The plane landed earlier than planned. There was just so many items that we brought out during the flight that we had to wait till quite a few passengers to get off first before we brought down our own bags to pack.
It was quite a distance to the train that brought us to the immigrations and baggage claim area. The queue was quite short at immigrations and we got through it rather quickly. There was a forex counter at the baggage claim area and SGD was on the board but the rates were funny. Didn’t thought too much since we have exchanged it in Singapore.
The trains were at another building, tickets could be purchased over the counter or at the ticketing machine, which we did with the help one of the staff. He informed that all trains go to Zurich HBF (main train station) at lanes 3 & 4 and so we boarded the S2 train which came earlier but left later.
10mins later, we arrived at the Zurich HBF, and thankfully with the free wifi by the Swiss trains, we navigated to our hotel, Zurich City Hotel. The room wasn’t ready as earlier advised and thus we went to the lounge on the second floor to rest. It wasn’t long before they provided a room with some expedition by the cleaning stuff – great service.
Squeezing into the tiny lift, we brought the 2 heavy luggage to the rooms, unpacked, did what we need to do before getting onto the streets. Blazing sun in the summer time turned up the temperature but baby K didn’t had a problem snoozing in the Ergobaby as we walked the old town of Zurich except that I had to constantly shield his eyes.
The old town was easy access from our hotel, just a couple of minutes walk to the shopping street of Bahnhofstrasse and a short climb up Lindenhof hill where we get to see the panaroma view of the town across the river. Thereafter going southwards to see the churches with the huge clock face on the clock towers of the church St. Peter and Fraumünster Church. The later had nice stained glass within the church but photography wasn’t permitted.
Crossing the Münsterbrücke bridge, we find ourselves at the Grossmünster cathedral with the twin towers that could be seen towering above the buildings in the old town. Within were stained glasses too with the welcome coolness from the afternoon heat.
Walking towards the lake, we stopped by for lunch at one of the Lebanese cuisine at Le Cèdre Bellevue, thinking that it was more affordable. Had some chicken wings and Falafel, a beer and a strawberry juice and it ended up almost 50CHF.
The falafel was good though.
We walked towards the lake to have a closer view but wasn’t particularly nice then we head back to the hotel, about another 30minutes walk. It was a short but tiring walk around the city, made worse by the sweltering heat.
Back in the room, we were busy with the washing up of the bottles and the baby and when jet lag hit, we fell asleep till 10pm, when the sun just set not too long ago. I went to the nearby COOP to get some sandwich and cold pasta for dinner, walking through the brightly lighted streets in much cooler weather. There were a few pubs along the way and expensive and loud cars can be seen zooming past, so similar to our Singapore streets.
Baby K slept early too, probably having the same jetlag effect and I dozed off again after dinner.