The Ham Nomads

6 Sep 2015. <CH> Zürich —

We had breakfast with the family, with beautiful breads and croissants. Jab and Gnome had a commitment in the afternoon, a 'Scientifica' presentation at the Universities. We wanted to have a bit of time in the city, so we decided to take the tram into the Hauptbahnhof, walk down Bahnhofstraße — it was Sunday, so we wouldn't be tempted by the wares in the top-end stores that were there! Last time we were here, we walked the street in a freezing rainstorm, so we wanted to give it a second chance. After this, we would make our way up to the Scientifica exhibition, catch up with Gnome, and then play it by ear from there.

And that's pretty much the way it went. In the Hauptbahnhof we remembered the large angel floating overhead — the Guardian Angel by Niki de St. Phalle, set there to watch over travellers.

We walked down Bahnhofstraße — the shops were closed for Sunday, so we weren't tempted — and turned off into the Old City at Rennweg. The quaint old buildings are delightful, many with wonderful wall paintings that put today's graffiti 'artists' to shame.

We looked over St Peter's Church, a Reformed Lutheran church that has a claim to fame — on its steeple are the largest clock faces on any church in Europe. The interior is very plain, with the pulpit in pride of place, front dead centre — which is a sign of the importance of the pastor's words in that faith.

We then went down to Fraumünster Church, which is in the middle of a construction site! The whole square is being refurbished, but with difficulty — as the area has been inhabited for over 2000 years, it is first an archaeology site, which will slow up the whole job — but not, like the metro in Rome, bring the whole project to a crashing halt. Poor Rome, stuck with only 2 metro lines, as every time they try to dig another, they strike precious old Roman antiquities! Fraumünster is rightly proud of the magnificent windows in its choir, by Marc Chagall.

From Fraumünster we walked over to the Limnat. We noticed a carousel on a bridge slightly downstream, and looked across to Grossmünster on the other side. Then we walked towards the lake at Bürkliplatz, where the ferries come in — and from which we could catch the tram up to the two Universities (ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich) and 'Scientifica'.

But on the way to the lake, we came across a 'Tomato Festival' - actually a festival promoting the growing and eating of not only tomatoes. We stopped in, wandered around, and had a fine hot Bratwurst and mustard for lunch! — but no coffees!

We got on the tram, but stopped one stop short, at the Kunsthaus stop, because Suzie noticed a cafe outside the art gallery. So we sat there and had coffees, looking out over Rodin's Gates of Hell and George Moore's Reclining Figure — or perhaps they were looking over us!

We then jumped the tram for the last leg, up to 'Scientifica'. We caught up with Gnome where she was doing a presentation about the effects of light on plant growth. Little Sanna was there, and getting a little bored — but we took her across to a display to do with the starch content of plants, and she was quite interested - she was even encouraged to do her own experiment by dropping iodine solution onto a couple of foodstuffs, to see which had the higher non-sugar carbohydrate.

Then Sanna volunteered to walk us home to Stüssistraße — on the way we found what we thought might be the smallest car around, until we found an even smaller one. She showed us the university building where Jab works, and she took us on a 'short cut' past her school.

Then we spent a lovely evening with the family. Unfortunately, Jab successfully avoided the camera lens, so you will have to be satisfied with the rest of the clan...

... and, of course, Gertie!

Distance driven — today, nil; to date, 27,802 miles ( 44,743 km )