Zürich

2025 Thanksgiving venue

It’s my first trip with my parents since I was but a little Dyl-ling and Switzerland has been pretty much everything I thought it would be. Picturesque and eye waveringly expensive. Me and my dad spent the whole first day together just the two of us. It was really nice. The both of us were jet lagged and sleepy. We wandered around the most populous city in the Switzerland. It’s cold, but sunny and clear enough to see the alps in the distance. After figuring out the metro we hit up a christmas market and I got some langos. I got to practice my Magyar with the workers, which got a smile from them and some surprise out of my dad. My classes have been paying off. I could explain that we were visitors from New York, I’m learning the language, that I want a regular one, etc.

The flight in was easy. I’ve always had a hard time going from West-East especially on the overnight flights, but I did okay this time. I think the trick was to lay slumped over on the (sanitized) tray table. I brought along a Duo plushie in order to make a sort of pillow tower alongside my hoodie and provided pillow. No photo, but here’s an artist representation.

I actually found a photo and here’s what it looked like.

I never understood why on those flights they even bother doing meal service. I don’t think many people can sleep before they’re finished. It’s late. So, it’s after normal dinner time anyway. The flight is overnight and under 8 hours, so at BEST you already can’t get a full night sleep. The morning flights to Europe are much better, though few and far between. I managed a couple hours but it wasn’t amazing. So therefore I made my dad go to the spa with me.

The combination of hot water + cold air on the rooftop pool was super refreshing, and I’d recommend it as the perfect Day 1 activity in Zurich. We spent almost 4 hours there, alternating between the different temperatured pools, mineral baths, and steam rooms. One funny thing is that they had listed hot stones as one of the amenities, but either due to a mistranslation or misdirection we learned that it was really more like a warm tile that you lay on. It was still nice and we definitely passed out for a half hour on them, but it was funny. Even with the brutal exchange rate, our spa day was reasonably priced. Afterwards we walked around a couple more of the christmas markets.

It’s not really my thing, but they’re pretty! We also stopped at a cafe famous for their hot chocolate. we were both feeling pretty exhausted, so we opted for Mocha instead to get the espresso kick. They also had homemade apple strudel and were decorated for the holidays.

Speaking of sweets, the following day I found a chimney cake. Made the proper way with the rollers.

That next day was more of a proper Zurich tour including a boat ride around lake Zurich and also the Lindt factory. The boat ride was my favorite part of the day. It was warm and you could see the alps so clearly in the distance.

The chocolate factory generous with unlimited liquid chocolate tastings and also free samples galore. I left chocolate wasted. I also spilled a whole bunch of chocolate down my shirt and had to hose off in the bathroom, which left me even colder for the next couple hours. I really felt like that one kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You know the one. I promised my mom I wouldn’t share any photos of her, but we took enough samples to not need to buy any more meals this whole time, as long as we’re alright just eating truffles and pieces of broken chocolate.

I’ve really been enjoying the quality of the city. The air is clean, the water is pristine, the trains are on-time and quiet. However, I don’t know if Zurich will make my top 5 metro systems ranking this year.

There is some funkiness to needing to set up an account and the different rail card options are confusing and classist. We narrowly avoided paying a 100 franc fine due to a misunderstanding. For some reason even normal trains have a first class option? It would be like if the LIRR had a separate area, it’s just so weird. Efficient and clean but a bit bureaucratic and uptight is my impression.

Tonight’s christmas market was packed! We got some kind of Kielbasa wurst for dinner, and I treated myself to a Hot Swiss Mule. Both were needed to warm the inside bits. Excited for a nice sleep after a long, cold, and fun Thanksgiving/Black Friday.

More soon.