The Switzerland Traveler

Seebad Enge is another option for summer night lounging in Zurich.
It’s amazing what can be done with a few coloured lights and some chilled out sounds. And the approach often seems to be to take an open-air swimming pool and turn it into a trendy late-night zone.
Well, hardly late-night, it closes at 24:00. We can’t have the locals being kept awake…
The restaurant serves the usual salads and grilled foods, washed down with beers and drinks from the bar.
The location is good too, out by the big jet d’eau-style fountain. Get there early, especially at weekends if you want to find …read more

Comments Off

I mentioned the ladies’ swimming pool in a previous post, and now it’s nearly summer (although not today) it’s time to mention the Barfussbar.
In the photo it’s about half way along the left bank of the river. Stadthausquai.
Open to the public – including men - after 20:00 on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, there is a bar with music, and a very pleasant ambience.
Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the bar can be rented for private parties, although it closes at midnight so this is a big limitation.
Wednesday tends to be concert night, with tickets available in advance, Sundays is dance night, tickets available on the …read more

4 Comments

It occurred to me after doing the Appenzell post that I hadn’t mentioned Rorschacherberg, which offers one of the best views of Lake Constance – or Bodensee as the locals call it.
With a cute little mountain railway to get up there, it’s reachable for everyone.
I once thought there was a prospect of seeing five countries at once, because the area is called “Fünfländerblick” (view of 5 countries) but it turns out that three of the countries are more like states of Germany.
But either way it’s an impressive view.
Take the train from Rohrschach to Heiden, or the other way round. …read more

Comments Off

Well, it’s certainly an attention grabbing headline!
I’m not convinced that “fountain of youth” is strictly true, Appenzell tends to conjure up words like sleepy and unspoilt, but it’s what the people at the tourist office say, so it must be true.
That’s probably because it has a wealth of rich mineral springs, and visitors have been coming for over 100 years to bathe.
There are a range of hotels in Appenzell offering wellness breaks, often combining Swiss water and air with eastern philosophy and treatments: whey treatments and Kneipp cures alongside Ayurveda, Tai-Chi and Chi-Yung beauty weeks.
Wellness has been a topic …read more

Comments Off

It might not be the Pompidou centre, or even the South Bank, but the citizens of St Gallen have their own feature to be proud of.
Designed by architect Carlos Martinez and Multimedia-artist Pipilotti Rist, the Stadtlounge is a novel way of making a clinical financial area (Bleicheli) seem more people-friendly.
The entire  area is covered in a red surface, a playground surface for pedestrian areas and tarmac for the car areas. Even the Porsche 911 shaped lump that’s supposed to discourage you from parking. You wouldn’t want to come back and find your car has been resurfaced, would you?
At night the …read more

3 Comments

Maybe I’m biased as Baden was the first town I lived in when I came to Switzerland, but I think it’s lovely.
As you can see, it is picture-postcard lovely, and has a beautiful old town with buildings dating back to the 14th century.
Of course, the internals have been modernised, the Swiss have a great, non-sentimental way about doing that, but from outside they are unbelievably authentic.
Starting with the covered wooden bridge (now you know where Madison County got the idea from) the walk up the hill towards the centre takes you past some unlikely, and thriving shops.
My favourite …read more

Comments Off

Switzerland is not renowned for its tall buildings.
Mountains yes, buildings no.
So there are very few opportunities to get high above the city and look down on the lights at night.
But the Messe Hotel in Basel does offer that opportunity. It’s the tallest building in Switzerland that I know of, and rather sensibly, they put a bar at the top of it.
It’s located on the 31st floor, and I know this is going to sound weird, but make sure you visit the toilets/restrooms. Let’s just say it’s an unusual experience…
It can get pretty crowded (the bar, not the toilets) leading …read more

Comments Off

When I first moved to Switzerland I lived in Konstanz (Constance), just on the German side of the Swiss border. One of the great beauties of the town is the lake there, the third largest in Europe.
The lake is surrounded by three countries, Germany, Austria and (you guessed it) Switzerland.
The Swiss part runs from Kreuzlingen (which merges smoothly into Konstanz, apart from the border crossing) along through Romanshorn and almost up to Bregenz in Austria.
The photo above is a sunrise taken from Arbon, which lies on the shore north of
St Gallen.
There’s also a much quieter part of …read more

Comments Off

There are times when you have to admire the teutonic way of naming things. So logical.
Seealpsee (pronounced: say alp say) means literally “Lake Mountain Lake”. And you can’t argue with that. It’s a mountain lake, and er, a lake.
It’s located in Kanton Appenzell, on the eastern edge of Switzerland, allow a couple of hours to drive from Zürich, or a similar time to catch the train to Wasserauen. Then it’s about a four km (2.5 miles) walk to get to the lake, but I’m assuming that if you want to go to a really peaceful, quiet lake, then you won’t …read more

Comments Off

I like cars. Old cars, new cars, racing cars. Pretty much anything. But I can’t help wondering what sort of person wants to pay good money to sleep in one.
On the shores of Lake Lucerne, there is a very cute place called the Swiss Chalet. On the outside it looks like a normal restaurant hotel, but on the inside…
Actually, even on the inside it’s a good quality restaurant and hotel, it’s just when you discover some of the "speciality" rooms, that you begin to wonder what’s going on. Don’t panic, this isn’t going to get seedy!
First stop would be …read more

2 Comments