Germany Trip (10-23 Jul) - Day 8 - Liechtenstein and Zurich (17 Jul)

 Today was mostly planned to be a travel day, heading across into Switzerland and getting to have a look around Zurich.  It was only when we started plotting out the route that we noticed we were going to pass very close to Liechtenstein, and decided to make a detour.  Since we also had to briefly pass back into Germany, we ended up passing through four countries today (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein).

Back into Austria again

The Alps

Crossing the River Rhine - the markers show the border between Switzerland and Austria 

These mowers were pretty cool

Crossing the Rhine into Liechtenstein

We stopped in at Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein for about an hour.

Kristine was impressed by the alcohol shelf in the supermarket

Heading into Vaduz

Kathedrale St. Florin

Regierungsgebäude (Goverment Building)

Vaduz Castle

There was a summer event on, including deck chairs and sand

Rathaus (Town Hall)

Tre Cavalli (by Nag Arnoldi) - looks like horses being attacked by Pacmen, but intends to show "the myth of the horse and the human, depicted between joy and pain."

Alte Rheinbrucke (Old Rhine Bridge)

We then continued on, into Switzerland and the mountains:

We arrived at Zurich at 2pm and checked into our hotel, the Meininger Hotel on Maneggstrauss. We then caught a tram into Zurich to look around:

Alfred Escher Fountain

Hauptbahnhof (Central Station)

View down the Limmat River

Kristine was looking for cloth badges and entered this store looking for them. It was a corner store but the windows were lined with marijuana adverts, pipes and bongs.  The boys then proceeded to spend the next twelve hours making random comments about Kristine buying dope and being high. It really harshed her vibe.

We then stopped at Grossmünster. Construction of the church was started in 1100 and it was inaugurated in 1220.

Across the river Limmat was the Fraumünster church, founded in 853:

We began a slow wander back to the train station and then caught the train back to our apartment.  On the way back, we made the mistake of picking up fast food for dinner.  A standard Burger King meal for the four of us (which would have cost about $60 in Sweden) costs $134 here.