Zürich: A Ghost Town and an Over-sized Chess Match

It was Sunday in Europe, a wonderful day to do nothing, but a horrible day for sightseeing.  After our breakfast at Hotel des Alpes in Luzern, we had a few hours before we could check-in at our hotel in Zürich.  The drive between cities was less than an hour - how could we possibly fill our time?  Luckily, Julie found a local chocolate factory that offers tours and has the opportunity to make your own chocolate bar.  Aeschbach Chocolate is located in Root (Luzern), a place we could kill an hour or two of our time with free chocolate.  The tour is self guided with free samples throughout, we even paid a few extra CHF for the opportunity to make a personalized 100g bar.  According to the employee, we set the record for amount of time dedicated on design.  In fact, a child started making his five minutes after us and was finished well before.  Our idea was to make our chocolate decorative, not for eating.  Although, the latter intention is only a matter of time before our souvenir becomes dessert.  By the time we left Aeschbach, the plan to bridge the time gap was successful, mainly due to our diligence of being momentary chocolatiers.

Aeschbach Chocolate

Our chocolate bar before

Forty minutes later

Anyone see the mistake we made?

Arriving in Zürich early, we were fortunate to find parking in the hotel's small lot - sounds of resonating delight reigned from our wallets'.  The staff of Hotel St. Josef were very welcoming and even gave us a free upgraded room without our asking.  They provided us a city map and we could even purchase our ZürichCard through them - a pass for all public transportation and "free" admission to museums (mostly offered 5-10% discounts, but included free trips to Mount Uetilberg and Lake Zürich).  After settling, we made our way to the streets and headed to Limmatquai, a street that parallels the Limmat River.  The Swiss permacoud blanketed the city - which resembled a ghost town with all the store closures and eerie greyness.  For the second consecutive day, the boat tour of the city's lake was going to be avoided due to the unfavorable weather (as with a trip to Mount Uetilberg).

Sankt Peterkirche

Limmat River

View from Limmatquai

Knowing Zürich is the largest city in Switzerland, we anticipated the ZürichCards to be quite useful in traveling throughout the area.  However, we came to the realization that our expectations were overestimated.  The majority of the sites on our agenda were entirely walk-able and public transportation was unnecessary.  After passing the Rathaus, we visited our first major attraction, Grossmünster, a Romanesque church believed to have been commissioned by Charlemagne and constructed on the burial site of the city's patron saints, Felix and Regula.  Photography was not permitted inside, but we could climb to the top of the Karlsturm (the south tower) - for a nominal fee.  Blast! The ZürichCard's futility strikes!  The view from the top of the church allows for a great panoramic of the landscape and (what we could see of) Lake Zürich.  We left Grössmuster and traveled to the Helmhaus and Wasserkirche - only to be disappointed by an exhibit (again not covered by ZürichCard) and a church that was closed for the day (except for services).

Lake Zürich

Fraumünster and Sankt Peterkirche

Tower opposite Karlsturm

Crossing the river, we tried our luck on the west side of the city, starting with Fraumünster - again, we were denied entry.  The church is famous for the stained glass windows of Marc Chagall, a famous artist whose work we have seen while visiting Metz (France).  We were informed of an organ concert later in the evening, but the event didn't cater to our stingy price range.  Completing the trifecta of churches, we continued to Sankt Peterkirche, home of the largest clock face in Europe - measuring 8.7 meters in diameter.

Grossmünster

Walking along Limmat

Delicious drinking fountain

Continuing north, we stopped by Lindenhof Park, an area that once held a Roman fortress in the fourth century and the palace of Charlemagne's grandson in the 9th century - now a beacon for chess aficionados.  Before observing the view, Julie challenged  me to a quick match; a most unfortunate slaughter for Julie's army.  While enjoying the view of the river and city, our hunger level slowly increased, however, nearly everything in Zürich was closed.  Fortunately, we found one of two open restaurants around Bahnhofstrasse, a famous shopping district.  Avoiding the Starbucks, we entered a restaurant of a nearby hotel to create a new plan for our remaining time in the Ghost Town.

Serious Game

Not-so-serious game

The Aftermath

Memorial for Julie's chess pieces

Saddened by the realization that Old Crow (a whiskey bar) was also closed for the day only added to the disappointment.  Having replenished our energy with caffeine, we decided to walk around aimlessly - knowing our plans were futile with city-wide closures and no internet to formulate a new plan.  To our surprise, we stumbled upon Zeughauskeller, an old armory converted into a beer hall.  Our barley and hop cravings would be satisfied with some local brews.  The atmosphere was far more lively than the dead town, albeit, far toned-down when compared with München's Hofbräuhaus.  However our ephemeral energy levels quickly depleted and the beer would not supplement a satiating meal.

Panoramic from Lindenhof Observatory Deck

We returned to the other side of the Limmat and searched for restaurants closer to our hotel, ultimately finding Swiss Chuchi, a fondue house.  We ordered a cauldron of cheese with mixed vegetables to ameliorate our fondue experience, however, the server came out with potatoes.  Literally, a sack of potatoes was tossed on our table.  Touché.  Potatoes are indeed (root) vegetables, but the unexpected tubers confused me.  I asked our server about the vegetables, who quickly apologized for the mishap and returned with the plate previously ordered.  Later, our waiter plopped the same sack of potatoes on another table and befuddled another set of patrons.  After dinner, we returned to the hotel and were fortunate enough to not have validated our ZürichCards.  This meant we could return the passes we never used.  Before calling it a night, we were pleased to see sunshine in the weather forecast for our visit to Basel the following day.

Our Zürich Map
(Purple Markers are sites skipped due to weather)