Zurich: Alps and Shopping

Damn the four days weekend got into me and I am beginning to feel lazy to write this down, with House on Dubai One providing a great distraction. So, where were we? Ah yes Zurich. We took the afternoon train from Geneva to Zurich and after checking into the hotel we decided to go out for drinks at old town (Alstadt) We continued the night at a friendly pub near the hotel.

Grossmunster in view

Stadthaus

The famous balcony Curchill made his speech at

Drinking Fountain

Old town in view with the Fraumunster in view (the green tower)

The Grossmunster door to the church, where photography isn't allowed

Miniature Grossmunster

Where you can have a local pint

Since Zurich was a "rest and relax" leg of our journey everything we did we did with great deal of time in mind. We checked out the entire old town the next day, namely the Grossmunster and the Fraumunster churches, and a building that former US president Winston Churchill gave a speech on the balcony. It drizzled a bit, which cooled us down. Shopping was cheap at the other side of the bridge (old town) If you cross to the other side of the bridge; the new town you can shop but the clothes are all name brand, something you can get at any part of the world. The trams here covered the whole town extensively and I liked how punctual the trams were! People spoke English and were generally friendly.

Samses

Buffet at Samses

Dinner plates

Unfiltered Beer

Malaysian run Chinese Restaurant

Hiltl

Hiltl Buffet

Hiltl

You can weigh your plate yourself or get the cashier to do it for you

Gulab Jamun yay!

Papadam in Zurich?!

It's kind of easy to get vegetarian food here, with Hiltl in downtown Zurich which has been around since the 18th century and has massive selection of buffet food. They charge 4.50 Euro per 100 grams. And if you'd like someplace more private there's always Samses. Although they have a significantly smaller buffet option, they were cheaper, at 3.90 Euro per 100 grams of food. Yes, both places charge food per weight. Also, Samses had these small white table clothed tables and plenty of beer collection; and a local unfiltered beer and you can peacefully enjoy your dinner and street-watch/people-watch. More on Hiltl and Samses on Tripadvisor, as well as how to get there with the trams

Passing the time while the husband tries on clothes

Somehow I never got tempted by their chocolates

Typical hotel breakfast

We spent three lazy days and two drunk nights in Zurich. On our last day here, we woke up early for our 7.45am train to Tirano in Italy via the scenic mountain routes. I know a lot of people take the more posh trains that comes with lunch cabins and stuff like the Bernina Express and whatnot shit. I would suggest you take the local regional trains because you get to sit with the locals and you can ooh and ahh all you want because you're probably going to he the only tourist in the train. Our route took us to St. Moritz, Chur, Samedan, Pontresina, Alp Grum (where we got off, had lunch) and hopped into the next local train to continue our journey to Tirano. Yes, with the local trains you can practically get off anywhere and hop on the next train as long as you have your e-tickets with you. Bear in mind that the local trains will have a lot of local tourists and hikers alike especially in the early morning trains. But as the train progresses to Italy more people get off and you can practically get the whole cabin to yourself. Some of the local trains have an open cabin attached if you want a 360 degrees view of the mountains and scenery. All the windows are half-open able so you can dangle your camera and your head outside to take pictures. The local train also had build in speaker systems that announce what kind of mountains it's passing by. Or you can always ask the locals on-board