Zurich
Zurich (German: Zürich, Zuerich) is the largest city in Switzerland, with a population of some 364,500 in the city proper and close to 1 million in the agglomeration area. Zurich is on Lake Zurich, where the lake meets the Limmat River, in the north of Switzerland. It was one of the eight host cities in the 2008 European Football Championships.
Zurich is the largest city and the financial centre of the Helvetian Confederation (Switzerland). It is an airline hub and has the country's busiest airport.
Contrary to popular belief, Zurich is not the capital of Switzerland (which is Berne), just its largest city. Zurich has long been known for being clean and efficient, but only in the last ten years has it truly become a fascinating and worthwhile travel destination. This is mostly thanks to the liberalization of the cultural, party and gastronomy sectors. An increasingly cosmopolitan population has helped, as well, though more button-down Geneva remains Switzerland's most culturally heterogeneous city.
The Zurich dialect of German (which sounds very different from standard German) is the city's main spoken language, but speakers of this dialect invariably also understand standard German. Many people will understand English, French, or Italian as well.
Zurich is located at the northwestern end of Lake Zurich (Zürichsee), at the mouth of the Limmat River which divides the city in two. The modern heart of the city including the train station and most churches is on the west side of the river. The hillier east side is home to the little alleys of the Old Town and the hip drinking spots of Niederdorfstrasse.
Zurich Airport [2] (IATA: ZRH) (German: Flughafen Zürich-Kloten) is Switzerland's largest and busiest airport, run with Swiss efficiency. It is actually in the community of Kloten, 12 minutes by train from central Zurich, trains depart about every 10-15 minutes. Several bus lines connect at the airport and provide access to the Winterthur region.
Most major airlines fly to Zurich but SWISS [3] is still the Swiss flagcarrier and covers the biggest part of the international traffic at the airport. Almost every large hotel in Zurich provides shuttle buses from the airport to your hotel. The stops for these buses are a short walk to the right from Terminal 1 arrivals.
EasyJet resumed its flights to Zurich in 2007 after a three year absence.
Regular trains to and from other Swiss and European cities leave from and arrive at the Hauptbahnhof, the main train station, conveniently located in the city centre at the end of Bahnhofstrasse, with easy access to mass transit. The Zurich Hauptbahnhof (HB) is served by the local S-Bahn commuter trains, InterCity (IC and ICN) connections throughout Switzerland, Italy's Cisalpino [4], Germany's ICE, France's TGV [5], and various other direct night train services to/from as far as Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Lecce, Barcelona, Budapest, and Beograd.
For train times and tickets, visit the SBB [6] or Deutsche Bahn [7] websites, although you may not be able to book many international journeys online through these websites. If you are already in Europe, your local train station office should usually be able to book these trains. A rail pass may make your trip cheaper. For more long-distance international journeys, visit Seat61 [8] for more information.
