We are moving back to Texas in January!

Lots of details still to be ironed out, but I’m sad, happy, worried, and stressed all at once.

We still plan to take a few more day trips and at least one weekend trip within Switzerland, so I’m sure I’ll have more to post in the next few months. I’ve also got a backlog of posting that I keep meaning to get around to. And since this blog isn’t just about us living in Switzerland, but also about our travels, I’ll be sure to update any future interesting adventures.

I was thinking today about how many places we’ve seen and explored here in Switzerland over the last year and few months that we’ve lived here and how much more we want to see, not just of Switzerland, but of Europe.

Even though I’ve not written about all of them here on this blog, here are some of the places we’ve been to. The ones that have an tic mark are ones we want to go back to and explore again:

• Appenzell
• Bern
• Basel *
• Baden
• Luzern/Lucerne *
• Montreaux *
• Schaffhausen
• Stein am Rhein *
• Zurich *
• Winterthur
• Rapperswil
• St. Gallen
• Mountains: Pilatus, Titlus, Santis, Rigi, Jungfrau, and one whose name escapes me
• Bellinzona
• Locarno
• Interlaken *

Here are some of the places and things left that we want to see and do in Switzerland:

• Alpfahrt and Alpabfahrt (cow parade between high and low pastures)
• Aargau
• Chur
• Neuchatel
• Tobogganing in Interlaken
• Sion
• Zermatt (where the Matterhorn is)
• Geneva (we went through it, but didn’t get to explore it)
• Montreaux Jazz Festival
• Gruyeres – to see the cheese making and the nearby factory of Callier (chocolate)
• Schweiz – the heart of Switzerland and its namesake
• Thur Cathedral
• Lugano
• Kronbrog – Summer Toboggan run (train stop at Jakobsbad)
• Hergiswill – glassworks
• Urnersee
• Kloster Einseideln
• Glacier Express (despite its name, it is a slow scenic train ride through the mountains)
• Maienfeld (origin of the novel Heidi)
• Sierre
• Leukerbad and Lotschental
• Regensburg
• Oberhofen on the Thunersee

Outside of Switzerland, there’s tons more to explore, if only we had the time and more importantly the money. Even living here, travel isn’t cheap, and the dollar is currently suffering quite pitifully in comparison to the Euro. And recently, the dollar has taken a severe dive against the Swiss Franc – huge problem for us, because we are still paid in US dollars, and were using the exchange rate as sort of a buffer against the high cost of living here. But enough about money, how about some hopefully attainable dreams?

• France – all of it. Seriously! I wish I had years to travel this gorgeous country! But for starters, Paris.
• Spain – Granada, Madrid, and Segovia (they have an awesome castle there)
• England – London (hundreds of things just to see in this city alone), and Bath
• Austria – Vienna, Vienna, Vienna
• The Czech Republic – Prague and the Karlstein castle
• Italy – Rome, Florence, Venice (and Heath wants to see Pompei)
• Greece – Delphi and the beaches
• The Netherlands (helps that I have a good friend who lives there) – mainly for the art museums.
• Germany – Berlin, Nuremberg, the Black Forest, Munich
• Poland – Warsaw and Krakow
• Scandanavia (perhaps? I don’t know much about those countries)
• Romania – Vlad’s castle (nerdy, I know)

I am sure we can tackle a few on this list. If not now, sometime in our lifetime. So far, outside of Switzerland, we’ve been to:

• Lichtenstein (not worth it)
• Southern Germany to see Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles
• Konstanz, Germany (just over the border from Switzerland)
• Annecy, France (lovely, lovely lovely! Review forthcoming!)
• Ireland (desperately want to go back!)
• Southern Scotland (we need to finish exploring here!)
• Northern England (so much more to see!)

For my few readers that have been to or are living here, what is your favorite part of Switzerland? Anywhere we’ve not been yet that you think we should check out?

A month or so ago (I’m late as usual to posting events) my husband went on a Team Building hiking trip thing. His team took a train to bus to a cable car up a mountain, and then hiked back down the mountain, going down on scooters partway, and stopping for the occasional beer. The day ended with dinner together. It was an all-day thing, and even though he was pretty tired at the end, my husband had a blast.

On their way up the mountain, though, Heath encountered a really special parade – one I’d hoped to see during my time in Switzerland, but have thus far missed: the parade of cows from the high pasture to the low pasture in the fall (and vice-versa in the spring), called Alp Aufzug. This is a very integral part of Swiss rural culture. Lots of tourists and Swiss citizens flock to small alpine towns to view the parades. There’s often a specific traditional order and custom to the parades. The one that Heath saw started with children leading goats, and then the adult men in their bright vests leading cows wearing huge bells. And at the end was a man in brown. I’ve seen photographs of other parades where women wear traditional costumes including a fantastic headdress that looks like it belongs in the movie Dune and men blowing those huge Alpine horns at the end of the day. I missed it this year, but I’m determined to go to one of these parades next year.

My husband got some absolutely fantastic photos of the event:

children in traditional Swiss costume leading the Alp Aufzug

Cheese cart at the end of the parade.

Heath’s coworkers were a little boggled by his eagerness to scramble out of the bus (which had to pull to the side of the road) to take pictures of cows (twice! there were two parades that day!). But they just teased him over beers later. Here’s a few shots of his hike.

View of the steep hiking trail.

Heath on a mountaintop

Goats on the mountaintop!

Swiss cowbells in a pub

Heath and his best bud Ayse

More pictures of Heath’s hike with his coworkers can be found here.

A great article on the Alp Aufzug by Rick Steves can be found here.

In the town of Winterthur, there are two castles. The more well-known is Schloss Kybourg. It is a bit confusing to get there by public transportation, so while it is on our list of places to check out, we’ve not exactly been there yet. A fun little castle that is very easy to get to is Schloss Hegi. It is on the north-east finger of the city of Winterthur, and I can walk there from our flat pretty easily. I first noticed it while taking a hike along the overlook above Oberwinterthur. In the picture below, it is that cluster of very old-looking buildings on the edge of the town.

Once I figured out what the buildings were, I was determined to check it out. I mean, come on, as an American, when will you ever live within a 15 minute walk of a castle? I went there twice this summer (once with my visiting friend and former boss, Sharon, and once with a group of our local friends), and it is really a unique castle and museum. It was only opened to the public very recently. Schloss Hegi was first built in the 1200’s with later additions in the 15th and 18th centuries. This odd clash of time periods makes for a fascinating set of buildings. From what little information I’ve dug up, it seems that the main tower was built first, with the rest of the buildings added on later.

Schloss Hegi

What makes a castle unique? They are a dime a dozen here in Europe, right? Well, this castle is more like an estate house or a very tiny palace. Perhaps in the 12th century it was meant to be a fortification, but the additions from the 15th and 18th century show a more pastoral lifestyle. When the castle was made into a museum, it wasn’t extremely well-thought out. The only way in most areas or floors is the way you came out. Narrow cramped staircases (in some cases ladders!) lead you between floors. If you aren’t careful, you’ll miss a whole section of the castle or a room. There’s dead-ends and locked doors. It sounds completely nuts, but really that’s part of its charm.

Old firewagon

The objects in the museum are completely random as well. On the first floor and in the basement you can find a collection of small cannons, ancient fire-fighting wagons and buckets, and a hearse (the kind which would be drawn by a horse). More fire buckets line the first set of stairs. Interesting tidbit about the buckets: each family in the area had their own. When a fire was discovered, each family would fill their own bucket(s) and come running. Each of the buckets in Schloss Hegi has a different family crest or symbol on it. The buckets are all made of leather, too, and kind of an odd elongated narrow shape.

Fire Buckets

We also encountered a tiny landing full of odds and ends leftover from the kitchen: copper pans, and utensils and a big cast-iron pot. It looked like a mish-mash of things left behind for the past few centuries. There are several large sitting rooms or possibly dining rooms, cozy little bedrooms, and tiny maid’s quarters. There were rooms with no obvious original purpose, each filled with things like armory, antique children’s toys (which, in my eyes were very creepy), and even farming tools. Every room had something new and interesting to look at. Kids will like it, too, but very young ones like ours had to be watched at every second. Still, everyone had fun.

Kiddos share a windowsill in one of the tower rooms.

While possibly not the gem of Winterthur, if you are in the area, Hegi Castle is worth a visit. The caretaker that was there both times I visited was extremely nice and helpful, making sure we didn’t miss any parts of the castle, and even helping us take a group picture in front of it. The first time I visited, he was popping out of random windows as we were leaving the castle, like some sort of bizarre Monty Python character. Hegi Castle (aka Schloss Hegi) is only open March through October, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 2PM to 5PM and Sundays from 10AM to noon, and in the afternoon from 2PM to 5PM. You can find out more about visiting Schloss Hegi here.

More pictures of our adventures in Schloss Hegi can be found here.

Although Halloween isn’t really celebrated here in Switzerland, there are several expat groups that were hosting parties for the kids. We decided that our son is still a bit too young to participate in any big Halloween and had a lazy day at home. We devoured jack-o-lantern and ghost-shaped Peeps brought to us previously by my mother-in-law. Eddie got a little wild with the sugar, but it is a good thing we almost never give him any. We also carved a pumpkin. And I whipped up a Halloween Feast of Squid-Ink Pasta with homemade Alfredo sauce, Shrimp Scampi, and pan-braised Spinach:

We even had Pumpkin Apple muffins! As the evening ended, I took Rosie for a walk and snapped a picture of our pumpkin in the window of our kitchen. As expected, we were the only window with a Jack-o-Lantern shining through.

So, this is my first post in a ring of this type, and I hope the organizers can forgive me for it being a bit late – having a toddler makes me pretty brain addled sometimes. World Blog Surf Day is an opportunity to learn something new about a different culture, especially through the eyes of a non-native.

The topic for this year’s World Blog Surf Day is Holidays and Celebrations – what is your new favorite as an expat living in a foreign country? My husband and I had a chat about this today. We’ve encountered so many fascinating cultural things unique to Switzerland. We narrowed it down to three: Fasnacht, the Zurich Limmatswimmen, and of course the cow parade when they are moved between the winter and summer pastures.

I think the wildest festival, and the one that is completely local to northern Switzerland where we live is Fasnacht. World Blog Surf Day is a perfect time to introduce the world to this crazy Swiss tradition. Fasnacht is like a mashup of Halloween, Groundhog’s Day, Mardi Gras, and a trade show all wrapped up together. Each town that celebrates it has a huge parade of participants wearing incredible costumes and masks that rival anything we’ve ever seen before. Members of various guilds dress in matching costumes, and often have a band. Confetti is everywhere, and even the parade-viewers dress up.

The festival is based on the idea of frighting away the winter and welcoming the spring. It is usually celebrated close to Mardi Gras, which is Lent, the beginning of the Christian period leading up to Easter. The festivities are run by the city and by the guilds of that city. In the middle ages, guilds were very popular, and the membership in them passed from family to family. Most guilds were originally based on a particular trade, such as bakers, carpenters and wine merchants. You can read more about the Zurich Guilds here.

Our home city, Winterthur, has a huge celebration. While not as famous as the one in Basel, the Wintherthur Fasnacht festivities go on for several days (and nights) culminating in an over-the-top parade. Each guild has their own matching set of costumes and/or masks, and nothing I can say can properly explain the excitement and chaos of the Winterthur Fasnacht.

On the day of the parade, my husband, son and I caught a bus into town very early into the altstadt (old town area). We scouted out a spot on the parade route, and waited. By the time the parade started, we were packed in. Our son fell asleep as soon as it started, so my husband pulled the stroller out of the crowd, and watched from further out. I braved the crowds right on the front line of the parade route (it was, at times, up to five people thick) and was stepped on, shoved, and drowned in confetti, but I got some great pictures out of it, and a great view. It was incredibly loud, and there were tons of bands all playing very good music.

One of the things I found most fascinating was all the masks. For each guild they are similar, as if made by the same person, but are often slightly different for each member. Most look like they are made of wood, but I assume that might be a bit too heavy. Regardless, I couldn’t help gasping each time I saw a new group go by.

Occasionally parade members would grab older children and carry them off partway down the parade route. They would usually try to grab children who were throwing confetti or acting even more wild than the rest of the crowd.

We held in until nearly the very end of the parade – about two and a half hours – but snuck out to catch a bus home, grinning and covered in confetti. We shook out our coats and the stroller (child removed, of course), and were still finding confetti for months afterwards.

If you are visiting or living in Switzerland, I would highly recommend checking out one of the major Fasnacht festivals. Here’s a few links to learn more:

• Basel Fasnacht
• Winterthur Fasnacht
• Olten Fasnacht
• Wikipedia has a great article about Fasnacht here.
• You can see many many MANY more pictures I took at Fasnacht here.

So that’s about it! Please go on to read another great World Blog Surf Day, by visiting the next blog, BBE’s Video Snapshots and his post about All Saints Day in Belgium from the eyes of a UK expat. If you are reading through the ring, and find the chain broken, here the link to the master list of participants of the third WBSD.

Also, many thanks to Karen, who is helping in today’s events for World Blog Surf Day. Karen is an American expat blogger last seen in Prague. The Wall Street Journal said, “Her blog makes a fun read for anyone looking for reassurance that change can be a wonderful thing–and also for anyone interested in visiting the Czech Republic.” You can check out her blog here: Empty Nest Expat.

Not just yet. This post is spurred by something I read in a friend’s blog today where she was grumbling that a local big supermarket already had Christmas trees and a few Christmas items up for sale. One summer in college I worked at a Hallmark store. I think most people know that every year they produce a certain number of Christmas ornaments, often continuing themes for years, and also producing ornaments based on popular movies and books. Some people are very enthusiastic about collecting them. I can’t remember ever buying one for myself, but we have several ones that have been gifted to us by family and friends over the years that we treasure.

Anywho… back to my original point. Almost as soon as I started working at the store, there was a buzz of excitement surrounding the ornaments. The new display was going up… in July! I was horrified, even at my young age. And I still don’t like it to this day that the commercialism of Christmas is pushed up so early by these big corporate stores overriding other holidays and stressing people out. OK, off my soapbox.

I am very happy to say that I’ve not seen an inkling of any Christmas decor anywhere in Switzerland yet. Halloween is only loosely celebrated here – probably brought by the number of expats living here. So there are a few displays of Halloween costumes and a bunch of fall decor type things for sale such as pumpkin-shaped crocks and wreaths made out of leaves. The excitement and wonder of the holiday season starts usually smack on December 1st, and continues on until Christmas Day. I’m looking forward to the amazing hand-crafted gifts that you can only find at the Christmas Markets. I want to get my steaming cup of Glühwein – hot mulled wine. And all the other delights that the markets have to offer. But I’m happy to wait for that until December, and enjoy what we have right now – a crisp cool fall.

In the last day or two it has turned truly cold, with highs not even reaching 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Snow is already starting to coat all of the mountain tops again (or add more to those that have snow year-round). We’ve not really had a pretty season as far as the leaves go, though. Lots of wind and rain for a week or so took all the colorful leaves off as soon as they appeared. The daylight is shrinking fast, too – one thing that I’m not really looking forward to.

So for the next month and a half, we’re set to enjoy the fall. We’ll be going again to Jucker Farm soon to pick out some pumpkins and other goodies like fresh unfiltered unpasteurized apple juice. I’m hoping that we’ll continue to have the cool clear days like today so that I can take Eddie on more hikes up above our village. And there’s always the promise of visits from friends to look forward to as well. Pardon me for getting a little swishy in this update – I’m feeling a bit of longing knowing that we might not be here next fall in this beautiful country.

I’m now in my second class of the study of the German language. I’m still pretty terrible at it, especially since I don’t have the discipline to fully immerse myself. I should be watching more German TV, and studying harder.

Tonight’s class started with a brief discussion of what symptoms you would have if you had a cold (i.e. cough, runny nose, etc.). The teacher wrote a number of terms on the board, some of which I understood. I jotted all of them down and on our class break, used my trusty Wörterbuch to translate the ones I’d missed.

The last word on the list was die Gliederschmerzen. This is one of those long German words that is easier translated when you break it apart. I already knew that “schmerzen” meant “pain” or “ache”. I leaned over to my favorite classmate, a fun blond Slovakian girl, and asked her if she knew what Gliederschmerzen meant. We both reached for our dictionaries (hers is obviously Slovakian/German). In my dictionary, the entry for “Glied” reads:

1. Limb, member

“Limb pain” seemed like an odd translation, so I kept reading to see if there was any further clarification.

2. penis, (male) member.

Wait, what? Penis? Really? Did the teacher pull a fast one? Did Gliederschmerzen really translate as “penis ache”?

My friend found the exact same notation in her dictionary at the same time. She leaned over to the girl on the other side of her (who is from Poland, but Slovakian and Polish are very similar), and all three of us started cackling like 10-year-olds.

The teacher was still sitting at the front of the classroom, engrossed in some paperwork.

“YOU ask him!” my friend hissed.

“YOU are a naughty girl!” I whispered back.

I forced myself to stop giggling, got the teacher’s attention, and asked my question without referencing the word “penis.” He explained that Gliederschmerzen meant a whole body ache or pain in the joints, such as you get with the flu.

I nodded somberly, noting the translation. After his attention was diverted, my friend and I dissolved into another fit of giggles. Yes, the word penis is still funny.

A few weekends ago, we went to visit a good friend of ours who lives just across the border in Constance, Germany. It is only about a 45 minute train ride from Winterthur, and we can even take a direct train with no transfers.

We’d been to the city of Constance once before close to Christmas to see the spectacular Christmas market with our friends Stacy and Oliver. I’d always wanted to return to Constance, because it looked like such a pretty city, sitting on the shores of Lake Constance. While we didn’t really get to explore the city on this visit either, we got to check out some amazing gardens located on the Island of Mainau and the historic buildings. The island has a fascinating history, having been transferred between several different countries and families, and most recently owed by a Swedish Prince. It is mainly known for its expansive gardens, and it was pretty popular the day we were there.

We started by meeting up with Ayse, who is one of Heath’s coworkers, but a very good friend of ours as well. She’s even babysat Eddie on a few occasions. She helped us get our boat tickets, as we had decided to take the ferry there. You can also drive to a parking lot near the island on the mainland and take a footbridge across (the island isn’t very far out in the lake). We enjoyed the boat ride, and I hope that Heath and I might be able to take one of the dinner cruises sometime.

Ayse and Heath on the boat

It was unfortunately a cloudy day for much of our visit, so a lot of my pictures didn’t come out all that well. The gardens were gorgeous. Thousands of plants, flowers, and trees, and even a small vineyard. We saw apples, plums, roses, and many other plants that I don’t know the name of.

A terraced part of the garden

Me and my guy!

There were horse-drawn carriage rides, a really neat miniature train set, an overly-crowded orchid-filled butterfly house, several huge playgrounds (one of which catering to really small kids like ours), and even a petting zoo:

Chasing goats in the petting zoo.

We briefly toured the inside of several of the historic buildings, including a museum that had the wedding gown of one of the former residents of the island. I know all my costume nut friends would go ga-ga over the details of this gown, so I snapped a few pictures (more can be found on Flickr):

Embroidered Wedding Gown

We took the footbridge off the island, and took a bus back to the city where we said good-bye to Asye and caught a train back home. I’d recommend the Island of Mainau to anyone, even if you have children. Just take your walking shoes!

To view a bunch more pictures of our visit to Mainau Island, click here.

To learn more about Mainau Island, Wikipedia has a great article in English here.

The official site for Mainau Island is here (German text only).

…are like totally totally tall, for sure, dude.

Only members of my immediate family will get that joke. But I thought of it today when I ventured into a Swiss version of a shopping mall in Zurich with my friend Stacy today.

Most shopping can be found in shops in a city’s center. A bakery can be found across the way from a trendy clothing store; a chocolate shop is right next to a small grocery. All of the shops are entered from the street. The idea of an American-style shopping mall where most or all of the shops are entered from within a giant building is probably strange to most Swiss (and Europeans for that matter). Having spent most of my life living in one suburb or another, I’m quite familiar with the good, bad, and ugly malls in several cities in the US.

Today I had a rare baby-free afternoon, and when I met up with my pal, we decided to check out the new Sihlcity on the west side of Zurich. We arrived by tram from the opposite side of the city. The design of the mall is pretty modern. When you first arrive, there is an open-air courtyard-type area that separates the movie theatre from the main mall building. There’s a hotel on one side (with a SPA! You have no idea how tempted we were to skip the mall and just go to the spa!). And most of the other store fronts that face the open courtyard are restaurants.

The restaurants are really nice, too. No trashy fast-food filled food-court here! We decided to eat at an Asian restaurant that had Japanese, Chinese, and Indian food. There was also a French bistro, a couple of cafes, and ok, I hate to admit it, a McDonald’s. Inside the mall itself, I don’t remember there being any food, but we were pretty distracted.

It was a Saturday, so the mall was pretty crowded. When we first walked in, we were offered free samples of some sort of wine cooler that was being launched off an existing line. We snuck around getting a few free samples until we realized that it was actually “alkoholfrei”! The amount of sugar in those drinks was making us pretty silly.

We squeezed around a temporary fashion show event related to the drink launch and went into a large bookstore. Like a lot of Swiss book stores, they had a small selection of books in English. Unlike most Swiss book stores, the books were reasonably priced. I practiced severe restraint and only bought two books for myself. We also spotted gifts for other people.

Next stop bathroom, where we noticed that the infant changing table was very conveniently located separate from both the women’s room and men’s room, so either parent could change their child’s diaper.

Most of the rest of the mall consisted of your average (for Europe) clothing stores, such as H&M, C&A, New Yorker, and even a Coop Department store. We each made a few purchases of essentials at the latter. There was also a pet-supply store, and a L’Occitane. The mall was clean, and nicely done, clearly imitating the style of an American mall. And I was pleasantly surprised to see people with their dogs inside the mall. Most stores are dog-friendly, and unless you see a sign on the door of a store indicating otherwise, you can assume that your (well-behaved) pooch is welcome.

Oh! I almost forgot! There was even a really nice day-care center for kids ages 3 to 8: Kinderparadies Tintenschiff. Depending on how long you wanted to leave your children (one to four hours) and how many you had, it cost only 4 to 18 francs. I think that this is an excellent idea! If my son was old enough, I’d definitely drop him off so I could try on clothes in peace. They also can do birthday parties. The day care is located on the opposite side of the parking garage from the mall on the third (2.Stock) floor – we followed the signs.

You can read an article in English about Sihlcity here (the article was written a few years ago, during the planning stage). I was interested to read about the small parking garage, and that the developers assumed (correctly) that most visitors would take public transportation within the city of Zurich to reach the mall.

Here is the link to Sihlcity’s website (the website is in German, though, with no English option).