Shelley booked her flight out of Zurich, so we all decided to hop on the train and make a weekend of it. Unbeknownst to us it was the weekend of the "Züri Fäscht 2023", which is a giant festival that takes over Zurich every 3 years (or actually 4 years since the last one due to COVID I assume).
We arrived around lunchtime on a train from Annemasse (a small town in France near Geneva - we left the car in a parking garage because our chauffeur - i.e. me - didn't feel like a 4 hour drive) around lunchtime.
This is the main train station, it is quite an impressive building!
Not knowing anything about what we were about to encounter, we dropped into a Craft Beer & Burger place near the train station. I was starved and hankering for a burger so I dragged the ladies in. The burgers were about 25 CHD each, and this didn't even include fries! (Fun fact - CH stands for "Confederacion Helvetica" which I gather is the politically correct name for Switzerland. So the currency is CHD and the websites are all "*.ch".)
We saw that they were setting up some food stands and other stalls nearby, maybe that was typical for a summer weekend in Zurich? After we left the restaurant we ran headlong into a dragonboat festival ("Oh so this is what it's all about!") And then we noticed that there were food stalls and other stands setup pretty much everywhere. Here is a view of the river from a bluff in town.
We tried to do our Rick Steves walking tour, still not entirely sure what was going on.
There were stages setup pretty much everywhere, pretty much any act you can imagine - ethnic dancing, a brass band, here is a DJ setup next to one of the largest cathedrals in Zurich.
And on the other side of the church, Tina Turner!
This is the program from just one stage, and these stages were setup EVERYWHERE.
Also pretty much every street in the city had some setup, eventually we figured out what was going on.
On Saturday evening we took the trolley down to the lake to watch the fireworks. Because of the festival, the public transit - as well as the regular hours for any restaurant and most of the attractions in the city - was completely messed up and google was no help whatsoever. When we got downtown the crowds were just starting to form.
Down by the lake the crowds just kept getting thicker. The police started to close off some areas because there were just too many people.
Eventually we got one of the best fireworks shows ever.
I already posted the fireworks finale in a previous episode.
Getting home from the fireworks was a nightmare - literally. We were shoulder-to-shoulder for what seemed like miles. Eventually we elbowed our way out of the downtown core and managed to hop a trolley back to our airbnb.
The next day was a bit quieter (for example no dragonboat festival) but there were wakeboard demonstrations ...
We had our morning beer next to a squeezebox band ...
There were carnivals setup everywhere ...
In the evening we went to see an opera (that's the opera house in the photo above in the background behind the carnival ride). Here are the ladies in all their finery.
A view of the carnival from the operahouse.
And the operahouse itself. Tickets ranged up to about 300 CHD, but we only paid 15 CHD, so you can appreciate the quality of our seats. That's the stage to the left (if you lean out fairly far you can see it.)
On Monday we had a quite walk about Zurich. The city was back to normal, all of the stalls were down and all the stages in various states of disassembly. This is a view of the city from the patio of ETH Zurich (the technical institute, attended by Albert Einstein among others).
Here is a view from the bluff with all the stalls and stands removed.
Here is a panorama from the same point. The university is behind the tall green spire, and ETH Zurich is the grey building to the left (if you can spot it).
We climbed the tower of "Grossmünster" (the big church were Tina Turner was playing) for a view of the city. (The tower was closed during the festival.)
This is "Fraumünster Church", which we also couldn't see during the festival.
This "münster" contains the famous "Chagall Windows" - google if you need to know more but don't miss them if you visit Zurich!
We went on a "boat cruise" (actually just part of the regular public transit) - after we walked from the train station to the lake we just took the water taxi back up the river. (There is a similar boat in the background to the one we are on.)
Zurich is a city of fountains, and all the fountains have potable water, so you can just fill up your waterbottle whenever you like!
Did I mention Zurich was expensive? The equivalent of $15 CAD for a half pound of blackberries.
About the famous Swiss punctuality and efficiency - for the most part it was ok, but our train from Geneva left a minute late, and don't even try to explain to me why the two clocks in the picture below don't even show the same time!
Back in Bonneville today (Tuesday) - it is 36 degrees today, so we are just back to the house from a day at the beach, and planning our next activities! Bastille Day is Friday (apparently firework sales are now banned in France) and the Tour is coming to town Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise we're planning a couple of hikes, and will be heading to Paris next Tuesday!
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