Centreville/CBD

Zurich Market

It was a grey day and an opportunity to try out the public transport system.  The bus stop is 100 metres from William and Mary’s and the bendy bus was very good to ride in. The information inside about where it was going to stop next was superb.  It even had the time it would arrive at a stop.   

Mary said that every thing ran like clockwork.  If a bus or train was scheduled to leave at a specific time that is when it left.  No planning on the bus being three minutes late or something like that.  The buses feel new and they are clearly used by people, despite being mouth wateringly expensive. 

There are also a number of tram or light rail lines.  We did not get to try them out as the trams all seemed packed. 

Sitting on the bridge over the Limmat

The main purpose of going to into Zürich was to visit a farmers type market as I was going to be cooking for William and Mary.  It was damp and freezing cold.  It is always interesting to see what is available at these markets.  The vegetables were not local.  They had white and green asparagus, and then a lot of what we would regard as winter vegetables.  There were a number of people selling cheese and we got some gruyere, emmental, gorganzola and another one I did not get the name of.  The gruyere was for a pommes de terre dauphinois.

We wandered around the old city for a while and had an almost nice coffee in a cute café. The coffees cost around 4.50SF or about $6. 

Another view of the Limmat - Cathedral towers on left

As it was so cold and it was starting to rain we decided that going to the National Museum of Switzerland might be a good idea.  While not a museum I would rave over it was interesting. 

Later Mary took us to a wine shop associated with a supermarket chain called Co-op.  The selection was quite good but the wines were rather expensive.  I got a Chablis, a local Pinot Noir, and a Cabernet Merlot from Chile made by Chateau Lafite Rothschild.  We drank these over two nights.  The Chablis and Cabernet Merlot were very good but the Pinot Noir was not very good.  Just drinkable.