[Zurich, Switzerland, Nov 24, 2023]

All of the museums I wanted to visit today opened at 10 am, so I decided to tackle them in the order from farthest away to closest. That meant I was going to start with Museum Rietberg, about 25 minutes away on foot. I planned to use my walk there to sightsee a little. I knew the weather was going to be rainy and on the cooler side, but I hoped it wouldn’t be too miserable to walk around.

I left my hotel around 8:45 am and things were still pretty quiet in Niederdorf. I saw mostly delivery trucks and other tourists. My first stop was Grossmunster Kirche, a romanesque-style protestant church and one of 4 major ones in the city.

Just across the Limmat from it was Fraumunster, another of the major 4. They were both beautiful!

I tried to stay closer to Lake Zurich and I got see it right as the sun was trying to break from the clouds. The lake is long and narrow, shaped kind of like a banana and with Zurich sitting at its northern end.

Once I left the lake, I had to climb a little to get to the museum. The first building in the complex I saw was Villa Schönberg. It was built in the 1850s and belonged to several different families until it became property of the city in the 1970s.

I had about 20 minutes until the museum actually opened, so I walked around a little and took pics. Museum Reitberg is on the edge of Rieterpark, one of the best parks in Zurich. I loved the fall colors and the tranquil vibe before the crowds arrived.

The Kimono exhibit was outstanding. There were over 100 splendid kimonos, paintings, and woodblock prints from the 18th to the 20th centuries as well as elaborate creations by contemporary fashion designers. The exhibit was originally at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, which explains the V&A in the lower left corner of the poster.

I tried not to take too many photos, but the kimonos were tempting me with their intricate designs, amazing colors and creative patterns. Below are my favorites. My German skills came in handy as the signs were in German only.

Next up was the FIFA Museum. The main floor had a cool exhibit with national team shirts from all nations, arranged by color. There was also a history of the world cup, which was a little too detailed for me. The bottom floor featured more interactive items, such as screens to watch iconic matches or an option to learn the celebratory dances of certain nations when they score.

The 1994 Bulgaria-Germany match was featured in the iconic matches exhibit, and I enjoyed watching the highlights. Germany had won the 1990 world cup, so our win in the quarter finals was the upset of the tournament (we lost to Italy in the semi-final). Sadly, Bulgarian soccer has not reached such heights again. As a matter of fact, while I was in Sofia, high drama ensued around the Bulgaria – Hungary qualifier for next year’s European Cup. The location kept changing days before the match. When it finally landed on Sofia, it was played without an audience. This all resulted in protests against the president of the Bulgarian Football Club, Boris Mihaylov, who was the goalkeeper in that 1994 Bulgaria – Germany match. The protests occurred outside the stadium on the day of the Bulgaria – Hungary qualifier but they escalated into violence from both sides and the whole thing is a mess. We haven’t won a match this year and Bulgarian soccer sucks overall, and the reasons for that were discussed in the news ad infinitum in the days that followed.

Anyway, the top floor of the museum included more game-like soccer stuff that I wasn’t into. Overall I’d say this is a fun museum but skippable if you are short on time or are not that much of a soccer fan.

The National Museum was next on my list. It was past noon at this point and I was starving as I was surviving on the classic European breakfast of coffee and more coffee. My route to the National Museum took my by the train station, so I ducked into its Christmas market looking for grub. I got a wurst from one fo the stalls and a kasekuchen from another one. Kasekuchen translates to cheesecake, but this was not the sweet cheesecake common in the US. This was Emmental cheese and egg and milk filling sitting in a doughy flaky buttery crust that was to die for.

The National museum featured an exhibit on the history of Switzerland, which I checked out briefly. The special exhibit was Multilingual Switzerland. It explored the three official and the many other languages spoken in Switzerland. The majority of content was conveyed over headphones, which allowed one to hear all the languages, dialects and slang one might hear on a Swiss street. I especially loved the final exhibit piece, which featured Swiss people of various backgrounds speaking in various languages about what it all means to them while riding on the train. One of the people featured used sign language as his primary language and I loved that he was included in the mix.

The Kunstmuseum (Art museum) was my last stop. I started with the modern wing, where I saw some Picasso works.

The most interesting exhibit was the Bührle exhibit, which, I learned, was quite controversial. Emil Bührle was a Swiss arms dealer who, despite Switzerland’s neutrality in WWII, amassed his wealth selling arms to the Axis powers. He purchased art of questionable provenance during the war. A lot of it turned out to be art looted by the Nazis from Jewish collectors or sold by Jewish collectors so they can use the money to flee Nazi Germany. Some of the families filed claims after the war to have their art returned, but Bührle just turned around and bought it again from them with his dirty arms money (and sued the guy who sold him the art originally. He claimed he never knew how that guy acquired it). Bührle was very involved with the Swiss Kunstmuseum, sat on its board and about a third of his questionably acquired works ended up in the museum’s collection. All the paintings with problematic provenance were displayed in one room with accompanying detailed information on who the original owner was and how the item came into Bührle’s possession. It reminded me of the Met in NYC and the Sacker family, and how their relationship became problematic in light of the Oxycontin scandal. It was all quite fascinating, albeit sad.

After all this museum-ing, I had worked up an appetite again. I decided to get an early fondue dinner in my hotel’s restaurant, which just so happens to be the most popular place for fondue in the city. I didn’t have a reservation, so the early dinner was going to help me beat the crowd, too. I ordered the half-and-half, which meant that two kinds of cheese were melted together. I added a side of chicken to amp up the protein, but the bread that came with the fondue was outstanding. A solo female traveler got seated before me, and soon enough another solo female traveler sat at the table next to me. I don’t remember seeing so many solo females when I travel, and it made me happy. The gal next to me poached my order and we ended up chatting. Turns out she used to live in LA right by my old work – what are the odds of that! I enjoyed the chit chat after a day by myself.

I finished the night with a Gluhwein from the Christmas market right outside. I “only” walked 15,000 steps by the time it was all said and done. My usual for days like this is double that, but I did take the tram between museums this time around. Alas, it was a long day and I needed some rest before my day-trip to Lichtenstein the next day.