Three surprises Zurich giving to me

Leaving at 5 a.m. from London on Jan 10, we headed to our next destination-Zurich, in Switzerland. The fatigues after a 10-day tour in London and lack of sleep truly made me drowsy. Folding myself into the seat，I obeyed the command of body and took a short nap until the sun's first rays streaked through the clouds and awakened my eyes. There were endless picture-perfect mountains, stretching themselves over the Northeastern Switzerland. Apparently, it had been snowing for the past few days in Zurich for all the mountains were snow-capped, in enchanting silver white.

“It is the time to fulfill my dream,” I said to myself, picking up my bags and being well-prepared to take the first deep breath of Zurich. It was 10:30 a.m. The plane landed off. 

The first greeting from Zurich

The bus, which we booked in advance, was waiting outside when we arrived. After a 10 -minute drive, a bunch of boys and girls, dressed themselves like polar bears, presented in Holiday Inn hotel.

After dropping our stuff, we headed straightforward to get something to eat. How can you get up any passion of sightseeing with an empty stomach growling for a few hours? And it was the restaurants here, giving me a surprise, as the first greeting from Zurich. What a large amount of money I have to spend if I want to cram my stomach! Nearly 50 Swiss Francs! I got bug-eyed when I stood in front of a small restaurant, staring at the menu it offered. Finally, we ended up biting hamburgers and having carbonated drinks at the expense of around 8 Sfrs. After all, as for me, may be also others, saving a couple of Swiss Francs was far more important than having a quality meal, in the final stages of our trip.

Resting for a while, we decided to have a rough walking tour of the town. The weather was chilly enough to make everyone tremble. We could not wait to jump on the warm tram taking us to the Limmat River, flowing through the downtown.

Zurich, known as the economic and cultural hub of Switzerland，is built on the Limmat River and situated close to Lake Zürich. Its earliest history can be traced back to Roman times, originally as a customs post. From then on, it gradually developed into a world financial centre enjoying its reputation as the wealthiest city in the world.

And now, I was just standing at the centre of this purported world’s richest place, and it refuted all the Swiss stereotypes that I had in my head prior to arriving. What can I say to describe Zurich? Rather than a typical European metropolis, it is just a pristine, tranquil small town but fastidiously clean and perfectly organized. This was truly the second surprise Zurich hit me with.

The Limmat River flowed through the city, beside which, stood the famous Fraumünster and St. Peter’s Church. All the buildings were uniformly in grey, rather plain and old. Maybe because of the low temperature, you could hardly see any pedestrian, just cable cars shuttling through blocks. There were swans, or may be ducks, I was not sure, floating on the river in small groups, in Zurich style, low-keyed and leisurely. Zurich was named as the city with "the best quality of living ". Standing still beside the Limmat River and looking around, I began to sense some of its lifestyle.

For chocoholics’ best gift

Our second day tour began from the Lake Zürich. I have to admit that it is truly a fascinating destination. No wonder it attracts so many visitors every year. The lake was fairly clean and flocks of swans floated leisurely on gently rocking waves. There were variably-sized delicate houses and villas dotting the hills surrounding the lake not so far away.

I tried to shoot some digital photos covering all the gorgeous sights of the lake, but it always ended up as fuzzy and slightly-white pictures because of the cold weather and mist. That would be great to visit the lake in summer for it must be more spectacular in the sunshine, I think.

The famous Bahnhofstrasse, the main shopping avenue in Zurich, known as the world’s most expensive shopping street, was now, showcasing itself in front of us. It started from the Lake Zürich and stretched all the way down to Zürich Hauptbahnhof, Switzerland’s largest railway station. We ambled through endless luxury stores and it was really a good way to feast our eyes.

While I was busy exploring these boutiques, a dreamy chocolate store, Sprüngli, came into my view unexpectedly. I was so pleasantly surprised by it. The Sprüngli is the oldest and most famous chocolate brand in Switzerland. What a pity! There are only Sprüngli stores in Zurich, Basel and Zug of Switzerland. You cannot find a branch in other places of the world. Maybe that is why Sprüngli appears so charming. People are always likely to be fascinated by things they cannot walk away with.

The store in Bahnhofstrasse is the Sprüngli’s main shop established in1859.I had fallen in love with it as soon as I entered. There was a variety of delicate chocolates, desserts, cakes, breads and pastries. A kind of cute dessert named Luxemburgerli caught my eyes immediately. Also those exquisite chocolate mousses. It seemed that those almond butter cakes also could be a great choice, let alone dark chocolates with 85% cacao. Save my francs? At the moment, I had already left this all behind but focused on what can I have a try. Finally, I ordered some Luxemburgerli, a piece of chocolate mousse and of course, four bars of 85% cacao dark chocolate.

The chocolate mousse tasted great! The dark chocolate with high cacao is always my favorite. Also these cute Luxemburgerli, really gave me a pleasant surprise. Nearly at the end of our Zurich tour, it was Sprüngli, giving me,a chocoholic, the best surprise.