Locarno Part 1

Locarno is located in southern Switzerland, on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, just 6 miles from the Italian border. The main language there is Italian. So I had two days there to get used to greeting and listening to everybody in Italian before coming back to Zürich and having to switch back to German again. I keep reverting to English because I can't remember which language to speak to people and English pops out of my mouth before anything else. It will take some getting used to - switching between all the languages spoken around Switzerland. It didn't help that Martin still spoke German to everybody in Locarno while I spoke English and we just ended up confusing everybody.

Here's the view from our hotel room balcony:




Our first night in Locarno we wandered around looking for a place to eat and eventually happened upon a nice Italian restaurant (I'd say 90% of the restaurants in that area are Italian). It had a beautiful outdoor terrace on the 2nd floor in a residential area. Larry/Frankie it was a lot like vino divino's outdoor upstairs area but with dos artistos food. But the prices ... not so nice. The food was delicious but prices for restaurant meals are outrageous. An entree will run you $35 ... and that's for pasta. If you want fish or beef it'll be more like $45. So Friday night was my birthday dinner by default and then Saturday evening we just got pizza for dinner to save some money (a simple dinner of salad, pizza, and a bottle of wine costs $70 though - and that's cheap).

Saturday morning we set off on a hike in the hills of Locarno. See the top of the ridge in the pictures taken from our balcony above? Well that's where Martin wanted to hike to. But we thought about it and realized that maybe that's not the top of the ridge or the highest point we could possibly get to. It turns out that a tram/funnicular runs up to the top of that ridge, and so we took that up, and then continued to hike up about another 2,000 feet to get some really amazing views. I argue that the 360-degree views of the snow-capped Alps we had in Locarno are the best views I've ever had while hiking. I think the views I had while snowboarding in Banff were just as good, possibly better. Martin said he would also rank the views we had in Locarno in his top 3, with Banff and Mt Ranier probably being the other 2.

So, here's the view from our first lookout, about 1,000 feet up on our hike:



Keep in mind that these snow-capped peaks were all around us.




And here's a view of Locarno and Lake Maggiore from our first lookout (so our hotel is somewhere down there):



And some paragliders (there were a lot of them taking off from up here):







If you look closely in a lot of our pictures, you can see some paragliders up in the sky. Sometimes we'd just look up and, bam, there are five right there:



I will post the rest of our hike in Part 2. We took about 150 pictures total over the 48 hours we were in Locarno and Bellinzona. The pictures will be available in their entirety on Facebook and also on Kodak. I will send out links in an email once I put them up.

Differences between the U.S. and Switzerland.

1. Produce

It's just better here. It's fresher, riper, and it tastes better. When you buy something from the store, it is ripe. You don't have to set it out on your counter for a week to make it ripe. It is ready to eat. But Dad don't fret, they do sell green bananas here.

I've been eating tomatoes here like they're apples - just taking big huge bites of them or sitting down and eating one whole. The food does go bad in a day or two, however. I've had a lemon in the refrigerator go bad in 5 days and cheese go bad in 5 days as well. I've never had such things happen in the states! It makes you wonder what all the preservatives in U.S. food are doing to your body when you ingest them.

2. Clothing.

I apparently missed the memo that I was supposed to wear a pretty scarf every single day, even if it's sunny and 70 outside. Unfortunately when I left the U.S., I left my scarves there figuring I wouldn't need them until the winter here. Whoops.

Women here also wear black tights under short skirts or long sweaters. I don't think this is a trend that I will ever get into. If they're not wearing tights, they're wearing skinny jeans. Either way, I don't fit in.

I have already blogged about the black socks and non-athletic-shoe rule.

Women dress conservatively and they look great doing it. There is no cleavage, no midriff-bearing tops, no trying to look like Britney Spears or whoever the latest pop icon in a too-short skirt is. Clothes cover their body and are topped off with a color-coordinated scarf, of course. It is refreshing to not see droves of teenage girls who look like prostitutes in the making.

3. The Food.

I have yet to see any food item here that is low-calorie, low-fat, low-carb, sugar-free, or gluten-free. I would think gluten-free and sugar-free foods must exist somewhere since people need them for health reasons, but I have not found either yet. All of the food here is real, for lack of a better word, and it is all sold without gimmicks. Packaging tells you what is inside of it with no extra slogans. There are no catch phrases on boxes like "made with whole grains" or "no high fructose corn syrup". Granted many things are made with whole grains here (there is still whole-grain bread and whole wheat pasta and things like that), but there is no whole-grains craze like in the U.S. There are no food crazes at all here.

The bread here is all fresh baked daily. It dries out within 24 hours so you go to the store every day to buy your bread for that day, and if you don't eat it within 24 hours (sometimes 48 if you get certain kinds of bread) then it's either too hard to bite into or it's moldy already.

There are no preservatives in the food here.

I have yet to see lots of snacks for children. No fruit snacks, no cocoa puffs cereals, no pop tarts. There are potato chips and cookies here and a few brands of granola bars (but they're hard to find). There are only a few kinds of cookies here - not an entire aisle dedicated to them but instead all the options fit onto 3-4 shelves each ~5 feet in length. But there's lots of chocolate!

There are no meal bars or protein bars or weight-loss snack bars (Luna bars, power bars, Clif bars, etc). There's practically an entire aisle for such things in every grocery store in the U.S. but I don't think they exist here. And no lean cuisines! Finally, no more eating lean cuisines or frozen meals.

I have yet to find hummus here. And all the people that I have asked have told me that they can't find it here either. The Australian woman in my German class said she has gone all the way to Munich just to buy hummus. I'm hoping we can find some this weekend when we are closer to the Italian border ... maybe the Italians like hummus and stock it in their stores? Who knows.

4. The Transportation.

I have already blogged about how great it is here. Efficient, on time, clean, and plentiful.

5. Crime

I have not seen or heard of any. I have not seen homeless people on the streets though they must exist here somewhere.

And, the city is really clean. The sidewalks are clean and litter-free. I have not seen any run-down or dilapidated buildings. I have not yet found an area of the city that looks sketchy or where I do not feel safe. But, I also haven't explored the entire city yet and maybe I just haven't found the bad neighborhoods. I somehow doubt that though.

6. The Weather.

It is cold and rainy. Constantly. If you go out without a coat or umbrella, you will regret it. This will improve soon but for now that's how it is.

7. Liquor.

We still have not found a liquor store or anyplace to buy hard liquor. Which is probably saving us a good amount of money. Beer/wine are sold in some grocery stores but not all. I stocked up on gin in duty-free when I left Boston because Martin told me he couldn't find hard liquor in Zurich. I'm sure it exists somewhere. But where?

8. The People

I have found them to be friendly. Only elderly people seem to not speak English.

They are thin. The men are scrawny in general and the women are average-sized. So they're thin, but healthy and not anorexic. I have seen some overweight people here but they are rare. I am one of the biggest people here ... including the men.

They eat their lunches while walking on their lunch breaks or while standing outside of a cafe or shop.

They smoke. A lot. But that's the European way. The day I came here was the day Zürich banned smoking in restaurants. I got lucky.

They walk and bike a lot. On a nice day, everybody is outside sitting in parks, walking, or sitting at cafes.

They are active. There are a lot of outdoor runners here and every time I go to the gym it is completely packed.

People walk to work in the mornings in power suits with adidas bags slung over their shoulders for a noon or evening workout.

They have a lot of laws and they follow every one of them. Nobody even jaywalks.

They get up really early. When I go for a run at 6am, many people are already on their way to work, walking down the streets in suits. Martin gets to work at 7:45am and is one of the last people into his lab.

They do road construction on weekends to avoid disturbing weekday commuters. I like this. Except for the fact that they are digging up the street right in front of our apartment and they started at 8am this past Sunday.

9. Prices

They are the same or higher than in New England in many cases. Grabbing a simple sandwich or wrap for lunch will run you $10-$15. A lunch buffet or sit-down meal in a non-fancy restaurant will run you $20-$30. Martin and I grabbed lunch at a buffet place a few days ago and it cost us $54. And it's not like we stuffed ourselves, we went to the buffet once and filled our plates and had them weighed. No return trips or dessert or anything like that. We did have some wine though. But that's how you have lunch here! With some wine or beer.

So, no Chili's or Applebee's prices here. But Martin is quick to point out that the food we ate was also infinitely better than Chili's food. Did I mention it was a vegetarian buffet? We got dishes from all around the world filled with lentils, chickpeas, tofu, and fresh vegetables. No meat in sight. And it was all awesome.

Food in grocery stores seems to cost about the same as it did back in Boston. Prices are cheaper for things grown or made in Switzerland. Asparagus costs $9 per bunch though. I have yet to want asparagus badly enough to pay for it.

Hotel prices are what you would expect to pay in NYC for a hotel, in my opinion. Which makes sense, as Züich is rated one slot above NYC in the list of most expensive cities in the world.

A bratwurst with a roll as shown in one of my earlier posts is only $6.50 though!

10. Holidays

Sundays are days of rest here. Most places are closed. Stores in the airport and the train stations are generally open for travelers but that's it. Some cafes/restaurants remain open but not many. Tourist attractions and museums remain open, so that's nice.

On any holiday, everything is shut down. This coming weekend there is a holiday on Monday and because of that many things will be shut down Saturday through Monday for a 3-day holiday.

I Have Conformed.

I never thought I'd own a pair of converse, but now I do. I wanted to buy a pair of puma's but they cost way beyond my means and then I really liked some purple adidas sneakers but they were too narrow for my feet so converse it was. Purple shoes would have been so fun though. Next time I need new shoes they shall be purple.

And while I think black socks look ugly except when worn with dress shoes, if I don't wear them here then I am the only person wearing white socks in the entire city. Usually I can wear white socks and hide them under long pants but in the gym where everybody is wearing shorts it is especially noticeable that I missed the memo about wearing only black socks. Interestingly, they did sell white socks at the shoe store today. So somebody must be buying them and wearing them ... somewhere. Maybe they're just there for the American tourists to buy.

It was fun shoe shopping today because I got to use my new German language skills. I always asked for my shoe size in German because I learned all the numbers. There must be a lot of tourists in town this weekend for some reason though because I almost heard more English on the streets than German while wandering around shopping. I think I had only picked up 2 English conversations on the street in the 2 weeks I've been here until today when suddenly everybody was speaking it.

Our Street

Mühlebachstrasse is a little over a mile long, I think. Which is just the right length for a morning run up and down the street.

This is our apartment building. We are on the first floor facing the street here. The apartments are hidden behind the trees and shrubs, which is nice.



This is the backyard of our apartment building.



Martin really likes this tree in the backyard.



This is our street, from in front of our building, facing in the direction of the train station. There is a lot of construction going on on this end of the street.



As you can see, they are digging a very large hole that is currently filled with water from all the rain. The workers must have today off which is good because they probably would have yelled at me for taking pictures of the site.



This is our street, from in front of our building, facing away from the train station. This is the nicer part of town.



Walking down the street in the "nicer" direction, we find a gray house with bright yellow shutters. This is my favorite house on our street.



There is a little park with some gravel paths that you can wander around on.




And here is a water fountain in case you get thirsty. These are all over Zürich; the drinking water is very good here.



And there are a lot of pretty trees! Actually, this one is about 20 feet down a side street but you can easily see it when walking down Mühlebachstrasse.







So those are just a few things you would see while walking on our street. Sometimes I see a black and white cat at one of the houses, but he wasn't out today so I couldn't get his picture.

The Things We Do To Save Money

Note: Martin does not approve of this blog. He thinks it makes us sound destitute when we're not. I told him I would make his thoughts known in this post but I wrote the blog to be amusing and not to ask for handouts because we're really not in the poorhouse.

1. I haven’t bought a single candle or plant here yet even though they would make our apartment more cozy and homey, in my opinion.

2. I have no sheet for my aerobed. That’s right, I just sleep right on it. I only have to do it until we move into our next apartment.

3. We share a single-person quilt every night, turned sideways so it stretches over both of us but the bottoms of our legs stick out. I wear a T-shirt, sweatshirt, sweatpants, and socks to bed every night to try to stay warm.

4. We let the trash build up in our apartment until the smell is too much for us to bear any longer (well, too much for Martin to bear any longer - I have stooped to his standards and just breathe out of my mouth full-time now). This is because the trash bags we have to throw our trash out in cost $2 each and have to be bought at the post office so we pack as much trash as possible into each bag. It takes us 3-4 days to fill one (they're about the size of a regular kitchen trash bag in the U.S.) and if you put fish or chicken into it on day one it's pretty rough by day 3. And no, there is nothing special about these bags other than that they say "ZURI-SAC" on them.

5. I look like an American because I have not bought dark-colored shoes or black socks or a dark spring/rain coat. But, you know, I *am* an American so this shouldn't bother me. It just makes people speak English to me right off the bat instead of starting with Swiss.

6. We do not eat out. Which means we do a good amount of cooking in our closet kitchen.

7. We do not sit at cafes and have a drink or a snack even though every time we walk by one all we want to do is sit there with a refreshing beverage and people watch. But, we can do that on vacation. This is not vacation.

8. We do not have a landline and we are sharing a mobile. By sharing I mean that Martin carries it with him and I go without. Not that I would know whom to call or what to say if I had any sort of emergency anyway.

9. I do not have a locker at the gym which means I have to carry an entire change of clothes including shoes and shower materials and towels to the gym with me every time I go … which is pretty much impossible to fit into my small bag along with all my textbooks and my notebook for my German class.

10. I am not buying a new computer even though it would make my work much easier if I did. I cannot currently use wireless on my current computer, or internet explorer, due to all the software WSI loaded onto it so that I could work remotely.


I could list the things we do to spend money, but that list would be far too long. It far outweighs the above list of things we are doing just to save a few bucks here and there. Every penny we save is some money we can spend to do some traveling while we’re here so it will be worth it.

German Language Class

This week I started taking intensive German language classes. They are held 5 days a week for 3 hours a day, plus 1-2 hours of homework each night.

I am really enjoying them! My class turned out to consist of 7 female students and a female teacher. All of us are in our 20's or early 30's except one who is older with grown children. We come from America, Australia, England, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Ukraine. We speak English, Spanish, and some language I can't remember the name of but it's not Russian or Ukranian.

What is interesting about the students in my class (the 4 I have been able to converse with in English) is that we have all come here because of our boyfriends or husbands. Three of the other women married Swiss men and have moved here to live with them. Look at all these serious long-distance relationships coming to an end!

The Australian woman is in a long-distance relationship with her Swiss boyfriend. So they fly Sydney-Zürich in order to spend time together. She has been given a 6-month leave by her company (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) to come here and learn German. She said she was offered a job by PWC in Zürich, but was denied a visa because Switzerland did not consider her university degree from Australia to be a real degree. So even if you have a job waiting for you in Zürich and an employer vouching for you, if you don't have a uni degree or an EU passport, DENIED. She eventually was able to get a visa with the condition that she spend at least 20 hours per week learning German as her company is sending her here for that purpose. If she had just married her boyfriend, she would have gotten a visa much easier!

So I'm enjoying all of the like-minded company that this class provides me with. It's a lot of work but it's really nice to finally be able to understand small bits of conversation and to be able to put together small sentences already.

Of course we take a test every Friday and the following Monday the classes are shifted around so you are with people on the same level as you. So I doubt I will see all of these women again after this week but you never know. In general, I've noticed there are many more women in the language school (we all have coffee together, all the classes, at 10AM every day) than men. I wonder why that is?

More Zürich Wanderings

We awoke to some more sunshine today so naturally we took advantage of it and walked all over Zürich.

We started with Grossmünster church. It has two towers and you're allowed to climb to the top of one of them where you get a great view of Zürich.



Here's the view to the South, looking towards the lake. Can you see the mountains? This was the first day I was able to see some of the mountains but they were still pretty hazy and hard to see. Our apartment is somewhere in this picture as well. If you look towards the left side of the picture, in the middle, there is a whitish building with yellow shutters pulled over its windows. That's on the corner of our street.



Here's a close-up of the mountains. I think eventually we'll get a really good mountain viewing day where we'll be able to take much better pictures of them. I know they're impressive and that they'll take my breath away when I finally get a good look at them.



Looking up the river, to the north, away from the lake:




And here are some swans ... the river and lake are swarming with swans. They were a rare site back in the U.S. but here they're everywhere!



And this is Fraumünster. We visited this church as well. It had amazing stained glass in it but pictures were not allowed so you'll have to come visit to see it. Marji I thought of you though - you'd love it in there. Very detailed stained glass.



Then we went for a walk around the western side of the lake (we live on the eastern side and wanted to see what was on the other side). We were wondering where ducks built their nests as we saw many mom ducks with little ducklings and then we saw this:



There are some normal ducks here too but this one is black with a white face which I'd never seen before coming here.