Switzerland – the Singapore of Europe?

In many ways, I think of Switzerland as the ‘Singapore of Europe’ for the following reasons…

1. Its streets are as clean and organised as Singapore
2. Everything in the country is double / triple , even quadraple the prices of stuff in its neighbouring countries – food, hotel, souvenior, transportation, wages etc.
3. It’s the financial ‘safe haven’ of its geographical surroundings. Also, you could see many banks everywhere – UBS, Credit Suizze etc.
4. The Singapore Merlion??? Check out this statue of a lion overlooking Zurich lake
5. Bahnhofstrasse, the rich street of Zurich, reminds me of Orchard road in some ways J
6. Some gardens in Zurich reminds me of the gardens / park in Singapore….now, one is natural and the other, man-made (go figure which is which)... The extreme green of the grass, and blue of the skies  makes it ALMOSt Un-natural......but unlike Singapore it is the true beauty of Switzerland!!!

 Zurich City

 

 The Monuments....

 

The parks

Zurich Churches - Grossmünster and Fraumunster

We visited two churches in Zurich.....the most two famous and largest ones in Zurich.


Grossmünster
Dominating the Zürich skyline, the twin towers of Grossmünster are the most prominent landmark in the city. Unfortunately no photos were allowed....but here are some showing the city of Zurich and the two churches and a few secretly taken photos.....

 

 

 

Fraumünster
The blue spire of Fraumünster (Minster of Our Lady) also stands out in the Zurich skyline. Thic church is best known for housing magnificent stained glass windows by Marc Chagall (a not so clear one is shown below as it was taken secretly....but you can find better ones online).

 

Boat Trip in Zurich Lake

Zurich has one big magnificent lake! (Seems like the pattern here that each of the Swiss city has a big lake, and mountains....perhaps one of the reasons Switzerland is the most expensive place to live in the world ??

We manage to get on the boat cruise that bring us around the lake. The boat also serve as a public transport, getting people from one side of the lake to another, or to another jetty on the same side of the lake....it is a HUGE lake, and to go around the whole lake on boat takes about 3 hours. We only did the 1.5 hours ride, that brings us to less then half of the jetties around the lake, and only halfway down the length of the lake.

There are large beautiful houses surrounding the large lake....all very, very expensive waterfront house with their own private yatch/ sail boat parked in front of the house.Where do all these rich people come from? They have to be bankers, we're thinking....there just cant be THAT MANY people made rich because they are famous movie stars and sport stars out there to make up the population that surrounds the lake.

The scenary from the lake is really beautiful too...we can see mountains as a backdrop, the big beautiful lake, sailboats on the lake...and looking out to shore, sometimes the odd church with its tall steeples here and there.