Zurich, Switzerland

21.08.05-25.08.05 (ZRH)

It is a beautiful place, I wonder why so many people say that it is a boring place...
On the first day, I went to the old city, where all the old buildings are, the biggest clock-face tower in Europe is there (St. Peter-Kirche), a late-Gothic church called Framünster with five large stained glass windows by Marc Chagall (I didn't manage to see the windows, when I was there, it was already closed - too late), Grossmünster - the symbol of reformed Zurich (to me, it looks like KLCC, maybe the KLCC architect get his idea from here) and of course, the ever famous, Bahnhofstrasse area where I did my chocolate shopping that costs me a bomb!
I also managed to visit two buildings built by prominent architects of our time, the Corbusier-Haus by who else but Le Corb himself, and Bahnhof Stadelhofen (Stadelhofen Railway Station) by Santiago Calatrava.

Pic1:largest clockface in Europe
Pic2:KLCC lookalike?
Pic3: Corbusier-Haus
Pic4: Bahnhof Stadelhofen by Calatrava
Pic5: Bahnhofstrasse

After all that walk around the city, it's dinner time in Zurich.
Fondue... a Swiss delicacy, tastes like heaven. A must try if you're stopping by Switzerland... I had it for two nights in a row. So you can start imagining...

Pic: Cheese Fondue, wiener and rosti

Waking up early on the second day, my friend and I decided to take a train to the border of Schaffhausen and Zurich, to experience the rushing water falling from the height of 23m. Rheinfall is said that an average of 600m³ of water rushes over the 150m cliffs each second. It is the either the excitement of seeing such a huge waterfall or the fact that we're out of our bed early in the morning after a late night the day before; that made us took the wrong train. Instead of going to Winterthur where we need to change to another train to go to Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall, we ended up in a station called Bulach (a place out of nowhere, let me assure you). And we wasted about 1 1/2 hours before we reach our destination. So my advice is, if you can't read or speak their language, don't simply jump into any available train (even if it's on the correct platform). Double check and double check again.

Pic: Wrong train!

But the view is worth the extra 2 hours of train ride. It was breath-taking. Standing at a platform that are just feets away from the gushing water, I felt the beauty and power of mother nature. It is just a 'wow'. Go and see it for yourself. Words would not do it justice. I took loads of pictures there. It is such a shame that I do not have enough time (I have to catch the last train) to take the boat ride across the fall and to the central cliff, where visitors can climb that and look at the water falling right in front of them.


Pic1: Cows enjoying the sun
Pic2: Rheinfall
Pic3: Cruise along Limmat River

When I'm back in the city, it's way too early for dinner, so we went for a 1 1/2 hour cruise boat that takes us along the river Limmat. All I can say, "beautiful view". Although most people would say, Switzerland is most beautiful during winter, but she is still gorgeous at summer time. And by the way, this summer, Zurich has this 'teddy bear' celebration of sort. I was at first intrigue by the amount of painted human-size teddy bears by the roadside, but the vast amount of it across Zurich just overwhelms me. Every bear has different theme, and the theme depicts what is happening at that particular street or area. I find it cool, but I didn't have any snaps of it, because it's just too many of them.

And yes, I ended my final night with fondue in a secluded (but packed) restaurant. What are the odds of two Malaysian girls, staying in Singapore, having fondue in Zurich, talking to two men, one Finnish, and the other ex-German now a Swedish, and plus, served by a waitress from Beijing? I called it globalisation...

Previously blogged in my old website, (but this time, with pictures)
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