Spring 2024

Zürich then Horgen - 1 May 2024

01.05 - Zurich then Horgen

Another peaceful night - some additional vans turned up quite late last night. I read until about midnight, but still couldn’t sleep, listened to music - still awake! Was well asleep when it was time to wake up!

For some strange reason, we thought we might be able to find some storks today. Obviously on a fool’s errand! We saw the heron, and what might have been a white egret in the distance. Anyway, we cycled about 10 miles just on paths, not roads - had a quick venture across the old wooden bridge into a town called Sins - not a lot happening! However, it’s May Day holiday. We were told by the man at the garage where Dave had his work done that Zurich celebrate the holiday and have the day off, but they’d still be working!

Decided to make the best of the weather before it changes. Tintin drove for about 45 minutes to a park4night place on the outskirts of Zurich.

Had another avocado salad for lunch, paid our €2 to park for 4 hours (extremely reasonable price?) and cycled down a very steep hill and towards Zurich.

Tintin uses Google maps to navigate, shaved 0.8 of a mile off by using the pedestrian route instead of cycle route. Not sure we should have been cycling up to Lindenhof, but no one told us off!

This place is on top of a small hill with splendid views over the river, the Old Town, the Grossmünster church and Rathaus.

From there we cycled downwards towards the churches. The tower of Kirche St Peter (gold face) at 8.7m in diameter is Europe’s largest.

Viv - on some random street we found a Teuscher shop - closed because of May Day. Labour day - looks like only 5 cantons celebrate this holiday.

We locked up our bikes and went exploring. The Fraumünster wanted CHF 10 for us to see inside - so we didn’t bother!

We crossed the river bridge, and treated ourselves to an ice cream. CHF 8 - but we could choose two flavours! Ok, but not like our Italian gelato. We’ve nearly used up our Swiss Franc coins 😉

We did go inside the Romanesque-Gothic Grossmünster, with its twin towers - looks like we should have paid - but no one else was! Unusual stained glass windows over the lovely door.

As all other bigger cities - the place is awash with huge buildings with interesting architecture!

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland, with a population of more than 402,500. It represents 10% of Switzerland’s workforce, and over 40% of the country’s banking institutions have their headquarters here, sweeping up 85% of the total value of the assets held in Switzerland.

The river flowing down into the lake is the Limmat.

It was good to drive through today, as we’re guessing it’s much quieter than normal - however - we think there were more people out and about enjoying the sunny weather on a day off work. Think there must have been some big event this morning in front of the Opera house as there was still a stage and they were clearing up ‘bars’ - plus we saw droves of people all coming from one direction earlier on.

It was just nice to wander around. Great to see so many swans and ducks - not sure the duck should have been trampling the flowers!

Thought about walking to the botanical gardens - but was still too far away!

On our cycle back - was really novel - put our bikes in a lift to cross over the railway line tracks - well one lift didn’t work - luckily for us it was the going down steps! Google have a huge building there…

Saw loads of Uber eats deliveries on scooters and bikes. We only nearly got taken out once by a huge double bus - just came straight towards and alongside us - gave me a shock that’s for sure! The police were out and about as usual.

I’m glad we made the effort to see some of Zurich - and it didn’t matter that the shops were closed.

We couldn’t stay where we were parked - maximum of 4 hours. Had another chat with Sarah and Herc - crunch decision time for them now about dog/dogs in Cyprus - fingers crossed they get what they want 😊

Tintin drove again for another 30 minutes. We’re now parked up at the edge of a forest - ready to wait out the rain forecast for tomorrow…