Winterthur： Bedroom Suburb?

I visited Winterthur because I had extra hours after hiking Uetliberg.  My guidebook as well as a free Zurich map listed Winterthur as the town with world-class art collections, especially Oskar Reinhart's collection.  Who is Oskar Reinhart?  I thought of Oscar Mayer (an American sausage company) when I heard his name.  Joking aside, I learned that Oskar Reinhart was one of Winterthur's patrons who collected many famous arts, such as works of Renoir, El Greco, Vincent van Gogh and more.  I was not interested with his collections when I heard a list of artists for some reasons.  In addition, I arrived in Winterthur close to 4 pm.  I only had one hour before a museum was closed.  Instead, I walked around Winterthur, which was a lot smaller than I expected it.  Prior to my arrival, I thought that Winterthur should display guidance for tourists about the town.  However, it was difficult to figure out which exit of the train station I should take to reach the old town.  Despite Winterthur's listing in the guidebook, I barely saw tourists or local people there on Saturday evening.  I do not know whether that has to do with my arrival day or time.  Everybody in the town seemed to go to bed early. 

I looked for a place to have dinner in Winterthur.  During my quest, I could not stop thinking of the food at HILTL in Zurich.  So, I returned to Zurich and went to HILTL.  Therefore, I do not have an interesting story to share about the food in Winterthur. 

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As I mentioned before, I had a hard time finding a way to reach the old town where many museums were located.  I could not find the tourist information center near the train station.  I took a wrong exit and reached the opposite side of the old town.  I saw many bicycles parked near the train station.  After walking along with the bicycle parking lot, I entered a hotel to ask for a direction.  The hotel clerk was polite and kind.  He told me how to reach the old town and gave me a map, which was written in German. 

The map was quite helpful to navigate myself in Winterthur although it was written in an unfamiliar language.  I saw "theater" has the same spelling as the English word.  I could guess the German word "Museen" meant "museum".  The map also presented illustrations of the landmarks instead of boxes with sights' names.  Therefore, I can easily locate myself.  It was fun to walk around the town by using the map, like appearing at a mixture of the quiz and reality shows. 

Anyway, the town itself was clean, organized, and artistic.  I somehow had an impression of Winterthur as a college campus.  That may be because Winterthur has Greek-looking buildings, theaters, church, only a few people on a street, and its organized street design.   

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I did not stay a night in Winterthur.  I heard that Winterthur did not have many hotels for tourists to choose from, because of its close proximity from Zurich.  In fact, I did not see many hotels near the Winterthur train station.  Although the staff at the hotel where I dropped by was very friendly and kind, Winterthur may be too small to have an overnight stay.

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To Winterthur:

I took a train from Zurich HB to Winterthur.  The ride only took approximately 25 minutes.  I paid 11 CHF for the one-way ticket, which had a two-hour validity between the two cities.

Within Winterthur: 

Winterthur was the smallest Swiss town that I visited.  I recommend walking.

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