Zürich, Switzerland's largest city

The main gathering point is under the arches of the railway viaduct, built in 1894 and known as Im Viadukt. The arches are now filled with designer shops, boutiques, a food market, and restaurants, and the 500-meter-long urban space alongside it is the place to stroll.

More than 360 different animal species live in the exotic world of the Zurich Zoo, one of the finest in Europe. Animals live as close to their own environments as possible: snow leopards amid the rocky Himalayan landscape, penguins swimming in chilly water, and you can spot flying foxes from a canopy walk amid 13,000 square meters of tropical rainforest.

Football (soccer to Americans and Canadians) is the world's most popular sport, played in every country, and the FIFA Museum tells the story of its world governing body, and of the World Cup. The emersive experience begins with giant video screens showing football played in countries throughout the world.

Standing in an open terrace above the river, Zürich's principal church dominates the city skyline with its twin towers. Built between the 11th and the 13th centuries, it is a Romanesque three-aisled galleried basilica with a chancel over a crypt that dates from about 1100. The upper levels of the towers date from 1487, but the domed tops were added in 1782.

A castle-like building with neo-Gothic flourishes houses an excellent museum showcasing the cultural history of all Switzerland. It is by far the most important collection of Swiss historic and cultural artifacts - more than 820,000 of them, covering a wide range of subjects from prehistory through the 20th century.

Along the Limmatquai, a popular riverside shopping street, are a number of elegant old guild-houses with sumptuous interiors reflecting the wealth of the guilds which governed the town until 1789. Many of them now house restaurants, so you can get a look inside at the 1719 Haus zur Saffran (number 54); the 1660 Haus zur Rüden (42); and the two-storied Haus zur Zimmerleuten (40) from 1709, with a beautiful oriel window.

Between the Bahnhofstrasse and the left bank of the Limmat, the western half of Zürich's old town rises steeply to the quiet tree-shaded Lindenhof. This is where the Romans built their fortified settlement in the fourth century to defend against migrations from the North. Five centuries later, the grandson of Charlemagne built a palace here as a royal residence.

Often mistranslated to Church of Our Lady, the name of the protestant Fraumünster actually means Women's Church, referring to the founding of an abbey here in 853 for aristocratic women of Europe by the Emperor Ludwig for his daughter, Hildegard. Until the high Middle Ages, the head of the convent was also governor of the city.

Zürich's "Main Street" is the busy pedestrianized Bahnhofstrasse, stretching from the main train station (bahnhof) to the Bürkliplatz at the head of the lake. The 1,200-meter street is one of the most attractive shopping streets in Europe, enlivened by fountains, public art, trees, and distinguished buildings.

One of Europe's top art museums, the Kunsthaus is run by the Zürich Society of Arts and traces its history back to a society of artists founded in 1787. While it has large collections of works by several artists - more paintings by Charles Munch than any other museum outside of Oslo and Europe's most important collection of Monet's works outside of Paris - the emphasis has always been on showing the highest quality works by an artist over the largest quantity.

The focal point of Zürich, and a favorite playground for tourists and locals is the long Lake Zürich. The entire shore is lined with promenades and parks, where local residents catch the sun, jog, picnic, and swim in the lake.