For a Limited Time: Shop (and Sled!) 7 Days a Week!

It’s that time of year again: The time of year when it’s okay to shop on Sunday.

The Frau hopes you make the most of it. Of course, because you might not be used to shopping on Sunday, you may need a warm-up.

That’s where this post becomes helpful. Because you could purchase 99.9 Ways to Travel Switzerland Like a Local and/or Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I’d Known and get your Sunday shopping thing started early. This will make any further Swiss Sunday seasonal shopping much more comfortable. You could also find Swiss-inspired gift ideas from One Big Yodel’s Ultimate Swiss Christmas Gift Guide too.

But if you’re the type that thinks it’s not okay to shop on Sunday at all ever, then never fear—there are more things to do this season than shop. How about sledding to the city instead?  

After all, how many places do you know where you can take a toboggan to the top of a mountain and slide into the country’s largest city? Welcome to both the top and bottom of Zurich. It’s an amazing ride between the two.

So here’s your winter tip:

Uetliberg, nicknamed the Top of Zurich, is the starting point for the ultimate in city sledding. The sled run to Triemli is 3.1 kilometers in length and drops 330 meters in altitude. When snow and ice bring sledding enthusiasts to the mountain, there’s a guaranteed laryngitis epidemic.

Since this is Switzerland, the sled path is not only groomed meticulously (no misbehaving snowflakes allowed), but it is also monitored daily. Your sledding pleasure is so important, there is even a sledding hotline to give you trail updates.

Is it icy? Is it slushy? Is it perfect? The Swiss leave nothing to chance, not even a trip to the sled hill (well, mountain). Call the toboggan hotline or download a map of the route from the utokulm.ch website. When sledding in Switzerland, you do not just go where the snow and spirit take you. You must sled with purpose.

You can also sled with something else: a flashlight. In fact, zooming down an icy mountain at night with any combination of battery-powered lighting is encouraged. Be your own little shooting star by wearing a headlamp or, better yet, mount your smart phone on your sled and let it be your guiding light as you slide down to the city.

Obviously dark thrills are not for all. There are trees, fences, posts, pylons, and people, and if that combination is a bit worrying for you on an icy incline, don’t fret. If sledding isn’t your thing, you can still enjoy a scenic 18-minute ride down the mountain on the red S10 train that runs between Triemli and Uetliberg every 30 minutes.

There’s more to do up at Uetliberg than sled. You can sit on a bench and enjoy views of Zurich, the lake, and the Alps. You can hike on countless trails, or you can have hot chocolate at the Uto Kulm Hotel and enjoy the great outdoors from the warmth (and safety) of a restaurant.

For more information on sledding:

Schlittelweg: Uetliberg to Triemli, 3.1 km

Sled hotline: +41 (0) 44 412 14 71

Starting point: From Zurich, take the S10 to Uetliberg, look for the Schlittelweg sign

Wearing a helmet is recommended

uetliberg.ch

Caught Between American and Swiss Christmas Traditions

Happy Holidays, Yodelers.

Long time no see.

That is The Frau’s fault, and since she’s in the U.S., allow her to apologize with a big, fat American “sorry.”

No more bringing the Christmas tree
home on a public bus for The Frau. Sad.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, but it seems like every time The Frau sits down to write a blog post, she's either distracted by election woes or what she writes turns into an essay she wants to send to a publication. (Therefore, she cannot post it here as publications will rarely re-publish posts from personal blogs. Sigh.)

So instead, The Frau will share a holiday post turned essay, which was published yesterday by the Washington Post. It’s called Creating new Christmas traditions, one overly commercialized experience at a time and it’s about what to do when you no longer have your American childhood holiday tradition and you no longer have your Swiss holiday tradition (bring your Christmas tree home from Jumbo on a Swiss public bus) and you are caught in that strange place of non-tradition. Can anyone relate?

In other news, The Frau is hard at work on her next Swiss-related book, which will be out next May. Part travel guide, part cultural guide, it's a book that aims to make even the most foreign of us who gave up our Swiss C-permits for a little Trumpland maintain a little Swissness (and sanity). Stay tuned.

In the meantime, you might enjoy this ultimate Swiss Gift Guide, which The Frau previously created for any of you who aren’t quite Swiss enough to have all of your shopping done yet.

Frohe Weihnachten, mitenand.

Merry Christmas from One Big Yodel

Winter Wonderland in Disentis

Joyeux Noel

Fröhliche Weihnachten

Buone Feste Natalizie

Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn

A very Swiss Christmas to fellow yodelers in Switzerland and everywhere.

Love,

The Frau 

Five Uncliché Swiss Gift Ideas

Over the cheese and chocolate thing? Have enough Swiss army knives and Swatches? Then the One Big Yodel Swiss Christmas Gift Guide is for you.

Whitebook

Whitebooks are sold at Globus in Zurich

Whitebook is probably the best handmade old-fashioned notebook with a modern twist you’ve never heard of. In fact, The Frau calls her Whitebook the “Swiss Army knife of the written word”. Created by a Swiss entrepreneur, it’s everything you’ve ever wanted in a traditional notebook—but never considered. Bookmarks, pockets for random notes, an adjustable pen holder…And depending on the size you choose, Whitebook holds not only a variety of refillable perforated paper (that actually lays flat, yippee!), but also your iPad mini, iPad, Kindle, or other electronic thingy of your choice.

Wiine.me subscription

For either CHF 39 or CHF 59 a month, you can have two or three bottles of carefully chosen wine delivered right to your door. Wiine.me, a Geneva-based start-up, hopes to turn every yodeler into a sommelier. That’s why your bottles of wine are also delivered with a brochure describing their taste and origin in three languages–including English. The Frau was fortunate to be sent a trial wine box. To test its quality, she had—who else—Jean-Claude, her French friend that grew up on a vineyard in Burgundy—over for dinner. He praised the wines, saying they were an excellent quality for the price. Bon. How do you say, “re-order” in French?

Radius Design coat hangers or city lights

Ok, fine. Radius Design is actually a German company. But it creates with Switzerland in mind. Specifically for those of us lucky to love Baden (yes, Baden!) and Zurich. Choose your city (London and Paris are options too) and then choose between a coat hanger or a wall candle holder and enjoy your city’s landmarks in a whole new way.

Sigg bottles

Possibly the most indestructible bottle around (The Frau can say this since Baby M treats hers more like a ball than a bottle), Sigg Bottles are stylish too. So stylish, that some have appeared in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Like most other Swiss-made products, however, Sigg bottles are cheaper once they’ve been exported to another country. Like Amazon.

Slow Train to Switzerland by Diccon Bewes

Slow train to Switzerland by Diccon Bewes is the story of the first conducted tour of Switzerland, and how it changed both the Swiss and the way we travel. If you have an interest in trains and tourism or know someone who does, then Slow Train to Switzerland makes a great gift.

Anyone else have unique Swiss gift suggestions?

Five cheap things to do in Switzerland this season

This is Ms. One Big Yodel's first Christmas in Switzerland. Instead of going home to visit family, her family is coming to her. Unfortunately for many visitors to Switzerland these days, it has become even more expensive than it was in the past. But here are a few things you can enjoy in Switzerland for (gasp!) cheap.

1. Eat marroni. Nothing says Christmas in Switzerland quite like a hot nut, or more specifically, a roasted chestnut. They are typically sold by street vendors in most Swiss villages.

2. Walk in the winter wonderland. Almost everywhere in the country, it's a great time of year to enjoy the weather, nordic walking style. In Baden, for example, there is a candle-lit evening hike up at Baldegg on December 27 that includes a plate of pasta after the 5k hike.

3. Ice skate. Many Swiss villages have an ice skating rink. For as little as CHF 5, you can have an afternoon of entertainment.

4. Make your own glass ornament. At Hergiswil Glassworks near Lucerne, visitors can make their own glass ornament after their CHF 5 tour of the factory (but be sure to check dates, it is closed part of the month). Or if glassmaking's not your thing, myswitzerland.com has put together a list of places, including various cheese dairies, which offer free admission.

5. Do nothing. Enjoy the holiday in traditional European fashion by doing nothing but relaxing. Most offices are businesses are closed the week after Christmas, a tradition worth starting in the rest of the world too.

What do you like to do to celebrate the season?

Time for Nothing. The horror!

It's that time of year again.

The time when this Frau gets really nervous because she has to do something extremely hard for an American: relax.

Switzerland has done wonders to calm her need to be busy at every moment, but she's still an American at heart and therefore way too antsy to just do nothing.

Still. The Frau is going to try. She is going to pretend like every day is a Swiss Sunday. She hopes you can be a little Swiss this holiday season too.

So, in honor of this strange, relaxing mindset, the Frau will say her holiday greetings, Swiss-style now: Frohe Weihnachten und ein glückliches Neues Jahr. Joyeux Noel et Bonne Année. Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from One Big Yodel.

How to Buy (and get rid of) your Swiss Christmas Tree

If you're like me, you go to Jumbo, pick out a Christmas tree, strap it to an IKEA cart, bring it home on a bus, drag it up the steps to your apartment building, endure stares, endure bruises, and think nothing could be harder. But after you decorate it and enjoy the sparkly 100 Franc lights (what is with the prices of Christmas lights?), it's all worth it.

Until you realize that the tree is only festive for so long.

Yes. You've seen them. Those sad, balding pines sagging against metal railings on various Swiss balconies across the country. It's practically March, but yet it appears that some people are still celebrating Christmas. I am one of those people.

Usually, I end up celebrating at least six months of Christmas as my husband and I debate how to get rid of our Swiss Christmas tree upon missing the one tree pick-up delivery day. Here's a hint to our strategy: a Swiss army knife and a garbage bag. (Just don't tell the Swiss police, I have a feeling this is sehr illegal).

To read more about how I celebrate the six months of Christmas, click here to read my expat adventure column in Swiss News this month.