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.

Happy Easter from Mt. Pilatus

In Switzerland, Sunday is seen as a dedicated "Family Day", and it's illegal to have most business open on Sunday.  The only businesses allowed to be open are any places that sell foods, public transportation or any business underneath the public transportation railway stations.  In Thalwil, that means the only place to go out on Sunday is Starbucks.  Thalwil doesn't have a large enough railway station to house any businesses underneath it, but Zurich HB is a massive station and has a "RailCity" of businesses underneath (like Migros!  The Swiss Ms' favorite!) 

Although we knew that Switzerland was known for its gorgeous mountains and scenery, we had no idea that Easter was such a big deal here.  Not only are chocolate bunnies and beautifully colored Easter eggs everywhere, but both the Friday and Monday of Easter weekend are taken off as well.  As one local told me, it's basically four Sundays in a row.  As such, we thought it would be fun for us to get out of the city and celebrate, so we decided to go to Luzern (Lucerne in English) for the weekend (just a 40 minute train ride away).

Luzern also boasts a huge train station (HB), like Zurich HB, and hosts its own RailCity underneath!

Upon arriving at the Luzern Hauptbahnhof (HB), we walked along the Kapellbrüke (The Chapel Bridge), which spans the Reuss River of Luzern and is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe.  Unfortunately, a fire in 1993 destroyed most of the old bridge, but it was reconstructed and reopened to the public by 1994.  Inside the bridge, we admired the religious/ historical paintings lining the ceiling of the bridge.  Some of the triangular paintings were completely blackened, but it seems that they were able to save/reconstruct some of the surviving paintings.

Kapellbrüke spanning the Reuss River in Luzern.

Some of the paintings that survived the 1993 fire.

The farmer's market was also open on Saturday, which came as a pleasant surprise to us, since we expected nothing to be open.  We weren't planning buying anything since we were on foot all day and staying overnight, but the freshly baked bread smelled so good we couldn't resist buying some.  

The farmer's market!  So much cheese!  So little time!

Did I mention that Easter was a big deal here?

We broke down and bought a bread bunny.  They even gave us a second one for free!  (Swiss Ms: "How can you say no to those faces!")

We strolled the streets of Luzern, eating pieces of bunny bread and admiring all the local produce.  We strolled around town until we could find a restaurant that wasn't too busy, and ended up at Bäckerei Hug, a nice bakery and cafe.

Spinach Swiss Tart with mixed salad.

Älplermagronen (traditional pasta and potato dish in lot of cheese) with roasted onions, and apple sauce

Café au lait and espresso, with complementary chocolate!!!  We could get used to that.

Bäckerei Hug sat right on the Reuss River, across from the Spreuerbrucke (think Kapellbrüke with death story-boards).  We then took a bus to the Verkehrshaus der Schweiz (Swiss Museum of Transport), which is apparently the most visited museum in all of Switzerland.  After going, we can definitely see why.  It's a phenomenal museum that showcased all forms of transportation, with the actual vehicles there to tour and explore.

Swiss Mountains make helicopters essential for rescues.  Look at that victim wrapped in foil!

All the traffic signs in Switzerland!  Since we don't have to drive, we barely see them!

Cog railway to take you up and down the mountains!

After the museum, instead of taking a bus, we decided to take a boat back to Luzern HB.  The great thing about Swiss transportation is that a ticket will cover ALL modes of transportation, so there is no need to buy separate passes.  Once again, like everything Swiss, the boat was on time, immaculate, and housed a restaurant for you to rest and relax.  On the way back, we had the pleasure of talking with a family from Germany who were visiting Luzern for Easter break, and they spoke fluent English!  Although we've been in Switzerland less than a month, it was refreshing to hold conversation in English without feeling like "dumb Americans" who can't speak German.

I'm.  On.  A.  Boat.

After a long day of trekking around, we headed to our hotel (c/o Lonely Planet Guide- thanks TFT!), to drop off our things and go out for dinner.  We ended up at the Ristorante Rossini, a very warm, and affordable (relatively speaking) Italian restaurant.  Since asparagus is in season, we ended up ordering a delicious roasted eggplant/asparagus pizza and garlic infused/asparagus filled ravioli.

Too bad Swiss Ms had to share with me.

Too bad I had to share with Swiss Ms.

The hotel (which Swiss Ms, the dealseeker found), also offered a continental breakfast.  We had a delicious Easter brunch to look forward to.

Look at that spread!  Holiday Inn has nothing on this!

No Swiss breakfast is complete without cheese, dried meat and jogurt!

And for the extra touch, festively colored Easter eggs!  

Filled with a hearty Easter brunch, we then made our way to Löwendenkmal (the Lion of Lucerne), which commemorated the Swiss guards who were killed in the French Revolution defending the bourgeoise.  It is simply a stunning work of art.

The monument measures about ten meters in length.  (Swiss Ms: "I never would have thought when I visited this monument 12 years ago that I'd be a resident of Switzerland".)

Helvetiorum fidei ac virtuti.  "To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss."

Finally, we get to the title of the post, Mount Pilatus!  During the summer you can take the world's steepest cog railway up the mountain, during the wintertime, it's closed!  However, there are still gondolas to take you up the mountain-top.  Unfortunately, due to the weather being cloudy/rainy, we could not enjoy the panoramic views.  We will have to come back on a sunny day (and perhaps, with one of our readers!).

The cable car up Mount Pilatus!

Very excited!  (Swiss Ms: "This blog is going to turn into pictures of me revealing my inner 5 year old glee while riding various forms of transport.")

Going up the mountain!

At the top, but it's so foggy, you can hardly see out very far!  We will be back!

Sorry for the long post.  Hope it was worth the read.

Happy Easter!

-Sir Cervelat