June 11 – Canton Zurich

Last updated on September 6th, 2023 at 03:31 pm

Pictures from around Canton Zurich
Video summary of the day

Today we toured around Canton Zurich with a local guide, Thomas. He picked us up from the hotel and drove us all around the northern part of the Canton. He has a lot of experience as a guide for high-end clients, and has served as a limo driver for people such as Tina Turner, Bill Clinton, and others.

Winterthur

A number of our ancestors came through the Winterthur area, so that was our first stop of the day.  Of course, since these ancestors lived in Switzerland in the 12th to the early 18th century, there isn’t a lot that looks the same today as it did when they were here.  Thomas, our guide took us to several places that had buildings that remain much as they did then.

Winterthur is about a 30 minute drive from our hotel.  It is ‘satellite city’ of Zurich; we’d probably call it a suburb, though we did drive through some farmland along the way.  Thomas did a quick drive around the city center, and then we found a parking place and walked through the old city center, which did have many buildings and streets that reached back to the time of our ancestors.

The city was built presumably on the sit of a pre-existing village about 1180, and passed back and forth between the House of Kyburg, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Austrian Habsburg dynasty. Finally, in 1467, the Habsburgs sold Winterthur to the city of Zurich. After our ancestors had left this area, Napoleon’s troops took control, and there were more skirmishes before this area became a part of the federation of Cantons that became known as Switzerland in the mid-19th century. By then, Winterthur had become a largely industrial town and today has more than 100,000 residents.

Neftenbach

Neftenbach is the general region north of Wintertur and is in the far north of Canton Zurich.  Again, we had a number of ancestors who lived in this area.  It was rolling countryside with lots of small farms, and clearly dairy production would have been a primary occupation. 

Aesch bei Neftenbach

These were a lot of ancestors that also lived in this community.  While Wintertur is comparable in population to Lafayette (abt 110,000), this place was much smaller than Mentone, where we grew up.  It is definitely a farming community, with only about 180 residents.  There were a cluster of houses and barns fairly close to the town fountain, and the area surrounding were farm fields on gently rolling hills with creeks and woods scattered in. There were no significant buildings from the era we were considering, but we got a sense of a small, tight-knit place.

Schaffhausen

Since we were so close to the Rhine river and Germany, we passed back and forth across the Swiss/German border several times. Since it was Sunday, no one was at the check points, and no one seemed to care! We saw more farmland and small villages, with a castle or two thrown in along the way.

The city of Schaffhausen was first mentioned in documents in 1045. Its Old Town area has been preserved from the Middle Ages. We first visited the Kloster and Museum of Allerheiligen, located in the former All Saint’s Abbey. We walked the covered outside walls of the church, marveling at some of the 56 epitaphs with family crests inlaid in its walls. Next to the cloister is a large reconstructed medieval herb garden. We walked around the garden marveling at the variety of herbs, snipping and crushing a few leaves to enjoy the fragrance of the herbs.

We continued to walk around the peaceful quiet grounds to the Museum of Allerheiligen. We stopped to use the facilities and enjoy  some mid-morning refreshment. Thomas has an expresso, Alan enjoyed Binnenstich {bee sting}, a pie like dessert made from a 400 year old recipe. The pie had a soft almost cake-like crust, a pudding/cream center and honey and nut topping. Joyce enjoyed a cup of Swiss hot chocolate.

Our next stop in Schaffhausen was the Munot Fortress, which towers over the Old Town of Schaffhausen. Outside the Munot Fortress is a lovely rose garden. From there we could overlook the city. There were fragrant roses with blooms of every color. We entered in the lower level of the fortress which was massive, dark, and obviously cooler. The ceiling had large cone-shaped holes to let in light. The arches that made up the ceiling  as well as the walls were constructed from massive stones. On the sides were tall narrow slits to slide a spear, rifle etc. through when defending the fortress. We walked up to the tower on a curving ancient pebbled steep walkway. Once at the top we were treated to a large open area with beautiful views of the city and the Rhine river.

Lunch

We traveled about 19 km to the city of Sein am Rhein. Thomas had hoped to take lunch at a castle there.  He knew the proprietor lives there and he runs a restaurant in the castle.   Unfortunately for us, he had a couple of weddings that day and didn’t have a table available for us.

It is a beautiful sunny day with a few puffy white clouds and a nice breeze. We drove along the Rhine, which was a gorgeous blue/green color. Sein am Rhein was the most crowded place we have been today. Many people will tubing, swimming or paddle boarding on the river. Others were biking and walking along the river or sitting on the many benches. Several restaurants with open air seating line the walkways along the river.

Thomas knew the proprietor of Restaurant Rheingerbe along the river, and there were a couple open tables so we sat down for lunch. Beautiful orange and yellow nasturtiums grew in boxes around the seating area. Thomas ordered  a fried perch salad, Joyce ordered trout ( toothed fish) with cauliflower, potatoes and zucchini and Alan ordered chicken with ham and cheese wrapped inside, mashed cauliflower and pureed spinach. The fish and chicken were products of Switzerland. All was very tasty.

Stein am Rhein

After lunch, we strolled through the Old Town with its well-preserved buildings with painted facades and half-timbered houses. It reminded us of Rothenburg ab der Tauber, which we saw in Germany in 2019. The community is not far from places identified with our ancestors, and because of how well it has been preserved, it would have been similar to the places we came from. 

Many of the houses along the main street had dates and names dating into the 15- and 1600’s.  It was a great place to think of how they worked and lived.  Many of the buildings still had the three-dimensional signs that indicated what kind of business might have taken place there.

This was the most crowded old town we have been in today. A German couple, walking their bikes stopped to listen to Thomas talk about why Rothenburg ab der Tauber hadn’t been bombed by the allies in World War II. We talked briefly to them and learned they had ridden their bikes from Germany, which is very close.

Thomas pointed out a shop selling Swiss army knives and he and Alan went in to look. Joyce followed, looking first at the shop’s collection of Black Forrest cuckoo clocks. While still looking, Joyce found a keychain to commemorate our time in Switzerland. Alan found a small Swiss army knife with a USB stick (doesn’t that sound like Alan – the more uses the better!)

Rheinfall

After Stein am Rhein, is was back to the area around Schaffhausen to the Rhine Falls, Europe’s largest falls. Measuring 150 meters wide, the water roars over the rocks. While the height  of the falls is not nearly as tall as Niagara Falls, it truly is spectacular! There are two large rocks in the middle of the river at the base of the falls with water flowing around  them and through a hole in one of them. People were seen reaching the taller of the two rocks by boat and climbing a stairs to an outlook on the top. We enjoyed walking along wide wooden walkway and a couple observation decks next to the falls. Alan climbed down a staircase to a walkway closer to the rushing water.

We drove the approximately 50 km back to Zurich and Thomas dropped us off at Hotel Scheuble. Thomas graciously agreed to drop some of our luggage off at the Renaissance Zurich Tower Hotel where we will be staying at the beginning our the Viking cruise tour portion of our trip. We have never been accused of packing light and were challenged with needed to bring warmer clothes for the days we were in the Alps and what we would need for the cruise. After hauling all our luggage on the train from the Zurich airport, we definitely wanted to reduce the luggage we took with us on our many train adventures. With help from Sonya and Viking personal we were able to leave our cruise luggage there to be stored until we begin our Viking portion.

Alan went with Thomas and walked back to Hotel Scheuble about a 45 minute walk along the Limmat River. It was a warm day, and all along the way, people were sun bathing, swimming in the river, and jumping from the bridges. While there were some older people sprinkled in, most of the folks were under 30, and clearly having a good time in spite of the warmer than usual weather.

After a couple hours of resting and blogging, we went for a walk to the major cathedral, Grossmunster, less than 10 minutes from the hotel. We took a leisurely walk back and stopped for some pistachio and caramel glace. We drank from one of the many fountains and returned to the room to prepare for departure tomorrow morning to Bern.