Zurich, Mount Pilatus & Lucerne — Hannah & Christopher

First Day in Zurich

After a semi-comfortable 7-8 hour flight from Toronto, we finally landed in Zurich early in the morning. Having to kill almost an entire day’s worth of time waiting for our room to be ready, we set out to explore downtown Zurich. The city has a small town vibe in most parts but remains very commercial. Big brands and chains both familiar and unfamiliar occupy the ground level of most units and they’re full of tourists. We unintentionally bypassed the more downtown portion of the city and ended up visiting the campus belonging to the University of Zurich. The campus was quiet but we noticed there were many water fountains which people were filling up their water bottles. If you see a water fountain in Toronto, it's best to stay a few feet away, but in Zurich, they’re commonly used by visitors and locals as the price of bottled water anywhere can be almost $8 Canadian for a single bottle.

The incredibly clear Limmat river splits Zurich down the middle and elevates the small town charm of the city to even greater heights. Water taxi’s travel along the river which makes convenient pickups for locals getting around and tourists looking for a pleasant boat ride. At the water taxi stops along the river, people usually sit on the docks with a drink or snack and dip their feet in the water. This was pretty common as a nasty heatwave went through Switzerland and we had to trudge through 32 degree celsius temperatures daily.

We also came across a street festival in the inner city of Zurich. Everyone got dressed up and open up shops. It made the city so much more alive.

After enjoying a handful of amazing local pop brands, most notably Rivella (only sold in Switzerland), it was time to get some food. Cheese fondue is what attracts the tourists and we didn’t do much to stray from that. We found a highly rated Fondue establishment in a restaurant district (Swiss Chuchi) and dove straight in. If the photo of the cheese makes it look like standard melted cheese, it was anything but. We ended up having better cheese fondue later in the trip, but this was still a solid meal. We were also introduced to the typical Swiss waiter which can be described as: extremely polite and exceptionally efficient.

Wandering around Zurich at night was surprisingly chill, the reputation some European cities have with their nightlife wasn’t quite as expected. Since most shops close at around 5:00 PM, all that's left to do is visit a restaurant or a bar as they are the only things open late. Even convenience stores shut down early in the evening. The streets are mostly littered with tourists walking around wondering why everything is closed but it allows for some nice quiet walks as long as you stay off the main streets which have even more tourists who again, are wondering why everything is closed.

Mount Pilatus

Our second day brought us to Mount Pilatus via train ride through the country. Most cities in Switzerland have some sort of tourist destination close to the top of a mountain if it's close to the city. Mount Pilatus is one of the more well-known peaks so we hopped on a cable car and went for an exciting ride almost 2,2128 meters high. We stopped midway where there are restaurants and family activities like ziplining and toboggan run. We did the toboggan run and got to see the Swiss Alps riding down on a sled. It was one of the greatest highlights of the trip.

Close to the peak is actually a hotel with a few restaurants/pubs and plenty of spots to take in the view and go for hikes. We took the opportunity to admire the vistas and take some stunning kind photos. There were plenty of daredevil’s parachuting off the side of the mountain and going for some impressive treks along the mountains; we opted out of joining them on that tour. Aside from the hotel there were a lot of harrowing hiking paths which led us to the tops of different peaks and in inside of portions of the mountains.

Met another couple of Canadians to help us take this photo!

On our decent, we decided to take a cogwheel train which is touted as the steepest in the world. The seats are structured as steps so it wasn’t too harrowing of a journey.

As we made it down, we decided to make a visit to a neighbouring city called Lucerne. The city ended up being more “European” than Zurich as it wasn’t quite as modern a city as Zurich has become with time. Similar to Zurich, all the shops were closed but everywhere you look is a restaurant that’s slammed with people. In deciding where to eat, we picked the first restaurant that came up in a Google search containing: “best food Lucerne.” According to Google, it was a restaurant called Old Swiss House. Built in 1859, the restaurant was just slightly away from the heavier tourist traffic and wasn’t overly busy unlike many other restaurants. Too bad for the other tourists because they were missing out on some spectacular food.

The restaurant’s specialty is Wienerschnitzel which is prepared infront of you; a recipe which calls for a half a stick of butter per order. Having had schnitzel in the past, we expected a decent meal, but were surprised to have a mind blowing piece of veal. Truly a one of a kind dish, this meal remained the highlight for the entire trip. If you ever go to Switzerland, visit this restaurant and order this meal. Don’t let the absurd price tag of almost $70 Canadian scare you off. Realistically it should scare you off, but you have to bite the bullet with this piece of veal.

Satisfied with an incredible meal, we spent the remainder of the night walking through Lucerne. We made a point of visiting the the world famous Kapellbrucke bridge which was built in 1333. This old wooden bridge connects the city of Lucerne with its other half and is home to many aged pieces of art placed in the rafters of the bridge’s roof. Unfortunately the wooden bridge is occupied by huge swarms of bugs and it caused us to make a retreat back to Zurich as the bugs were everywhere.

Back in Zurich

We decided to take it easy on day 3 and visited a large spa in the more residential side of Zurich. The building was originally a warehouse and at some point the building was converted into commercial space and this spa ended up snatching a large portion of the building. The spa had multiple floors which housed many different types of pools, one of which was on the rooftop where we spent most of our time. You’ll never find something like that in Toronto, and in a lot of other major cities probably.

After the spa, we made a trek to try what was touted as the best burger in Zurich. Switzerland foodies have an obsession with American hamburgers so they’re actually pretty common to find. On the way to the restaurant we were sidetracked by a poke restaurant, we shared a bowl and found the food to be extremely unimpressive. Undeterred by the disappointing meal, we still made our way to the burger restaurant and we were treated to a burger which could be best described as a really good version of Burger King’s Whopper and the side of cheese fries that were surprisingly yummy.

After the meal we got on a water taxi and took it the southernmost point of Zurich which is actually a small beach town that had a vibe very similar to Toronto’s own Centre Island. A far cry from the standard European aesthetic just a few minutes north of it.

After deciding that we got enough sun for one day, we closed the evening by visiting a fondue restaurant that served chocolate fondue. This may or may not come as a surprise, but chocolate fondu is a North American invention apparently. Pretty much no restaurant served chocolate fondu, the restaurant we had it at only made it for the benefit of tourists. Kind of strange, as the Swiss are known for their amazing chocolate and cheese fondu, they just haven’t put the two together and to this day refuse to do so.