Falling in Love with the Alsace

In the last few years, I've been to a number of old towns in Europe. Unfortunately, after awhile, they all seem to blend to together. So when we headed to the Alsace area over the weekend, I wasn't expecting much.

But the little villages in this area are just charming. I wanted to hug them. People were handing out samples of sausages, wines, macaroons, and kugelhopfs out the windows. And who can resist that generosity combined with half-timbered houses that were all competing for best floral design of the year?

We stayed in Eguisheim (about 6k south of Colmar) at a B&B that wins best value of the year in my book. It is run by Marie-Therese and Albert Bombenger, whose house sits on a vineyard right outside town. And the best part was, they both spoke French and German, so we could communicate just fine. I highly recommend a stay here, and for 42 EUR/night including breakfast, it's the deal of the century in Europe and you'll feel right at home.

I also recommend visiting Kaysersberg and Riquewihr, two other adorable villages in the area.

Reveling in Germany

Every time I go to Germany I can't help but revel in both the language and the prices of things. This has nothing to do with loving Germany over Switzerland, it's just a few things I appreciate when I cross the border.

I understand people. I don't have to ask them to repeat in High German. I meet native German speakers who have the same trouble as I do understanding Swiss German and this makes me feel better-like a cute 90-year old German woman who owns a little pension in Staufen. After I told this woman that I speak German because I've lived in Switzerland for three years, I also mentioned that my German isn't perfect yet because it's hard to learn German in Switzerland. She patted me on the shoulder and laughed, saying it was hard for her to understand the Swiss too, and then proceeded to give me a basket of cherries as a parting gift.

Then there are the prices. In my few days in Germany over the weekend, I had pasta dinners, I had meat dishes, and I had sodas and beers to go with. Each meal I ate would always amount to about 10 Euros (about 15 CHF) and this was in nice restaurants with great food and no smoking allowed. It was bliss. Why, Switzerland, can't you achieve this? I can't eat out here for less than 25 CHF and I have to smell smoke (at least in most cantons) while doing it.

I love a lot that Switzerland has to offer--endless hiking/biking trails, natural beauty, concern for environment, and the possibly the best public transport system in Europe. And while no place is perfect, Switzerland might be close if only it could add a little of what I love about Germany to the mix.

Happy Father's Day

pictured above, Zurich's Landesmuseum

In honor of Father's Day this year, I wanted to post an essay about my father that I was published last year in the Christian Science Monitor to celebrate the holiday. It is called "Dad's Museum Mania," and is all about how I used to have to take a quiz after every museum visit before I could have ice cream.

I can't quite figure out if the Swiss celebrate Father's Day. I know they celebrate Mother's Day, so I would assume they would also celebrate the other half, but I have seen no signs of Father's Day in the stores. Maybe it's another weekend or time of year?

Three Years Today

So I went to pick up a couple of friends from the Zurich Airport this morning when I realized, exactly three years ago today, I was arriving at the airport to live in Switzerland.

It brought back a lot of memories, from lost luggage filled with everything in my life that I couldn't bear to lose (was found the following day), to trying to order a sandwich and not understanding what I was ordering, to the shock over the price of a taxi from the Zurich Airport to Baden (CHF 120)--especially one that couldn't even find where we were staying and left us and 10 bags of luggage on a bridge in Baden to fend for ourselves.

Anyhow, it's all been a wonderful adventure filled with stories good and bad. But I wouldn't trade the experience of living abroad for anything. From seeing most of Europe to understanding what it really means to be an American, it's all a part of the expat package.

Hello? Oh wait...

I’ve been living in Switzerland for three years as of this coming Friday. And I still can’t seem to get the hang of Swiss phone etiquette.

The problem is, if I don’t recognize the number of the caller, I’m not sure how to answer it. Should I answer the American way, with just a “Hello”? The professional English-speaker way, with my first and last name? Or the Swiss way, with “Frau X”, said in a tone that’s as threatening as possible?

No matter the decision, it’s usually the wrong one and I end up with silence on the other end while the caller gets over their initial “greeting shock” and tries to figure out how to talk to a crazy person like me.

This morning was no exception. I went with the professional English-speaker version of “hello” and heard nothing but silence on the other end.

Then, after about five seconds, the caller cleared her voice and said, “Frau X?” I answered, “ja” and then, relieved by my one German mumble, she blabbed full-steam ahead in Swiss German.

Finally, when she came up for air, I told her I understand “not so good” Swiss German and could she please repeat everything in High German. After that, all was klar (at least as klar as it was going to get), and just when I was congratulating myself for surviving yet another Swiss phone call, she says, “Auf Wiedersehen, Frau X.” And I know that I’m supposed to answer back, “Auf Wiedersehen, Frau Y.” Except I can’t remember her name because my brain was too busy processing the whole phone etiquette/language thing only to result in being a failure at both.

So I say a simple “Auf Wiedersehen,” leaving out her name and then hang up and curse the phone.

When it comes to the foreign phone experience, I’ll never win. The only thing all of us living abroad can do is continue to encourage e-mail use. It really is the best technology for foreign communication, where we have the two things we need most on our side: time and google translate.

Gambling in Switzerland

The other night, my husband and I were walking home when a Baden Casino taxi dropped a man off in the center of town. He walked in front of us all the way to the UBS, where he took out money and then got back in the Casino taxi. I don't know if gambling is a big problem in Switzerland, but according to a recent article on swissinfo.ch, many Swiss "gamble their life away."

When I was outside the Baden Casino taking this picture, a guy came out of the casino and asked me for 3 CHF so he could pay the parking meter. I'm guessing he was losing. I only had my camera with me and nothing else so giving the guy money wasn't even an option, but please. This guy obviously had money to throw away gambling so I wasn't about to take pity on him for parking meter change. Besides, the Casino Taxi was parked right in front of us. An ATM was a short ride (or walk) away.

My neighbor is an avid gambler. We just saw her yesterday heading out with her "Casino Tasche", a special purse she uses only for gambling. A few months ago, I went to my first Swiss casino with her as my tour guide. You can read about the experience in this month's Swiss News, or by clicking here.

Have any of you visited a Swiss casino? What was your experience like?

How to Speak "Swiss"

No matter how good my German gets, I'll always be labeled a foreigner in Switzerland. Last week, I was at an "Information Day" for residents of my town, when the woman giving the presentation asked if anyone would prefer she speak in high German as opposed to Swiss German. No one said anything after a second, but finally, just as I got brave enough to say, "Ja", another woman joined me. Immediately, the entire room of people turned to stare at who the two "foreigners" were. I tried to look innocent.

Despite the stigma attached to wanting high German spoken, I was glad I went through the pain since I could understand about 80-85% of the presentation that way. If it had been given in Swiss German, I probably would have been at about 20% comprehension--the languages are that different.

How to speak "Swiss" is a complicated question, but one I've tried to answer in a fun way in the piece "How to speak Swiss" for National Geographic's glimpse.org. Check it out. I'd be happy to know what you think. And thanks again to all of my linguistically talented translators for your help with this piece.

Another "Foreigner" Moment

Often in the "Expat Adventure" column that I write for Swiss News, I talk about moments that could only happen when one lives or travels abroad. These are often moments when one feels stupid because of not understanding a part of the culture, language, or situation they find themselves in. Of course, these moments, while stressful at the time, are usually the ones I laugh about most after the fact, and to me, they are the reason living abroad will never get old.

One of these moments happened to my husband and me last week in Sweden. After buying some items from the grocery store for a picnic, we made ourselves comfortable on a bench on the island of Djurgarden. A woman came and sat on the other side of the bench while my husband took out his beverage and took a gulp, only to practically scream bloody murder at what he had just drunk.

"Try this," he urged me, as he coughed and choked his way back to recovery.

What had looked like an innocent fruit juice called "Bob" had actually been a syrup, and the amount my husband had digested in his big gulp probably had enough power to make at least a liter of strawberry juice.

While he turned green, the woman on the bench laughed and turned to me and said in perfect English (as all Swedes do),

"That stuff will last him a long time."

She was right. For the rest of the trip, Bob came with us so we could mix a little in our water at every opportunity. But Bob outlasted us and we had to dump him at the airport before leaving Stockholm. Because no matter how attached to his fruity flavor we'd become at that point, the airport security wouldn't let us take anything but the memory of him back home with us.

What You'll See in Stockholm

Last weekend, I went to Stockholm and this is what I saw:







In case you couldn't guess, H&M is a Swedish company. And not only have they taken over the world, they've taken over Stockholm. One could spend the entire day, going from one H&M to the next without much effort since many are just on opposite sides of the street from each other, like you can see in the last photo. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture the fact that there were actually THREE H&Ms all together on one street corner. So if you love this store, you now know where to plan your next European get-away.

Is Swiss Transportation too good?

photo by Brian Opyd

The Swiss train will bring you to the bus that brings you to the cable car that brings you to that beautiful meadow in the middle of nowhere. Amazing. And all connections will have minimal waiting time. But is this minimal connection time really ideal?

Of course, if you've just got yourself to worry about, five minutes to go from track 54 to track 18 is no big deal. But add a few pieces of luggage, a stroller the size of an SUV, or a group of clueless visitors trailing behind you, and you're just setting yourself up for a world of pain.

The Swiss senior citizens, though, are the champions at tight connection times-probably because they have hiking poles to push through the crowds with. We should all get some of those. They seem effective. In fact, my mother-in-law actually stopped a Swiss train dead in its tracks with a hiking pole. Talk about power.

What do you think about Swiss public transport? On one hand, it's wonderful. On the other hand, I'm out of breath.

Read more at "Swiss Transportation: Almost too good?" on glimpse.org.

Spring Swiss Flower Tours

Ever since I visited the tulip fields in Holland last year I’ve become a flower freak. My father wasn’t shy to point out, that on his visit to Switzerland this May, I took him and my mother to no less than three fields of flowers—all in the middle of nowhere.

The first flower adventure I took them on was to the mustard fields near Wettington. Every May in Switzerland, hundreds of these bright yellow patches seem to appear everywhere around the country. They are to Switzerland what the lavender fields are to Provence.


The next flower adventure was even more remote—the fields of narcissus near Montreux. Although there are specific tours that will take you to see them, they are in French, the website is in French, and like most French things, they aren’t excited about translating them. But since I’m the impatient type and like my information fast and furious, I made up my own tour based on theirs and took my family on a train to Caux. From there, we hiked up about a half hour and finally discovered beautiful fields of these white flowers, which, according to a local, are becoming rarer and rarer as the years go on. If you speak French and want a tour, or just want to wing it like me, the flowers/tours are supposedly around until June 7.

The final flower adventure took place at les Jardins du Chateau de Vullierens. The iris festival here is really in the middle of nowhere but that never stopped the Swiss transportation system. From Morges, you take a post bus (tell the driver where you’re going so he stops at the appropriate stop as you’ll have no clue when to request a “stop” and the busses don’t tell you what the next stops are). It’s worth the bus adventure though, to see the huge fields of irises that are found at this castle. You can order some for your own garden there too. There are hundreds of shapes and colors. The garden is open until June 28 and costs 15 CHF to enter. There’s a cute café there as well that serves fantastic pastries. Be sure to check departure times if you’re taking the bus, as it doesn’t run very often.

Alternative to Interlaken: Thun

A few posts back, it was discussed that the city of Interlaken is Switzerland's ultimate tourist trap. Hooter's. Japanese Gardens. Loud motorcycles. The town's got everything but the traditional Swiss feeling people go there to find. So what's a traveler in the area to do?

Go to Thun.

Recommended by Romy, in the comment section from the "What happened to Interlaken" post, Thun really is worth a day trip. A Swiss friend from Appenzell also recommended it to me, so with the parents in town, we went last week, and it was wonderful.

Now you won't see Thun in most guidebooks. Usually this is a good sign as the amount of space something takes up in a guidebook usually corresponds to the amount of unfortunate neon signage that you'll encounter when you get there. So I always make it a point to take the less trampled, less written about places.

It's easy to get to Thun from Interlaken and the best way is by boat. (from anywhere else in Switzerland, check the train schedule here)

Get on the boat to Thun (takes 2 hours total from Interlaken). Stop by Spiez on the way and visit the castle there. After peeking around the castle grounds, jump back on the next boat and take it to Thun. On the way, you'll pass by several other gorgeous castles. When you get to Thun, enjoy a restaurant on the river. Afterwards, climb a castle that's so uncrowded that you'll feel like you own it. At the top, enjoy the views of the Alps, the lake, and the river and then stop by a spotless garbage recepticle and throw away that Interlaken-touting guidebook. Now that's what I'd call happily ever after.

Swiss Budget Hotels

I was recently enjoying a long weekend in Lausanne and staying at the lovely Hotel Regina, which, despite the price, is apparently considered a "Swiss Budget Hotel."

In Switzerland, CHF 188 ($174) a night for a hotel is "budget."

As most Americans who have visited or attempted to live in Switzerland know, the Swiss have a very different definition of the word "budget." The Swiss Budget Hotel guide is a great example of this. Here, the hotels listed include places that cost CHF 250 ($230) a night. And I don't know about you, but I find that far from the "budget" I used to know.

Another crazy thing about Switzerland is what people consider a sale. Getting excited about a 50% discount is one thing. But in Switzerland, people get excited about 10% off.

For example, RailAway often has some deals on trips and places within Switzerland, but these involve buying the tickets at the departure station from the counter, which, more often than not, is filled with lines of confused people and usually not worth the 2 CHF I might save on the entrance to the Ballenberg Museum, for example. If I'm going to wait in a line the length of a Swiss bus, then I want to save more than 2 CHF.

When friends and family visit with their American perceptions of "budget", I always find myself apologizing for the high prices. I mean, you can't eat dinner for less than about CHF 50 for two people. But, nevertheless, if I pay CHF 50 for a meal for two now, I remark, "what a great deal." I guess I'm becoming slightly less price sensitive in my old expat status.

Smile in the Sun

Has anyone else living in Switzerland noticed that people are much more friendly when the sun's out?

I did the same hike on Monday that I did today, the only difference was the weather. Today was sunny and warm and almost everyone I passed said "hello". Some even smiled. This was in stark contrast to the hike on Monday when no one I passed even acknowledged my existence.

Is it all in my head? What do you think? To read more on this topic, visit "The Smiling Swiss" on glimpse.org.

The Saturday Market in Baden

I hate to admit it, but sometimes I don't make it to the Baden Saturday Market because it only goes until 11:30 and even though I live right above it all, I'm often too tired to make it there after being woken up at 6:00 by the noise of the preparation.

This Saturday, not only did I get there, I did what I had never done before at the Saturday Baden Market. I got something for free. Yes, you heard me right. There was an apero advertised to celebrate the moving of the market from one side of the clock tower to another and apparently this occasion warranted a few men to dress in velvet, fire a canon, and give away free wine, apple juice, breads, cheeses, and vegetables. It was quite the party and I enjoyed it.

But the best part was that now the market is resuming its original, pre-construction (and historically correct) position so hopefully my Saturday mornings (street sweepers aside) will be a little more peaceful. And for that reason alone, I'm glad I made it to the celebration. The whole free part just made it that more special.

Support Writers Worth Day

I'll take a break from Switzerland for a moment to let any writers and bloggers out there know about what's coming up on Friday. May 15 is Writers Worth Day. Spread the word. If you post about it on your blog, you can even win an amazon gift certificate by linking back to Words on the Page, which is a blog about the writing life by Lori Widmer, a veteran writer and editor.

Widmer, founder of Writers Worth Day, says, “Writers Worth Day was established in response to the increasing amount of job postings that offer little, if any, compensation for the amount of work expected.”

While I don't answer postings like this, I'm always amazed at the number of requests I get that ask if I can share my blog posts on another site or write a piece for free in exchange for "exposure." Please. It's one thing if I had something to sell. But it's another when what I'm selling is my writing. These publications and editors claim to have no budget and expect me to feel sorry for them. I don't.

As a writer, I don't work for free. And neither should you. Because it only ends up hurting all of us in the end. Writers make little enough as it is. We need to stand up for ourselves and "just say no." It worked for drugs. It can work for us too.

If you've got a great blog post or a great idea or a great essay, it will sell. You just have to be patient and keep trying. Giving things away for free is not the answer. If someone wants to use your blog material on another site, do what the professionals do and ask for a reasonable syndication fee. Or don't do it. It's not worth it to let dreams of Google Ad money (which will amount to probably 2 cents) get in the way of the future of the writing profession.

I can see it now, the procession of writers becoming IT professionals just so no one will ever ask them to work for free again. All the content we'll see on the Internet will be written by those with a terrible command of grammar but a great appetite for exposure. But the writing will be so bad, everyone will stop reading. And then where will that leave us?

To read more about Writers Worth Day and more about why writing for free is detrimental, visit the official press release.

A New Love for Lawn Art

I used to think lawn art was tacky and stupid, but that was when I was in the U.S., when more often than not, it consisted of a bunch of pink plastic flamingos or a few lighted Biblical figures. This kind of plastic city was considered festive by some, but let's face it, it wasn't exactly subtle and often took the spotlight away from any shrubbery that dared get in the way.

But then there are Gnomes. These little creatures are in a class by themselves. They hide under trees or among flowers and seem much more civilized than a bunch of hot pink flamingos.

Before I came to Switzerland, where gnomes were born in the tiny town of Grafenroda, I never gave gnomes much thought. But now, after seeing them everywhere, I have finally fallen in love with something that could be classified as a decorative garden accessory. With a new found appreciate for lawn art, I bought my own little gnome, who now proudly sits where he belongs, between a pine and some pink geraniums.

Expat Voices Interview

Last week I was interviewed for the Expat Voices column on expatica.com, which is a website for all things expat related. So if you haven't gotten enough of my musings about life in Switzerland on this blog, you can get your fill by reading the Expatica article.

The article is full of all things super thoughtful--like the fact that festival or not, brass bands and raclette cheese really should not be in a tunnel. But then again, life in Switzerland wouldn't be so interesting without a party for every construction triumph. So on second thought, keep the crazy tunnel festivals. Words over 15 letters though, those I could do without.

Zurich's Fall From Grace

Some people like rankings, so for those of you into this kind of thing, the 2009 Mercer report on the cities with the highest quality of life in the world just came out. So let's forget, for a moment, what the heck happened to Interlaken (it isn't even in the top 50, imagine that) and let's talk about what the heck happened to Zurich? It has fallen from its #1 ranking last year to #2 (following Vienna) this year.

Was it the weather? The street sweeper who forgot a cigarette butt one morning? The one delayed train? To try to make sense of the senseless, read more on Zurich's Fall from Grace, by visiting the Raclette Rant, over on glimpse.org. Or, for another expat's take on the disaster, visit Swisstory Blog.

What happened to Interlaken?

When I came to Switzerland in 2005 as a tourist, I thought Interlaken was God's gift to mountain beauty. So needless to say, I always get a little emotional about going back there only to realize the place is a tourist trap full of fake fondue and plastic signage.

Ok, maybe the fondue isn't exactly fake, but it's not exactly the real deal when you have to stare at a room full of Americans and Japanese photographing their every bite while eating it. In fact, the tourist office in Interlaken has definitely zeroed in on their target audience and installed both a Hooter's Restaurant and a Japanese Garden since I was there last. And you have to give them credit, they know how to give back to those who love them.

"This place really terrible," said my Swiss friend Peter, as we gave up our search for a quaint lunch spot and ate at the Coop Restaurant near the train station instead. And trust me, it takes a lot for Peter to eat at a Coop, which he claims is no different than eating in a nursing home.

In any case, the Coop Restaurant was the best Interlaken had to offer in terms of the tourist/local ratio, so we enjoyed our Coop salad and spaghetti accordingly.

For those of you looking for an Interlaken alternative, may I suggest Mürren or Grindelwald, both which are much less offensive when it comes to restaurant signage and general tackiness.