Es guets neus!

Despite the rain, last night we ventured out with the rest of Zurich to go see the New Year’s fireworks display over the lake. After dinner at home (restaurants in Zurich get even more expensive on New Year’s Eve, with set meals starting at around CHF 80, not including alcohol), we headed to the tram stop with an umbrella, a bottle of champagne, and the camera. It was unseasonably warm, so we weren’t nearly as bundled up as one would expect to be when walking around at midnight in December in Switzerland.

There were a lot of people waiting for a tram with us, but only one or two of them managed to squeeze on the first tram to pass by, which was as full as I’ve ever seem a Zurich tram. We managed to get on a second tram which was headed to Central (the wrong end of downtown, but it’s a small city and we didn’t have much time). Less than a minute after we got off the tram, it was New Year, and the crowd started cheering and kissing and spraying champagne. It’s about as rowdy as I’ve ever seen a Swiss crowd get. Luckily the rain had stopped by this point, but it was still too warm.

We could hear the big fireworks in the distance over the lake, but only see the occasional top of one. We started walking with the crowd along the river towards the lake, taking swigs out of our champagne bottle and occasionally jumping out of the way of the fireworks that were being set off all around us. I wonder how many people lost fingers last night. (When we lived in Italy, this figure was always reported in the newspapers the next day. Maybe the Swiss are better at fireworks than the Italians?)

I’m not a huge fan of crowds, but we managed to see about half the main fireworks show and walk around with the crowds without my claustrophobia kicking in. The big show lasted for over 30 minutes, and then the parties started, with loud music being blasted from many downtown locales.

We wandered around some more through the old town and had some Glühwein. Deciding that the trams home would probably be even fuller than the ones from earlier, we decided to walk home. It was a nice walk.