We had almost exactly twelve hours in Zurich. The flight left London at some ungodly hour, deep in the dark blue twilight of morning when the skyscrapers of the Docklands were still half-asleep, and began its journey over Europe. The Alps appeared with a flourish through the plane window, a mirage on the horizon, poking their heads above the clouds.
It was almost 32 degrees when we landed. Zurich in the summer is one of the most understatedly beautiful places to spend a day. The Swiss, usually so reserved, thaw and open up with the rising temperatures. It's not the most obvious place for a day trip from London, but when the clear blue waters of the Zürichsee hover into view, it's enough to make you want to move here, get a job in a bank, live a calm, easy life.
There's something almost Mediterranean about the way life spills out onto terraces and promenades in Zurich in summer, something that no amount of Swiss efficiency can suppress. We stopped for a coffee, watched the trams slide past. The old town is a picture postcard of narrow cobbled lanes and guild houses. If you have time you should go and see the stained glass windows in the Fraumünster and the Grossmünster, the city's two churches, their towers presiding over the river.
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