Switzerland Trip Report Part III - More things to do in Zürich ~ Tuesday, December 25, 2007

We rode the Dolderbahn, a rack railway I mentioned earlier.



At the top is an outdoor ice skating rink. For little ones just learning, they provide these sliding bears that you can hug while trying to skate, to keep from falling.



Ice skating on the top of a mountain in Switzerland is cold, though. Fortunately they provide a cafe. We enjoyed a couple of Irish Coffees. I was warmer after that, and seemed to skate much better, too!

This cathedral is the Frauenkirche.



It has bronze doors with bible scenes illustrated in bas-relief.



If you're brave, you can climb up one of the towers. There's quite a view of the city from the top.

Lean nonchalantly against the railing, get your traveling companion to take your picture...





...ponder for a moment how impressive it is that medieval masons could build towers hundreds of feet into the air with just stone and mortar, and no steel reinforcement--do they get earthquakes in Switzerland? Back down those stairs!

I also recommend not making the ascent when King Kong is in town!



There are lots of nice shops in Zürich. Here's candy animals from a confectionary.



I found a train shop downtown. They had some nice (and pricey!) HO tram models in the window. I couldn't find much of anything in N. I bought a German language magazine for practice.



I had more fun at Pastorini, a really fabulous toy store--some of our purchases there have just been unwrapped, and seem to be a hit!

Around town, we saw people eating this strange concoction...



It looks like ground beef, but it's actually chestnuts cooked and squeezed into spaghetti, and called vermicelles. They put cream on top of it, and it's actually pretty good.

Did I mention it was really cold? Here's proof. That fountain is frozen!



But a nice thing to do in cold weather is candle-dipping. A tent is set up on Bürkliplatz specifically for this (see their website). Locals seem to take this very seriously. It's downtown, and some people come here regularly during lunch to work on their candles. You can leave candles in the Kerzengarderobe and come back to work on them more later, and eventually make a pretty huge candle--or you can just keep at it for an hour or so and get a fairly respectable, normal sized candle.



We rounded out our visit with more ice skating. This temporary rink is set up seasonally by the lake--the ice was pretty rough but the scenery was great!



You don't have to ride trams to see all this stuff, but I recommend it!



This is where you stand to ring the "secret back-up bell", btw!

More to come...