I'm no rookie regarding day trips to beautiful mountainside places. But Zurich was a whole new mountain experience for a girl who used to travel to the Rockie Mountains for a hike on a random Tuesday during a University break. Maybe it was the style of buildings or the look of European people wandering through the streets - but it was different from the cities surrounding Alberta mountain ranges - there wasn't a piece of Patagonia in sight.
Going to Zurich, we knew it was the most expensive city in Switzerland. I walked through the Bahnhoffstrasse with my jaw on the floor. It's a premium shopping destination filled with designers and luxury brands. Paninis were 14 euros a piece, and a cocktail cost 35 Canadian dollars, but worth the experience. People were chatty here, which was very different after spending so much time in Germany. After wandering the streets and eating Swiss chocolate, we located an excellent wine store and bought a bottle to share along the side of Lake Zurich as the sunset. It was a beautiful day and worth the five hours of driving for an extraordinary experience.