[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 15 July 2015]

4 November 2014, Tuesday

After spending a night in Lucerne, it was time to move on again and today, we would be heading to Zürich, the capital of Switzerland. Our train departure time was 12:10pm, but as usual, we woke up bright and early, before 7am. As we pulled open the curtains of our hotel room, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the sun rising over Lucerne. The dramatic cloud formations, the mountains in the distance and Chapel Bridge spanning across the Reuss River in the foreground, all combined to form a pretty picture of nature’s wonders. It was hard not to be awed in moments like these. It may not look like it, but it was really cold in the morning and I had to bravely step out to the balcony several times to take photos of the splendid view.

We had breakfast in the hotel, which was a buffet spread and it was nice to be able to have coffee refills for once. Following that, we still had plenty of time to spare, so we took another walk around our hotel in the Old Town. Most of the shops were not open yet so there wasn’t much to see. As it was a bitterly cold morning, we retreated back to our hotel room and hung around for a while before checking out.

Finally, it was time to board our Inter Regio train 2336 to Zürich. The ticket cost CHF24 (approx. S$34) and it was just a 46-minute ride away. Before we had even settled down properly, we had reached our destination, arriving at Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zürich HB) train station just before 1pm.

For our accommodation, like in Lucerne, I chose a hotel because there were not many good Airbnb options available, especially since we were staying for just one night. I picked Hotel Montana Zürich because its location was within walking distance from the train station and the city centre, the price was quite reasonable and the reviews were not too bad. It was less than 10 minutes walk away and we did not have any trouble locating it. The check-in timing was officially 2pm but thankfully the hotel was nice enough to allow us to check in early. Kudos to them!

Hotel Montana Zürich
Address: 39 Konrad Street, 8005 Zürich
Tel: +41 (0)43 366 60 00
Website: www.hotelmontana-zurich.com
Rate: S$321.39/night for a Triple Family room, inclusive of breakfast

Compared to the hotel in Lucerne, this one was smaller, mainly due to the sloping ceiling (which was the roof of the hotel building) as we were on the top floor. It was a bit tricky to navigate around and dad bumped his head against the ceiling once. However, it was clean and functional, definitely good enough for one night’s stay.

After dropping our bags, we immediately headed out to the city to explore as we didn’t have much time in Zürich. The main shopping street is Bahnhofstrasse, which starts right in front of Zürich HB train station. It runs for 1.4km and all the big brand stores are located here. To be honest, I don’t have great recollection of what we did in Zürich because it was mainly window shopping. By this stage of the trip, we had shopped a fair bit and most of the shops were quite similar.

One shop that I recommend is C&A, which stocks affordable and good quality casual wear from many brands. It is a Dutch retail chain with stores in many European countries. I bought some semi-formal long-sleeved shirts from Angelo Litrico, an Italian brand, and I thought they were pretty good value for money. As night fell, we headed back to the comfort of our hotel room, packing our ever-expanding bags yet again and getting ready for the last three days of our trip in Paris.

As a city, there wasn’t much Zürich had to offer, mainly because it is the capital and financial centre of Switzerland. It is one of the world’s most liveable cities and everything runs with Swiss precision and efficiency as expected, but there was something missing about the place – perhaps a buzz (like Tokyo) or a soul (like London). I think even Singapore is much more interesting. If I were to return one day, I will definitely head to the countryside because of the beautiful mountain scenery, fresh air and slower pace of life. But for now, it’s been a good four days in Switzerland, time to say goodbye and good night!