Final night at the Swiss Chocolate hotel

When we looked for hotels near the train station, this one caught our eye.  Why not?

 There is clearly a chocolate theme throughout.  Even a chocolate fountain for free snacks in the lobby!

Note the chocolate slabs for the night stand.

Wall and ceiling are painted with cocoa bean pods.

A stroll around Zurich old town

We arrived into Zurich around 2:30 and thought about spending several hours at the Swiss National Museum (just around the corner from the train station and our hotel).  But once we checked in and laid down on the bed for a bit, we decided we didn't have the energy to go out again right away.  Eventually hunger and curiosity to see a bit of the city re-energized us and we headed out to wander around old town and the river front in Zurich. 

This is the Prediger Church near our hotel.  

It is protestant, as the very simple alter and sanctuary suggest. 

The organ was humongous!  We lamented that every church we walked into had either just had an organ concert, or had one scheduled in the next few days.  Nothing for us to catch tonight. 

Not only would the accoustics and music be amazing, but all of the churches were at least 5 degrees cooler than outside, so hanging out there would also be comfortable.

View of the Prediger Church from across the river. 

The streets were mostly cobble stone with lots of twists and turns.  Reminded us a bit of Prague, but with a newer feel.  We wandered down a lane with lots of book stores and antique stores (most were already closed, but the window displays were interesting).  We were intercepted by a cosmotology vendor who told Charlene her skin was beautiful and asked what her skin care regimen was (you've likely heard this line before too).  Her answer: nothing.  "Oh, I can't believe it, you look wonderful".  If her skin looks so amazing, where is her incentive to buy the products you are about to try to sell us? (I ask myself).  The woman pulls us into the store and says to her partner - guess which one of these women is the professional model and he says "It must be both".  Talk about pouring it on thick.  We had both been traveling all day and were hot, sweaty and totally without any make up (as we usually are). He pulled us into a chair and spread a product onto the skin below our eyes and then used a little mini fan to dry it out (the best part of the experience on the hot afternoon - we won't buy your beauty product, but we might take one of those fans!). The product notably tightened the skin, but was not a miracle product.  He let us know that the product (about 3 oz) usually retailed for 400 CHF, but he'd be willing to let us have it for 200.  We simply smiled and said no thanks and he let us walk away (with the weird feeling of one of our eyes feeling 'tighter' than the other).   LOL.

One of the stores we passed was bridal attire.  I loved that they had pants suits not just gowns. 

Grossmunster church - no pictures allowed inside. 

This statue of Charlemagne was in the crypt.  It used to be on the tower of the church, but was replaced with a replica (see below). The newer statue sits just below the arched window on the nearer tower. 

 

The door to the church was brass and pretty cool looking (also very heavy)

Fraumuster Kirche (across the river from Grossmunster). The colors give a real feeling of the simmering heat of the afternoon. 

I was approaching "hangry" and decided we needed to find something to eat for dinner along the river front where it was slightly cooler.  We passed a number of expensive cafes and settled on a take away Mediterranean place.  We sat on a bench next to the building on the left and ate.

After eating we continued our stroll back toward our hotel.  We saw a few of these punts moored along the shore, but one was paddling away.  It looked like the lady in the front was learning how to master the oar (it looked heavy and awkward).

One store that we wandered in to had a lot of ceramic cows that were part of a traveling cow exhibit.  I loved this "chocolate cow". 

We felt just like these poor flowers by the end of the day.  Ready to wilt.  Shower and final packing to head to the airport tomorrow.  We've had a fun filled week!

Day 5 - Exploring Lucerne

 Lucerne is a city of about 80,000.  The train station is right near the Old Town so we decided to do a stopover and walk around to see what we could see.  It was hot and pretty crowded on the street, so we mostly stuck to the shadowed walks along the river bank.  In the train station we passed a bakery and I got a spinich streudal - it made a delicious lunch!

 Water front in Lucerne with the Chapel Bridge and St. Peters (on the right).

The structure behind us is a water tower (also used as a prison during some time). 

The 'Chapel Bridge' is over 650 years old and connects the Lucerne Theatre with St. Peters chapel on the other side.   There was a big fire in 1993 that destroyed the middle of the bridge as well 81 of the 111 the original paintings that were hundreds of years old. 

Each arch in the structure had an original painting in it.  Only the ones on the ends remain. 

You can see the charred oil painting /wood toward the middle of the bridge where the fire damaged the paintings.

There is an entire middle section that was burned down and this part is newly rebuilt. 

Looking down river from the bridge.

St. Peter's church. Relatively small and simple. 

The paintings on some many of the building fascades were amazing. 

So many clocks on buildings.  I particularly liked the metal gargoyle on the rooftop to the right. 

Lots of city fountains as well - all with potable water. We kind of wanted to throw ourselves into them as we passed by it was so hot today (91 F!)

There are records of monasteries in Lucerne using hydropower dating back to the 700's.  In the 1500s the city had water mills that used the river's power.  These eventually were lost in a fire in the late 1800's and were replaced with an hydroelectric power plant that supplied the city until 1977.

There were kids with inner tubes floating down the river. 

We didn't have quite enough energy to explore the cities old defensive walls, but we could see them from the bridges that we crossed (square parapet sticking up on the right).

Jesuit Church from a distance. 

Another footbridge.  There were a lot across the river.

So much interesting architecture as we wandered through the narrow streets.  Lots of (expensive) specialty shops too. 

Liked this metal dragon supporting the sign.

This building was weirdly a modern  and historical apothacary (drug store).

You can tell by looking at the shelves there are old mason jars with herbs in them (or at least labeled with herbs) as well as modern drug store items. 

This mock up of an old apothacary was in another window of the building. 

This is the alter area of the Franciscan church, just down the street from the Jesuit church.  Apparently Lucern resisted the Reformation movement and remained Catholic.  This church is one of the oldest buildings in the city and dates back to the 1200s with very little change to its original Gothic design. 

These flags painted on the walls were substitutes for the actual flags captured in the Sempach war (1386) that were eventually removed. 

Wood carvings on the pulpit were incredible.

This children's space was up near the alter on the side aisle.  Its the first time I've ever seen any indication that children are an active part of worship inside these historic and beautiful buildings. I found it rather endearing. 

First time I've seen oil lit votive candles. 

Really unique baptismal font (definitely not Gothic).

This is looking straight up at a ceiling full of cherubs.  Very cool.

This is an up close view of the Jesuit Church.

It is larger than the Franciscan church and much lighter.  Although both have white walls, there is a whole extra story of large windows in this space. 

The organ was way up high on this one and looked kind of small in proportion to the building.

We decided it was time to head back to the train station, retrieve our luggage from the lockers and catch the next train to Zurich.  Fortunately the trains run every 30 mins, so we didn't have long to wait.