Reunited at last: Zurich

So I apologize for the delay in updates, I hate falling behind, I assure you.

In any event, after we left the gloriness that was Lucerne our next stop was Zurich. Now Zurich is a city I remember visiting when I was nine-years-old with my family after our Italy trip. It was my favorite city we visited: at the time, I had never been anywhere so clean and beautiful. So, I am happy to say that on the second time around, Zurich did not disappoint:

Unfortunately for us, the weather again did not want to cooperate. We didn't mind hanging out in the snow in Lucerne, but we've found rain to be a lot more prohibiting than snow... and it was raining in Zurich. So the amount of pictures I took was limited, and our day-long wanderings were cut short as well. Still, you better believe I have more churches to post. Maybe I should change the title of my blog from "Europe 2009" to "Pretty Churches in Europe 2009." Given my propensity to attend mass back in the States, I'd say the irony is pretty blunt.

In any event, I didn't upload a ton of pictures but I'll just show you these and you can just take my word that each of them are exceptionally ornate and pretty on the inside:

Above, the Grossmunster, a symbol of "the reformed Zurich." I didn't understand the layout of the inside of the church as it seemed like the pews faced every which way. Moving along:

Above, the Fraumunster. An old Gothic church with stained glass windows that are absolutely dumbfounding. They are by Marc Chagall (and I'll just add here since I didn't upload any of the pictures, but we also visited the Zurich Kunsthaus (art museum) and there was plenty of Chagall, Rembrandt, Rodin, Monet, etc. Best museum we visited since the Uffizi). Again, the interior of the church confused me.

Above, St. Peterkirche (St. Peter Church). That clockface you see on the tower is the largest church clockface in the world. Something around 29 feet in diameter. If I actually went to mass, and a church like St. Peter in Zurich was available to me, I would choose to attend mass there. The interior was not over-the-top, it was perfectly arranged, and it was still plenty beautiful. Still, whether I'd actually make it to mass is a different story.

As I mentioned, my photo-taking abilities were hindered by the elements, so the only taste of Zurich I have to share on the blog at the moment is that of churches. Sorry. Anyway, on our last day in Zurich, we made a nice trip over to the quaint town of Schaffhausen.

Rheinfall

The Rheinfall happens to be the widest plain waterfall in Europe. They are nothing short of pretty. I'm not sure which is prettier, the foreground or the background (above).

It was a crisp winter day, a lot of the smaller brooks of the Rheinfall were frozen, but it still was as majestic as possible (in winter at least).

So, in a very brief nutshell, Zurich was great, I loved revisiting it, but in my mind Lucerne just swooped in and took the "Prettiest Place in Switzerland/World" title from it. The nightlife in Zurich may be a tad better, however. We met an awesome Aussie couple on our last night and had a very, very difficult time making it to the train station the next morning. But we did, and that's a nice transition to our next stop, which also (sadly) means we'd be departing Switzerland.

P.S., I'm as proud to be American as the next guy, but quite frankly, Switzerland is nothing short of a remarkable country (I could never really say, "America wins again" in Switzerland. It could only be "America is perhaps on par with Switzerland... again. Maybe."). It's no wonder everyone likes them (seriously, any country that can get along with the French needs some sort of recognition). The best way I always describe it is, "Switzerland has their shit figured out" (excuse my French). No joke. Anyhow, off to the Deutschland.