After an early start in Basel, we set off the next morning for Zurich, Switzerland. I spent nearly a year working in Zurich early in my career and have a special affection for the city. I particularly like the fact that it’s a small, walkable city with beautiful architecture and a magnificant landscape with hills, a river, and the lake.

Aude hadn’t visited Zurich before, so it was her first chance to see it with me as her guide.

We started our walking tour by heading up Bahnhofstrasse, the main shopping street in Zurich and the equivalent of Bond Street in London. It’s definitely a place for windowshopping, though, as everything is incredibly expensive.

At the top of Bahnhofstrasse, we visited the model of Swiss efficiency — the Zurich Bahnhof

Zurich’s Bahnhof

More scary trams…

Aude on one of the bridges crossing the Limmat river

We walked both sides of the river (essentially walking the town from end-to-end) over a couple of hours, then strolled down to the lake where we continued our ornithological tour of Europe.

A Swiss swan. Like ordinary an swan, but more punctual.

Zurich was just as I remembered it — a wealth of wonderful things to buy (but nothing affordable); an immaculate city that somehow lost it’s joie de vivre in the process. Still, it was great to be back.