Exploring Zurich: A Personal Journey through Switzerland's Stunning City
- Tariq Dib
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Zurich was my most recent travel, where it is a 3+ hour train ride from the heart of Geneva, unlike my usual experience in train stations in France, Zurich maintained a pleasant greeting to its wonderful city with a nice long side river and a hint of what’s to come amid the horizon. It was 9 am when I arrived and had to stop for a coffee because frankly I was dying, so my first stop was just at the eve of the Old Town at a lively and charming café where I grabbed a coffee and charged myself for the day.
After exploring the vibrant and colorful architecture that dwells within the heart of Old Town Zurich, where you’ll meet people of all nationalities greeting you with a friendly face, it is definitely a place not to skip when visiting Zurich. What shocked me is that everyone somehow spoke English rather well, an expectation I held at my stay in Geneva, but Zurich proved me wrong as they seemed very fluent in English.
My first listed attraction was the Grossmünster. I myself am a Muslim, but I love to visit and explore the beauty of Christian churches, and this being Zurich’s most prominent landmark, it was hard for me to skip. As I entered, I got an exciting rush, specifically when seeing the resplendent colors on some of the most artistic glass panes I have laid eyes on, my flair for European architecture sparked in moments like these, as within a sense it took my breath away. I even explored the rather small crypt, but Emperor Charlemagne lay there I believe, where he was memorialized by a statue that’s simply cool to see.
I spent an hour after Grossmünster exploring more of the Old Town, where I stumbled upon the Rose Fountain, an amazing array of flowers that were actually made to bring joy and hope during the pandemic. This must’ve worked, as it brought me great joy that made even my mom jealous when I sent her the photos of my trip.
After this I reached my most anticipated spot the Kunsthaus Museum in Zurich and this was everything that I expected and more, as I saw an attraction that I kept secret for the woman that I love, a room vibrating with light and tranquility, colors that excite the heart and make you regret ever leaving the room. To me, the room became unimaginable as I got to surprise my girlfriend, a moment I’m sure I will never forget, even if I wanted to. After this remarkable attraction I made my way to other attractions that contained art that made this museum the best I’ve visited by far as it contained two surprising paintings holding a myriad of paintings from Claude Monet before he progressively became blind and paintings from Vincent Van Gogh and even Picasso himself which surprised me a lot as I never laid eyes on the works of these artists before aside from Claude Monet. I would mostly suggest this attraction from all that I have been to, as true to the word, it is unforgettable.
Now, what put an end to my trip was my final stops were the Lindt Museum and the Chinese Garden. The Lindt Museum was remarkable and more than I expected since I had my doubts on how a chocolate museum could be exciting at all but it proved me wrong as I got to try some of the best chocolate I have ever sampled along with magnificent out-of-this-world attractions that exemplified this museum as a prominent landmark that you must visit when coming to Zurich, but expect a long wait as you are allowed to enter every hour and a half or so. In my experience, I came at 14:00 and I had to enter at 15:30 as there is usually an influx of tourists. Furthermore, my visit to the Chinese Garden was not really what I had expected as I thought it would make a tranquil end to my trip but instead it was more of an extremely lively park with a lot of sports and activities going around, definitely a great place to take the family in the case that you live there in my opinion but wasn’t the greatest place to come as a tourist at least for me.
I certainly hoped I would get to explore more of Zurich and had more planned for my stay but as the time went on and I reached the Chinese Garden I was forced to go back to Geneva as I and my girlfriend were attacked with salmonella, we didn’t cook properly days before our trip and ended up miserable and marked the end of our stay. I hope to come back and explore more of what Zurich has to offer, but from what I experienced, Zurich is every bit worth the visit, and I hope to inspire you to come and visit Zurich because you won’t regret it.
April 12th 2025
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