SWITZERLAND / TRAVEL NOTES
Zurich
Family visits, quiet trams and the old town turned upside down in the river.
Zurich in Hourline shows the same artwork as the app, bringing its landmarks together in a composed scene.
01
Oerlikon
I came to Zurich to visit family and stayed in Oerlikon, a short train ride north of the old town. From the platform I could see rails, overhead wires and square apartment blocks. Former industrial land had become offices and homes. The streets were often quiet.
Late March still held the tail of winter. It could be below freezing in the morning and mild by midday. Walking to the station, I watched trams glide through almost empty streets. The city seemed wrapped in a layer of sound insulation.
02
Up the hill
From Zürich HB I crossed towards Central, where blue-and-white trams met beside the river. The little red Polybahn carried me up to the ETH terrace. The doors closed, the carriage tilted uphill, and the roofs of the old town dropped away.
ETH's main building is quiet and substantial: sandstone, arches, a façade more like a greatly enlarged town hall than a campus landmark. Behind it, the Polyterrasse opens towards the city and lake. Students ate sandwiches on benches with the Alps in the background. An ordinary lunch could have an extraordinary horizon.
03
Lindenhof
Lindenhof is a small raised square with lime trees above the Limmat. Below it, Bahnhofstrasse runs between the station and the lake. Watches, banks and shops put the city's wealth on display, but the windows and lighting remain remarkably restrained.
From the terrace, the old town gathers around its river: the Grossmünster's twin towers, the Fraumünster's spire, then the distant Alps. In March, snow still held the summits while cloud broke across the slopes. The view brought several scales of time into one frame—water, roofs, towers and mountains.
04
The opera house
A walk along the lake brought me to Sechseläutenplatz and the opera house. Its pale façade and roofline statues face a broad stone square. Afternoon sunlight made the paving shine; skateboarders kept trying the same move in one corner.
Beyond was Lake Zurich, dark blue almost to black. People with dogs occupied the benches, and swans moved slowly through the shallows. Across the water were mountains, and beyond those, places that no longer belonged to the city.
05
Evening on the Limmat
The next evening I returned to the river near Lindenhof. Low light struck the old town across the water. The surface was so smooth it resembled polished steel, turning gables and towers upside down.
Zurich's wealth is strangely understated. It lives in the cut of a suit, the thinness of a watch and the numbers in an account more than in theatrical façades. The city seems to prefer that you notice quietly.
06
Leaving
On my final evening, I walked back through Oerlikon after nine. A construction site glowed beneath its temporary lights. Blue sheeting wrapped the scaffolding into a great rectangle. A woman in a pink jumper walked her dog past neatly parked bicycles.
Zurich feels different from the other German-speaking cities I have visited: so clean it makes me slightly self-conscious, so quiet I lower my voice. My family has lived here long enough for that rhythm to feel ordinary. Each time I visit, I need a day or two to find it again.
