The first day I followed a walk in my guidebook that took me on a path around the centre of the city. Walking around was pretty much all I could afford to do, this place was sooo incredibly expensive!! Everyone was so loaded, I’ve never seen so many luxury cars and expensive shops in such a small place. It is the world centre of banking so I guess to be expected, but was pretty eye-opening.
Ohhh, some pretty swans on the Limmat river...
The transport system is incredibly efficient. Its said that you can set your watch by the trains, they are so reliably on time.
Surprising - I’m sure you’ll all agree – but I managed to find a bakery or 3. This is Sprungli, one of Zurich’s best known and most revered sweet makers. They make these macaroons which are almost too pretty to eat. But I did.
Zurich is also the home to Freitag, a company that makes bags and wallets out of recycled truck tarpaulin and seat belts. I visited their headquarters, an amazing building constructed out of stacked shipping containers, which were gutted and refitted.
The structure is positioned so that you can watch the trucks on the highway through its glass end walls. Its so cool.
Then you can climb to the top to the truck viewing platform complete with binoculars to spot trucks on the highway.
This is the one I spotted...
Also visited a Le Corbusier building, totally cool. Unfortunately couldn’t get inside (I still jumped the fence and pressed my face up against the glass).
I also found a bookshop that had a whole department of books to describe Swiss etiquette and culture. One book said that Australians think that people everywhere are basically Australian, and are therefore surprised when they encounter people who act differently. The book also described australians as like peaches (ie with thin skin) and Swiss as like coconuts, with thick defensive outer skin that is hard to break through. I'm not really sure what I think about this...
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