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…

Heidi on the Walensee

Yesterday afternoon we took a train to Walenstadt (about an hour from Zurich), in search of some Swiss culture. We walked through the small town to the lake and hopped on a boat for a dinner cruise. The Walensee has some beautiful, dramatic scenery going on – on one side the mountain is so steep that it appears to plunge right into the lake, while on the other shore you can watch trains weave in and out of tunnels. The views would have been breathtaking, had it not been cloudy and drizzly for most of the ride. We still got a few beautiful glimpses here are there.

After the boat ride, it was on to the evening’s main event: Heidi – das Musical, Teil 2. The large outdoor stage is right next to the lake, set up so the audience can enjoy the spectacular view as part of the backdrop (and also so we had something to look at when the story line started dragging). The musical itself, which was performed in a mix of High German and Swiss German, was OK. It told the story of Heidi in parallel with a story about the life of Johanna Spyri, Heidi’s creator.

I was most amused by the co-marketing going on around the musical. We received free Heidi brand ice cream on a stick just for attending, and there were samples of Heidi brand yogurt available at intermission. And on our way out, we were each handed a bottle of Heidi brand water which – I kid you not – promised to give us “Heidi Power.” Anyone know what that might entail?

When the great art galleries of the world come to Switzerland

Yesterday we went to Art Basel, a large 5-day exhibition of art in - you guessed it - Basel. Around 300 galleries from around the world come and bring work from their hottest, shiniest art stars to display and sell for insane amounts of money.

We arrived at 11 AM, just as the exhibit was opening its doors. We started in Hall 1 of the conference center, which housed several large-scale works (pictured above), pacing ourselves since we knew we had a lot to see that day. By 12 we were proudly ready to move on to Hall 2, where all of the gallery booths were set up.

We browsed through the first row of booths, soaking in the offerings. There were lacquered sculptures, c-print photos, and creative knitting projects. Gold-leafed collages and mirrored concave wall hangings. Abstract video installations and drawings of penises, lots and lots of penises. By 1:30, we were starving, and decided to grab a ridiculously-overpriced lunch out in the courtyard while resting our feet and our brains. Actually my brain wouldn't turn off, as it danced around full of dreams of going back to art school to learn new techniques and make lots of crazy new things (that would happen to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars at events such as this one). I loved art. I was an artist, and I was here in my element, hungry to learn more. Yay, art!

A couple hours and several rows of booths later, my attitude was a wee bit different. I think it could be blamed on over stimulation. Who were these freaks and what made them think these things were art? What was wrong with me that I couldn't appreciate all this art? And where the hell were the paintings? It was time for another break, so we had some coffee and some cheese quiche, hoping it would revive us.

Later we stumbled upon the galleries specializing in 20th-century artists (otherwise known as Artists I've Actually Heard Of), but by then we were too tired to really care what we were seeing. Numerous Picassos, Kandinskys, Schieles and Warhols passed before my eyes completely unappreciated. Not even eavesdropping on the discussions around me by people who were actually buying this art could keep my interest. I was fading fast. We tried taking another break and then plowing ahead, but by then it had all just become torturous. Finally around 7 PM, we made our exit, having seen about 75% of the booths (and appreciating about 10% of them).

Despite the agony in this tale, I would actually highly recommend a trip to Art Basel. But set a timer and leave after three hours or at the height of your artistic appreciation abilities, whichever comes first.

Spargelfest!

That's right, boys and girls, it's that time of year again: Spargelzeit. The celebration of asparagus is in full swing in Switzerland. Thanks to a tip from Jack at Laughing Lemon, some friends and I headed outside the city last Sunday to check out the Flaacher Spargelfest (an asparagus festival held on a family farm in the town of Flaach).

We arrived around lunch time and headed straight for the food. We sampled pretty much everything that was on offer: asparagus risotto, sauteed asparagus, cream of asparagus soup, asparagus pizza, asparagus sausage (OK, I passed on this last one). There were even asparagus-shaped desserts (which to my knowledge didn't contain any actual asparagus).



Then it was on to the tour of the farm. This was conducted by the farmer in Swiss German, but we were still able to follow some of it. We learned that the asparagus seeds are sprouted somewhere else, and then the bundles of live roots are delivered to the farm for planting. They grow into bushes for the first two years, and then starting in the third year the asparagus can be harvested.

The farm grows three varieties of asparagus: green, white, and purple. The green and purple grow above ground, whereas the white are grown in mounds of dirt covered with tarps to keep the light out.



The farmer demonstrated how a white asparagus is harvested, all by hand:








The tour concluded with a demo of the machine which washes the asparagus and cuts each stalk to exactly 22 centimeters. This length is a standard throughout the area, and was decided upon based on the size of the pans most people have for cooking. The is supposedly a farm in Germany that makes theirs 27 centimeters; they sell extra-large pans there, too.



This guy is apparently the farm's mascot, as he appears on all their signs and on the website. I call him 'Spargi'. I was really disappointed that there wasn't anyone at the festival dressed up as a giant white asparagus. At the very least they could have sold hats or dolls or something, but alas there was no merchandising of Spargi whatsoever.

Our last stop was the asparagus shop, where we picked up a couple bundles of fresh asparagus and other asparagus-related paraphernalia. Then we came home and made asparagus for dinner. I'll spare you the details of the pee-related consequences of this particular day.

Skiing in Davos – a post for posterity

Sunday morning we woke up hideously early and hauled our ski gear to the train station for a day in Davos. On the way there my husband joked that someday we would tell our kids about this last day of skiing ever before global warming made it a thing of the past. So I figured I better write about it so we’d be able to remember.

We took the train to Davos Dorf (don’t you just love the word Dorf?) and then a short bus to the Parsennbahn, which brought us up to a lovely cluster of blue slopes at 2600 meters.

At least it was a pretty good ski day. The snow was the best we’ve skied on all season (and would actually have been some of the best skiing I’d done in my life prior to last year’s fabulous Swiss ski wonderland). Plus it was a beautiful, sunny day, without a cloud in the sky. The slopes were somewhat crowded, which was to be expected on a Sunday, but even so the lift lines were for the most part tolerable.

The bummer is that neither of us feels like we’ve improved at all this year. Not the best way to end a ski career. I guess we’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope for some snow for next year after all...

Colorful Fribourg

This weekend we hopped on a train for a day-trip to Fribourg, a charming town which straddles the Röstigraben. The Swiss city Fribourg (which is primarily francophone today) is known as Freiburg in German, but don't confuse it with the German city of Freiburg (also a fun place to hang out) or the two other German cities called Freiberg.

Fribourg is one of those quaint old cobblestone-filled European cities that are beautiful to just wander around. We picked up a city map and a suggested walking tour route from the Tourist Info next to the train station, and were off.

Although I’m pretty much at my limit of number of churches one should visit per lifetime, I actually enjoyed Fribourg’s Saint Nicholas Cathedral, which contains some impressive, richly-colored stained glass windows (featuring, among other things, dead babies).

The Espace Jean Tinguely – Niki de Saint Phalle holds a small collection from the two whimsical artists. Although not as extensive a collection as the Tinguely museum in Basel, it’s still worth a visit if you are a fan of either artist.

The weather was alternately cloudy, rainy, and sunny, but we managed to come out OK, ducking into shops, museums, or bars whenever we needed to escape the rain. Our patience was rewarded towards the end of the day, with one of the most vibrant rainbows I’ve ever seen.

Carnival, Italo-Swiss style

After last year's lackluster parade in Zurich, I was beginning to think the Swiss just didn't know how to do carnival. I mean, a correct carnival celebration does involve a certain amount of coming out of oneself, public silliness, and, (gasp!) messiness. Oh yes, I've heard about how in Basel there is 'craziness' in the form of costumed people telling jokes in local dialect in restaurants starting at 4 AM, but somehow that doesn't exactly scream 'good party' to me (although if anyone wants to volunteer to interpret said Swiss German jokes for me one year, I'm there). Shouldn't celebrations last until 4 AM, not start then?

Luckily the Swiss redeemed themselves this weekend in Bellinzona, the home of a five-day carnival celebration called Rabadan. The parade was a million times better than Zurich's, with floats dedicated to all kinds of important themes, including (but not limited to) the Swiss Post, Pluto (the cartoon dog, not the former planet), Playboy, CSI, Scooby Doo, and EPO (a form of doping for cyclists, which I had never heard of before - see, it was educational, too!).

The celebrations include parades, confetti, marching bands, costumes, fried foods, drinking, silly-string, and more parades. Sunday's parade went from 1:30 until around 4:30, after which the various floats and marching bands dispersed to various points around the old town, where they hosted dance parties or gave spontaneous concerts. The streets were covered in confetti, and the mood was light and fun. The woman behind the desk of one of the museums we went to lamented that carnevale made everyone crazy, but we didn't find it to be such a bad thing. After all, it was only crazy by Swiss standards.

OK, so the costumes weren't quite as beautiful or elegant as those at carnevale in Venice, but it also wasn't as painfully crowded as Venice is during this time of year. Plus, Bellizona is a comfortable 2.5-hour train ride from Zurich. I highly recommend Rabadan to anyone who needs a dose of real carnival fun (and don't worry, you can even be back in time for Zurich's Fasnacht, which isn't until the weekend after Fat Tuesday).



More about our weekend in Ticino coming soon...

Liechtensteiny blues

After not leaving the country in over a month, our wanderlust brought us to Liechtenstein on Saturday afternoon. It took about an hour and a half to get there from Zurich by train and then bus. We decided to head for the capital, Vaduz (who knew Liechtenstein was big enough for more than one town?), since it contained a few interesting-sounding museums and such.

We arrived around 1 pm and headed straight to a restaurant that promised Liechtensteinese (is there a real adjective form of this word? Anyone? Anyone?) specialties, which turned out to be strikingly similar to Swiss food: meat, potatoes, sausage, cheese, spatzle, beer. Actually a lot of things about Liechtenstein are strikingly similar to Switzerland: the Swiss Franc is the official currency, High German is the official written language, and an incomprehensible dialect is what they actually speak. Plus it's generally clean, safe, and orderly, at least from what we saw.

After lunch we wandered around town and checked out a couple souvenir shops (which sold as much Swiss stuff as Liechtensteinian stuff) before heading to the art museum. The guidebook promised a fabulous collection owned by the benevolent royal family, but the lady selling tickets practically begged us not to go in as she explained that the entire upstairs was closed since they were changing the exhibit and it really wasn't worth our 8 francs. We then wandered towards the Landes Musesum, which featured an exhibit on Ötzi. We are big fans of Ötzi, but we learned all we need to know about him at a similar exhibit in Bolzano, Italy, two years ago. At least there were several outdoor sculptures throughout the town for us to enjoy.

So our attempts at museum visits were thwarted. No matter - we had already learned over lunch that the real fun in Liechtenstein lies not in its actuality, but rather in its concept. The tourist office had provided us with a fascinating little statistical booklet all about the country, which led us to some deep, profound thinking about what it would be like to be from such a teeny, tiny land. What would it be like to travel the world as a Liechtensteiner, introducing yourself as from a country that no one knew anything about? A country that made Switzerland look really big? A country where you knew every single citizen by his/her first name? We entertained these questions and more as we hopped on a bus and high-tailed it out of there. Conclusion: listen to the guidebooks when they all but scream at you that a particular country is not worth the trip.

Crap skiing at Flims Laax

[For those of you who haven't been following along, we are in the midsts of the warmest and unsnowiest winter in the history of Switzerland (please note that this is just my own estimate, and that I am not a weatherman).]



Not being able to hold out any longer, we finally went skiing today for the first time this season. We knew conditions weren't going to be great, but we were confident we could handle it. After all, we've skied in New England before. How much worse could a Swiss ski resort be?

My wonderful husband did some research on the Swiss ski resorts with the best snow, and based on how long it would take to get to each of them, we decided on Flims Laax, home of the famous Craplift. (Just in case you're wondering, 'crap' is actually the word for 'peak' in the local dialect. The locals are well aware of its meaning in English and have learned how to make a buck off of giving us a sophomoric laugh. Also, please note that the title of this post is much cleverer than you originally gave it credit for.)

It was far from a day of perfect skiing. The prevailing snow conditions on the slopes could best be described as 'solid sheet of the hardest ice you've ever attempted to dig your skis into' alternating with 'slush up to your ankles'. A couple hours into our ski day it started snowing a little (good) combined with driving wind that closed several of the lifts (much less good). Still, we pressed on, determined to get our money's worth out of the price we paid for our train-bus-lift tickets. Luckily the crazy winds managed to blow a little powder onto the runs in spots, giving us little teeny tiny reminders of how good skiing can be.

We skied a full day and then retired to the Crap Bar (seriously, it was called that) for a beer before catching the bus/train connection back to Zurich (which takes a little under two hours for the whole trip). Despite the less-than-perfect conditions, skiing reminded me again why, deep down, I really do love Switzerland.

St. Gallen and Switzerland appreciation

This weekend we decided to get out and appreciate some Switzerland. On Saturday we hopped on a train to St. Gallen, a city in the eastern part of the country. We chose St. Gallen because 1) we had never been there, 2) we had heard it was cute, and 3) it was only an hour away by train.

The reports were right - it is a very cute city, with a bustling walking district in the middle of the old town. We passed by dozens of cafes and restaurants that looked like they'd be fun to try, and lamented that Zurich didn't have such an offering. We settled on a fashionable yet comfy tapas restaurant for lunch, where I thoroughly enjoyed my "artesian" water housed in a bottle designed by Calvin Klein. (The Swiss always overcharge for water - at least this water made an effort to appear worth the extra money.) The food was good, too.

We spent the afternoon wandering around and exploring the old town. There was an outdoor market, several small specialty shops, and even street performers. We went into the cathedral, which was easily the most beautiful church I've seen in Switzerland. And let's not forget Raiffeissenplatz, a square that has been coated with red concrete in honor of a bank. Or something.

It was Three Kings Day, so all the bakeries were pushing their three king's cakes. These consist of a bunch of sweet buns all stuck together, one of which contains a plastic figurine (I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to visit Jill's blog if you want to see one). Whoever finds the piece of plastic in his or her piece gets to wear a cardboard crown and, assuming he or she hasn't choked to death on said plastic piece, gets to reign as king for the day. We weren't necessarily excited to eat one of the cakes (as I recall from last year, it's not particularly tasty), but I wanted to buy one anyway for us to mush up in our hands until one of us found the figurine. Scott thought that sounded wasteful - can you imagine?

Despite the lack of crappy cake, it was a good day of appreciating Switzerland. The appreciation continued through today, when we went ice skating at the big rink at Dolder. And now, we're attempting to watch the Swiss version of Pop Idol. It's mostly in Swiss German, but we're following along amazingly well. Hooray for our clean and safe host country!

Crazy fun with onions. In Bern.

Today fellow blogger Jill and I headed to Bern for the Bern Onion Market (or Zibelemärit in the ridiculous local language). This is a festival that happens once a year in the Swiss capital to celebrate onions and the silly things you can do with them.

From what we saw, little old ladies and men must start making things out of onions months in advance to prepare for this one day. The creativity that went into this was evident in the wide variety of things made out of onions that were on display. Things that normal people like you or I would never consider making out of onions. Like fake clocks. And Mickey Mouse.

Both of us went into the experience hoping to actually get to consume some onions, but apparently it’s just not that kind of onion festival. The vast majority of the onions there were purely for decoration. After wandering around for quite a while (and drowning our frustrations with a couple of glasses of Glühwein), we finally found a couple stands selling freshly-made cheese and onion pies, which we enjoyed greatly.

Besides onions, the main appeal of the festival appeared to be the freedom to walk around assaulting complete strangers by either bopping them with plastic squeaky mallets or pelting them with a handful of colorful confetti. There were areas of the city where we were practically wading through confetti. It was on (and in) everything.

The combination of the noise, mess, and environmental-unfriendliness of the tons of confetti made the entire thing seem distinctly non-Swiss. I’m thinking this must be their way of letting loose.

Day trip: Schaffhausen and the Rhine Falls

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed north to the Rhine Falls (Rheinfall in German). It’s one of those places that has been on our we-should-get-around-to-going-there-someday list for quite a while, so the trip gave us a nice sense of accomplishment, too.

We took the train to Schaffhausen and wandered around the town a bit in the morning. It’s a small Swiss German town with hit-or-miss quaintness (depending on which street you happen to be walking down at any particular moment) but a generally pleasant and lively old-town atmosphere.

After lunch at the cozy Wirtschaft zum Frieden (which will be closed from October 2006 until January 2007), we started out on the 45-minute hike along the Rhine to the falls. The hike was enjoyable and took us through a couple small towns as well as some forest areas.

We arrived at Schloss Laufen, a castle overlooking the falls, and then paid a franc each for the privilege of hiking down to the edge of the water while enjoying various views of foamy water crashing down around distinctive rock formations. The falls themselves were less exciting than I had imagined, but still worth a visit.

We crossed the river by boat, took a quick bus from Neuhausen back to Schaffhausen, and enjoyed a drink by the water at Rheinhotel Fischerzunft. We decided their dinner menu was a bit too steep for our budget, so we headed back into town to the restaurant Kronenhof. We had a fantastic meal and I can’t recommend this place enough – it was one of the best vegetarian meals I have had in Switzerland, and the meat-eaters were pretty happy with their food, too. Props to our Fodor's Switzerland guidebook for finding us good eats twice in one day.

Hergiswhat?

Yesterday we went with some friends to the small Swiss town of Hergiswil to visit the Hergiswil Glasi, a glass production company. There were also a museum, a ‘Phenomenal Glass’ exhibit, two glass shops, a big playground, and a nice lakeside café/restaurant as part of the Glasi complex.

The museum, which was free, was more entertaining than I expected. As you walk through the various sets, a narrator (in the language of your choice) tells you about the history of glass and the history of this particular glass production facility. Among other things, I learned that last century, it was popular to keep one’s liquor in a Schnapps Hund, a vaguely animal-shaped vessel with a pouring spout for a tail. At least I hope that’s a tail.



At the end of the museum tour we got to watch some grumpy-looking glass workers doing their thing. There was also a booth where you could do your own glass blowing.




The ‘Phenomenal Glass’ exhibit had lots of interactive things, including various musical instruments that had glass components. Surprisingly, neither the Urinophon nor the Bierophon has gained much popularity in musical circles.


As a wedding present, our friends had us pick out some glass we liked from the shop. Since no Schnapps Hunde were to be found, we settled on one of the signature pieces of the Hergiswil Glasi, a large tray with the outline of Switzerland on it. We also picked up some Tetris-piece-shaped interlocking candle holders, which promise to be hours of fun.

Outside on the lake, we played with these wacky interactive fountains.

We stopped in Luzern on the way home for dinner in what is becoming my favorite vegetarian restaurant in Switzerland. All in all, it was a nice little day trip. Good for kids, too - our friends' children had a fabulous time (except in the museum, where the little girl complained loudly that it was MUCH too boring).

Yet another day trip: Luzern

Last Sunday the weather was gorgeous, so we decided to go explore Luzern. We arrived just before lunch and headed directly to the ‘best vegetarian restaurant in Lucerne’, Restaurant Hofgarten. The food was yummy (if a little heavy on the sauce), and we enjoyed sitting out in the plant-filled courtyard.



Then we went over to the KKL (Kultur und Kongresszentrum Luzern), a large, modern building on the edge of the lake which houses, among other things, a museum and a concert hall. We poked around a bit and then enjoyed an espresso while watching dressed-up people stream out of the concert hall. Then it was off to the Rosengart Collection – a private collection of paintings by 20ith-century masters such as Picasso, Klee, and Chagall, assembled based on the personal tastes of a father and daughter who actually knew most of the artists. In particular, I liked their taste in Picassos.





We then spent most of the afternoon wandering around exploring the rest of the city, including its two beautiful wooden walking bridges and the pedestrian-only old town center. We also walked around on the medieval wall that used to surround the city. We climbed one of its towers and were rewarded with gorgeous views of the city and the sailboat-speckled lake.



We then headed back down towards Löwenplatz, which felt like the tourist-trap center of the city, complete with about a million souvenir shops, tour bus parking, and a restaurant called something like ‘Swiss Town’. We went in to see the Bourbaki Panorama, an ‘amazing’ ‘breathtaking’ 19th-century 360-degree painting of the Franco-Prussian War (the marketing was so funny, we couldn’t resist). The painting itself was OK, and we enjoyed the accompanying exhibit, which taught us a little bit of Swiss history in a relatively painless way.

On the way out we stopped at the bar downstairs for a beer and to catch the first half of the Mexico game on their projection TV. At halftime we headed out to see the giant lion carved in a rock that all our guidebooks claimed was a must. It was right next to Glacier Garden, which was unfortunately already closed for the day. It looked like just the kind of cheesy tourist attraction that would actually be fun to see. It has a hall of mirrors!



Next it was back to the pedestrian area, where we found a cute little bar where we watched the end of the game. By then we were famished, so we headed back to the river to scope out some of the guidebook’s restaurant recommendations. We ended up at a table on the small balcony of the restaurant Zunfthaus zu Pfistern, where we enjoyed the views and the food. Afterwards, we sauntered back to the train station and headed home.



We really enjoyed our day in beautiful Luzern. I’m beginning to wonder if Switzerland has any cities that aren’t adorable.

A Day in Basel

To further my goal of getting to know every corner of Switzerland, I recently rounded up a few friends and took a day trip to Basel, which is about an hour away from Zurich by train (as I’ve said before – one of the big benefits of living in Zurich is all of the cool day trips that are around).

From the train station in Basel, we walked towards the old town. We immediately noticed that, like Bern, Basel was less meticulously clean and orderly than Zurich. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Our first stop was to admire the Tinguely Fountain, a busy arrangement of water-spewing figures that entertained us for at least a good 10 minutes. It also solidified our decision to make the Tinguely Museum part of our day.


Next we stopped for a quick coffee at the trendy café fumare non fumare (Gerbergasse 30). My double espresso was horrible, but the spinach-filled Italian rice ball was delicious.

We ploughed onward through the old town and searched the river bank for the king who was sticking out his tongue at the peasants on the other shore. All our guidebooks mentioned him, but we weren’t having any luck, so we decided to get a little tongue-sticking-out in ourselves. Damn peasants! We really showed them.


Anyway, we finally found the king, and stood mesmerized by his mechanical tongue motions and eye rolls for a couple seconds before crossing to the other side of the river in search of the Tinguely Museum. The walk along the river to get there was longer than we expected, but enjoyable given the beautiful views and charming neighborhoods (not so bad given it was the peasant side of the river).

The Tinguely Museum was tons of fun. I usually enjoy museums, but the squiggly, squeaky, twirly, interactive sculptures that filled this one made it good for visitors with even the shortest attention spans. To set each motorized sculpture in motion, the viewer has to step on a big red button on the floor. The buttons didn’t always work, however, so we always felt special when our step was the one that made things go.


The exhibit left us famished, so we had a quick lunch in the museum’s restaurant and headed out again. We took a tram back towards the center and wandered up to the Münster, which was back on the tongue king’s side of the river. This big Gothic cathedral has a beautiful countyard and a back terrace that offers more gorgeous views across the river.

We then headed down some steep stairs to the river bank for a quick ride across on this little boat attached to a wire which we had seen crisscrossing the swiftly-moving river all day. That brought us conveniently back to a group of riverside restaurants we had passed earlier in the day, so we decided to stop for a beer and to enjoy the view.


Then it was back to the old town again, to explore more little streets and to see the Spalentor, a Gothic gate that dates to 1370. It used to be part of the defensive wall that encircled the city. We were also delighted to come across this guy, who appears to be the beer super hero of Basel.


One of our guidebooks recommended a bar that was sort of nearby, so we headed there for an aperitif. Cargo Bar (St. Johanns Rheinweg 46) was a small, hip, student-hang-out-y kind of place, with a friendly bartender who apologized profusely for his inability to make a proper dry martini (my fault for expecting a dry martini to be, well, not sweet).

Finally it was time for a late dinner at a delicious tapas bar, Spalenburg (Schnabelgasse 2), that we found in the old town. Somehow we managed to eat everything we ordered (which had to have been close to one of each thing on the menu). A mad dash to the train station, and we were on our way home to Zurich. I can’t believe we managed to do all of that in one day. And, we still have to go back to see the many other interesting museums, and to sample some of the yummy-looking (but closed for the holiday) restaurants we saw.

[note: apologies for the formatting. Blogger is being a pain in the ass and not uploading pictures correctly.]

Screw Zurich, I wanna move to Bern

For a little change of pace, my friend Ali and I took off to Bern this morning. From the moment we stepped off the train I was in love. Bern has an adorable Altstadt (old town), full of porticoed sidewalks and statue-topped fountains, and an ambiance that lured me in from the start.

After wandering past the Bundeshaus (parliament building) and the Münster (large gothic church), we crossed the Aare river to check out the thoroughly depressing Bärengraben, two large pits that serve as the home of several bears. The pits are decked out with lots of large cement slabs and a giant discarded Christmas tree. I’m pretty sure at least one of the bears was trying to figure out how to hang himself.

The bear pits put us in the mood for a drink or two. Conveniently, there was a brewery right next door. Altes Tramdepot offered great beer, decent food (with a good vegetarian selection), and a nice view of the river from its large outdoor terrace.

Next we jumped on a bus up the hill to the newly-opened Zentrum Paul Klee, a beautiful building which houses an immense collection of the Swiss artist’s work (OK, technically he wasn’t Swiss at the time of his death, but the Swiss want to make sure that you know that they were just about to restore his citizenship when he had the nerve to up and die unannounced). I have a deep-seated love/hate relationship with Klee, about whom I wrote my college thesis. While I find his writing absolutely delicious, I have a very hard time appreciating his art work as much as I should (especially given my immense respect for his intellect and visual theories). Nonetheless I really enjoyed the experience of the exhibit, as well as the chance to share my seldom-useful knowledge of the artist and his life.

We grabbed a coffee in the museum’s café (note to self: next time save beer drinking for after art viewing) and then headed back to the Altstadt, where we meandered through a couple shops and galleries until it was time to catch the train back to Zurich. We also watched a couple kids playing in a fountain, which looked like a lot of fun on such a warm day. I think we went straight from winter to summer here, because I hardly remember spring. Maybe I slept through it?

Not that I don’t love Zurich’s cleanliness, but Bern seemed to offer some sort of personality and charm that I’ve been missing here. I left Bern enthusiastic to return again soon. Luckily it’s only an hour away by train, so that shouldn’t be too difficult.

You’ve seen one Alp, you’ve seen them all

Today my husband played hooky from work and we ran off to Davos to squeeze in one last ski day before the season ends. The snow was remarkably good for this time of year [note: this observation is based on my extensive knowledge of April ski conditions, given that I’ve been skiing in April none times before today]. I even managed a couple red (intermediate) slopes.

How ridiculous is it that I have already started to take panoramic views of snow-covered Alps for granted? We hardly took any pictures today. I really wanted to photograph the crash site from Scott's face plant in the fluffy off-piste snow, but he didn't think that was a particularly good idea.