OP again. Hm. River's 6 ft deep and not recommended for small kids (my child's a strong swimmer, but this makes me nervous).

BUT, I found this!
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dobere%2Bletten%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1142%26bih%3D838%26prmd%3Dimvns&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&twu=1&u=http://www.badi-info.ch/heuried.html&usg=ALkJrhgSRi_cyVXxmTeeCm9Jj6iODjBz7g

Thanks, guys. We're going end of July, beginning of August, so we'll likely miss the street parade. We'll check out the open air museum!

Swimming looks rad. My brother sent me video of folks tubing down this river in what looked like big rubber duckies. Fortunately DC is a swimmer.

It's a long day trip (about 2 hrs each way by train), but the open air museum at Ballenberg is PERFECT for a 10 year old ... not totally cheap, but you can get special deals on a combo train and entry ticket.

Zurich is definitely a pricey city. One thing I really enjoyed when I was there in the summer a few years ago was jumping into the river, floating down, walking back up and doing it all over again - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=031U48CWhGA

Another thing I found fascinating was the glassed-over Roman ruins that I stumbled across in a tiny passageway connecting two streets. Can't remember where it was but locals should know where it is.

Are you going to be there the first week of August? Street Parade is... something else. It truly is. Very crowded, but I saw lots of groups of kids about 10-14 running around and shooting water guns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Parade

I realize that Zurich-on-a-budget might be an oxymoron, but my will-be-ten year old and I are visiting family there (with a then-two-year-old) for a couple of weeks this summer. Any ideas? Experiences? Thanks in advance.