This is not the capital of Switzerland even if it is the centre of the business world of Europe. This is where the wheels of commerce are greased by the oil of neutrality. The bankers of Zurich have been mythologised in fiction and film until the phrase Swiss bank account has become a byword for hidden money.
However Zurich has more to offer, even if the tours all stop at the Bahnhoffstrasse so that visitors can try and smell out the money in the vaults. Through the 20th century, the city has drawn a huge range of intellectuals who came to Zurich drawn perhaps by the knowledge that no one wants to upset the world’s monetary applecart. These included Trotsky and Lenin, Tristan Tzara and Hans Arp and even James Joyce who is buried here. (Strangely enough, the anti-art art movement of Dadaism was also born here, with its emphasis on disturbance and spectacle.)
A city of museums and cafes, perched on the banks of Lake Zurich and bisected by the Limmat river, Zurich is an experience you will not forget easily.

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