ZURICH - In Your Pocket

8 BASICS
Basic data
Area
Switzerland: 41,285km 2
Zurich (canton): 1,729km 2
Zurich (city): 92km 2
Population
Switzerland: 7.8million
Zurich (city): 390,000
Official languages
Switzerland: German, French, Italian, Romansh
Zurich: German
Local time
Central European (GMT+1h)
Rivers
Limmat 36km (flows through Zurich)
Rhine 375km (in Switzerland)
Borders
France (572km), Germany (373km), Austria (165km),
Principality of Liechtenstein (41km), Italy (741km)
Customs
Switzerland is not a member of the European customs union.
On the one hand that gives you the opportunity to buy real
tax-free goods at airports when you are travelling from and to
Switzerland. On the other hand there are tight restrictions on
the goods you can take free of customs duty from Switzerland
to your country. For EU-countries the following customs and
tax allowances apply:
Tobacco: 200 (50 to some countries) cigarettes or 100 (20)
cigarillos or 50 (10) cigars or 250 gr (50) of smoking tobacco.
Alcohol: 1 litre of spirits over 22% vol or 2 litres of spirits
with less than 22% vol, 4 litres of still wine, 16 litres of beer.
Other goods: Max value of all goods: 430 euros for air
travellers and 300 euros for other travellers.
Goods over these limits must be declared when entering a
EU-country, additional taxes and VAT may apply.
As of last summer, duty free shopping is allowed in
Switzerland for arriving passengers as well.
A proud guild house on Münsterplatz. Zurich Tourism (CM)
Drinking
The drinking age in Switzerland is 16 for wine and beer and
18 for spirits and alcopops. The standard sizes for beer are
the 0.3 litre Stange (pronounce: shtang-eh) and the 0.5 litre
Grosses (gro-sus). The long-standing medium-scale brewers
(in Zurich you’ll usually find Feldschlösschen and Hürlimann)
are increasingly getting competition from innovative local
brewers. Check out Sprint, Paul or Appenzeller for instance.
Swiss wines are also not to be underestimated. While the
best may come from further south, you’ll find some very good
Blauburgunders (red) and Riesling Sylvaners (white) from the
Zurich region. Traditional Swiss spirits are fruit brandies,
cherry (Kirsch) and pear (Williams) being the most common.
Electricity
Electricity in Switzerland is 230V, 50Hz AC. Plug sockets are
round and take three round pins - they can take europlugs
with two pins. If you are coming from the US, UK or Ireland
you definitely need an adaptor - as well as from many other
countries. In some modern hotels you find multi-use sockets.
Health & Emergency
Emergency telephone numbers (operators usually speak
basic English):
Ambulance: 144
Police: 117
Firebrigade: 118
If you need medical attention, there are two medical centres
for emergency consultations, one is Permanence at the main
railway station just next to the taxi stand towards Bahnhofstrasse,
where you just pull a ticket and wait your turn (+41 44 215 44
44, Bahnhofplatz 15, open 07:00 – 22:00), the other mediX, just
across the road from the tram stop Stauffacher (+41 44 298 50
50, Badenerstrasse 41, open 07:00 – 21:00, Sun 08:00 – 18:00).
Zurich has three public hospitals with emergency units which are
open 24 hours a day for urgent matters. You can just walk in,
service is good, but expect to wait:
Emergency Unit Universitätsspital
G-2, Rämistrasse 100, 8ETH/Universitätsspital,
tel. +41 44 255 11 11. Q Open 24/7
Well, there is of course one app we
recommend very warmly to you: the
Zurich In Your Pocket app features
all the content of this guide - and much
more - and all for offline use. Google
maps is fully integrated to make sure
you find the venues you want to go to. An offline map
and public transport map are available as well. It has
never been easier to navigate through Zurich. Frequently
updated for free. (App store only)
The free app ZVV-timetable provides real time doorto-door
timetable information for all public transport
within the ZVV network in the canton of Zurich (the bus
is two minutes late? the app will tell you). It also tells
you where the nearest stop is, and how to get from A to
B. Definitely a useful app, and it’s available in English.
If you install the free app of the Swiss Federal Railways
SBB Mobile, you will be able to buy tickets as well. (App
store and android market)
ZüriPlan is a free app by the city of Zurich, offering a
very exact map of Zurich with an integrated route planner
for pedestrians and cyclists. The app is in German, but
quite self-explanatory. It indicates points of interest as
well. On the downside, not all the maps are stored on
your phone. But the parts of the maps which have been
used are saved for one week, so you can download the
parts you need when connected to a Wi-Fi and then use
them offline to save roaming coasts. (App store only).
Zurich In Your Pocket zurich.inyourpocket.com
Language smarts
Here are a few German phrases and some typical Swiss
German words. The ‘r’ in Swiss German is rolled, the ‘ch’ is
pronounced like in the Scottish loch. Mind your throat.
German
Where are the toilets? Wo ist die Toilette? (Vo ist di toi-lette?)
I’ll have a beer. Ich möchte ein Bier. (Ih mu-hte ein beer.)
I’m from England. Ich bin aus England. (Ih bin ows england)
Swiss German
Hello (formal) Grüezi (groo-e-tsi)
Goodbye (formal) Adieu (as in French)
Thank you Merci (mersi)
Sorry! Entschuldigung! (ent-shooldi-goong)
Excuse me! Exgüsi! (ex-gewsi)
Switzerland D’Schwyz (t’shviiits)
Cheers! Zum Wohl! (tsoom vol)
Inhabitant of Zurich Zürcher (tsoor-her)
Zurich Züri (tsoori)
Emergency Unit Stadtspital Triemli
Birmensdorferstrasse 497, 8Triemli,
tel. +41 44 466 11 11. Q Open 24/7
Emergency Unit Stadtspital Waid
K-4, Tièchestrasse 99, 8Bucheggplatz,
tel. +41 44 366 20 55. Q Open 24/7
Pharmacies
Pharmacies (Apotheke in German) on night duty are open 24
hours, a sign on every pharmacy’s door will tell you where the
next pharmacy on duty is. You can also call +41 900 55 35
55 (1.50Sfr/min) which will connect you to the next pharmacy
on duty. The pharmacy at the main station (Bahnhofplatz 15,
tel. +41 44 225 42 42) is always open until midnight, the
one at Bellevue (Theaterstrasse 14, tel. +41 44 266 62 22)
always 24/7.
Internet/Wi-fi
In the era of laptops and smartphones internet cafés are
not as necessary as they were 10 years ago. What you really
need are hotspots. Here comes the good news: many cafés in
Zurich have free Wi-fi. You will also find the commercial Wi-fi
providers Monzoon and Swisscom all over the city.
A new possibility to stay connected with your smartphone, tablet or
laptop during your stay in Switzerland and save on roaming costs
is Pocket Connect by Swisscom. It’s a mobile hotspot, a small
device to which you can connect up to 5 devices via Wi-fi. You can
rent it for 5 days for 36Sfr (plus a deposit), 2 GB of data included.
An additional day is 5 Sfr. Get it at the tourist information or the
sbb travel center, both at the main station. More information on
www.pocketconnect.ch.
cafe.ch (internet café) E-3, Uraniastrasse 3,
8Rudolf-Brun-Brücke, tel. +41 44 210 33 11. QOpen
07:00 - 23:00, Sat 08:00 - 23:00, Sun 10:00 - 22:00. 0.3Sfr
a minute, minimum ten minutes.
Language
Switzerland has four official languages: German (spoken by
64%), French (20%), Italian (6.5%) and Romansh (0.5%).
Zurich lies in the German speaking part of the country, where
people speak a German dialect, so called Swiss German or
Schwyzerdütsch, which differs from region to region. Be it
among friends, at work or when dealing with the authorities,
zurich.inyourpocket.com
BASICS
people speak dialect. For anyone who speaks or - even worse
- is learning to speak German, this can be tiring because at
first it’s very hard to understand. However, Swiss people use
standard German, so-called Hochdeutsch, when writing and
speaking at school. When Swiss realise you are a foreigner
they will usually switch to standard German. Keep in mind
that a lot of Swiss aren’t practised in standard German.
A lot of Swiss speak English fairly well, especially the
younger generation. So generally getting by in English is no
problem. The first foreign language at school is still French,
so if you happen to speak some you can try using it.
Mail & Phone
Post
Swiss post is generally reliable, and usually it’s not a problem
to find a clerk who speaks some English. Swiss post also can
take care of all your financial transactions. There are post
offices all over the city - the Sihlpost close to the main train
station is the one with the longest opening hours (see below).
Public phones & Dialling
There are still lots of public phones in Zurich. They all take
coins, most of them both francs and euros. The newer ones
will accept your credit card as well. Switzerland’s calling code
is +41. Zurich’s code is (0)44 or (0)43. We list the country code
before all telephone numbers. Of coure you only have to use this
if you are dialling from abroad. If you are already in Switzerland,
just ignore the +41 prefix, dial 0 and then the nine-digit number.
Sihlpost D-2, Kasernenstrasse 97, 8Sihlpost, tel. +41
848 888 888. Zurich’s central post office, open until late.
Take a ticket and wait for your turn. QOpen 06:30 - 22:30,
Sat 06:30 - 20:00, Sun 10:00 - 22:30.
Useful Zurich apps Get Zurich
In Your Pocket
for your iPhone!
» fi nd the venues
nearest to you
» browse through the
entire content offl ine
» fully integrated
google maps
» offl ine city and
transport maps
» regular free updates
October - November 2012
9