Shops List for Switzerland

Most stores in Switzerland are closed all day Sunday and may close early on Saturday.

Zurich

On our September 2000 trip, we were in Zurich for the first time on a Saturday (usually we are heading out to a Saturday to Saturday rental). All the downtown stores closed between 4 and 5 pm! I think they are also closed all day Sunday.

The main shopping areas are on either side of the river. The stores along the Bahnhofstrasse and between that street and the river are the more expensive "designer" stores. The stores in the old town, on the other side of the river, are more varied.

Orel Fussli, Fusslistrasse 4 (near Bahnhofstrasse). Tel: 0848 849 848.
www.books.ch
A great bookstore down the street from the Hotel Glockenhof. Good for English language novels or talking books on the main floor. A great map and travel book section on the 2nd floor (including hiking books for each region of Switzerland.) They now have a separate store on the Bahnhofstrasse that is all English language books.

Staheli, corner of Bahnhofstrasse & Rennweg. English bookstore with a big selection of fiction, business, and travel books for around the world.

Sturzenegger, Bahnhofstrasse 48. Tel: 01 211 2820.
Clothes, linens, handercheifs. Stores in St. Gallen, Basel, Bern, Davos, Gstaad, Interlaken, Luzern, St. Moritz. This store has a great selection of Swiss-made handkercheifs for man and women. They are expensive (10 - 20CHF) but last forever (100% cotton, handrolled). Good Swiss brands are Lehner and Alba Creation.

Department store: Globus, Bahnhofstrasse
Good quality department store with full housewares and kitchenwares sections.

Mountain Towns

Hardware stores: Most towns have hardware stores where you can buy the real cow bells. Hardware stores are pretty easy to identify; they will have brooms, kitchen things, household things on display. Inside they will have a tool section. The cow bells are not the tourist version with the town name on them and the fancy leather holders. They are the bells that you see the cows wearing. We found cow bells in hardware stores in Zermatt (just off the main street) and in Adelboden (on the main shopping street and another one on the road into town).

There are two styles of bells. One style is made from tin and is oval shaped. They come in sizes from very large (size ?? for a cow) to medium (size 6/0 for a calf) to small (sizes 8/0 and 10/0 for sheep and goats). Note to Pauline - look at the size for the large bell at home. The other style looks more like a traditional bell, has a better sound and is more expensive.

Prices of bells: