Zurich

We're back from a long weekend in Zurich. Our friend Brian, was joined by six others, to ensure he celebrated his 4oth birthday in style. He'd been keen on going somewhere cold, preferably with snow on the ground. Deciding where to go last July, during the height of Summer, meant we had to take a punt on a city likely to meet his expectations. Zurich narrowly beat the Nordic capital cities in our final vote.


Fortunately Zurich passed its winter test with flying colours. The temperature hovered near zero on Friday and stayed low throughout the weekend. Fresh snowfall earlier in the week had also left a hearty white layer on roofs and the ground, while fountains around the city touted plenty of ice build-up.


We spent most of time wandering the city's streets, its narrow, old town lanes and along the picturesque Limmat riverfront. The photo that leads this post was taken in the old city. It shows the clock face of St Peterskirche, the city's oldest church. It was built in the 8th century but was much altered in the 13th century and again in 1705.

At 9m in diameter they say St Peterskirche's has the largest clock face in Europe. The minute hand alone is almost 4m long. Personally, I have to take this record-breaking claim with a grain of salt having seen the Uhrturm (clock tower) in Graz, Austria.


Saturday night saw us celebrate Brian's birthday at a popular new restaurant, Terrasse, located just upstream from Zurich Lake. The venue is set in a semi-circular building boasting soaring ceilings and stunning chandeliers. Afterwards, Garry and I took a leisurely night stroll along the river back to our hotel. As you can see from the photos below, many of the city's sights were floodlit. The twin towers of Grossmünster, Zurich's iconic landmark church, were particularly spectacular.


Our weekend away almost came unstuck on Thursday evening as we prepared to depart. Five of us were scheduled to fly out of London City Airport. However, heavy fog descended on the area forcing the cancellation of all flights. The scene at the airport was chaos. Everyone trooped back to our house for the night while we worked to get on the earliest morning flight out of Heathrow.

Garry and I had originally booked our tickets using vouchers issued by Qantas. This irregular form of payment generated an absolute nightmare. Qantas was fine with a flight change but for some unknown reason British Airways wouldn't reissue tickets until our taxi was literally pulling up outside Heathrow Terminal 5 at 6am the following morning. All I can say is Qantas call centre staff did a sterling job throughout the night hassling BA until it finally came to the party. That's 12 hours of stress I could have easily done without!