Zurich - Small Big City

The smallest big city in the world

Zurich prides itself of being the smallest big city in the world. This statement is actually quite to the point. The city has all of about 500'000 inhabitants, the numbers go up or down as the geographical circle around the city is drawn tighter or looser, so let's stick with this figure.

Bahnhofstrasse: Banks and Luxury shopping

The main shopping mile is Bahnhofstrasse, where you'll find all the big luxury brands that are also to be found in London, New York, Paris, Rome and Tokio. And then there are the big jewellers with phantastic looking watches and gems in their shop windows and even more marvellous stuff inside. ... and the banks. The gnomes of Zurich, as people like to call the bankers, are not all located here anymore though, the rent for shops and office space on Bahnhofstrasse has become too expensive even for bankers, so all back office acctivities have been tranfered out of the city into the outskirts of Zurich.

Limmatquai and Niederdorf

On the other side of the river Limmat lies the Limmatquai and the Niderdorf, the amusement mile of Zurich. Plenty of small and bigger bars and pubs, restaurants and quite a few table dance bars and shows. Here you can get food from just about any ethnic corner fo the world and there is a lot going on till late at night.

Seepromenade

Further towards the lake (Lake Zurich) you find parks and great walks along the lake where at lunch time and in the evening lots of people go for a stroll and enjoy the realxing athmosphere of the lake and the view os the mountains, when the weather is clear enough.

Go on a Steamship

There are two steam ships still being used on the Lake of Zurich: DS Stadt Zürich and DS Stadt Rapperswil Why not take the steamship for a few hours on the lake? The main station to cath a ship is at the Bürkliplatz. when you stroll down Bahnhofstrasse towards the lake you can't miss it!

Sightseeing with the tramway

The tramway is a great way to explore Zurich, both the center and the outskirts, Buy a day pass for the public transport system and then systematically take all the tramway lines from one end to the next. Take a good city guide book with you and you'll discover plenty of great sights along the different routes. As you can hop on and off at will and the schedule of the tramways is very regular, with a new tram arriving every 10 to 12 minutes, this is very convenient.

There's plenty to see in Zurich, so go have a look!

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