Switzerland Day 6: Locarno, Zurich

We got up early to take the Locarno Funicular up to a Franciscan church/monestary on a hill, Santuario della Madonna del Sasso (Orselina stop). It is actually only a half hour walk up a zillion stairs, if you prefer the exercise (it was pouring rain so we elected for the covered funicular, which cost 6 Francs with the Swiss Travel Pass). The church itself in theory has great views of the city – though we couldn't see anything in the fog and rain – and is beautiful inside. There is also a museum for those interested. After wandering around the church, I had planned to take a second funicular from Orselina up to Cardada. The internet had told me that the views from the top are incredible and there is also a hotel and restaurant at the top (next to the funicular station) with a large patio, and a viewing platform extending out over a cliff just a short hike from the restaurant. However, given that when we looked up at the cable car, it was almost completely shrouded in fog, we elected not to take it up to the top to view yet another wall of clouds. However, if it is a nice day, it sounded like it would have been really great!

We left for Zurich late morning, arriving early afternoon. It looked like there was a train direct from Locarno to Zurich once a day or so, but we didn't want to wait two hours for it, so we took a short regional train ride (IR46/S20) to Bellinzona and switched to the IC2, a high-speed train that only has a few stops before Zurich (recommend sitting on the left). There is also the EC that runs the same route, but we avoided it given how packed/stressful it was the day before. The journey includes a 35.5 mile stretch in the world's longest train tunnel.

Once we arrived in Zurich, we checked into our hotel (Hotel Limmathof, which was very well located and cute), stopped in for a fondue lunch at Le Dézaley, which was delicious though quite expensive, and then wandered around the city and walked along the lake front. There is also a short funicular up a hill to a nice viewing platform that looks out over Zurich, though we elected for the 10-minute walk up stairs to get there instead (we actually did this the morning of Day 7, when it wasn't pouring rain). We had a pre-dinner beer or two at Gräbli Bar (which had a decent Swiss cider!), a cute local bar.