Travel to Switzerland - Visit Zurich - Part One

Zurich, is the largest city in Switzerland and is also considered the commercial and cultural centre. Zurich is also known to have "the best quality of life" in the world. Zurich hotels are also many to choose from in all price ranges.

Zurich wakes up every morning at the Main Station. A sea of people, in business like suits or very colorful dresses, flows into the city from the suburbs, which are continuing to eat their way further and further into the green outlying areas to the west, north and east.

The Bahnhofstrasse lies at the economic centre of Zurich. Many call this the finest street in Europe, and even though many other fine cities posses their own unique streets, the people of Zurich are particularly proud of this one. It extends from the main station to the lake, bending slightly on the way, and though only a kilometer or so in length, it offers the dazzling consumer temples of Globus and Jelmoni as well as the head offices of the "Gnomes of Zurich", in other words the five largest banks in Switzerland. There is scarcely any other city in the world, be it Tokyo, London or New York, with such a luxurious and carefully packaged range of consumer goods as that to be found here in Zurich and the magic shopping cooperative bordered by Bahnhofstrasse, Storchengasse and the Limmat River.

Switzerland and Zurich, together with Austria, will also be hosting the upcoming Euro 2008 football cup. The Zurich stadium is called Letzigrund Stadion and is easy to reach from your hotel with either tram or bus from the city centre about four kilometers away. It has thirty thousand seats and has been renovated for the Euro 2008 cup.

Zurich has the third largest stock exchange in the world after New York and Tokyo; gold and silver are traded and stockpiled here and have their international prices fixed. But much of what is going on here with banking in Switzerland is thickly cloaked with secrecy - Swiss banking secrecy. The Swiss themselves are rather proud of this phenomenon, since it gives their otherwise decent little land a whiff of wickedness.

You should not, however, burden yourself with too many shopping bags before crossing one of the bridges to the other bank of the Limmat. This area of Zurich, under the roller blinds of the south facing facades of the old houses, beside the quiet river and the consequently even louder roar of the traffic, Zurich has an almost Mediterranean feel to it. Between Bellevue and Central there is more than enough room to eat outside on summer evenings. Also, what is more, to see and be seen while consuming ice cream and glasses of champagne.

While strolling here, it is worth taking a look at the guild buildings, Zunfthaus zur Saffran and Zunfthaus zur Zimmerleuten. Via the Quailbrucke, you will finally reach the end of Bahnhofstrasse again and the Main Station, into which most of the population of the centre of Zurich vanishes from four thirty onwards.