Mom's Day Out in Zurich

Not all the Yatzecks went abroad this time - just the mom! I flew over to Switzerland for about a week to take care of my niece while my sister and her husband went on vacation. As I spent most of the time tending to a two year old, I didn't have a lot of time for adventuring about the country. However, I was able to enjoy one day in Zurich. Enjoy the photo tour.

Waiting for the train - all by myself!

Random rhino on the streets of Zurich

I decided to do a free walking tour of the city. There was actually quite a large group of people there - maybe 30 or 35 - and the weather was gorgeous.

This is a trade guild building. It's hard to see, but there are some funny looking faces caved on the side of it. Apparently these are caricatures of those who didn't pay their fees.

This is a building where local politicians work and vote on things. There is only one door, and it is on the opposite side from the river. Apparently the fire inspector said this was a problem, and a second exit had to be added. Instead, the politicians had a vote and decided in case of fire they would all jump out the first floor windows into the river below.  

The statue in the distance is of a man on a horse. He was the mayor of Zurich, and was murdered by the people of Zurich who were angry at how much he had raised the taxes. This statue is placed in an area where politicians pass by every day between buildings, as a reminder not to make that mistake again - ha!

Many of the houses have German inscriptions over the door, or signs with images. These two are known as the House of the Little Mosquito and the House of the Big Mosquito. All the houses in Zurich used to have names like this instead of numbers, because people weren't educated enough to use numbered addresses. During Napoleon's occupation of Switzerland he switched over to the numerical address system, saying it would be easier for the post. Some say he and his soldiers were just having a hard time with all the German names.

The oldest clock in Zurich. The small windows at the top are for a watchman to look over the city and watch for fire, one of the biggest dangers to a city long ago. If they saw anything they would sound an alarm and signal where the fire was. It was actively in use until 1913. Our tour guide also pointed out that the Roman numeral for four is written as "IIII" on the clock, and that this is done intentionally on most clocks because it looks better - more balanced, and all the X's and V's are together.

Our tour guide, Julian. This is a copy of an ancient Roman gravestone unearthed nearby. It was for a Roman boy who was only a little over a year old. The inscription uses the old name of the city - Turicum - and says his father worked at a toll station, which makes sense because the city was located on the border of the Roman empire at one time. We also walked down a side alley where you could see ancient Roman ruins underneath the street.

One of many drinking fountains in the city. There are actually over 1200 in Zurich alone! The public drinking fountains are excellent water quality, and are on a completely separate network from tap water. The idea is that if one water source becomes poisoned or contaminated somehow, they can use the other as a backup. The statue on top is of a woman dressed as a warrior. Apparently in 1292 almost all the men in the city had gone off to fight in a war. An attacking army thought they would use the opportunity to take over the city and gathered around, poised to attack. All the women of the city scrounged up whatever battle gear they could and stood on top of this hill in the middle of the city and tried to look menacing. The invading army believed it was a large military force and gave up their plan to attack!

Julian was a really informative tour guide and shared lots of interesting bits of knowledge about Zurich and Switzerland in general. For example, he said that there are spaces for over 8.5 million people in underground bunkers in Switzerland, even though the population is only about 8 million. In the World War II era a building code was enacted requiring new construction projects with 38 rooms or more to build bunkers or face large fines. My sister's house has a bunker!

The other interesting thing was that Switzerland has mandatory military service for all males, starting with a few months the first year around age 20, and then one month out of every year until you are about 30. There is an option to serve in the civil service instead, but a large portion do military service and end up taking the gun back home afterward, resulting in a relatively high percentage of gun owners in the population.

He also talked a little bit about education in Switzerland. Apparently kids have to take pretty serious exams around age 11 or so, and these exams determine whether you are on a path to go to university or not. Only about 20% pass and earn the chance to go to college! I can't imagine a system where a test at such a young age determines the whole course of your life. Students who don't score high enough to go to college start practical training, apprenticeships, and technical college pathways.

This tower was built in the style of the watch towers surrounding the city for defense purposes, but it was located in the middle of the city in what looks to be a terrible place for a watchtower. Historians believe it was built as a "prestige tower" - simply to show off wealth, rather than for a practical use.

Julian suddenly veered off the main street and into a place where I didn't see any signs, and there was this really cool model of the city as it looked into the middle of the 18th century! You could see how the side of the city across the river in this photo was heavily protected with two layers of walls and a waterway all the way around it. This is where all the big banks and wealthier families are. It's still more expensive on that side of the city today. The other side of the river only has one wall and it doesn't even go all the way around the whole city. 

The inscription says this is the apartment where Lenin lived at one time.

This is a bar where Lenin frequently visited and played chess. It was also where the artistic movement known as dadaism began. The art was all about chaos and nonsense, and began amid the chaos of the first World War. 

Our tour group!

Julian gave everyone a sample of some Swiss chocolate. These were chocolate champagne truffles - AMAZING.

This is a model of the Grossmunster church, in a courtyard right next to the actual church. It's a tactile model for visually impaired folks to be able to appreciate the architecture of the building. You might notice the rear tower is skewed and different in color - this is because of it's widespread notoriety as "the lucky charm of Zurich", and many visitors rub this part of the church for luck. Originally, all three towers were pointy wooden ones, but a fire burned a large portion of the church and the large towers were rebuilt out of stone in this style. The third tower survived, and remains today in its original wooden form - hence it's "lucky charm" status.

Looking up from the base of one of the Grossmunster towers. Legend has it that Charles the Great was hunting when his horse suddenly stopped on this spot, and it was discovered to be the grave site of two martyrs of the Church, who were beheaded down near the river and then proceeded to pick up their heads and carry them up the hill where they prayed, and then died. So Charles the Great decided it was a good spot for a church, and that's a giant statue of Charles the Great up there on the side of the tower. Another legend says that statue comes to life once a year in April and gives bread to the poor (actually a local baker throws bread out a window just above his head). Coinciding with this festival is a sort of Swiss Groundhog day that predicts whether the summer will be a good one or a bad one. They fire burning arrows at a snowman filled with explosives and see how long it takes for him to explode. 

After the tour ended, I decided to climb up the tower to get a view of the city from up high. The regular entrance fee was 4 CHF (about $4). There was a reduced rate for students and children 16 and under. The older gentleman manning the ticket booth asked if I was a student, and when I said "no" he said "But you are so young! Child rate!" and only charged me 2 CHF. Made my day!

Here's a bunch of photos from the top of the Grossmunster tower. It was such a nice clear day you could see the mountains in the distance.

Upon the recommendation of the tour guide, I tried a restaurant called Cafe Henrici. I ordered the "Alpino" - it was nice they had a menu in English and the waiter also spoke English.

My lunch! It was really delicious. Also I got to eat on a table outside in the square. 

Most of the churches in Zurich are part of what is known as the Reformed Church - a local brand of Protestantism. Most of the big churches were originally Catholic, but are now Reformed. It was kind of sad and disappointing to go inside, because they mostly looked completely whitewashed and stripped of all the original artwork.

I wonder what this looked like originally.

 I checked Google Maps and found one Catholic church in downtown Zurich, and it wasn't far to walk so I decided to check it out. Here's the outside:

And the inside - Beautiful! It's hard to see in the photo, but the ceiling was intricately painted in traditional Swiss style. The church was completely empty, but I found a door outside marked "Crypto" and when I went in there I found an underground chapel where they were having Adoration, and there were at least a dozen people praying in there, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. Pretty neat. 

Alas, my day out had to come to an end, but not before I went shopping and bought these shoes:

Until next time!