Flying to Switzlerand

Wootloops

So, I'm traveling to Zurich, Switzerland come Tuesday - I'll be there for a little over two weeks it seems. It isn't my first time there, but I was only in the city for a day on my last visit so my previous visit doesn't do me a lick of good. Luckily for me, lodging won't be an issue this time around as I'll be crashing with a recent girlfriend who has since moved there for College. What does concern me however, is what to do during the day while she is at classes. The evenings won't be an issue as I'll be spending those with the girlfriend, and on the weekends we'll likely take trips up to Grindlewald or some such.

As an aspiring Sushi Chef, I have plenty of time (and the resources at her apartment) available to me to practice and hone said art (to delicious results) but obviously, I can't spend the entire trip doing just that - it wouldn't be a vacation. I mean, I have my DS and books, but I'm in a new city - I want to do things I can't really do here in the states. I've looked at the tourist books, but honestly they don't say a hell of a lot about Zurich (or at least anything interesting). I'll likely turn to the girlfriend for some advice on what to do as well, but I don't really want to burden her with it too much - I think she's worried enough about what I'll do to keep myself occupied while she's at class/doing homework.

So, I come to you H/A - Has anyone here been to Zurich and if so, what exactly can I do during the days to kill some time and have some fun? Examples being: Good people watching cafes, a decent beer garden, fun day trips around the area (murten, luzern, etc.) so on so forth. Any and all advice is heavily welcome and extremely appreciated.

Thanks!

X3x3non

I would recommend you have a look at wikitravel

http://wikitravel.org/en/Zurich

Aldo

Zurich is probably the least touristic city of Switzerland, if you have the chance you should visit Basel or Bern, the public transport between these cities is decent, so maybe you can do little daytrips for yourself.

Basar

Take a day trip to Lugano.
Take a weekend trip to Como (Italy).
?

Cristo

I lived in Zurich for 4 years. It is boring.

It's nice, very nice, and clean, and safe, and average, and on time, and beautiful but it's boring.

There's a place where the trams from the outlying "agricultural"communities/villages come in, called Stadelhofen. Near there, there's a cinema called Corsa (I think, I can't remember, I haven't been back in 3 years) and they show English movies there.

Erm, otherwise it's all about Bahnhofstrasse which is the main street. It's lovely, very nice and pretty but the shops are extremely expensive and if you go down some of the side streets there should be a Starbucks or two. There's also some decent shopping opportunities in shops where it isn't too crazy expensive.

Check out the department stores "Manor" and "Globus" and "Jemoli", Manor and Jemoli are both on Bahnhofstrasse whereas Globus is near the cinema as far as I can remember.

You should definitely also see the old-town, which is really nice and quaint. Lots of odd, quirky little shops and loads of nice little bars and whatnot.

Zurich in all is a stunningly beautiful, but boring city. To explore it fully, would take barely 6 or so hours (or at least, explore the bits you want to see. Behind the Hoptbahnhof - the main train station - is the industrial/poor area of Zurich). Really what you want to go for is Bahnhofstrasse and the Old Town.

Yeah, it was 4 boring years. Oh also look for a book store called Orel Fuesli on Bahnhofstrasse, they;re one of few book stores that sell English books not to mention have a cracking Fantasy section ^_^

Wootloops

Thanks for all the replies, especially that last one Cristo. It's pretty much everything I was looking for.

On my last trip to Switzerland, Zurich was probably my least favorite out of all the Swiss cities and towns I had been to. Granted, I was only there for a day - but that day was kind of long and drawn out. Good to know it wasn't just me who thought the place was boring (granted, the girlfriend thinks so as well). I imagine I'll be taking a lot of day trips and atleast a weekend to Lauterbrunnen to keep myself entertained.

Again, thanks for the suggestions! I'll definitely check out that book store.