For the first six months we stayed in an apartment that was just on the edge of the city overlooking the Limmat River. It was called a residence (combination hotel and apartment).
Here is the view from our first apartment.
The park you see is the famous "needle park" from several years ago when the authorities allowed needle-play. Well that is no longer allowed and it has been cleaned up. We took many strolls through the park, playing in the playground and feeding the swans. There is a castle at the end that is now the national museum. I even walked through the park coming home at night and couldn't even borrow a needle from anyone, I mean, had no problems.
From this apartment it is a five-minute walk through the park or along the Limmat River to the center of the city or the hauptbahnhof that means "main train station", your first German lesson.
We moved for the next eight months to a village just down the lake a little ways from the city (only a 10-minute drive or bus or train ride). This was quite a different experience from the city. The village is named Zollikon (AKA The Gold Coast because many bankers live in this area).
We got real lucky and found a 250-year-old house overlooking the lake of Zürich. The house used to be a wine house surrounded by vineyards on the hillside.
Here is our house in the summer.
Here is the house a couple days later (well, actually in mid-winter).
Here you see our front door, with the standard issue cobble stones and the statue of a little girl.
And here is the view from the balcony looking out over the lake of Zürich.
(Actually the view was about 90 degrees wide.)
And on a clear day we could see the Alps that boarder on Austria and Liechtenstein.
In Europe, every village has its own clock tower complete with bells. We hear the clock tower bells every 15 minutes, sometimes they go on for several minutes. But its actually very nice, we often open the windows to hear the bells better. We're now thinking of constructing a clock tower in our backyard because we miss it, we are sure it will please our neighbors too.
The owner now lives in the barn next door. This barn was just gutted and remodeled inside, without altering the outside look (a local law to preserve the heritage). The "barn" is very nice and includes a wine cellar, party room, and even an elevator inside (for after the parties no doubt). The owner and his wife are very nice, as are their children. One of his daughters lives below us and has twin 3-year old boys, and the other daughter just had a baby boy after we moved in and live in the next village over.
Here is one of the few restaurants in the center of our village, which is about one block by one block in size. This is a very typical building in Switzerland.