Cheap summer fun in Zurich

This weekend we grabbed our perpetually-packed suitcases and headed to Zurich to visit friends. The weather was what most people call "gorgeous", and we made the most of it by spending time in and around the lake (and on the roof deck).



Lake Zurich is the part of Zurich I miss most, especially during the summer. The view is unbeatable (Zurich's charming skyline in one direction, snow-capped Alps in the other), and the water is so clean and clear it begs you to get in and swim around. The lake is surrounded by badis, areas where one can swim, sun, drink crappy beer, etc. for around a CHF 6 entrance fee. But if that's too steep for you (and you can live without a changing room), you can also just jump into the lake for free in many areas.



And if you're looking for more free fun in this ridiculously expensive city, this summer you can wander around admiring its latest city art display: painted plant pots. In the same spirit that brought cows to Chicago* and Mr. Potato Heads to Providence, Zurich has decided that this year, giant pots were the way to go. At first I didn't like them very much, but they grew on me over the course of the weekend. I think the penguin one was my favorite.**



And now, after five back-to-back trips, I think I'll stay home for awhile. I've been missing Munich.

----
* Actually Zurich did the cows before Chicago did. Zurich also did teddy bears a few years back.
** Notice how all the penguins are wearing suits, except for one with a mohawk and a t-shirt that says "Lech mich".

Ask the Expat: Cute Switzerland

Jul - I've spent the last hour or so being super jealous of you, sucked into your old blog entries about Switzerland and happening across Chagall exhibits, big cows, and castles and such. Man. I've got to get out there. Could you please tell me a couple cities in Switzerland you think are the cutest?

-Em, Redenii in Deutschland

Switzerland is all kinds of cute, and a great place to vacation. I'm having a hard time narrowing it down to just a couple cities, so I'll name a couple in each region. Starting in the German-speaking part of the country, I'd recommend Lucerne (the wooden bridges are charming) and Bern (about as quaint as a capital city can get).

Moving on to Ticino, or the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, I'd suggest Lugano and Bellinzona (castles!) for their adorableness. Lugano (which I visited pre-blog) is a lovely lake town combining the best of Italy and Switzerland - great architecture, yummy food, and clean streets. In Francophone Swiss cities there's also plenty of cuteness to be found, especially in Fribourg and Lausanne.

If you want to get out of the cities, the cutest parts of Switzerland overall are the mountain villages. My all-time favorite is Mürren, which is in the Bernese Oberland and is so cute it will make your cheeks hurt. The whole area is fabulous - don't miss Trummelbach Falls or Grindelwald, either. Interlaken is the gateway to this area, and from there you can take cog-wheel trains and other quaint forms of transportation to get up to the various little villages.

But really, Switzerland is just so chock-full of cuteness it'd be impossible to get it all into one post. You're likely to find it wherever your trip takes you.

---
Ask the Expat is a new feature I'm trying out here at the blog. If you have a question for me, go to this post to find out how to submit it.

Interesting names for convenience foods

Today's post is a guest post from a friend and former blogger in Switzerland. Enjoy.

I was browsing in the local Coop and came across something which made me do a double take, a drink with the logo "plan b" in large letters on the label. I can see how the name came about, the new line for Coop is packaged foods, the idea being you don't have time to cook so the backup plan is to grab something that's pre-made and ready to go.

For those who don't know, which seems to include the Coop marketing department, "plan b" is also the very-well-known name for emergency contraceptive pills in the US, presumably named with a similar train of thought (as in, the first plan went wrong so now you need another one...) So as far as I, any Americans, and anyone familiar with the abortion debate in the US is concerned, Coop is now selling an emergency contraceptive that comes in the form of milkshakes, juices, or for those who need a few more calories with their birth control, mac and cheese.

A note to marketing departments around the world:
Google is your friend.
Love,
Your Swiss correspondent.

Toasting Obama in Zurich

I'm a little behind on my travel blogging here... the day after the election I crawled out of bed and hopped on a train to Zurich. It's always a treat to see my Zurich-based friends, but this particular trip was even more joyful than usual. The election results had us all in a fabulous mood. Heck, even the roasted chestnut sellers were excited.



Zurich itself seemed largely unchanged. The city felt clean and safe and was bustling with shoppers. The usually crazies were out: Alle Tot guy and the Scientologists. It was as if I had never left.

Notice the tent to the left in the top photo? That's Zurich's version of Oktoberfest, going on now. Although we are familiar with the tent from past years, this was the first time it registered what beer was being served inside - Feldschlossen. What's the point of a beer festival with undrinkable beer? But it wasn't all bad - across the way floated the wine boats, which host Zurich's regular wine tasting extravaganzas. Those brought back fond memories.



Although I don't think back on Zurich and remember it for its culinary greatness, we were able to think of plenty of things we wanted to eat this trip. Mostly it involved chocolate and melted cheese. The trip also involved an obligatory dinner at Hiltl, my favorite restaurant in Zurich. Insanely delicious as usual.

It has been a year since we moved away from Zurich. Three years since we left Milan. Over four years since packing up and saying goodbye to New York. One of the cool things about moving so often is getting to go back to our former hometowns and walk around like we own the place. Get off the train or the plane and know exactly where we're going and how we're getting there. I definitely enjoyed that feeling on this trip to Zurich. I wonder how long before all this stored city knowledge wears off.

Quick, name a "short, stumpy banger loved by the Swiss"

You'll find the answer (well, one possible answer) in this article about the dire shortages faced in Switzerland in the lead-up to the Euro 2008 (soccer championships).

Article found via A Swiss Story.

What this blog needs is MORE COWBELL

Having spent two years in Switzerland, I know exactly where to find such things.


More cowbell from zurika on Vimeo.

Degrüezification

I think I've finally done it: I've gotten "grüezi" out of my system. After merely a week, I'm able to walk into a shop in Munich and not automatically blurt out the Swiss greeting. It's actually not too hard here, since the standard greeting in Bavaria is "Gruβ Gott!", which starts out a bit like "grüezi" anyway, making it possible to start out with one and then make a save half-way through and change it to the other without sounding like too much of a confused loser. OK, that last part may or may not be true - for all I know I sound like a confused loser all the time here. At least the Bavarians are nice about it. :)

I've also managed to break the Swiss habit of saying "merci" instead of "danke", although I admit to letting an "en guete" pass my lips once or twice this week. Now as long as I can remember to say "Fahrrad" instead of "Velo" and "Schokolade" instead of "Schoggi", I should be all set.

Me and the chocolate factory

After two years here, I finally made it to the Lindt & Sprüngli chocolate factory in Kilchberg, just outside of Zurich. You can't actually go inside the factory (which may or may not be run by Oompa Loompas), but you can (1) walk by it and breathe in its insanely chocolaty smells, and (2) visit the factory outlet chocolate shop.

30 minutes later, and all my Christmas shopping was done.

The factory shop has limited opening hours, so check the schedule before you go. To get there, take bus 165 from Bürkliplatz to the Schooren stop, about 10 minutes away. The bus runs as infrequently as every half hour during the day; check out sbb.ch for specific schedule info.


Posted from Thalwil.

And you thought the White Man's Overbite was an American thing

As it turns out, the Swiss are pretty good at it, too.

So tonight we went to a Wir Sind Helden concert. Now don't get me wrong - Wir Sind Helden is definitely one of my all-time favorite German-singing bands. Right up there with Xavier Naidoo and the late great Falco. But I'm not such a fan of standing in a smoke-filled crowded room listening to really loud live music while drinking 7-franc Miller Genuine Draft (an atrocity which I'm sure would never happen in Germany, but the Swiss' taste in beer is a story for another post). At least I had the good sense to hit up the coat check counter at the beginning of the encore, thus saving us an hour-long wait...

Mmmm.... winter

When we weren't pulling our hair out trying to plan travel this weekend, we were off enjoying some lovely winter-like activities. Zurich is a fabulous place to be in the winter, assuming you like, um, winter. I am sorry we will be leaving before the real winter starts, but at least we are getting a little tease now.

Fondue season was declared officially open on Saturday. I think raclette season is right around the corner. Sure we'll be bringing our fondue pot and raclette grill with us to our next home, but what if these treats don't taste as good when you're not physically located in Switzerland? Best to eat as much melted cheese as physically possible while we're still in the country, just to be safe.

On Sunday morning we woke up early and went ice skating at Dolder. Environmentalists are unhappy with the fact that Zurich's outdoor rinks have opened despite unseasonably warm weather, since it's awfully inefficient to make all that ice. But if Al Gore can travel by private jet, I certainly get to take a little spin around the ice every once in a while. It was glorious. The rink was pretty deserted for a weekend, with the exception of some intense curling (matches? games?) going on in a roped-off section of ice. Given that it was before noon, we resisted the Gluehwein on offer in the snack bar, but it was tempting...

The wintery weekend was topped off with some roasted chestnuts. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that Coop will start selling Zimtsterne before we move away. Sometimes it doesn't take very much at all to make me happy.

Score one for butter awareness

They spread it on sandwiches by the gallon. They slather it on pretzels by the kilo. But apparently, the Swiss are just not consuming enough butter.

Their butter levels have become so dangerously low, in fact, that the Swiss Butter Council* has decided to intervene. To increase local butter awareness, the SBC has implemented an aggressive ad campaign to let the public know about how very natural eating copious amounts of butter really is.**

Thanks to TQE's recent buttery post for reminding me to bring this important subject to my readers' attention. Now go spread butter on something and eat it. Or your skin will turn unnaturally brown. Or something.


* OK, so I made this part up. There is no such thing as the Swiss Butter Council, at least as far as I know. The people behind the campaign are the mysterious butter.ch folk. Be sure to stop by their site and play the buttermeter game. Increase your butter levels today!
** At the very least, it's more natural than wearing metallic bikini underwear.

Sion song

We spent the day before the cow fights in Sion, a lovely little Valais city not far from Martigny. The main attractions (beyond the charming downtown walking district) are multiple picturesque hilltop castles which overlook the city. Gluttons for punishment that we are, we hiked up to two castles (one of which is technically a church... shhhh, don't tell the word police). The views of the city and the distant snow-capped Alps were enough to bring a tear to your eye and make you a tiny bit sad you were about to move away from Switzerland.

And then we headed back down into the city to sample copious amounts of the local wine.

Links - 8 Oct 2007

• The New York Times picks up the Swiss Black Sheep story (obviously inspired by me). Also, violence erupted at a protest in Bern over the weekend.

• Check out the latest edition of the Carnival of Cities.

• Looking for a fabulous night out in Zurich? I highly recommend this exciting art opening coming up on November 2nd. :)

The long-awaited Martigny cow fighting videos

Ranoma's victory (in the 500 to 600 pound category)



Martigny Cow Fighting - Ranoma's victory from zurika on Vimeo.


Two cows escape the ring



Martigny Cow Fighting - the escape from zurika on Vimeo.

Not quite gladiators

It's fall in Switzerland - you know what that means, right? Time for the farmers to start entertaining themselves (and others) with their cows. Not to be outdone by last year's desalpes, this past weekend we headed west to watch Cows Fighting in Martigny.

What's that, you say? You're not familiar with cow fighting? Well then, allow me to explain a little. Keep in mind that this whole event transpired in French (and not just any kind of French, but Swiss Farmer French), so I'm still a little hazy on some of the details. But I can tell you about what I saw.

We arrived at the Roman amphitheater around noon, bought our CHF 30 tickets, a couple of beers, and some roasted chestnuts, and went to find our seats. We were just in time for the semi-final rounds, which consisted of the following: 8-10 farmers each led a cow into the ring; at the announcer's 'go', said farmers unbridled their cows and retreated to the sidelines (from which they cheered on their bovines while intently watching the action); the cows would randomly strike up battles with each other, butting heads and locking horns until one cow got intimidated/scared/bored and backed down; the announcer occasionally called out for either (a) two particular cows to be brought together and encouraged to fight or (b) a particular cow to be bridled and led off the field (similar to a couple receiving a shoulder tap during a dance competition, I imagine). Eventually it was determined which cows would advance to the finals, and then the next group would come in.

The finals resembled the semi-finals except that the last 5 remaining cows in each category (naturally, the competitors were separated by weight class) received prize bells and had official pictures taken by a horde of photographers. Plus the winner got a classy red ribbon tied around her body. And, of course, bragging rights.

Luckily we were provided with programs, so we knew not only the names of the fighting cows, but also the names of their trainers, er, farmers. In one round we watched Picatchu (one of two Picatchus, actually) battle to victory. In another, Papillon stole it from the early favorite, Bataille. On a pretty regular basis, a cow or two would decide she wanted no part in the fighting, and would barrel out of the ring, with five or six farmers clinging to her, trying in vain to direct her trajectory. We were pretty amazed that we didn't see any major injuries (although one battle was forfeited based on a cow's bloody nose). More photos here.

So you want to move to Zurich? Have I got some tips for you

Midsummer Night’s Knitter asked me a bit ago if I had any advice for someone moving to Zurich. While I certainly don’t feel like an expert on the subject, I suppose I might have some useful things to suggest after 2 years here. At least I should, shouldn't I? I mean, it would be pretty pathetic if I had spent all this time here and not learned anything useful... So here’s what I came up with:

1. Read Living and Working in Switzerland. It has its faults (like how it perpetuates scary myths about Swiss apartment house rules) but overall it’s pretty useful info to help you feel more prepared.
   
   
2. If you plan on exploring Switzerland by train (which I highly recommend), consider getting a GA card. This is something I wish we had done, but we didn’t consider it soon enough. It’s an investment, but it pays for itself if you’re a frequent traveler. Plus the money goes to a good cause (Swiss public transportation counts as a good cause in my book – I love it so much I once wrote a poem about it). Plus no buying tickets. Plus when you know the trip is already paid for, you’re more likely to jump off the couch and go get to know a new city or Alp on any given day. If you don’t get a GA, definitely get a half-fare card. These things pay for themselves with one or two trips.
   
   
3. Random grocery advice: sign up for a Migros card right away (they send you coupons for free money!); get outside the big chain supermarkets some and shop at the outdoor markets, your local Reformhaus, and specialty shops such as Asian groceries and El Maiz.
   
   
4. Zurich things to see/do at least once: Street Parade, Sechseläuten, a movie on the lake, the Kunsthaus, the food basement at Globus (the cheese counter has cheddar), the Limmat Swim, the Uetliberg, the zoo, the Christkindli Markt, ice skating, swimming in the lake, a Laughing Lemon class, museum night, the Blinde Kuh, Expovina, an evening stroll down Langstrasse.
   
   
5. Things to see/do on day or weekend trips from Zurich: a cow parade, Murren, Fribourg, Lucerne, Bern, sledding, skiing, Basel, Art Basel, the Matterhorn, Bellinzona, Lugano, Rapperswil, Milan, Strasbourg, Colmar.

I’m sure I’ll think of more to add later…

Glacier Melt

Last Sunday afternoon we headed down from Murren and went to visit the Trummelbach Falls. This is a series of waterfalls roaring through a mountain, runoff from the melting glaciers of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. It is truly spectacular. The dim lighting combined with our puny little camera made it impossible to capture even a hint of how beautiful the various interior falls were.

Trummelbach Falls are reachable via bus (7 minutes) from Lauterbrunnen, and admission is CHF 12 (definitely worth it, despite what the disgruntled German tourists in front of us in line may have thought when they found out the ticket price).



Kind of reminded me of Ruby Falls. OK, not really.

Bernese Oberland, oh how I will miss you

And now for a more beautiful side of Switzerland... this weekend found us back in one of our favorite destinations, Murren, where we stayed at the Hotel Eiger. We paid a bit extra for a ‘superior’ room, which was superior, I imagine, only in the fact that it came attached to a balcony with a spectacular view of said Eiger (the room itself was fine, but unremarkable). The hotel’s staff was exceedingly friendly and helpful, and we much enjoyed our stay.

Murren is so idyllic it almost makes me weep. There are no cars in this little 400-person village nestled cozily into the side of an Alp, and the only way to arrive is via one of two big ski gondolas. We spent Saturday afternoon wandering around the village and taking pictures, with a brief stop at Coop (yes, even in this remotest of outposts there is a Coop) to stock up on happy hour essentials (i.e., beer and snacks). Then it was back to the hotel to sit on our balcony, consume our consumables, and soak in the view. Next we visited the hotel pool, which was full of various jets and bubbly things to massage and stimulate various parts of your body, and also had a panoramic mountain view. We also popped into the sauna, but given my aversion to heat, my stay didn’t last long.

We watched sunset from the balcony, then headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner (which wasn’t bad, but I would not recommend the vegetarian cutlet thingies). The next morning we went out for a hike (after a lovely hotel breakfast and another dip in the pool).

We decided that although it’s not quite as perfect as it is during the winter, Murren in the summer is pretty gosh darn lovely, too. More summer Murren pictures here.

Tired of all those pesky non-white foreigners? Perhaps the SVP can help

So today I open my mailbox to find a brochure from the good old SVP (the Swiss political party of black sheep infamy). I decided to flip through and see what new and improved bigoted scare tactics they were using in the run up to the election. I didn't have to flip very far.

This young man was featured on page two, alongside a story about how very, very many foreigners are criminals. Did he scare you?


A few pages later was this woman, along with statistics (obviously designed to alarm the reader) about how the Muslim population in Switzerland has been growing exponentially in recent years. Under a list of 'facts' about the Left (the SVP's political opponents), I found these fun facts: not only does the Left want a multicultural society, but if we leave it to them, soon they'll start handing passports out to everyone!

I'm sure there were plenty of other juicy tidbits contained in this 8-page SVP ad, but I had to stop reading. It was making me sick to my stomach.

Bring on the junk mail, Herr Postman

In this part of the world, you’ll notice that many people’s mailboxes sport stickers that say things like “no advertisements, please”. That’s all it takes to avoid a box full of Werbung (ads and leaflets). Mass mailings from political parties and charities still come through, but nothing else. Less junk, save a few trees… who wouldn’t want that? In fact, almost everyone seems to take advantage of this easy way to opt out of junk mail.

The other day we received a piece of mail from Swiss Post itself. The envelope contained a sheet of mailbox stickers (in a variety of convenient sizes) which all say “Werbung? O.K.!” The accompanying letter was an impassioned plea for the implementation of the stickers on our mailbox, containing lines such as “maybe you’ve changed your mind about receiving Werbung” and “perhaps it wasn’t even you who made the decision to halt the Werbung flow, and you just inherited your ‘no ads’ sticker from the previous occupant” (in fact, this is true in our case). The letter attempted to make Werbung sound like something you were missing out on, something that would make your life fuller, more complete. It made me laugh. Hard.

I’m dying to know if anyone actually placed the “Junk mail for me, please!” stickers on their mailbox after receiving this letter from the Swiss Post. I’m also tempted to stick them on other people’s mailboxes, or perhaps even on our mailbox, right before we move out. (kidding!)