ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

                                           A Full Morning

         Zurich is the Switzerland’s largest city with 360,000 inhabitants, but this figure swells to a million when the surrounding areas are included. Zurich is a city of many faces; educational with the university and tech schools, and banking, industrial, and financial with the banks and stock exchange. The Limmat River running through the city divides it into almost two equal parts.

   In 1100 the Grossmunster (large church) was started, but it took one hundred years to complete. It is a major church in the city and is the site of the beginning of the Reformation movement. The style is Romanesque

In the old city one of the finest facades is the Fraumunster. This church contains stain glass windows by the famous artist Chagall. The church’s christening font dates to 1598 and the pulpit to 1853. In the cellar (crypt) are old paintings from the 1500s, but they are in poor condition and in much need of restoration. A large bronze statue of Charlemagne looks after the paintings. A huge 1950 bronze plated door depicting many bible scenes including the Ten Commandments and the Lord ’s Prayer makes for a spectacular entrance to the church.

         The city is full of towers and old churches. Steeples can be seen everywhere. St. Peter’s church tower boasts the largest clock face in the world. It is over 8 meters (26’) in diameter!

         When the city walking tour was over we strolled down the famous Bahnhofstrasse, a wide boulevard which runs from the train station about 1½ kilometers to the edge of Lake Zurich. The wide sidewalks allow for lots of window shopping in the many high price specialty shops. Sidewalk cafes with dining tables spilling outside are nestled between the shops.

To be certain to be in the train station on time to catch our train we opted to eat a late lunch there. Since I mostly see the inside of European airports I’m not too familiar with train stations. But, this one was like one I’ve never seen! Both the upper and lower levels are lined with shops, cafes, and kiosks.

On the lower level is a very clean restroom (WC or water closet). After depositing 1½ francs in the turn-style one can buy any toilet article one might need including shampoo. There are nice private showering facilities. The sink faucets produced both cold and hot running water. It was a restroom to be proud of. Also on the lower level were hundreds of lockers in different sizes.(I wonder if these remain today in our terrorist oriented world?)

         In the center of the upper level stands the equivalent of a farmer’s market with just about anything one might desire, vegetables, sausage, cheese, tea, flowers, and the list goes on. Since the city was hosting the first Cow Parade, cows even were suspended from the high ceiling as well as one rather fat ugly colorful maiden with gold wings.

         We chose a large restaurant for lunch with a table outside so we could people watch. Our ham was a large oval piece of spam-like meat and a potato salad, which was really sliced cooked potato slathered and swimming in mayonnaise but the ice tea was great.

         It was a full interesting morning on a warm sunny day. Of course it whet my appetite to return another day, which I did a few years later.