Five weeks ago I booked a spontaneous vacation to the cultural capital of Swtizerland, Zürich.
Germanwings offers a type of mystery flight. You select your departure airport (Köln in my case...also happens to be their hub), the date you can fly and a theme. Themes vary from shopping, beach, skiing, cultural, eastern Europe, etc. A list of ten or so cities will be presented and you can mark four or so cities where you do not want to fly. A €5 surcharge for each city exed out is excised but I think its fair. Thus increasing the chances of your dream city.
I did just that. I booked a ticket not knowing where I would go. I paid €85 for a round trip flight from Cologne to Zürich. It was completelz worth it. I loved the Germanwins idea of not knowing where you are going until you book the ticket. After I was told I was off to Zürich, I had my doubts. Although I had alwazs wanted to visit the city, I was afriad of bad weather, cost and not seeing something new.
That, however, turned out to not be the case. Switzerland was everything that I wanted it to be. The people were overwhelmingly friendly and helpful even if our language barrier (their Swiss German in its spoken form is almost inconceivable to the rest of the German speaking community) sometimes got in the way. After a pleasant smile and a a short description in high German of what I needed, they much obliged and provided the service in a friendly manner. Instead of the typical "danke schön" used in the rest of the German speaking area, one uses the French "merci." I like it. I have the luck of having a former student of mine currently living in Zürich. Felix and his wife were helpful and introduced the city to me.
I was quite lucky to find accomodations in Zürich using the Hotel Reservation Service. For four nights in a nice hotel I paid only €200....bargain basement. This included a room with a balcony view of the mountains around Zürich. I can certainly recommend Hotel Leoneck. Don't be put off by the Craz Cow mantra they have going on. It is said that Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world. I'd probably agree with that. Food is terribly expensive there and one could expect to pay at minimum of 25 Euros per meal per person even for the most basic of meals. However, it was worth it.
Warm weather and sunny blessed my time in Switzerland. From the Zurich lakefront one can see the snow covered Alps and really enjoy the view of the city. Lake Zurich is beautiful and you must take a trip on the lake by boat when there. Unlike cities in neighboring countries, Zurich is almost completely intact. Switzerlands strict neutral policy has benefited the country like none other. You can tell that the city is in good condition and will most likely stay this way another 100 years.
Zurich is surrounded by plenty of small cities, mountains and other natural areas. I took a day trip on Easter Sunday to some of the surrounding mountains and went hiking. I really enjoyed myself and the views of the city and the lake which were offered up to me. I had the opportunity to meet some locals who expressed their views of their country, Europe and their place in the world. Globalization hasn't escaped Switzerland either and there is some growing pressure for greater integration into the European community. The Swiss pride themselves on their independence and I hope they contniue to embrace their independent streak.
Zurich is not a city which stresses you. The trams run like clockwork on time and with amazing efficency. The city is clean and orderly, maybe even too orderly and clean. If you find yourself stressed in Switzerland its unlikely to be because of your urban environment.
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