A Day in Zurich

When my husband has to work in Switzerland for a day or two, I like to drive him there.  The countryside is beautiful, and the nearby towns of Zurich and Luzern (Lucerne, for your English-speakers) have pretty lakes, markets, shops and churches.
On one such day, I woke up in the hotel early, about 6:30, packed a map, my camera, and set out.
Zurich is built around Lake Zurich, and seems to me a very peaceful city to live in.  As I set out on my quest—to revisit the Fraumunster and Grossmunster churches—I walk along with the water’s edge on my right. The boats bob up and down in their own dance, the bright light of dawn creating soft shadows in the park on my left.  Joggers pass by, walkers with their dogs stop to sniff the latest find.  A little further down the road, commuters make their way, almost noiselessly* in a stop and flow of traffic.  Which actually is shocking, if you’ve ever been stuck in Zurich’s traffic.  I guess one cannot escape this fault of every city.
I take photos and enter a colorful open market by the Quaibruecke  (Quai bridge), where I get breakfast.  I notice a memorial to the engineer who built the bridge. Actually, all over town, I notice memorials, and I think that the Zurich people must be very proud of their town.  It was probably once it’s own independent city-state.
The Fraumunster.  I was at this church 10 years ago, on a tour of the Protestant Reformation.  It was here I first saw the stained glass work of Marc Chagall.  I was surprisingly so enthralled, I bought a book on these windows.  I later saw work of his in France, and then in Chicago.  There is a wall outside of the Chase building (on Dearborn, I think), and another wall in the Chicago Art Museum. These pieces will give you a glimpse of his use of color, light, and arrangement of characters.  But, not being a very artsy person, I really fell in love with how everything in his windows means something.  If you look at his work, you would be hard-pressed to believe that this French Jewish man was not a believer and follower of Christ.  He really seems to understand the Bible.  My pictures of the windows were taken on the sly, and do absolutely no justice to their greatness.
After staring at these windows for nearly an hour, and configuring no good way to take them with me, I walked across the bridge to the Grossmunster Zwingli’s church. Zwingli was one of the Fathers of the Protestant Reformation.  A profound quote from St. Augustine that Zwingli quoted about the times he lived in goes as follows: “Wherever books are burned, so are people”. At the time, the church was corrupt. He bucked against this and started telling the Swiss people what was really in the Bible about the same time Martin Luther was doing the same in Germany.  Their books and translations were condemned and burned by the church, due to the church’s obvious corruption.  This is when the protestant and catholic churches came to be, in the 1500’s.
Two great things about this Church, if you ever get to go:
1. There’s a sanctuary in the center of the church for meditation—a secret room.  Anyone who can find it can go inside. A refuge in the midst of the city.
2. Climb the tower.  It’s only 4 Swiss Franks and the view is pretty nice!
The rest of the day was lovely.  I found some kind Swiss people to chat with or direct me here and there, found nooks and crannies of the city, and just relaxed. 
Thank you Zurich.  I heart you.
*If this were Chicago, for sure—for sure—horns would be a-blowing all morning; the traffic really is that bad.  Apparently the entire town is under road construction and there are about 3 main roads that can get through the city.   Along with Swiss precision comes other strict rules of conduct (another story to come just about this), one of which must be, no honking! In this regard, I’d like to thank Swiss people everywhere.  It really changes the atmosphere –less stressful—at least for a visitor.
-For more details & pictures, see my facebook album:

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