Final Stop in Zürich, Switzerland

I squeezed in a quick tour of Zürich this afternoon between returning the rental car and prepping for the flight back home to the States. It was a 400-kilometer (250 miles) drive this morning from Aosta, across the whole of Switzerland to the rental car return in Konstanz, Germany.

After dropping off my car (I put almost 2,500 miles on the odometer in three weeks, wow), I caught a bus to the Konstanz Hauptbahnhof and then boarded a train to Zürich. After the ride back into Switzerland, I rode a Straßenbahn (street car) to the stop closest to my hotel and hiked the rest of the way.

I was ready to drop off my backpack and get some lunch. The weather was overcast, cool and windy in Zürich this afternoon. My decision to head south to the warm and sunny Aosta Valley for the past week was a good one.

Personally, I find big Swiss cities to be a bit bland. Zürich is pretty enough situated on a lake but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of personality. There’s no real old part of town. Everything’s been updated, modernized and sanitized.

I did get one last church tower climb in though.

Perhaps it’s Zürich’s core business of banking that makes things seem a bit buttoned up here. I imagine this is what a Swiss banker looks like when you inquire about a personal loan…

Zürich does seem like a very livable city. It’s not too big and there’s a nice promenade along the lake for walks. I did venture off down some smaller lanes and found interesting homes and shops.

Oh surprise, it’s the Helvetica font on the sign for city hall. One of the most popular typefaces of the 20th century, Helvetica was created by Swiss designers and released in 1957. You probably don’t realize it but the font is all around you in company logos, advertising and signage.

Walking back to my hotel, I came across a first-generation Mercedes R129 SL convertible from the early 90s. Possibly one of the best car designs of the last 40 years. It still looks striking with its classic, understated styling. I wish Mercedes would go back to making serious, German-looking cars where everything is there for a reason, not a styling whim.

But that’s just the industrial designer in me…

I’m up early again in the morning to get to the airport and then it’s back over the Atlantic to the USA. Thank you for following the adventures this past month in Europe via my travel blog. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be on the road again in the near future. See y’all soon.

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