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