This was the view to the north.
And this was the view to the south.
Looking down a narrow street to the east, we could see the tall tower of a church. This seems to be the Predigerkirche, dating back to 1231.
We continued walking to the south on the eastern side of the Limmat. Visible in both these photos is a red sculpture of a cow on a small boat. The boat is carrying what seems like wrapped presents. Is this a decorative thing for the Christmas season?
We walked by the Lindenhof, above the western side of the river. Like Schweizer Heimatwerk, the Lindenhof also appears in Crash Landing on You. It is a more significant location though so we definitely won’t miss it later on!
As we continued, we reached a nice little plaza to the north of the Rathaus (Town Hall). The bridge visible here to the south is the Rathausbrücke.
This view is from the Rathausbrücke, looking to the southwest.
The view from the middle of the bridge, looking to the south.
The view to the north shows the little plaza that we mentioned, visible on the right.
We returned to the east side of the river and continued to the south. This building, which was on our left, was the home of Salomon Hirzel, the Mayor of Zurich from 1637-1652. This building, the Zunfthaus zur Haue, was the guild house for the merchants’ guild, the Zunft zum Kämbel.
The Rathaus is on the southeastern side of the Rathausbrücke. It is currently owned by the Canton of Zurich and serves as the meeting place for the Cantonal Council of Zurich, the legislative body of the Canton of Zurich.
The sculpture atop this pillar depicts Samson killing a lion, from the bible. We saw a more colorful version of this sculpture when we were walking through Bern.
The view from across the street, looking from north to southwest.
We’re headed to the church behind this building. We’re almost there.
This church is the Grossmünster! Construction of this old church began about 900 years ago. We’re not quite there though as although we are in front of it, it looks like the entrance is above street level.
One final look across the Limmat before we cross the street to find the entrance to the Grossmünster. We do plan on visiting the two very visible churches in this scene later today, hopefully!
The Grossmünster as seen after crossing the street.
There was a small Christmas market around the church building.
We found the entrance to the church on the north side of the building.
The interior of the church was fairly simple as far as large churches go.
Some of the art on the walls were in need of restoration.
Some of the stained glass windows that we saw were a bit… different? The last one here isn’t really stained glass, more like cutouts that project the shapes of faces.
We saw a small nativity scene.
The crypt, or possibly just part of the crypt, was open for viewing. We briefly walked through as the air inside was a bit unpleasant.
The organ above as we headed for the exit. An interesting church, kind of standard, but also not!
After exiting, we walked around outside the Grossmünster.
This sculpture of Heinrich Bullinger. He was the head pastor of the Grossmünster and became the leader of the Church of Zurich.
We found Santa Claus! He’s looking a bit thin…
We walked through the Christmas market again but didn’t end up getting anything.
We walked to the south from the Grossmünster, passing by this steep and narrow path. We won’t be going that way!
We walked past a small square, the Kartoffelmarkt (Potato Market). There isn’t much about this little square but we did find an article by the Tages-Anzeiger that mentions that there was formerly a potato market held here, hence its name. And, there was a renovation planned though its unclear if it took place or not.
We turned to the west and returned to the Limmat, walking onto the Quaibrücke, a wide vehicular and tram bridge. This was the view to the north.
We decided to backtrack on the east side of the Limmat, having skipped this section of the river by walking a block or two inland when we left the Grossmünster.
The view across the Limmat to the west. We are headed to the nearest church in view here, the one with the tall pointy tower.
We continued walking back to the north so that we could cross the Limmat via a bridge in front of the Grossmünster.
We walked past this church, the Wasserkirche (Water Church). This church, as described by Wikipedia, has some interesting history.
Oddly, the church is attached to another building, the Helmhaus, which houses a museum. We didn’t enter the museum but passed by this indoor fountain in its lobby area. At the time, it wasn’t actually clear that the Helmhaus and the Wasserkirche operate independently and that the church is actually currently a church!
We turned onto the Münsterbrücke next to the Helmhaus. Our destination is ahead!
This bridge shows up in Crash Landing on You. The above Netflix teaser video for the show should start playing at the 8 second mark which quickly shows a scene with the bridge. The scene is accelerated and lasts for less than a second!
Of course, we looked to the north down the Limmat.
And, we looked upstream facing the Quaibrücke and into the sun.
Western Altstadt
The church in front of us is the Fraumünster. It was built upon a former abbey for aristocratic women, hence its name.
We looked back across the Limmat before walking closer to the church.
We found another Christmas market on the Münsterhof, on the north side of the Fraumünster. We went to take a look.
Time for a snack! We started with a crepe with apple sauce and cinnamon!
This display appears is for Weihnachts Wunsch Aktion (Christmas Wish Action). It looks to be a charity where gifts are donated to disadvantaged children.
Our next food item was a a Zurich sausage with bread. We also had some glühwein (mulled wine) from a large adjacent stand, which seemed like it may have been operated by the same company. These two stands were much larger than the others in the market.
We passed by a reindeer and Santa’s sleigh. Along with a creepy looking snowman!
This fountain was of an interesting design!
We headed to the entrance to the Fraumünster.
Unlike most of the churches we’ve been to, the Fraumünster charges a fee for tourist visits. We received an informational pamphlet on entry.
Like the Grossmünster, the interior wasn’t really ornately decorated.
It seems like there was more to this decorative element on the wall at some point in the past. It depicts a legend that describes the founding of the abbey that was here before the current church. A blog post by Sandra Wagner-Wright, Fraumünster Church in Zurich, has a rather lengthy and detailed description.
This stained glass window, high up on the wall, is best described as colorful.
The view looking back down the church at the organ.
Candles and a wreath.
The far end of the church has some beautiful tall stained glass windows. The ceiling was decorated with stars and there were what seemed like remnants of past art on the walls.
This area is kind of like a chapel?
The view looking back into the main part of the church.
We walked back to and continued on to one final part of the church.
There is an underground area with the remains of past structures here at the church site. Some of the structures date back to the 9th century.
A few preserved elements from columns within the church.
We headed back out to continue walking along the Limmat.
We walked to the south on the western side of the river.
The view to the east, more or less centered on the Grossmünster, as we progressed.
This building atop the river is the Frauenbad Stadthausquai, a women’s bathhouse dating back to 1888.
A rather palace-like building across the street from the Frauenbad.
We continued walking to the south, passing by the Quaibrücke and reaching Lake Zurich. Looking to the south from the Bürkliplatz, a public square right by the bridge and lake, we could see snow capped peaks in the distance!
The lakeshore by the city is lined with grand hotels. The dark capped building on the left is the Opernhaus (Opera House).
Looking to the right, we saw a ferry that just arrived at the pier as well as a fountain just beyond, the Aquaretum. This fountain was recently replaced in 2019. Its doesn’t spray nearly as high as Geveva’s Jet d’Eau but is fancier as the magnitude of the fountain is determined by seismic data as well as the weather.
Various waterfowl seemed to really like this spot!
The view looking straight out at the lake.
This sculpture depicts Ganymede, who was the King’s son, asking Zeus, represented by the eagle, to take him up to Mount Olympus. This differs from the original story of Ganymede in Greek mythology where Ganymede is abducted by Zeus.
We walked away from the lake to catch a tram at the Bürkliplatz stop to continue to the north.
While waiting for our tram, this colorful red tram passed by! It is the Jelmoli Märlitram, driven by Santa Claus! This tram is an activity for children. They are driven through the city while angels read Christmas stories to them.
Jelmoli is a department store that was founded in 1833. It is currently scheduled to go out of business in February 2025 so that its building can be remodeled.
We took tram line #11 north from Bürkliplatz to Rennweg. After getting off the tram, we started to walk to the south. Rennweg is one stop to the south from where we got on the tram yesterday night after arriving in Zurich.
We noticed a multi-part sculpture in front of UBS‘s Zurich headquarters. The sculpture is the Pavillon-Skulptur by Max Bill, a Swiss artist from nearby Winterthur. It was built using 63 identically sized pieces of granite. It almost seems a bit like a modern day Stonehenge.
We turned to the left across the street from the sculpture to walk down the Augustinergasse. This narrow street is surrounded by historic buildings.
We walked past the Christkatholische Kirchgemeinde. This church is part of the Old Catholic Church, which split away from the Roman Catholic Church. This happened at a convention in Utrecht, Netherlands, which we visited about a month ago.
We continued walking, roughly to the southeast, and soon saw our next destination, the St. Peterskirche, ahead!
We continued to walk through the narrow roads on our way to the church.
We ended up at a square on the north side of the church.
From the exterior, we could see that there was some renovation activity taking place. We went in to take a look.
The church wasn’t as big as the two that we visited earlier today. The interior was also quite different in appearance, and rather different from most churches that we’ve been to. The circular windows kind of resemble the portholes of a ship.
After spending around ten minutes in the church, we headed back out to visit the Lindenhof to the north. We came across this ridiculously narrow alleyway!
The buildings here are quite colorful.
As we approached the Lindenhof, we came across this tombstone for Lucius Aelius Urbicus. It is a replica of the original which is in the Landesmuseum here in Zurich. The original dates back to around 200 AD and contains the first known reference to Turicum, the Roman settlement that predates Zurich.
The Lindenhof is atop a hill and accessed by a long ramp with stairs on the side, seen here from the top.
We could see the St. Peterskirche’s tower when standing off to the side of the ramp.
The Lindenhof contains a fountain created by Gustav Siber in 1912 with statue atop a column. The statue has some resemblance to Jeanne d’Arc but this is not France or Quebec! It depicts Hedwig ab Burghalden and honors the women who defended Zurich against Albert I, Duke of Austria, in 1292. They wore armor and marched from the Münsterhof to here, the Lindenhof, giving the impression that there were many defenders in the city.
The Lindenhof is a large flat hilltop with widely spaced trees and benches here and there. It probably looks a bit more welcoming during the other seasons!
The Lindenhof overlooks the Limmat and has fantastic views of the eastern side of Zurich. The above photos show the view from left to right, or north to south. We walked down below by the river earlier today and were able to see the Lindenhof from below.
A panorama of the view from the Lindenhof. The Lindenhof is seen in the opening of Crash Landing on You when the two main characters walk past each other. The scene is shot from a telephoto perspective with the Grossmünster looking rather prominent in the background. Very different from the wide angle photos that we captured here.
There is a small tower-like structure by the fountain. It has a sculpture atop which depicts a Swiss woman surrounded by angels. Is this a reference to the defense of Zurich by the city’s women?
We walked around the Lindenhof a bit and were surprised to find a fox on the west side! It wasn’t a real fox though. It is for something called the Foxtrail. This seems to be some sort of activity like The Amazing Race but at a very local level. This particular fox seems to be guiding participants to the gravestone that we saw at the edge of the Lindenhof. Was there some clue near the gravestone that leads to the next objective?
Anyhow, we decided to continue on by exiting the Lindenhof on the north side, to the left here.
We walked one block north of the Lindenhof where we reached a road.
Rather than continue to the north here, we turned and started heading west.
We passed by an oddly painted cow.
Upon reaching the Bahnhofstrasse, we came across this Christmas stand selling “Homemade and Extra Large” garlic and raclette cheese bread as well as glühwein. Of course, as Americans, the Extra Gross is amusing!
We visited the Victorinox Flagship Store at this corner. Most of the items that they sell, particularly the Swiss Army knives, are available worldwide. We did end up getting a Zurich specific version of the Climber which features Zurich specific art on the side.
We walked to the north along the Bahnhofstrasse.
Looking to the east, we probably would have descended to street level via the bridge in the background if we had kept going straight after the Lindenhof.
We found a good place to take a photo of the Bahnhofstrasse with the Hauptbahnhof in the background. This is where we first arrived in Zurich yesterday and took the tram to the hotel, the stop is on the right side of the road.
Looking around with the telephoto lens, this tower is the Predigerkirche which we passed by in the morning. We probably should have visited, maybe on a future trip?
Some nude sculptures on a building…
The cardinal directions are, of course, in German. The only real difference ends up being O for Ost instead of E for East.
We noticed this domed tower in the morning. It is the Urania Sternwarte (Urania Observatory) and can be visited on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.
We passed by a small Christmas market as we continued walking to the north.
We recorded a brief video here and managed to catch a Jelmoli Märlitram!
This building, the Hotel Schweizerhof, had a large pink bow on it! This hotel has an extremely convenient location as it is right across the street from the Hauptbahnhof.
A statue of Alfred Escher stands outside of the station. He was a politician and businessman who founded what ultimately became the ETH Zurich as well as Credit Suisse, which is now part of UBS. He was also a founder of the Gotthard Railway which linked Switzerland with Italy via the Gotthard Tunnel, then the longest tunnel in the world.
We walked around the station’s east side, passing by where we first reached the Limmat via the Polybahn in the morning. The entrance to the Polybahn can be seen on the left behind the Swiss flag.
We walked to the tram stops on the east side of the station to take a tram to meet up with local friends.
The tram we took had seats in the back with a window.
We passed by this large mural on a building. It is Melody by Patrick Redl Wehrli, painted in 2017.
We ended the day at our friends’ house, having raclette and grilled meat and vegetables before returning to the Kameha Grand later on in the evening.