A glimpse of Helsinki: Zurich

I'm finally back in Helsinki after a 21 day long trip around Europe =) Took me a couple of days to process the 2000++ photos.. now i can start blogging hehe

As usual, i'll be blogging chronologically.. city by city =) .. But of course i'll post a separate entry as and when i think something deserves more attention. I hope i can remember the details!!

Here goes.. enjoy the upcoming 10 or so blog entries!

17th May...

I emptied my room that morning.. and with a heavy heart.. locked the door and dropped off the key at the TKY office..

I had to catch the 10am flight to Zurich that morning.. Wei Sing was heading to Paris at 9+.. so we took the same bus to the Lentoasema (airport). We bumped into Lip Hang and Jason.. farewell photos!

After a short flight.. i arrived at Zurich Airport and took a train to the city centre to meet Aunty Mummy, Edeline and my brother.. =) After 4 months!

Zurich intro:
Zurich is NOT the capital of Switzerland! Common mistake there.. even though it is the largest. It has a population of about 1.7 million people. According to several surveys from 2006 to 2008, Zürich was named the city with the best quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe. (thanks wikipedia!) Somebody commented online that Zurich is pretty.. is you love banks! But i found it to be totally untrue.. as you'll see!

The first thing i realised was that it was DAMN hot!!! It was like 25 degrees when i landed and coming from Helsinki i was sweating like a pig. After meeting up with them, we did our own city tour =)

Zurich Bahnhof

Big and yummy flower pot!

Limmat River cuts through the city.. the pictures turn out really nice coz of the sunshine and blue skies..

The water was so clear.. there are "swimming pools" by the river..

The 2 towers in the background belong to the Grossmünster Church.. the landmark of the city

Aunty Priscilla.. my Aunty Mummy =)

We headed up a small hill, Lindenhof, that used to be the site of a medieval castle.. From the top the view was really nice =)

Lindenhof is now a little park that the public can come and hang out.. there were many old people playing Patong. This game that involves throwing metal balls as near to a smaller metal ball as possible. =)

They also have big chess sets..

Swiss flags everywhere..

St Peter's Church.. has the largest church clock face in the world..

Lots of these small docks along the river.. for the river "taxis" to operate..

Pastries and Sweet stuff shop..

The Grossmünster Church was first built around 820 AD. Going up the towers would supposedly give amazing views of the city..

Across the river from the Grossmünster is the Fraumünster Church.. famous for its stained glass.. Really nice!! They dun allow photographs inside though..

We walked towards the pier.. to go onboard the lake boat tours on Lake Zurich.. on the way we saw...

Boy feeding pigeons..

Little fountains in random corners..

A Tango pavillion? =)

And so we went on a really relaxing lake tour..

We arranged with Tami (my cousin who studies in Switzerland) to meet for dinner.. Interesting how we meet halfway around the world when we seldom meet up even in Singapore =)

The group photo is in my brother's camera! We had a really hearty meal at a place that Wikitravel recommended.. It's a former armoury.. really nice atmosphere.. and of course yummy food!