Perfect 10: Zurich, Switzerland

Zurich charms with its history and its chocolate-box delights.

The 1898 Landesmuseum is a must-see. Picture: Getty Images

Zurich charms with its history and its chocolate-box delights.

1. ACCESS ALL AREAS: The Zurich Card is a smart buy, especially for short visits. A 24-hour card costs CHF24 ($33) or double the price for triple the time. Buy at the airport or train station and pick up the brochure, which lists freebies, discounts and suggested itineraries to help you winkle out the most value. Validate it before you ride and you’re set for transport to and from the airport (the best way to get to the city), around the city and beyond. Several items in this Perfect 10 are either free or discounted on presentation of the card.

More: zuerich.com/en.

2. DRINK IN THE SIGHTS: As soon as I arrive, I book the Stories of the Old Town walking tour at the tourist office in the main train station. It costs CHF25 or half that with the zippy Zurich Card. For three hours, guide Barbara Dorig joyfully brings to life her city, with a mixture of historical tales, architectural factoids, political backstories, contemporary observations and pointers on what to look for inside the Old Town churches. She also alerts our group to the 1200 drinking fountains around the city (pack your water bottle). Our tour makes a sip stop at riverfront Restaurant Schipfe 16, where glasses and local syrups are brought out for us to fill from a gushing fountain spout, protruding from a lion’s mouth. This pristine mix of lake and groundwater needs no flavouring, but a splash of alpen-krauter (alpine herbs) has a sweet zing. Another tour option is Free Walk Zurich, a branch of the non-profit Free Walk Switzerland, which perambulates purposefully around several Swiss cities.

More: freewalk.ch/zurich/.

3. DO THE DADA: It’s a century since the Dada art movement emerged at Cabaret Voltaire, in the heart of Zurich’s Old Town. German-born poets Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings opened the cabaret on February 2, 1916 — as World War I raged around neutral Switzerland — inviting “young artists of Zurich, whatever their tendencies … to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds”. After years of dereliction, Cabaret Voltaire was resurrected in 2004 and is now a mini-museum, cafe and bar where you can soak up the Dada vibes.

More: cabaretvoltaire.ch.

4. HAPPENING HISTORY: The 1898 Landesmuseum is the must-visit museum, with a just-opened and superbly realised expansion housing a vast permanent collection that tells the country’s history through Stone Age tools, banknotes and bank vaults, pharmaceuticals, timepieces, technology and other exports, as well as revolving art and history exhibitions. The furnishings collection alone has examples of every type of furniture designed or produced in Switzerland from the 15th century to the present. And, again, it’s free with the Zurich Card.

More: nationalmuseum.ch/e/zuerich.

5. FERRY TALES: To locals, they’re public transport vessels. For tourists, the super low-slung, glass-roofed Limmat river boats and lake ferries offer scenic jaunts. Take the river ferry from the Landesmuseum, ducking your head involuntarily as it glides snugly under Zurich’s seven bridges and enjoy views of the Old Town. At the lake, hop off at Burkliplatz and nibble a perfectly grilled bratwurst while you wait for the next short round-trip ferry on Lake Zurich. As we motor around, I want to jump overboard and join the scores of locals swimming — off boats, at lakeside bathing houses or peacefully bobbing on styrofoam noodles just off the shore. There’s an excellent spread of food and drink available on the round-trip ferries (and wine served in proper glasses, not plastic), and brunch, lunch and dinner cruises, if you have time.

6. PEAK PERFORMANCE: For a spectacular view, hop on the S10 train from Zurich Hauptbahnhof to Uetliberg. At the end of the line, walk 15 minutes to reach “the top of Zurich”, where there’s an additional raised platform and numerous hiking and biking trails spiralling off across the ridges and valleys. In winter, there’s sledding, and paragliding for experienced wind buffs. Look down on the city and banana-shaped Lake Zurich, shimmering in a late summer haze during my visit, and across to the frosty tops of the Glarus Alps. There are restaurants, a seasonal outdoor cafe, or check into a panorama room at UTO KULM for a sleepover vista.

More: uetliberg.ch; utokulm.ch.

7. CHOC AROUND THE CLOCK: I was once given a box of Teuscher champagne truffles, airfreighted from Zurich to my then local branch in New York. The champagne cream centre is made using Dom Perignon, and those chocolates were the bomb — and I usually favour chevre over chocolate. Zurich is the HQ for this top-of-the-chocs outfit, with three stores in the city. At the Storchengasse 9 branch, I marvel at the window displays and the carnival of bonbons, truffles, biscuits and cakes and choose a tub of elderberry glace from the ice chest to brain-freeze myself on the spot. Truffles get tetchy with a long-haul flight home, so go for bars or hard chocolates. Teuscher is among Zurich’s many chocolatiers to entrance even non-chocoholics. Sprungli is famous for its macarons, Laderach lets you play Willy Wonka to conjure up your own creations and Vollenweider offers discounts to holders of the Zurich Card.

More: teuscher.com.

8. COMMUNE WITH CHAGALL: The churches of the Old Town are huddled close, so you can easily visit a few. My pick is the green-steepled Fraumunster, founded in 853 as a Benedictine convent (the monks were at the Grossmunster just across the river). At one time, the Fraumunster’s incumbent abbess was also the imperial princess of Zurich, until the Reformation ended all that in 1524. In the late 1960s, Marc Chagall was commissioned to create five stained-glass windows — he was 83 when they were inaugurated in 1970 and 90 when he completed the church’s rose window. As you take in his magnificent late-life works, also look around for paintings that were covered over in the Reformation and only revealed again in the 20th century.

More: fraumuenster.ch.

9. UNDER THE STARS: To reach the Jules Verne Panorama Bar atop the Urania-Sternwarte (Urania Observatory), you must duck in through the Brasserie Lipp on street level and take the elevator up 52m. Early on a Friday evening, I expect it to be crowded and loud, but it’s tranquil and almost empty. I order a Jules Vert, a delicious concoction of Hendrick’s gin, Suze (Swiss bitters), peppermint, apple juice and sugar syrup and drink it in with a view out over the spires and rooftops to the lake and alps beyond. From Thursday to Saturday, hang around until it’s dark and head up into the dome for a tour of the observatory (public tours in German only).

More: jules-verne.ch; urania-sternwarte.ch.

10. CHALET IN THE CITY: The M Gallery Continental Zurich by Sofitel has a rather long name, but is a conveniently short walk from the railway station and Old Town. A barrel of cold fresh-pressed apple juice and a basket of crisp rosy apples greet this hot traveller on check-in. The service is friendly and the decor a cosy chalet style. A generous box of six Swiss chocolates is left as an evening turndown treat. Sweet dreams indeed.

More: sofitel.com/zurich.

Jane Nicholls was a guest of Avalon Waterways.

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Avalon Waterways offers optional Zurich city stays to passengers booked on selected river cruises between Zurich and Frankfurt, Prague or Amsterdam. Book any 2017 Europe river cruise by November 30 to save up to $1199 a person (sailings of 15 days or more) or $899 a person (seven to 14 days).

More: 1300 230 234;

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