Titlis, Ice Grotto and Cable Cars

Last Saturday we took the car to the town of Engelberg which is situated on the foot of the mountain Titlis.

View of a mountain (not Titlis) from the parking lot in Engelberg.

A real mountain, with real snow and real people skiing. In order to get up to the top of Titlis, we had to board three different cable cars. The first one was a bit like sitting in a first class carriage on a train (funny story: the other day I was so tired when boarding my morning train from Zurich HB to Zug, that I mistakenly found a seat in first class. I only realised when my ticket was inspected (five minutes before arriving in Zug). Hence there was a reason why the carriage was pleasantly free of crowds and the seats wider than usual. Inexplicably, could be my new haircut that makes me look kind and naïve, I wasn’t charged extra!!! Instead the friendly inspector told me where the second class carriage was), - and now back to the cable cars: the second and third ones could be compared to hanging out with sardines in a can (without all the scales and smell). I think a Japanese group of tourists were doing their own version of: How many people can we squeeze into one cable car without it tipping over? (280,972 is the correct answer.)

Once up on the top, we went a little bit mad with our cameras – please see below.

From the cable car going up (the scratches are from the window).

The black dots are people skiing.

Another one of my potentially award winning short (very short: Blink and You'll Miss it) films... 

While walking around the area, we came across an ice grotto which was cool in more than one sense of the word.

Doesn't this look like something you see on medical programmes?

When the euphoria of all this beauty literally surrounding us had faded a little bit, we decided to have something to eat and start the descend on three more cable cars, making Facebook friends with several thousand more Japanese tourists.

Due to both of us (Paul more than me, let’s be honest here) being born adventurers, we went out for a walk before changing from the first to the second cable car. And this is the view that greeted us after five minutes:

This is how I greet beauty.

When we got back to the cable car station, we boarded the second one to take us closer to our end station, but decided, after reaching the end of that journey and before getting into the last (less crowded) cubicle, that we wanted to walk the rest of the way. Our adventure genes were obviously pushing for more action.

So we did, and after a little bit of panic from my side (‘but the orange pillars we’re supposed to follow down to Engelberg, take us back to Titlis. Let’s go back to the cable car. It’s getting dark and I don’t want to be stuck in a field in the middle of nowhere in Switzerland’) we managed to find our way back to the parking lot after an hour or so of walking down very steep paths. This was a good test of my hiking boots which passed – and so did my feet: No blisters! Here are some pictures from this walk, which ended up taking us past a ski hop slope!

Cable cars.

Engelberg.

Ski slope.

The view a ski hopper sees - (I guess) with more snow.

Hope you're all well.

Love,

Karen x

Snow, Sausages and Blue Tractors

Back again.

Yesterday we went into Zurich to get me a proper (warm and ideally smart as well) winter coat and boots (smart, ideally warm) and had lunch at a very traditional Swiss restaurant: 

http://www.zeughauskeller.ch. 

Paul had been there with work earlier this week and had very excitedly told me about the decor (artillery throughout the times; on a sign in the entrance hall it said: 'No smoking, live artillery' above something that, to me, looked like grenades) and the large selection of sausages with potatoes in all shapes and forms. One of their specialities is a meter long sausage served on a wooden plank. We didn't go for that but chose a platter with a mix of six different sausages on a spit, potato salad, rösti and sauerkraut. We also had beer. This was the perfect meal on a day which started out a little bit chilly and ended up covering Zurich in snow including my uncovered head and hands. Must buy a hat next and start wearing my gloves. But mission coat and boots was succesful.

It's still snowing and absolutely gorgeous as evidenced below! 

A double-decker train, probably from the airport going to Zurich HB (central station). To the left of the 'rounded' building on the right in the back, there's an outdoor ice rink which we're going to try out soon. It won't be pretty but hopefully it'll be lots of fun. 

I'd also like to share a picture of my hiking boots:

We seem to spend a lot of time purchasing items of clothing and footwear for the outdoors and I'm now becoming rather (too?) familiar with the insides of Swiss sport shops. Of which there are many! They're actually quite fascinating and usually pretty busy. The selection of products span from snowboards, harness for climbing (must get one of those), helmets for: skiing, cycling, water-sports; sticks and pucks for icehockey; thermal underwear; tents; camping tools; gloves for all occasions etc. Work has arranged a two day skiing trip to Flims next year, so I'll need to get a skiing jacket; appropriate trousers; as well as warm underwear and socks as a minimum. I've had to dedicate a shelf (a small one, but still) to the sports clothes and shoes I've bought so far. 

Peculiarity of the week:

Add in Oerlikon train station. 

It's time to wrap up warm and go for a walk in this year's first snow! (Not sure what happened to autumn...)

Lots of love,

Karen

My Weekly German Class, German at Work, and Swans

Just finished my first German written assignment! It's very strange having to write paragraphs that end up of consisting of very short sentences, very short words, and involve looking up every second word in a dictionary followed by checking the correct use of everything in a grammar book. I LOVE IT! And I even get to pay for it! Bliss!!!

My German class is incredibly lively compared to other language classes I've done in the past. Everyone has to speak German as that's the only common language between us, and this means I'm DESPERATE to speak English after two hours of intensive German! We're seven students from all over the world: Italy, Hungary, Ivory Coast, Portugal, a Spanish speaking country (not sure which one as she started one of the weeks I was away, and as we don't have a break, I haven't had a chance to ask her where she's from), Sri Lanka, and Denmark (me). The teacher is Swiss. 

The other students have lived in Switzerland between 4 and 16 years so their spoken German is pretty good. The reason they're on this course is to get an understanding of the structure of the language and to improve their writing skills. 

I mentioned above that the class is very lively, which is brilliant. There's a lot of drilling of verbs going on which we all do at the same time. When it gets to the teacher asking each individual student a question, if there's a delay of more than three seconds before he/she replies, one or two of the other students will have given a couple of replies - not necessarily the same or the right one. Last week our teacher had to tell us off for interrupting each other constantly. We're all adults but completely turn into attention-seeking teenagers in the classroom. (Look at me! Look at me!) 

My study

Two weeks ago at work the Swiss girl, Sara, and I talked about how to introduce German to our colleagues. We came up with the idea of Sara writing one word in German and then the English equivalent below it on a post-it note every morning and stick up up by the coffee-machine for all to see. This has been quite successful so far and we have learnt: Kartoffeln (potatoes), Rosenkohl (brusssel sprouts), Wildschwein (boar), Gabel (fork), Messer (knife) etc. Yes, there's a theme: The HR-director asked if we could start with words you find on a menu so she knew what to order - and more importantly what not to order! Thursday everyone in the office was walking around mumbling: 'Messer.' 'Messer.' 'Messer.' under their breath. 

The picture below was taken earlier today, when Paul and I had walked to Zurich from Oerlikon (takes just under an hour) and sat down for a well-deserved break by Lake Zurich. Eventually this swan (or its brother, who can tell, they all look the same apart from the black ones) got too close for my liking when it started nipping at my right shoe. And that was the end of our break. Even an animal lover like myself has a limit when it comes to personal space and invasion of said space by fowl, fish, or field mice. 

NO PHOTOSHOPPING!

So yet another drama packed week!

Lots of love,

Karen x

Denmark, Flu, Bitte Keine Werbung

Back to the blog after two weeks which have included:

Paul's first visit to Denmark (with five days in Copenhagen which included: Meeting some of my friends and their children, dogs and in one case pet rabbit; meeting most of my family; one family wedding; a couple of trips to Vesterhavet (the North Sea); and of course lots of food).

Karen's first experience of the flu in Switzerland (which actually wasn't much different from British flus. I have realised, though, that I speak much better German with a sore throat and a head full of snot than when mucus free. Just in case anyone was wondering...).

Hence, I'm actually looking forward to starting a new working week tomorrow which will hopefully see me back at my desk every day, all day Mon-Fri and ready to kick ass in my German class Tuesday evening.

Due to the anonymous nature of this blog (one pretends to be a little bit royal, bar running around top-less in front of French photographers), I don't have many pictures available to share from the visit to Denmark. However, I had a little Dogme-moment by Vesterhavet the other day:

I'd also like to show you how we've decorated our postbox down in the foyer:

During the week we receive a landfill of paper rubbish from Aldi, Coop, Migros (all three supermarkets here in Switzerland); furniture shop 1, 2 and 3; Get Your Mobility Scooter From Here, etc. which we don't want. We were starting to get rather fed up with all this crap (for want of a better word) when we began to notice a variation of stickers saying 'Bitte Keine Werbung' (please no marketing (leaflets, magazines, flyers...)) adorning more and more of the neighbouring postboxes. As we don't want to be different (and really don't want more post than strictly necessary), Paul found out where to get these stickers from. Out of the seven different ones he bought, we chose this silver one with striking red writing in CAPITAL LETTERS. We both think it's stylish and authoritative at the same time. It says: 'Don't mess with us' (metaphorically) as well as 'Bitte Keine Werbung' (literally).

I look forward to telling you about my German class in the next post, particularly which grammatical points we discussed. Unless something more interesting (one doubts that's likely) happens that is...

Lots of love,

Karen x 

Cows, Bells and Mountains...

This video gets to stand all on its own. More soon - off to Copenhagen tomorrow!!!

Lots of love,

Karen x

The Swiss

We've now been here more than a month, and I feel it's time for a list. (Is that a British thing, compiling lists? Or just a Nick Hornby/male one?) This one is dedicated to Maria and will be entitled:

What I've learned and happen to like about Swiss people:

1. They're nice! As in incredibly friendly. Even the faintest contact with a Swiss person ends with them wishing you a good day, evening, weekend. In English, German, or Swiss German. This includes people at eateries, in supermarkets/shops, in the lift, on the phone, you name it.

2. Their customer service is out-of-this world! In our first week, we got offered coffee (proper 'crushed-bean in a machine' kind of coffee) in three different shops: When we went to buy a SIM-card (pay-as-you-go-only, nothing fancy) for our mobiles, when we looked at Nespresso-machines, and lastly when we'd been to a furniture store to purchase various items (the coffee here came with chocolate).

3. Wherever you go for walks, there are benches (see last week's post).

4. Wherever you go, generally, there are drinking water fountains.

5. The toilet paper in their public loos is SOFT! (I've sampled a few so far...)

6. They have a very natural relationship with their bodies. We've started using a public pool 10 minutes' walk from here, and for the first time since I lived in Denmark, I've used a changing room where women actually take off ALL their clothes in front of other women. And also shower in communal showers (women and men shower separately, I hasten to add!). There are facilities to shower in private, should one wish to do so...(On the other hand, I did find it a little strange, when I came across two teenage girls shaving their legs in a sink in a public toilet in the Swiss version of John Lewis the other day...)

7. They LOVE their flag. And it looks almost like the Danish one, so I love their flag as well. The pictures below are of some eggs, which my Swiss colleague, Sara, bought the day before their National Day on 1 August.

8. Their transport system. I'm so grateful to be finally living in a place where the trains are on time and regular. It really does make a difference to one's daily commute and day in general. Furthermore, travelling by public transport is cheaper here than in the UK and the ticketing system much, much easier to understand. It may actually be based on logic!  

9. Their professionalism but still relaxed and helpful ways. I thought, the Swiss would be quite strict and pedantic, particularly those in authority, but we've only come across people who couldn't be more helpful. From day one, we've felt in good hands when dealing with the relocation manager, the importation agents, the bank, the post office, the management team for the building we're living in etc.

And finally:

10. Their patience. This is needed in abundance when I try to speak German before I give up, if it gets too complicated (it's usually me overcomplicating things and trying to use words and grammatical structures which are completely out of my reach yet). When I finally, after having probably offended them as well as their family in various ways, ask them if they speak English, they often modestly say yes, and then conduct the rest of the conversation as if English were their first language.  

I think we'll stay a bit longer!

Lots of love,

Karen x

Herbjørg Wassmo, Bellinzona and Locarno

This is probably the laziest Sunday, we've had here so far. And I'm thoroughly enjoying it! Have been sitting on the balcony since we got up and, apart from a swimming break later, I don't think we're going to move far away from here anytime soon. (Though I do want to watch the Closing Ceremony this evening.)

I've started reading Herbjørg Wassmo again. Probably for the fifth or sixth time. I absolutely love her books about Dina and came across 'Karnas Arv' among my books the other day. Reading about people living in a cold and rough climate in the most northern parts of Norway makes the heat here more bearable. Because it's HOT! I've had to purchase proper summer clothes (shorts primarily) and haven't worn socks in weeks; something that's almost unheard of in the World of Karen.

Yesterday, we got up early and drove to Bellinzona which is about two hours south of Zurich. Like most places we've seen here so far, it's absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and it has the three best-preserved medieval castles in Switzerland which are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We walked up to one of the castles and took a couple of pictures:

After this exposure to culture, we decided to go a bit further towards the Italian border and have a look at what Locarno had to offer. Again, more of the same: Mountains, a lake, sunshine, benches (the Swiss have a knack of placing benches everywhere), ice cream vendors etc.

The pictures here don't do the views of the lake any justice, I hasten to add - and I'll take some pictures of benches at some other time...

Oh, work's still going well by the way!

Lots of love,

Karen x

Sunny Strasbourg

We've now been on our first long weekend to one of the surrounding countries which border Switzerland. The trip went to France, more specifically Strasbourg.

We hadn't really planned anything as we wanted to see how the weather was going to behave. According to the forecasts, rain was expected at some point every day, but all we saw were (semi)clear skies and sunshine. Hence we didn't spend any time inside: Didn't visit the Cathedral, didn't go to any museums or galleries, didn't take the car and go to places outside of Strasbourg; instead we went for walks, tried out the tram, hired some bikes, even went rowing on the world's smallest lake (when does a pond become a lake and the other way around?). We ate croissants, drank espressos and cafe au laits, ate ice cream, ate tarte flambee, drank wine and basically had the most relaxing time.

To illustrate how beautiful Strasbourg is and what a city-bike looks like there, please see below:

A pretty house in La Petite France (the old part of town).

View of the canal running through La Petite France.

The same canal.

The lake/pond.

Water feature in the lake/pond (probably purchased from the same water feature shop as the one in lake Zug - please see one of the previous posts).

EU Parliament taken from the tram.

I'm looking pretty ecstatic - this was before we faced the traffic (which wasn't that bad, really).

Apparently there used to be a lot of drummers frequenting parks in Strasbourg.

I kept telling Paul that there was a building near the Cathedral which had an unexploded hand grenade lodged in the wall. We eventually found it - see above on the righthand side as well as below.

However, it may not be a hand grenade but more a cannon shell...

This is my paparazzi picture of a stork in Parc de l'orangerie.

And a not that great picture of (part of) the Cathedral. It seemed like everywhere we went, we were able to see some part of the Cathedral, so we didn't really bother taking any pictures of it! But it IS impressive and in the tourist season, there is a light show in the evening which displays how intricate and detailed the building is.

All in all five gorgeous days in a city I'd definitely return to!

Lot of love,

Karen x