Zurich's quality of life for residents as well as visitors begins with two basic ingredients: sparkling, clear water and crisp, clean air. Added to that is one of the most refreshing natural settings of any European city: a large lake, two rivers and tree-covered hills. Rounding out the backdrop is Zurich's Old Town filled with churches with tall steeples, medieval guildhalls, cobblestone alleys and trickling fountains.
In spite of this quaint postcard image, Zurich is not a superficially charming or sterile city. Granted, it does have the reputation of being a conservative banking town, but it's also a center for contemporary art, alternative youth culture and an energetic party scene. Far from being staid or static, it actively pursues a postindustrial path, with a dairy, brewery, shipbuilding factory and electricity-generating plant that have been converted into museums, galleries, restaurants, bars and nightclubs. The only drawback is that visitors will probably find goods and services to be more expensive in Zurich than back home.
WHEN TO GO Anytime is fine. Zurich has a very comfortable climate. Summer temperatures tend to hover around 75° F and rarely top 85° F. The coldest a normal winter gets is 25° F and it's more likely to stay around 40° F.
The Zurich Card allows unlimited travel on public trains, buses, trams, funiculars, and boats, plus free entry to more than 40 museums, plus several further perks. It costs about 10 Euros for 24 hours and euro 20 for 72 hours. Available from the tourist information office at the Zurich HB railway station (Mon.-Sat., 8 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.; Sun., 8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.; tel. 41 44 215 4000, www.zuerich.com).
GOOD BUYS The handmade timepieces may seem unaffordable, but they do last forever. Bring Swiss chocolate or some schnapps home for friends.
MONEY By law, a fifteen percent service charge will be included on your hotel and restaurant bills. In addition to that, you may choose to "round up" as the locals often do. Unless you possess your own bulging Swiss bank account, you should do most of your shopping in the smaller villages and towns where items are more affordable.
THINGS TO SEE AND DO
Standing on River Limmat, a Rhine tributary, and on its own eponymous lake, Zurich seems simultaneously small and huge. It's the biggest city in Switzerland with the feel of a very swollen village—a village that happens to host some of the most dynamic cultural and artistic happenings and jazzy contemporary architecture, all of which blends effortlessly with the gorgeous, tangled medieval Niederdorf district and its charmingly bourgeois-cosmopolitan Bahnhofstrasse, the store-heavy boulevard following the old city wall.
The past five years or so have seen momentous changes in the city's pace of life, which is especially obvious in Zurich West, the neighborhood of converted factories and associated edifices centered around Langstrasse—an uninterrupted mile of hot bars and restaurants, hip clubs, independent movie houses, and boutiques.
Outside the city limits in every direction is bucolic splendor: snowcapped Alps and thick pine forests. Back in town, Lake Zurich itself is so clean it's been certified by the local government as safe to drink. Grossmünster cathedral with its twin spires and nearby 13th-century Fraumünster with its pair of 1967 stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall are just two highlights from the trad tourist trail, but there are discoveries waiting all over.
ARTS + ARCHITECTURE
The birthplace of Dada, the most significant art movement to have come out of Zurich, has just been reopened after 90 years: The site of the original Cabaret Voltaire, at Spiegelgasse 1, is now a café-bar and gallery. You can visit James Joyce's grave in the Fluntern cemetery, and any number of galleries and museums—including the unmissable Kunsthaus gallery (Heimplatz 1, www.kunsthaus.ch). Spanish star architect, Santiago Calatrava, a resident, is working on two new buildings in the Seefeld district to follow up on his stunning Stadelhofen Train Station and the astonishing, recently unveiled Bibliothek (library) of the Zurich University Law Faculty—an edifice that, touching ground in only eight places, seems to be floating.
One of the great architectural masters of the 20th century, Le Corbusier, contributed (posthumously) his final work to the city—the Heidi Weber Pavilion, now a museum and gallery that is sadly rarely open these days. And from the sublime to the kinda silly, hundreds of five-foot teddy bears took to the streets in summer 2005, a citywide art installation called—what else?— Teddy Summer 2005 (www.teddy-summer.ch). Whoever thinks the Swiss are po-faced, money-minded stiff-necks should board a plane immediately. The new slim and spacious light-flooded glass Dock E building at the airport (designed by Spühler and Algélil/Graham/Pfenniger/Scholl) will be the first sign that, in the case of Zurich, old perceptions couldn't be more wrong.
In hip Zurich West is this half-designer, half-homey, all-Swiss new institution—a kind of mega-Pain Quotidien serving beer instead of soup. The name means "Bake and Brew," and that's exactly what they do. In an effort to redress the heartless, big-business side of beer and the fastness of food, here's a microbrewery-pub-restaurant-bakery that manages to be almost all things to almost all people—low-carb dieters excepted. The space is fabulous: illuminated walkways set into wooden floors with big iron-framed windows, the whole thing bathed in cobalt-blue light. The bakery turns out savory pastries with spinach and feta; chicken and mushroom pies; pizzas; quiches; loaves of peasant bread baked with a joint of ham inside and sliced; filled bagels and baguettes.
An only-in-Zurich (okay, and also in Basel) experience: eating in the dark. Really, really dark. Pitch black. This isn't all gimmick; it's to enable us to gain an insight into the world of the blind, as well as to savor your food in a new way. Two thirds of the staff here is not sighted (though the chef can see), and they lead you carefully, gently, and with a necessary sense of humor through what most people find to be a pretty mind-blowing evening. Menus change weekly and are seasonal, simple, and good. People wonder: Are the bathrooms pitch black? And how do you pay in the dark? The answers: no, and you don't. You need to reserve weeks in advance for weekends; midweek is not quite so bad. "Blind Cow" is named after the German blindman's buff, by the way.
To Book or Enquire
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Our Opening hours are 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday (except on public holidays).
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