Zurich

Zurich

Switzerland's largest city is surprisingly compact, with a wealth of churches, museums, and cobbled streets. More than half of Zurich's 41 museums are free, from the wide-ranging Swiss National Museum, with treaures from prehistory to the present, to the tightly focused Beyer Museum of Time and the Museum Strauhof, strong on James Joyce artifacts and memorabilia. A free list of museums can be picked up at the tourist office. Zurich's premier magnet is the Old Town, a maze of medieval streets on both sides of the Limmat River. Among the most ancient and charming byways in this part of town are Neumarkt, Rindermarkt, and Predigergasse--narrow streets with building, some of them more than 700 years old, housing galleries and small shops brimming with stylish jewelry, clothing, crafts, works of art, and books. Augustinergasse, lines with 17th- and 18th- century houses, curves up to St. Peter's, the city's oldest parish church, also notable for having the largest clock face in Europe. If you don't insist on top-name brands, it's possible to do well buying classy-looking Swiss watches (under $100) and chocolate at department stores such as ABM, EPA, and Migros. For gift boxes of beautifully packaged chocolate truffles ($9-$25), try Schurter, on Niederdorfstrasse, also a fine spot for relaxing over a cup of hot chocolate or coffee ($2.50) and slice of cake ($2-$4). Swiss Army knives (starting at $12.50--and generally about half the price of those sold in the States), jewelry, wooden toys, and cheese boards can be purchased at Heimatwerk, with shops throughout Switzerland, but value-conscious shoppers flock to the Zurich store, where an entire room is devoted to sales merchandise. Countryside is close at hand in Zurich. Every 30 minutes, a train departs from Zurich's Hauptbahnhof (train station) for the summit of Uetliberg Mountain, some 1,500 feet above the city. Plan your departure from Zurich so that you can have an early lunch in the train station, at Les Arcades (a plate of bratwurst is $12). Instead of boarding the train for the return trip after you've admired the view from Uetliberg, take the easy under-two-hour walk along the mountain ridge to Felsenegg, where you can then hop on a cable car for the quick trip back to Zurich.

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