Today I went to do more sight-seeing in Zurich. As you'll recall, I've already visited Bahnhofstrasse and the lake. Today I was headed out to see some of the city's old churches and other sights nearby. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Before we begin, I just want to share 4 pictures I found that give some perspective on this city.
OK, well, those are actually pictures I took. I thought they worked best in black and white - and I'm particularly proud of these pictures. I really do think they give some perspective into the beauty of this city. Hopefully that sets the mood a bit. Now, back to the introduction.
.Anyway, I decided to walk the whole route rather than take any public transportation in order to (a) get more familiar with the city (b) enjoy the sights more and (c) get some exercise. The whole trip was about 5.8 miles (or 9.3 km). I created a Google Map to show my route and the sites. You can click on any point to find out what it is and in what order I visited it. You can also drag the map, zoom in and out, and all the other things you would do on a normal Google Map.
At a few points, I didn't take the most efficient route - some of the streets on the map aren't as clear in real life, believe it or not. Anyway, here we go.
Fraumünster Kirche, or Church of our Lady, is a Gothic cathedral. While it was built in 853, it's famous stained-glass windows were added in 1970 and created by Marc Chagall.
Unfortunately, there was a service going on while I was there and I was unable to go inside - but the outside is magnificent. Unfortunately, this meant I did not get to see the famous stained-glass windows.
Fraumünster, as you would imagine, is in a very old part of town. Here are some photos of the surroundings.
Crossing the bridge behind Fraumünster over the river, I got some great shots of the river and the area, including two shots looking back at the rear of Fraumünster (first two photos below).
Grossmünster Kirche, or Great Church, is directly across the river from Fraumünster. While a few parts were closed off in preparation for a wedding that day, the majority of it was open to me.
I took a few photos of the outside before going in.
After going inside, I sat down in the pews. The feeling was indescribable; the huge stained glass windows in front of me, the beautiful architecture and art, the age, the history - it all just fills you with an amazing sense of awe. Any house of God is worthy of deep respect, but a place this entrenched in the history of religion just touches you. Photography was allowed, fortunately. I highly recommend you click on these photos and look closer. It's quite amazing.
The triple-pained window (first photo) is the stained-glass window in the front of the church. The last two photos are from the stained-glass windows in the rear of the church.
For a small Fr. 2 donation, you could go up into the south tower. I paid my dues and headed up the incredibly narrow, winding staircase. It was clearly designed for only one person at a time which made the two-way traffic incredibly tricky.
After the narrow stone staircase, you come to the first landing. This landing has paintings of the city at various different years: 1170, 1300, and something I'm not clear on how to interpret, but... very old.
From here, we head up a lot more stairs; see the stairs below and a pictures from one of the small windows in the wall of the tower.
Once you're at the top of the tower, there is a platform on each of the 4 sides (the tower is round, but the platform around it is square, and the platforms are the 4 corners). Some amazing views are afforded from here, including, as you'll see, the north tower.
The last picture there is the inside of the roof of the tower. And then it was back down...
Once back down to the church, I picked up some literature (fortunately available in English), and found out about several other parts of the church. A few weren't open, but the crypt in the basement was open. Supposedly, Charlemagne built the first Zurich church where this crypt stands. A large Charlemagne statue sits here that used to be in the Charles Tower, but was moved here after taking significant weather-wear. A copy now sits in Charles Tower.
The crypt makes a hidden church, as it were, and as the pamphlet says, it "invites one to quiet reflection."
After visiting the crypt, I went outside and walked the perimeter of the church, and ran into a guy skiing through the roads - by being pulled my several of his friends...
Next up, just a short bit up the road was Rathaus, or Town Hall. Upon walking up to it, someone was leaving, which I was excited about, as it meant it was open. But the women used a key to lock it on her way out. So much for that. So I took a few pictures of the outside.
As I was gathering up my stuff, a lady who had asked me to take a picture of her (with her camera) inside the tower of Grossmünster walked up to me (with a friend of hers who had not been present in the tower) asked if she could get a picture with me. I sorta confusedly obliged, her friend took the picture, and she matter-of-factly, and in broken English said thank you, and walked away with her friend. That was a bit odd.
St. Peterskirche, or St. Peter's Church, is back over the river, just behind Rathaus. It's a easy to spot as it's got the largest clock face in Europe on it's tower. However, it's also a bit hidden. There are a lot of narrow streets around it with buildings just tall enough that if you're within a block of the Church you can't see the tower. So a bit of circling inwards and I got to the church. A wedding had just finished and some of the attendees were still outside talking. I went inside the empty church and sat down. Someone above me was practicing wedding music on the magnificent pipe organ. I sat and just enjoyed for a moment. A small group came in, sat next to me and took some pictures. After a few moments I took pictures as well. The most noticable things were the spectacular chandeliers and the huge pipe organ.
The next picture was taken looking down one side of the hill from the front courtyard of St. Peter's. Nothing of particular note is in this photo, but the way the trees framed the street struck me as a fantastic black and white photo. That version is presented above, but here's the original full-color version.
I had no plans to see Augustiner Church, a church built by the Hermits of Augustine. It wasn't on any of the top sight-seeing lists - but it was right next to St. Peter's Church on my map, so I figured I'd stop by.
A lot of the streets meet at odd corners, and the smaller streets aren't labeled on my map, so I actually passed Augustiner Church and came to Bahnhofstrasse, which I knew was one street too far. Before turning back, I took a photo of what appeared to be a middle or early-highschool age band performing a percussion ensemble. They were quite good. I stayed for a minute or two to listen, took a picture, and then headed on my way.
I found Augustiner Church just a bit behind me and off to the right. The doors were unlocked, but they did not appear like a church that had really prepared for tourists, so I just took some photos of the outside and went on my way.
Niederdorf is a street, but the area is also known as Niederdorf. It's also known as old town. It's a fairly narrow street with lots of small shops, cafes, and restaurants. And of course, a McDonalds.
That last picture shows a car going through the small cobblestone road. In this particular area there's a small sidewalk, but 100ft behind us there was no sidewalk, and the car was slowly trying to make it's way through the people walking down the street.
ETH, or the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich - part of the University of Zurich, was listed as a top site. So I headed that way. Behind the university (I was coming from the back) was an amazing garden, and steps up through a sloping field that I walked up instead of taking the street. I had to stop and take pictures. The penultimate picture in the group below is at the top of the hill looking back down over the garden. The last picture in the group below is from a platform on the outside of the university that overlooks the city.
While I found it interesting to walk through this very cool building (ETH), I didn't really see this as a tourist attraction, and I'm surprised it was listed as one. I walked through a building filled with students... studying. As they are wont to do. As an engineer who once dated an architecture student, it was quite interesting to me, but it's certainly not setup for tourism, and I wouldn't expect it to be all that interesting, or comfortable for most tourists, or the students who might have to put up with them.
It didn't seem right to take pictures of a bunch of people trying to get work done, so I have very few pictures of ETH, but the center of the building was quite amazing, so I managed to snap a few. The front of the building is also quite striking.
ETH was to be my last site of the day. I headed back in the direction of home. But after I crossed the river, at Bahnhofplatz, there was loud music. I followed it, and going under the bridge was a large parade. It didn't take very long to realize it was a gay pride parade - or as they labeled it, queer pride. The parade consisted of trucks with a loud sound system and lot of (presumably) gay people dancing in the back of them. A huge crowd of people (it seemed like pretty much anyone who supported the cause could join in, as several onlookers joined in as it passed) were following each vehicle. Each truck represented an organization in support of gay rights, or a bar supporting the parade, or something else similar. The vast majority of them were trucks of guys, but I did see a truck of women. There were also a handful of drag queens.
I had no idea what it was, other than a gay pride parade. I looked it up when I got back and it's apparently Christopher Street Day. This was specifically the Zurich CSD.
It was very cool to watch, and I stayed for a bit and snapped some decent photos.
After that it was the walk home - about a mile.
Zurich continues to amazing and impress me with it's amazing history, beautiful scenery, and breathtaking sights. I'm so thrilled to be living here.