Sarah in London: Switzerland day 1: Exploring ZURICH!

This weekend my friends Megan, Jacob, Alexandra, and I are in Switzerland, getting one last trip outside the UK in before final exams and essays start taking over our lives. We’re staying in Zurich, and today we spent the day exploring the city. They speak German here, which is my far the biggest language barrier I’ve ever experienced (even in Paris, because since I’ve learned some Spanish, it was very easy to understand basic signs because Spanish is so close to French). But the people here are SO nice and friendly, and most of them speak English, so we haven’t had too much trouble getting around.

This city actually feels like a fairytale. Narrow cobblestone streets with little houses of all different colors, medieval churches with high steeples, all surrounding a main modern street, Bahnhofstrasse, which is like Zurich’s 5th Ave and is known to be one of the most, if not the most, expensive street in the world.

We arrived at the hotel early this morning and even though we were exhausted we went straight to Bahnhofstrasse and walked down the street, eventually going off on a cute little side street and ending up in the heart of Zurich’s old city. We visited the three famous churches: St. Peter’s Church is Zurich’s oldest church which actually has God written in Hebrew above the altar to symbolize the importance of traditional biblical languages. It was put there during the Zwingli Reformation in the 1500s, which, inspired by Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, ultimately led to the creation of Switzerland’s Evangelical Church. The Fraumunster Church is famous for its Marc Chagall stained glass windows, and the Grossmuster Church was cool because we could climb the stairs all the way up to platforms where we got gorgeous views of the city.

Alexandra, Megan, and I by the Limmat River that runs through Zurich

Marc Chagall's stained glass in the Fraumunster church

Grossmunster Church

View from the top of Grossmusnter Church

Megan looking out onto Zurich

The adorable streets of Zurich!

Alexandra, Jacob, and Megan

St. Peter's Church!

Hebrew above the altar!

On our wanderings we tried delicious Swiss chocolate and yummy, doughy, pretzels. By the way, no one was kidding when they said this is the most expensive city in the world - the prices here are a little crazy for our student budgets!

We crossed the Limmat River and walked around the colorful, lively Niederdorf neighborhood where we stayed for dinner and had cheese fondue, of Switzerland’s most famous dishes. Honestly though, not my favorite - a little too cheesy.

After dinner we walked around some more, because Zurich is such a wonderful city and I could walk around here for ever and ever, and for dessert we ended up at Sprungli, a famous Swiss chocolatier. Besides for beautiful chocolates and pastries they sold Luxemburgerli (or what are known as macaroons in every other European city), but here they were especially heavenly.