Zurich
Switzerland Diary : Day 3 - 07th April 2014
Apart from being the Financial Capital of Switzerland, Zurich is famous for being a city with highly fascinating features. With diverse history running down its veins there is no dearth for tourist options around the area. The city houses 100 individual banks and has plenty of museums. The main attractions here are Lake Zurich, the old town, Opera House, the Bahnhofstrasse for some expensive , luxury shopping, the Lindt chocolate shop, the Grossmunster church and also the Fraumunster church.
Being the country's largest city the place brags of 1200 drinking water fountains. It was also surprising to learn that MUESLI was first invented here. Other lesser known facts about the city are that it has the largest GOOGLE office in the whole of Europe, a unique museum simply dedicated to NOTHING and holds a record of the largest church CLOCK in Europe.
We had just one day allocated in our itinerary to see whatever is possible of this place. We therefore chose to visit the Zurich Zoo for the sake of the children in the group, followed by a visit to RHINE falls and topped it all up with a simple walk around the city.
We left Interlaken west after a home-made breakfast and boarded a train to Bern. We reached Bern in an hour and changed trains to get to Zurich. That took another hour. Right outside Zurich station was a bus to get to the Zurich Zoo. It roughly took us 35 mins to get to the entrance. The Swiss pass came handy for all of the above. The entrance fee to the zoo is not a part of the Swiss pass. However, like I mentioned earlier, we chose to visit it for the sake of our children. It was all worth it.
The 90 year old zoo is definitely worth a visit. It houses more than 380 species, split over 4000 animals and is a paradise for animal lovers. Like all zoos we were handed over maps to find our way around. Located in a highly risen area, flanked with greenery, it consists of the Masoala Rain forest enclosure, the Lewa Savannah, the Australian enclosure, the Mongolian Steppe, the Pantanal and Zoolino. There is also a Galapagos giant turtle that is over 70 years old which is one of the oldest resident here. Peacocks roam freely inside the area and we were lucky enough to be greeted by a few. Our favourite was the flamingo pool.
We spent more than a couple of hours around the zoo and also had our lunch on one of the benches here. A little after lunch we boarded a bus back to the railway station.
We spent a while walking around Zurich city and were happy to do a bit of shopping. It is one of the most fashionable places that I've ever experienced. It was nice to find a few souvenirs to bring back home. We shopped mainly for fridge magnets and that is always the best part of our shopping. We took a train to Winterthur, further another train to get to Schaffhausen. From here it is an easy walk down to the RHINE FALLS . The water falls can be reached from two sides and in more than one ways , we chose this route.Described as one of the most powerful waterfall, the RHINE lies bordering Schaffhausen and Neuhausen municipalities.
The almost 25 metre tall water fall is as wide as a 150 odd metres and throws itself down in full force ,creating a magical spell on its onlookers. There is a castle next to the falls which you can climb and various view points which people can access to get a great view of the falls. There is also a boating facility which takes you close enough to feel the water on yourself. We chose to ride a boat and get up to a view point on the other side. The rumbling waterfall did not fail to please us. We spent a good 2 hours here before boarding a train from Schaffhausen to Basel directly. That was the place of our next visit.
