We had a pleasure to get to know this lovely little town called Baden, located just 25 km outside of Zurich, meaning a short train ride away. Its history goes way back to the Roman era when its hot springs were first recognized for health and wealth. Even to the date it still has a blossoming spa life on the river Limmat, but aside from that, it has a lot of other things to offer too! We were immediately smitten by its cute old town and the livelihood of its street life- with less than 20 000 inhabitants! Well, the simple explanation (from our friends who live there) to this was that it’s the actual meeting point for all the surrounding towns and villages, not to mention it’s home for couple of major companies. So, there you go!
| Swiss Alps: 1 - Us: 0 |
We also did some outdoors while in Switzerland, and for the first hike our friends took us to the Swiss Jura- to the French-speaking canton of Neuchâtel. The place is called Creux du Van and it’s a beautiful hike that takes you up to this stunning amphitheater-shaped cliff through green and lush forest. After few hours walk you reach a plateau where is a refuge/ tavern that offers hands down the best fondue known to humankind! Seriously, if you ever get there- ask for the cheese fondue with mushrooms (maybe sounds weird but it’s so delicious)! Also, we had a good local beer and a plate of cold cuts, all worth tasting! On the way back we followed the cliff that is pretty majestic with vertical drop of about 150 meters down and such wonderful views all over the valley down…
There's so much to love about Jura: The two varying colours of green that makes the lush forests so pretty, the unpredictable and sudden cliffs that follow after long flat areas, and the relatively low altitude. All of which makes it such a great hiking spot for spring time- and apparently a great spot for cross country skiing in the winter!
Also, to our surprise, we spotted quite a few ibex chilling on the edge- at least these animals are not afraid of heights, that’s for sure! All in all, the hike took us about six hours including the almost two hours stay at the refuge, and finally we still had about two hours drive back to Baden (direction Zürich). A long, but awesome day with three things we love the most: friends, nature and food! ;)

A hub for not only international bank accounts, but also for cuckoo clocks, Swiss army knives, delicious chocolate, Swiss cheese, lakes, mountains and so much more- no wonder Switzerland and in particular Zurich is repeatedly ranked as one of the best places to live! For the rest of us it translates into one of the most expensive travel destinations, but there is always a way to make even the most expensive cities more affordable, it all comes down to own preferences and choices. Although I must admit that even though we did not splurge on anything during our day in Zurich, we still ended up spending a good amount of money…
For us, visiting Zurich wasn’t too much about its actual sites and museums, but more about its beautiful lakeside setting and cool “small town” vibe. We happened to have the most gorgeous summer day (for May that’s pretty lucky) while there, which gave our fun-filled day an extra boost!
Arriving with a train is super convenient in Zurich, because it brings you right down town- you can basically start shopping just across the street on one of the main shopping streets, Bahnhofstrasse! Only a short stroll later there’s Lindenhof,which is a one of the districts of old town, and has a little hill Lindenhofplatz in the middle of it overlooking the Limmat River and the other side of the old town, to Niederdorf.