A Year in Review (2013 - 2014)

Can you believe that we have been in Switzerland for a year?  It feels like we just moved from the US a few months ago!  Time sure does fly.

We thought it would be fun to recap our year of Swiss domestic adventures.  We have a large backlog of posts, so this is also a sneak peak at posts to come.

March:

When I think back to a year ago when we first moved to Switzerland, I remember feeling very anxious.  Now, we feel more at home in Switzerland, and it could not have been possible without the many friends who have helped us in our transition.  

When we first arrived, we stayed with a fellow post-doc in Thalwil, and he and his wife were incredibly supportive.  My labmates were patient with all of my questions, and our administrative assistant did an amazing job ensuring our documents were in order.  The Swiss Ms. also found much support in the American Women's Club of Zurich.

My first bite of Switzerland, the Cervelat!  

April:

The excitement of being in Europe soon overtook our nervousness, and we eagerly explored Switzerland.  With the help of our Lonely Planet guide, we planned day trips to Lucerne, St. Gallen and Bern.

We visited the iconic "Lion of Lucerne" and took the gondola up Mt. Pilatus over Easter weekend.

The Abbey at St. Gallen, a Roman Catholic convent and UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Here, we feasted on the famous OLMA Bratwurst and visited one of earliest and most important monastic libraries in the world.

Who could forget the adorable bears at Bern?  The capital of Switzerland has a charming 15th century Old Town filled with medieval buildings along the Aare River.

The Burning of the Böögg, a towering wooden snowman, filled with firecrackers serves as an effigy of Winter.  The event typically takes place on the third Monday of every April, and the time it takes for the firecrackers to go off indicates how early summer will arrive.  For the year 2013, the burn time was a LOONG 35 minutes, indicating a late summer.

May:

I think the Boogg's prediction was correct, since the cold, cloudy weather of Winter seemed to drag on until late May to early June.  Occasionally, there were a couple days of sun, but those were few and far between.  Still, we managed to have fun, enjoy some Swiss holidays, take boat cruises and visit Appenzell and Basel.

 Swiss Labor Day (May 1st).  A rare day of sun, perfect for grilling.

Boat cruises along Lake Zurich (Note the cloudy, overcast sky).

Seeing how cheese is traditionally made in Appenzell.  The cheese is flavored with a brine of alpine herbs, giving it a unique spicy, pungent flavor.

The City Hall at Basel, where we saw the amazing accordion street performer.  We also visited the Kunstmuseum to see the Picasso exhibit and bought some Basler Läckerli to take home with us!

June:

For much of May and June, the Swiss Ms. was in the US attending meetings for work.  As such, we did not travel a great deal, but the weather did get significantly better and we took advantage of it with hikes up to Uetliberg and many picnic dinners.

We had previously visited Uetliberg in March, but it was cloudy and overcast.  In June, the weather was gorgeous and you could see the beautiful Swiss landscape.

Summer in Zurich!  Fresh vegetables in season and eating outside.

The eggs in Switzerland have such bright orange yolks.

July:

Our lab does fun group retreats twice a year, one in the summer and one in the winter.  This summer, we went to Appenzell for a full day hike up to Ebenalp.

Far removed from Zurich, we could enjoy the lush green fields and towering alps.

A view of Zurich and the Limmat River from the top of the Grossmunster.

August:

The end of an era.  Our time in Thalwil ended and we temporarily moved to our compact 13 square meter apartment.  This definitely motivated us to take more trips on the weekends to stretch our legs.

Swiss National Day (August 1st).  The Swiss celebrate this holiday with a bang and many folks purchase their own fireworks (sold from Migros and COOP) to set off just about anywhere. 

For about a month and a half, we lived in 13 square meters.  It was stressful, to say the least.

The Rhine Falls at Schaffausen, just a short hour train ride from Zurich.  The quaint medieval town has well preserved streets dating back to the 16th century, as well as the impressive fortress, Munot.

Flumserberg, a popular ski-resort in Winter, and a nice place for alpine hiking in the Summer.  We had great views and the trails were littered with wildflowers in bloom. 

September:

After many months of searching for an apartment (and being rejected close to fifty times), we finally secured a place of our own!  

The Rapperswil Beer Festival, where we tasted beers from a variety of Swiss microbreweries and had REALLY good pretzels.

 MOVING OUT OF 13 M^2.  Cue excitement.

Stein Am Rheine, another quaint Swiss town filled with cobblestone streets and houses covered in colorful frescos.

October:

In the blink of an eye, summer was over, but there was still plenty to do in the fall.  

Welcoming the cows back home after a long summer in the Alps at an Alpabfahrt festival in the small town of Elm.  Each cow wears a uniquely decorated headdress.

Konstanz, Germany, which is just across the Switzerland border and located on Lake Constance.

Celebrating the Fall Harvest with pumpkin sculptures at Jucker Farms, in Seegräben.

November:

Up until this point, many of our travels within Switzerland were limited to day trips.  For Lausanne, which was two and a half hours away, we decided we needed a full weekend.  

While in Lausanne, we visited Montreux and Château de Chillon (pictured above).  The Chateau proudly says it's the most visited historic monument in Switzerland.

Why doesn't the Schoggi Tram run year-round?

December:

Christmas is a BIG deal in Switzerland.  In fact, because Thanksgiving is not celebrated, Christmas decorations begin around mid-November and continue until December 25th.  For the Christmas lovers out there, if you need to get an early start on the holidays, think about coming to Switzerland!

The entire length of Bahnhofstrasse is covered in delicate, star-like Christmas lights.

Decorative Christmas pyramid (Weihnachtspyramide) stand selling Gluhwein (mulled wine), sausage and other hearty, warm treats.

In Zurich's main train station stands a large Swarovski crystal-covered Christmas tree.

January:

For my lab's Winter trip, we took an overnight to Riederalp, where we went snowshoeing.  I also ate fondue for the first time.  I can't believe it took me almost a year to try fondue!  The Swiss Ms. was jealous that I was having so many Swiss experiences without her.   

Pictured above is the small town of Riederalp up in the Swiss Alps, where we stayed in a rustic Swiss Chalet.

February/March:

We made sure to revisit both fondue and snow-shoeing before the end of Winter season and our first year in Switzerland came to a close.

Experiencing fondue for the first time.

Showshoeing at Melchsee-Frutt.  Feeling triumphant after we successfully hiked to the top of the mountain.

Here's to another year of adventures in Switzerland (minus looking for another apartment).

-Herr Cervelat & The Merry Swiss Ms.

International Destination: Milan, Italy

Another Italy trip you say?  Yes!  Italy is fantastic!

Day 1:  Train to Milan, night tour of the city, Cioccolati Italiani & aperitivo.

Since Milan is so close, we were able to take a train from Zurich on the EuroCity.  The trip took approximately 4 hours.

Since the train route is busy, seat reservations have to be made in advance.

Part of the route across Switzerland passes through the Alps, which were blanketed in snow.  (Unlike Zurich, which was a balmy 50 Fahrenheit when we left!)

I failed to buy some snacks at the train station before we left Zurich and literally paid the price for being unprepared (8 Euros!).  Although, this salami sandwich on buttered bread was quite delicious.

At Milan with our host, Heather!

Heather took us on an quick night tour of Milan.

Duomo di Milano (Milan's Cathedral).

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the world's oldest shopping malls and named after the first king of Italy.

The Swiss Ms and Heather are facing the wall in opposite corners of this picture.  While it looks like they've been scolded and put in "time-out", in reality, the unique architecture of this building allows the two to communicate to each other!!!  Did I mention Heather is an architect?

Each tram line in Milan has different cars.  This older one was one of our favorites.

Teatro alla Scala, the world-renowned opera house. (More on this later!)

A view of  Naviglio Grande canal at night.

Of course, like any proper Italian host, our first taste of Milan was gelato from Cioccolati Italiani.

This place rivals Gelateria La Romana (from Rome) as my favorite gelateria.

A wide selection of flavors.  Note the three fountains of chocolate to fill the cone before scooping in gelato.  The flavors were white chocolate, dark chocolate and java.

  

We got a large gelato to share:  Rosa al cioccolato (rose petals and white chocolate), caprese (amaretto & hazelnut) and cioccolato al sale (salted chocolate) in a cone filled with rich, dark chocolate.

After our gelato appetizer, we went for an aperitivo.  Similar to a happy hour in the US, many restaurants/bars in Italy serve evening drinks with a lavish complimentary buffet.

The aperitivo buffet went until 11PM, certainly longer than US happy hours.  

For budget travelers, this is a great deal.

The appetizer with sausage and braised savoy cabbage (also referred to as Cavolo di Milano) is cassoeula, a specialty of Milan typically served in the winter.  

The weekend was very rainy, causing many large worms to come out of hiding.  This one was as long as our feet!

Day 2:  Food Market, Teatro alla Scala, Luini's Panzerotti, Il Trovatore and La Champagnerie

With the help of our host, we were able to go to a nice neighborhood coffee shop and buy some goods at the farmer's market.  It certainly helped that Heather is fluent in Italian!

Flaky and delicious chocolate and creme brioches...

...and a hot cup of cappuccino, decorated with cocoa. 

Next up, the Italian market, filled with people and food.

Crispy zucchini blossoms stuffed with cheese.

Potato croquettes.

Arancini, rice mixed with tomato sauce, mozzarella and peas that is shaped into a cone, coated with breadcrumbs and fried.  It's bigger than the size of my fist!

Next up, we visited the museum at Teatro alla Scala, which allows entry to tour the grand hall of the opera house and sit in the box seats.  The museum itself was quite small, consisting of a couple rooms with busts, paintings and artifacts that could be leisurely seen in about an hour.  No photos were allowed inside the museum area.

We also put our names down for rush tickets to the opera that night: Il Trovatore, and we were lucky enough to get them for 13 euros each! 

Despite waiting in line for over an hour, we left the Biglietteria with tickets.

Since the show started at 8PM, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before the show at Luini's-a panzarotti (like a pizza doughnut- imagine a calzone with a savory doughnut crust).  (Swiss Ms: "We did a good job with the healthy eating today!")

It was out of this world good.

Our seats at the top floor had a limited view of the stage.  However, since the tickets allowed us access to the entire floor, we could stand to get a better view.  This seemed to be standard procedure at La Scalla.  Although standing meant limited access to the translation screens in front of each seat, we were lucky enough to stand behind people that used the English translations.

Proudly displaying our tickets. 

The theater is stunning!

The orchestra and stage.

The view from the top floor seats.  Note the bar across the top for people to hold onto as they lean forward to get a better view of the stage.

Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi.  The show was three hours with an intermission (we stood for the whole opera, but the time just flew by).

A tragic story, beautifully performed.

Happy to have watched our first opera.

We're lucky the Italians eat dinner late because the show ended at 11PM.  We made our way to La Champagnerie for one of the finest meals we've ever had. (Swiss Ms: Warning, he's going to show you every dish we consumed.)

Antipasti:

An assortment of delectable breads.  Thin, crispy plain and sesame breadsticks, hazelnut bread, rosemary bread and tomato/basil bread.

Calamaro in Armonia (Squid in Harmony).  Squid cooked at low temperatures, with Stracciatella di bufala cheese, artichoke, pomegranate seeds, rucola and squid ink.

Vitello tonnato dello chef:  Cubes of tuna, moist veal, tuna sauce and crispy carasau (traditional flatbread from Sardinia)

For me, the dish of the night:  Carpaccio di Gamberi, a shrimp carpaccio with a champaigne granita.

Primi:

Tortella di amatriciana (filled with tomato sauce), sitting on cream of Parmesan and Pecorino cheese and crispy bacon. 

Raviolo di funghi (mushroom ravioli) with mushroom consommé.

Tagliolino all'astice ai 4 pomodori,  tagliolini pasta with a lobster claw, sitting on an emulsified lobster bisque surrounded by four little tomatoes.

Secondi:

Ricciola nel verde, amberjack fish with spinach leaves, cubes of spinach, almond gel and almonds.

Dessert:

Chestnut mousse with Bailey's, topped with dark chocolate surrounded by vanilla sauce.

Creamy hazelnut, thin layer of Mandarin orange gel and dark chocolate base topped sugar circles. 

Mango and blood orange cheesecake (with juice in a plastic pipette!)

This was one of the most creative and delicious meals I have ever had.   If you're looking for a treat in Milan, go to La Champagnerie!

Day 3:  Shokolat Maggi, Sforzesco Castle, Duomo di Milano

Relaxing in the morning with coffee and brioche after a very late night.

Writing postcards to family. 'Tis the life.

Of course, gelato for lunch at Shokolat Maggi.

They did not fill the cones with chocolate, but the gelato was still excellent.  I got Stracciatella and Coffee (really strong, like an Italian espresso) and the Swiss Ms got Ricotta with honey/walnuts and Aranciata al canella di ceylon (orange and cinnamon of ceylon).  Heather's recommendations are spot on!

While I prefer Cioccolati Italiani, Shockolat Maggi is a very close second.

While it was rainy, misty and dark on Friday and Saturday, Sunday cleared up beautifully and made for pleasant walking around Milan.  The clear blue skies and shining sun changed the atmosphere of Milan dramatically.

A view of the city park, Parco Sempione and Porta Sempione (Arch of Peace) in the distance. 

The 15th century Sforzesco Castle.

Duomo di Milano under a sunny day.  Sadly, we did not have enough time to wait in line and go up the stairs to the top of the Duomo, but we have a good reason to return.

The Gothic cathedral took nearly 600 years to finish and was completed in 1965.  Incidentally, you have to pay two euros to get an orange tag to take pictures.

This 5-manual, 225 rank pipe-organ stands as the largest in Italy.

The statue of San Bartolomew Flayed by Marco d'Agrate.  (Swiss Ms: The extraneous (and inaccurate) musculature on this statue was a little disturbing.)

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II by day.  Look at all those people out and about.

We'll try to go to different country next time, but no promises.

Thanks for reading!

-Herr Cervelat