5 Great Places to go with Kids in Switzerland

Need a few ideas for what to do with your kids in Switzerland? Look no further. The Frau (and Toddler M) have done some investigating for you.

Technorama (Winterthur)

This Swiss science museum has something for everyone—even Toddler M enjoyed a full day there banging drums, watching electric trains, and making gigantic bubbles. Spread across many floors, The Frau was pleasantly surprised by its non-Swiss size.

Tip: When traveling by public transport, be sure to get the RailAway offer, which will save you 10% on both the entrance fee and the transport there. They also accept payment in REKA.

Paradisimo (Pfäffikon SZ)

BMW Bobby Car. Only in Switzerland.

This is possibly Switzerland’s most perfect indoor playground. Why? It’s inexpensive, it has separate play areas for babies versus older kids, and there is a cafe with Wi-Fi for parents. And oh, the Bobby Cars are BMWs. It wouldn’t be a Swiss experience otherwise.

Children’s Museum (Baden)

The perfect balance of toys and exhibit make this place a fun day out for more than just children. Think dollhouses from the last century, a room filled with puppet shows you can put on a play with, and an entire floor of wooden games to explore.

Tip: They accept REKA checks.

Transport Museum (Lucerne)

Climb on trams. Ride scooters. Watch cars from the decades go by. The Transport Museum is all about transporting you to, well, the world of transport.

Tip: RailAway will save you 10% off the admission and the train ride there.

Emmentaler Schaukäserei (Affoltern i.E.)

Emmentaler cheese (that’s Swiss cheese for all you Americans)—comes from here. At the Emmentaler Schaukäserei, you can visit the dairy, eat at the restaurant, shop for cheese, and let your kids play on the playground and admire the statues of cows. You can also combine a visit to the Schaukäserei with a beautiful stroller hike through the rolling hills. Start in Lueg and follow the signs from Lueg-Junkholz-Schnabel-Affoltern i.E. (3.5 km).

Anyone else have tips for having fun in Switzerland with kids?

Enjoy reading about Swiss life? Then you might enjoy The Frau’s new book, Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I’d Known. It even has a section on Mutterhood. Available at fine online retailers and on Zurich’s most famous shopping street too (Bahnhofstrasse 70).

Zurich Book Reading at Orell Füssli The Bookshop

What should you know about Swiss life?
Oh, how about that sometimes something in Switzerland is actually free!
Shocking, yes, but come to the free reading event and you'll be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy some cheese and chocolate (or more likely some pretzels and wine) for less than you'd spend for a packet of ketchup at the Swiss McDonald's.

The Frau will read from her new book, Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I'd Known
May 23, 2014 at 7 p.m.
Orell Füssli The Bookshop
Bahnhofstrasse 70
8001 Zurich
Hope to see you yodelers there!

30 Things to Know about Swiss Life

Grüezi People,

Whatever one should know about Swiss life, The Frau learned the hard way. But this is good for you, yodelers. Because The Frau is going to make your Swiss life a little easier (or at least a little funnier) in a just published essay collection.

It’s life in Switzerland. 

The not-made-for-TV version. 

What should you know about Swiss life? Well, how about the fact that you can be hired in one language and fired in another? Or the realization that your Swiss neighbor is not coming over to chat—she is coming over to clean your gutter? Or the reality that cheese is a homeopathic treatment—for lactating boobs?

Learned anything about life in Switzerland yet? Well, sit back, relax, and enjoy some cheese and chocolate. Because that, dear yodelers, is just the beginning.                                               

Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I’d Known is a collection of both published (The Christian Science Monitor, National Geographic Glimpse, Chicken Soup for the Soul Books, and Brain, Child) and new essays in which The Frau discovers that whatever she thought she knew about the land of a certain storybook mountain girl, she had a lot to learn about the real Switzerland, you know, the one on the world map.

Come to the reading on May 23. Get a free bookmark.

The Frau, joined by Geneva-based American author Anne Korkeakivi (author of An Unexpected Guest), will read from her book at Orell Füssli The Bookshop (Bahnhofstrasse 70, 8001 Zurich) on May 23, 2014 at 7 p.m. She would love it if you stopped by to say hello in any of your official languages of choice. She’ll even give you a free bookmark if you do.

But if you can’t make it, the print version of the book is now available on amazon.com. Kindle version is now available too. Alternatively, you can join The Frau’s mailing list to find out when the book is available at other retailers. Nook, Kobo, and other versions are also coming soon. 

Love,

The Frau

P.S. To celebrate the publication of Swiss Life: 30 Things I Wish I'd Known, The Frau is offering 30% off the print book on amazon.com to her mailing list members (see, great deals in Switzerland do exist!). To get the discount, all you have to do is join the book's mailing list by Monday, May 12. The code will be e-mailed to all mailing list members on Tuesday, May 13 and will remain valid for one week. The Frau says danke vielmal in advance for your support.

A minimum wage of $25 an hour?

Ah, yodelers, it’s the day of work when you don’t have to work and can think about whether the Swiss should vote for its workers to receive the highest minimum wage in the world (22 SF/$25 an hour) on May 18.

Would you say "ja" to $25 an hour?

$25 an hour? It seems extravagant to the rest of the world. But then again, the rest of the world isn’t paying $25 for a plate of mediocre Chinese food. Or 57 cents a minute to make a national phone call. Or $11 for a 15-minute train ride—in 2^nd class, no less.

That’s why the Swiss minimum wage should be put in perspective (and also why The Frau wishes the American government would put the salaries of its citizens working abroad in perspective too).

After all, Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in the world. But despite this, the country still seems to want to make it livable for everyone. The Frau likes this.

But is a salary of SF 4,000 ($4,533) a month livable in Switzerland? It seems crazy to the rest of the world that the answer might be no. But if you watch this video created by swissinfo.ch, you’ll see that with “low” salaries and high costs of everything from healthcare to food—even $4,533 a month can be a struggle in Switzerland.

That being said, how would you vote on May 18?

What to do when it rains in Switzerland

As some yodelers may or may not have realized by now, Zurich gets more rain than London. So what should you do in Switzerland when it rains and pours? Don’t be like The Frau and get stuck at a Swiss museum the size of a closet with an admission price as big as an American mall. Instead, go to the following places that suck less than rain. Ten free tickets to one of them will encourage you to get out, so keep reading for how to win.

Designer Outlet in Landquart

Feel like shopping for deals in a country that doesn’t usually have any? Then you should head straight to the Designer Outlet in Landquart for bargains on designers from Desigual to Tommy Hilfiger. Warning: This designer outlet mall almost feels American. Key word, almost.

Tinguely Museum in Basel

Can sculptures talk to you? Visit the Tinguely Museum in Basel and find out. Because the machine sculptures of Jean Tinguely aren’t just something to look at—they are something to interact with. Walk in front of one and let it surprise you.

Bad Zurzach Spa

Since the Thermalbad in Baden has been closed for the last few years, The Frau has been forced to bathe in the healing waters elsewhere. But that’s ok because Bad Zurzach has four outdoor pools of various temperatures–one with a lazy river­–plus a great indoor area for babies and small children. To get the best deal via public transport to Bad Zurzach, take advantage of the SBB RailAway offer, which gives you 10% off the spa entry and 20% off the train ride there. (And if you’re cheap like The Frau and pay in REKA, you’ll save another 20%).

Zurich Opera House

The Transport Museum is home to the
largest movie screen in Switzerland.

270 performances at the Zurich Opera House. 209 rainy days per year in Switzerland. Coincidence?

Transport Museum in Lucerne

In a beautiful location on Lake Lucerne, the Swiss Museum of Transport makes a great day trip rain or shine. One of Switzerland’s largest museums, it’s perfect for any age and will transport you from steam engines to modern jets with a scooter ride in between. If that isn’t enough, the museum is also home to the largest movie screen in Switzerland and they have kindly given The Frau ten free tickets to give to her readers for the Penguin Migration movie. To win, just leave a comment within this post and include how many tickets you would like (maximum three per winner). Enter by Tuesday, April 29. Make sure The Frau can find you via your link or other winners will be chosen.

The Frau’s Swiss Love Affair

The longer The Frau lives in Switzerland, the more she realizes how disappointing the rest of the world is going to be if she ever leaves.

Toddler-friendly (and boat-friendly) playground in Twann.

She came to this realization when stepping off the train in Twann on Sunday, only to view the most picturesque playground she has ever seen. It was literally right on Lake Biel. It had picnic tables and sand and a slide that was actually toddler-sized. Trains cut through the vineyards above the park. Bikes rode by next to the park. Ducks quacked. If that weren’t enough, as Toddler M was swinging, a classic Swiss boat pulled up, right next to the playground.

A pristine white boat with a Swiss flag pulled up to the playground. Yes. Even Toddler M had to turn in her swing to take in such a sight.

The day continued all perfect and Switzerland-like from there. A stroller-friendly hike up into the vineyards from Twann to Ligerz and back along the lake. Ice cream. More fun at the park in Twann.

 

Ligerz, Switzerland

It was such a perfect day that Toddler M sang almost the entire train ride back to Baden. American nursery songs. Swiss songs from Krippe. A Swiss woman even hummed along with Toddler M as she sang one of the Swiss songs. Interaction. Yes. It is possible.

Oh yodelers, The Frau sometimes feels like she’s been on an eight-year date with someone that’s too good for her. Someone that her mere American mortal-ness with her messy apartment and geraniums that fail to cascade properly doesn’t deserve.

But it's only a matter of time, yodelers, before something goes wrong that you'll also hear about in this very space. Because like most expats, The Frau has a love-hate affair with her adopted country. It’s only normal, isn’t it? But the love affair days are what make being a foreigner here all worth it. Oder?

You Know You're in Switzerland When…

an ass is beautiful.

everything is just a bit more expensive.

plain m&m's are a new phenomenon.

How do you know you're in Switzerland?

Free Swiss chocolate from Max Chocolatier, anyone?

The Frau doesn’t make it a habit to do so-called sponsored posts. But every once and awhile, somebody comes along with an offer so sweet she can’t turn it down. Especially since it is Easter time and she has no willpower. Every store she goes into has been taunting her with chocolate bunnies and eggs since February. So please forgive her, but she accepted some free chocolate in exchange for writing about it–but only because one of you will also get some free chocolate too.

Now don’t worry. While you’re considering whether or not you might enjoy a little free handmade Swiss chocolate, The Frau has done her best to make sure you will not be disappointed in this prize.

That’s why Max Chocolatier, in Lucerne, sent The Frau a box of Schoggiplättli so she could test their chocolate before offering some to you.

Schoggliplättli

Schoggiplättli are thin chocolate squares. But The Frau prefers to give them another name: heaven. Inside her beautifully designed box from Max Chocolatier were four different kinds of handmade chocolate—all with unique flavors you just don’t find at the Migros.

Passion fruit. Hazelnut. Rose petal. Coconut. The Frau has difficultly deciding on her favorite after eating them all, let alone thinking straight. She’s kind of on Cloud Nine, yodelers, which makes sense, considering each square tasted like a little piece of heaven.

Your prize

The Frau will stop taunting you now and showing you the chocolate bunny instead. One yodeler—that’s you!—can win a beautiful Max Chocolatier wild chocolate bunny, just in time for Easter. What’s more–you can even choose if you prefer a dark Madagascar 68% chocolate or a milk chocolate Rio Huimbi 42%? There’s no small print in this big chocolate give-away, except to say you must have a Swiss mailing address to win.

To enter for your free Swiss chocolate bunny, please leave a comment by April 7 in the comments for this post. Include whether you prefer dark or milk chocolate. Make sure The Frau can find you via your link or another winner will be chosen. The winner will be chosen at random and The Frau is guessing your odds will be good. Viel Glück!