A garden in the city

On a hill in the centre of Zurich we found the Gessner-Garten. It's a botanical garden named after Conrad Gessner (or Gesner) who lived in the town in the 1500s. He was a naturalist and he published Historiae animalium (in five volumes) that is considered the beginning of modern zoology, He also established a herbarium and part of the Gessner-Garten is based on Gessner's own, with 50 medicinal plants (herbs and shrubs), used by 16th century's healers. We were shocked to see a Variegated Thistle Silybum marianum in the garden! It's a nuisance weed on our farm.

Keeping time

The Uhrenmuseum is a private collection of clocks and watches and to find it you have to go in to the Beyer shop in the most prestigious shopping street in Zurich, the Bahnhofstrasse (look for the big clock outside). The Beyer family has been in the watch and clock business since 1760 and the collection is one of the best in the world.

The labels are written in German but the items were beautifully arranged on chronological order and well lit. The friendly staff member gave us a published book that had an English explanation of some of the items, and she also set some of the automation clocks going for us. There were also several computer screens showing some of the clocks working and playing the sounds they make. We found the watch worn by Hillary when he climbed Everest, the smallest pendulum clock in the world (with the Guinness Book of Records certificate to prove it), old oil clocks, hourglasses, scientific clocks, fob watches, table clocks and pendulum clocks. The intricate workmanship was astonishing.

Lake Zurich

Lake Zurich is a major factor in the life of Zurich people. It's a very big lake, 29 kms long, and people live along the entire length. Houses, businesses, churches and train lines on the shoreline are backed by farms and forest further up the slopes.

The ferries are part of the public transport system and because yesterday was a fine and warm day we decided to go by ferry to Rapperswil, a town at the southern end of the lake. It was an interesting two-hour trip up the lake because it stops at about eight jetties and we saw how the locals use their ferries - playgroup outings, bike riders, grandparents with grandchildren and families - as well as tourists like us.

Central Rapperswil is an old medieval town complete with a castle on the hill and the narrow cobbled streets twist and turn. For the next four hours we explored the architecture of the town, went to Polish Museum in the castle (the Swiss have been sympathetic to Polish emigres over two centuries), walked on a historic boardwalk (nesting white swans and grebes were a delight) and took lots of photos. Mountains form a spectacular backdrop and the lake is ever present. We missed the best season - in June and July the thousands of roses are a real highlight - but it was a great town to visit in early spring as the trees are turning green and the flower boxes starting to bloom. The cemetery looked delightful as each grave is a carefully-tended garden of flowers.

After our two-hour trip back to Zurich (glassy water, sailing boats, mirrored scenery, fishing boats, sunshine and people-watching) we met Glenn and Sarah at the central railway station and they took us by train to Uetliberg mountain where there is a lookout. We arrived just before sunset so the snow on the distant mountains was catching last of the light and we could see the city and the lake we had just been on. We also watched a stream of  fit bike riders arrive having ridden up the mountain - some were hardly out of breath and others had found it hard work. Glenn and Sarah have often walked home from Uetliberg - it takes about an hour -  but we'd done enough walking for the day so we went by train and tram instead.

Zurich again

Museums were on the agenda today. There are over 40 in Zurich but we only went to three.

First, the Museum of Design (Museum für Gestaltung Zürich). They had two exhibitions, one on global design influences (on architecture, fashion, communication, shopping, industrial design) - think Ikea, Mars, PET plastic - and one on the use of Swiss motifs in poster advertising over the last century - think mountains, cows, cheese, red and white, white cross, chocolate. We enjoyed our visit to this museum.

Then we went to the Landesmuseum. We went particularly to see the history of Switzerland displays but, after we'd bought out tickets, we were told that that floor was closed. We thought we'd wasted our money but it turned out to be a fantastic place to explore for two or three hours. We saw an exhibition of the work of Swiss photographers over the last century and a half, we saw an excellent display of old coins presented with touch screen explanations of the designs and flip-side photos as well, we saw a table-top mockup of the Battle of Morat in 1476 using 6000 tin soldiers, we saw rooms full of arms, armour and uniforms of soldiers, costumes over the centuries, displays of religious embroideries, carved icons, painted glass and stained glass, alters and ceramics, shoes, silverware and more. It's a fantastic museum and the building was interesting as well..

And the third museum was a toy museum called Spielzeugmuseum, a collection put together by the owner of a local toy shop that's been in business since the 1800s. Yes there were dolls and doll houses but they were really old and elaborate, and there were antique trains, steam engines, puppets, stuffed animals, books, rocking horses and toy soldiers.

We've been down to the edge of the lake only once but it's such a dominant part of Zurich we'll probably go for a boat ride one day. And we've been to see a church, the Grossmunster - its long history is closely connected to the Swiss Reformation. The photo is from the church's cloister, a beautiful haven, another surprise in a city full of surprises - just open a big and heavy door and you're there.

More surprises - the stylish public phone booths come complete with defribrillation units, and Miss Hilton isn't the only young lady who carries her pet dog in a handbag.