Before I begin this post, I want to congratulate Crunluath, for successfully identifying the piece the accordion player was performing in our previous post [It was Vivaldi's Four Seasons (Winter)]. As a reward, Crunluath received a delicious bag of Basler Läckerli. En guete! (Enjoy!)
I would also like to apologize for the infrequency of our posts. It has been over a month since I last posted. The Swiss Ms. and I have been extremely busy, travelling all over the States (for work and for fun) and we have a huge backlog of posts to upload. So, stay tuned, loyal readers. Much to come!
One of things we are very grateful for is that almost everyone here speaks at least some English. A simple "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" and we typically receive the shy response, "A little bit." The conversation that follows is nearly flawless English. I'd be pretty happy if I also spoke a "little bit" of German.
Incidentally, we have also found that people are a little bit friendlier to us if we begin with "Grüezi" (a common Swiss-German formal greeting, which is short form of "Gott grüsse Euch", which is "God greets you"). We've found that attempting a little Deutsch (as bad as it is) goes a long way. We are in Switzerland, after all, and we should respect that English is not one of the four officially recognized languages (the four are German, French, Italian and Rumantsch).
Despite the prevalence of English, we still get slightly anxious about approaching people here and it has taken us some time to build enough courage to interact with the Swiss. We decided to face our fears on a trip to Oerlikon, a district in the northern part of Zurich, and home to one of the city's biggest farmers markets.
Our apartment-mate had requested we buy him some apple cider at the farmers' market. Therefore, we first set out to accomplish the task at hand.
Emboldened by our apple cider purchase and the beautiful sunny weather, we decided to buy food for an impromptu picnic in the city.
With our bounty in hand, we took the tram easily down to Bellevue Platz, a large central square in the heart of Zurich. We headed over by Lake Zurich to chow down on our spoils.
To top it off, we visited Café Bar Odeon for some coffee and drinks.
The warm, sunny weather beckoned us to explore, so we strolled around the city, going up and down Niederdorf (known as Zurich Lower Village), Bahnhofstrasse (Zurich's main downtown street), and Lindendorf.
Thanks for reading!
-Herr Cervelat
I would also like to apologize for the infrequency of our posts. It has been over a month since I last posted. The Swiss Ms. and I have been extremely busy, travelling all over the States (for work and for fun) and we have a huge backlog of posts to upload. So, stay tuned, loyal readers. Much to come!
One of things we are very grateful for is that almost everyone here speaks at least some English. A simple "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" and we typically receive the shy response, "A little bit." The conversation that follows is nearly flawless English. I'd be pretty happy if I also spoke a "little bit" of German.
Incidentally, we have also found that people are a little bit friendlier to us if we begin with "Grüezi" (a common Swiss-German formal greeting, which is short form of "Gott grüsse Euch", which is "God greets you"). We've found that attempting a little Deutsch (as bad as it is) goes a long way. We are in Switzerland, after all, and we should respect that English is not one of the four officially recognized languages (the four are German, French, Italian and Rumantsch).
Despite the prevalence of English, we still get slightly anxious about approaching people here and it has taken us some time to build enough courage to interact with the Swiss. We decided to face our fears on a trip to Oerlikon, a district in the northern part of Zurich, and home to one of the city's biggest farmers markets.
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| Oerlikon is a very large station, with several major trains, buses and tram lines stopping there. |
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| Oerlikon Farmers' Market: The thing to do on a Saturday morning. |
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| Who wouldn't want to be here? Look at that delectable spread! |
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| The sign translated to, "Wehntaler's Sweet Cider, freshly pressed." If you bring your own 1.5L bottle, it's 2 francs, and if you need to buy a bottle, it's only 2.50 francs. What a deal! |
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| Since we got one for Kevin and one for ourselves, we both got a chance to dispense our own fresh cider! |
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| The Swiss Ms. bravely buying some fresh bread and knuss gipfel (a Swiss hazelnut croissant) |
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| Adding some apples and getrocknete tomaten (dried tomatoes). Didn't know these would be salted and dried. |
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| What meal would be complete without cheese? We bought the Splüga (a cheese from the Splüga region, which is in Southeast of Switzerland) and Formaggio Valle Verzasca (a cheese from Valle Verzasca, a valley in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland). The Splüga was a soft, mild cheese, while the Valle Verzasca was a hard, more pungent cheese. |
With our bounty in hand, we took the tram easily down to Bellevue Platz, a large central square in the heart of Zurich. We headed over by Lake Zurich to chow down on our spoils.
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| Look at that feast! |
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| Nothing like a cup of milchkafee (milk coffee) after a picnic! |
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| I decided to go for a mint julep! |
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| A stunning view of the city from Lindenhof, a park in the old town of Zurich on Lindendorf hill, overlooking the Limmat River. The hill gets its name from the tilias (lime tree or Linden tree). |
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| One of the many drinking fountains placed all over Zurich. |
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| A view of the Grossmünster (a Romanesque-style Protestant church). You can climb up the tower and get really great pictures (in a future post!). Note the Swiss Alps in the background. |
Thanks for reading!
-Herr Cervelat
Crunluath did enjoy the contest and the posting.
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