Day 5 (July 4, 2025): Zurich

The nice thing about staying at an airport hotel is that you can sleep in a little longer on flight day! Instead of breakfast in the hotel, we checked out and went right next door to the terminal building, where we checked in for our flight and then had a great breakfast in the Luxair Lounge. Today is a long flying day: three flights over a 17-hour period.  The first sector was from Luxembourg to Zurich, aboard a Swissair subsidiary named Helvetic Airways. Once in Zurich, the focus of this blog entry came to life.

While on vacation back in 2007, we met a couple in Boracay, Philippines - Frank and Noriko - and have been in contact ever since. When they lived in Tokyo, we had the pleasure of visiting their home and having a meal together. They eventually moved to Zurich, where Frank grew up, making it possible to meet up with them during our seven-hour stopover. We took Swiss Bahn from the airport to the main train station, where we met them. Frank did an amazing job of showing us his hometown via a wonderfully orchestrated tour of Zurich’s old town, which I will present below.  It was wonderful to see them again, and we thoroughly enjoyed our day together - such a generous gift of their day and Swiss knowledge, which we will never forget. 

We got a train back to the airport at 4:15PM, checked in our for our onward flights to Istanbul and Almaty, and then relaxed in the Aspire Lounge before boarding. Following a two-hour stopover in Istanbul’s massive airport, we boarded our flight to Almaty, where we should land at 8AM tomorrow, to begin our Kazakhstan journey.

The Helvetic Airways Embraer 195 from Luxembourg to Zurich was a quick one-hour hop.

We were sad to leave Luxembourg, as it really struck us as a wonderful place to live in Europe.

Luxembourg’s roughly 2/3 of a million residents get their electricity from this nuclear power plant - and the odd windmill! — which we saw upon take-off.

Landing in Zurich, this large add greeted us as soon as we deplaned.  Switzerland immediately brings that “ahhh, I’m relaxed!” idea to mind.

And now, let’s start Frank’s Amazing Tour!  Which, by the way, was so wonderful, we suggested he should set up a business and take tourists on well-informed half-day walking tours. First up: the pure, clean waters of the Sihl River flowing through the city and literally underneath the Bahnhof.  So clean that people swim in it during their lunch breaks!  And that is very rare for a large city. When I think about the Thames in London on Tuesday… it couldn’t be more of a polluted contrast to this.

We had lunch in the former stables of the military. A large area of former military barracks and installations has been turned into a quarter of restaurants and arts-related venues. 

So wonderful to catch up with Frank and Noriko after 14 years!

Well fed from lunch, we set out to do a five kilometre tour, starting at the Bahnhof (‘train station’), going up one side of the Limmat River to Zurich Lake, and then down the other side of the river, back to the Bahnhof. This is BahnhofStrasse - Zurich’s most important street, lined with everything from prestigious banks to the world’s top retail brands.

The city is hosting the UEFA Women’s Euro football tournament at the moment, and signs of this important tournament are everywhere!


This is the mascot for the UEFA Women’s Euro.

That iconic Swiss flag was not in short supply! National Swiss pride is alive and well - and for good reason!

Every place has it unique features, and one of Zurich’s is the availability of pure, fresh water all over the city, at fountains like this.  It is quite normal to take a drink from the fountain, so I got right into it! In the 27C heat, the cool water available from the fountains was wonderfully refreshing. 



Yet another fountain.

Our first views of the Limmat River, around which Zurich’s old core is built. 

This house, just another typical Zurich house was built in 1534! Notice the window on the very top floor with the joyce sticking out: it was used to hoist things up to various levels in the house. This was typical of Medieval homes.

Many of the homes have narrow alleyways like this between them. This one was named after the chimney sweep guy, as he would use this lane in his work.

The sparkling clean Limmat River. 

St. Peter Church has Europe’s largest clock.

From the Middle Ages, guilds have been important in Switzerland. Guilds were established to foster various crafts and trades. The building above and the one below were the historic locations of such guilds.



Munsterhof is the main square in Zurich.

The impressive Fraumunster Church. 

The headquarters of the Swiss Bank, which went bankrupt amidst a scandal a couple of years ago and was bought out by UBS.

Kunzli was a Swiss-made brand of sneakers a few decades back, but it went under. The brand has been resurrected and is now a top Swiss sneaker name again. These sneakers can go for $300-$400 US dollars.

Want to impress someone with a top Swiss confectionary brand? Buy them Luxemburgerli macaroons by Spriingli. They will know you spent a fortune on them and bought the top sweets in the land!




The following are some scenes of stunning Zurich Lake, with its amazingly clean water.

Zurich’s opera house.

One of Zurich’s most photographed scenes: looking up river towards the city’s most iconic buildings, lining both sides of the Limmat River.

Fraumunster (left) and St Peter Churches

Ulrich Zwingli was Switzerland’s equivalent to Martin Luther; he led great reformations in the church in Switzerland.

This is the quant and small Wasser Kirche (‘water church’). It is no longer used as an active church, and this Ark 2.0 now fills its interior. The ark contains a small theatre.

Grossmunster is the city’s most important Lutheran church.


Another public fountain — this one located in the pub section of Zurich.

This store has been around since the beginning of time and it sells specialty spices and foods from all over the world. 

The arrow points to speciality lentils from Canada!  I didn’t even know Canada grew lentils!

Polyterrasse is the Swiss equivalent of MIT in terms of prestige. 

The view of Zurich from the Polyterrasse is unbeatable!

The Bahnhof is a huge station, with trains departing from all over Europe.

Frank and Noriko gave us this incredibly generous and thoughtful collection of Swiss treats! We were very touched, and we will enjoy them as we travel through Kazakhstan.

The Turkish Airlines Airbus A-321 from Zurich to Istanbul was packed and was on time.

We’ve always enjoyed Turkish Airlines’ meals. They are high quality and generous.