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March 2002

Zurich

David Aaronson
2005-09-27 20:22:49

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Zurich, known mostly as a business center, is actually a suprisingly pleasant place to spend a couple of days as a tourist. The center of town is divided by the Limmat River (shown here) (1) which runs into Lake Zurich (the Zurichzee). The church featured in this photo is the Fraumunster. In medieval times the upper classes of Zurich attended church here while the rest of the populace was stuck going to the grossmunster.

Maybe that wasn't so bad though. These are the twin towers of the grossmunster (2). For a small fee you can climb to the top for a nice view of the city. It's quite a climb though featuring a tight stone spiral staircase followed by a wider wooden one to the top. Just above the building in the foreground of this photo you'll see a statue with a gold crown and scepter. That is a reproduction of the original statue of Charlemagne. The original can be seen in the crypt of the cathedral, and on the background of this page. Charlemagne founded this church but the Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli popularized it in the 16th century. That's more history than you might need but we just love the name Ulrich Zwingli and had to work it into this webpage.

This is the view from the tower of the grossmunster looking out across Zurich (3). The large stately looking buildings on the hill to the right make up part of the University of Zurich. It is actually very easy to get around Zurich thanks to a tremendously detailed system of trams, assuming you can figure out the map.

Almost all the trams seem to converge on the Bahnhof (train station). Zurich's train station is quite impressive to see. Besides the almost 20 tram lines and who knows how many train lines that run through it, there is a vast underground mall as well. In Zurich, as well as the rest of Switzerland, nearly every shop closes at 6:30 PM. After that time activity is mostly limited to restaurants and nightclubs which seem ...

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