Due to the snow, operations will be irregular today

Following up on ZMG's post, here's the "saga" of my morning commute today.

LGG and I walked up the hill together in the snow, which LGG just loves. She loves making footprints, jumping in the slush, getting hit on the head by snow falling off a tree branch, throwing snow at Daddy, etc. OK, so the walk took a little longer than normal today due to the other activities, but we had fun. "Due to the snow, operations will be irregular today."

Her teacher is very thoughtful: she's warming the kids' gloves on the radiator so they will be comfortable on the way home.

After leaving LGG and greeting the other parents coming in ("Schönes Wetter heute, ey?"), I headed up the hill to work, deciding to take the bus rather than deal with snowy uphill trails. The first bus to reach my stop drove by completely full, and the bus which came about one minute later was 95% full, but did stop. Normally, buses come every 5-10 minutes on this route and are nowhere near full. "Due to the snow, operations will be irregular today."

Once I squeezed on just far enough for the driver to close the doors, I saw the message on the videoscreen that gives this post's theme. Among the irregular operations, I ended up being a support post for the older woman next to me who had no secure handhold (she apologized very politely for holding my shoulder as the bus slogged its way along), and two of my coworkers' buses couldn't even make it up their hills and had to take very wide detours up gentler slopes. (One of them very honestly said, "I could have gotten off the bus and walked, but I felt like being lazy!")

Here's the view from my office window this morning (sorry for the poor quality, but it's the best I could get from my mobile phone):

We have about 4 cm on the ground outside my building. Something tells me all The Geeks operations will be irregular today.

I'll close with a gratuitous German lesson:

der Schnee: snow
Es schneit: It is snowing.

and a hint for ZMG:

Wenn es schneit, ist Älplermagronen gute zum Essen!

It stuck

The view this morning:


Zürich Daddy Geek and Little Geek Girl on their way to kindergarten.


On their way up the hill.


We have turned on the under floor heating.

And we didn't have to shovel the driveway!

Snow

It is definitely snowing now. It's not sticking. Yet.

Brrrrr...

It should be fun doing the Parental German Class Little Geek Girl hand off tonight at 8 pm. Not!

Our final night and day in Lugano

After we said our goodbyes to our friends, we went back to the hotel for a little rest. We walked back to Lugano for dinner. On this trip I wasn't as motivated as I usually am for researching restaurants, so I had Zürich Daddy Geek pick the restaurant. However, when we found it, it was rather quiet and that's not the best environment to bring a 5 year-old. Originally we had decided to save another restaurant for our Saturday night dinner, but we decided to go there rather than dilly-dally about deciding on another restaurant.

La Tinera was an excellent choice for Friday night dinner. It's a grotto style restaurant, so we entered at ground level and smelled the wonderful aromas and then walked down the stairs to the restaurant. The restaurant had several families and was almost full, but there was a table available for us.

One of the specialties for a wild game charcuterie platter and at first I objected to ordering it, but I'm glad we did. There was pheasant salami, dried deer meat, wild boar proscuitto and cotto, and another preparation of deer meat. And Little Geek Girl ate it! For our mains, ZDG had osso bucco with risotto, LGG had spaghetti with marinara and I had the special which was grilled fish, veggies, and potatoes. When we had looked at the menu the day before they had venison stew listed, but we hadn't realized it was a daily special. Lesson learned, if something on a menu sounds good, go that night. We then walked to the main square to get gelato for ZDG and LGG and headed back to the hotel.

Saturday morning the blue skies were gone. We took the bus to the train station to put our bags in a locker and then took the funicular down to the city center. On our way through the city we found a stand selling "fritters" which we could not walk by without trying some.

Nutella, apple, lemon, and raisin filled doughballs sprinkled with sugar.


In the middle of the main square some musicians were playing, so we stopped to listen.


We decided to take a boat ride to Gandria for lunch and a walk. As we were waiting for the boat, ZDG snapped a photo of a Swiss seagull. At first we thought only the Ticino seagulls "wore headphones", but we have since confirmed that Zürich seagulls also wear headphones.


During the cold boat ride we had a nice tour of the lake and the "towns" on its banks.



When ZDG purchased the boat tickets he asked the saleslady for a recommendation for a restaurant in Gandria and she suggested Locanda Gandriese. ZDG and I each had bowl of delicious squash soup. Then LGG had spaghetti with marinara (she was not interested in the lasagna or schnitzel available for bambini), ZDG had venison stew with polenta (the stew also had grapes in it), and I had polenta with gorgonzola.

Here's a photo ZDG snapped from the balcony of the restauarant. The balcony must be a lovely place to dine in warmer weather, but after the boat ride we were happy to be inside.


We then walked through Gandria on our way to Castagnola. If we didn't have LGG with us, we probably would have walked all of the way to Lugano, but we didn't want to totally wear her out. (Sometimes it's useful to have her along).

Walking through Gandria.


A cool spigot.


We caught the bus back to Lugano and stopped at the playground at the city park.

Then it was time for some last minute shopping and snack. ZDG and LGG went to the tea room at Münger bakery to get some treats. I went to a shoe store to pick up some socks. Aren't they cute? However, they have some Angora so they're supposed to be hand wash only. Don't send me shopping on my own.


When I joined ZDG and LGG we ordered some drinks. ZDG ordered his espresso and I thought that LGG and I were getting a hot chocolate to share. Somehow I missed the ordering of the Ticinese specialty, Cioccolata Densa. This also came with a generous helping of whipped cream. Yummy!


Originally we had reservations on the 7:40 pm train heading back to Zürich, but we were all tired and decided to try to catch the 6:40 pm train. That required an okay but quick dinner (at Argentino) and then a consultation with the ticket agent at the train station to confirm the train was not full.

We were able to find seats (after a sprint from one end of the platform to the other because the sign had first and second class reversed) and settled in for our ride back to Zürich. ZDG and LGG watched a movie on the iPhone and I napped and read.

Beautiful scenery and delicious food. I think Locarno will be our next city to visit in the Italian part of Switzerland. Ciao!

San Salvatore

Friday was a beautiful day. Sunny, blue skies and a light wind. We took the bus to Paradiso and were dropped off right in front of the Migros, so we purchased some supplies for our picnic and walked towards the funicular for Monte San Salvatore where we met our friends in the parking lot. We knew H and A when we lived in San Diego, and now they live in Edinburgh. They had spent the week in Porlezzo, Italy at the east end of Lake Lugano.

We purchased our tickets and rode two funiculars up the side of the mountain. We wandered over to the terrace and staked out a table to settle down and have some coffee and milk.


Oh, we also looked at the gorgeous view of the Alps.


We sent the kids off to the playground and admired the view and chatted. Then we walked up to the top of the hill and climbed the steps to the top of the chapel to look at the view and take pictures.

Family portrait of the Geeks.


Little Geek Girl and J, age 5, and D, age 2.5. Baby E was comfortably carried by mom.


And a view of Melide and Swiss Miniatur. The smudge in the back is Milan, Italy.


We came down from the top of the chapel and stopped to have lunch. On our way back to the funicular the kids had fun picking up leaves and throwing them off the side of a walled terrace, where the wind would pick them up and they would fly up. We then took the funicular down and went in search of gelato. We found a gelato shop on Via San Salvatore just south of Via Giuseppe Cattori and Zürich Daddy Geek and LGG shared a dark chocolate and vanilla, and I had cinnamon.

We walked down to the lake. At one point ZDG was entertaining the kids with Simon Says and leading a duck parade. Little D really liked seeing the boats on the lake and the little tourist "train" that kept passing by us between Paradiso and Lugano. Alas, the kids started getting tired, so we walked them back to their car and said our goodbyes. ZDG will be in Edinburgh next month so he'll be able to see them again soon and hopefully LGG and I will visit Scotland soon too.

Swissminiatur Melide

This month there was a great deal on Railaway. Roundtrip train tickets from Zürich to Lugano/Melide and entrance to Swissminiatur for half price. Even if we didn't go to Swissminiatur it would have been a good deal. The afternoon we arrived was overcast so that seemed like the right time to go look at miniatures.

The coolest part of the park is all of the operational miniature railroads and cable cars surrounding the miniature buildings. It was also fun to see miniatures of places we've been to and be inspired to go to other parts of Switzerland. Here are some pictures from our visit. Right now I can't find our handy dandy guide to all of the buildings so I'm going to just have to wing it.

The two buildings on the left and the building on the "lake front" are all in the Lausanne area. We would love to go see them in person.


This was a preview for our visit to the top of San Salvatore the next day. In the foreground is the model of the tower at the top of the mountain and next to it is the mountain itself.


Here's a model of some cable cars and a bobsled run.


Another cable car and miniature train in the background.


And Little Geek Girl practicing her Godzilla growl.


After walking through the miniatures several times, riding the little train, and riding the boats, we went next door to play at the playground. We then took the S-bahn back to Lugano and walked down to the city center to find dinner. We ended up at the Spaghetti Store for an okay dinner of pizza and pasta, went in search of gelato, and then headed back to the hotel.

Hoch-Ybrig

The weather in Zürich this week was predicted to be cold and dreary, so yesterday we headed for the mountains for sunshine and views. Hoch-Ybrig is a ski area south-southeast of Zürich which is open in the summertime for hiking. Yesterday was the final day of summer season for Hoch-Ybrig, so we decided to go there. The webpage has already been changed from summer to winter information. The immediate landscape isn't the most interesting (hills of grass that you can imagine skiing down), but the views are amazing.

We left our apartment yesterday morning at 8:35 am to get ourselves to the Hauptbahnhof. We purchased tickets and took a train and S-bahn to get to Einsiedeln. At Einsiedeln we purchased a ticket package for the bus ride to the resort and unlimited rides on the gondola and chairlifts. The bus was full of other travelers on their way to hiking around the Sihlsee and our final destination. It's pretty easy to figure out what to do on adventures like this -- you just follow all of the other people.

We took the gondola from Weglosen (1035 m) up to Seebli (1465 m), and then the chairlift from Seebli up to Sternen (1811 m). These are the reasons why Little Geek Girl likes chair lifts: "You get to sit down. You can see the ground. There's nothing between you and the outside." From Sternen we had a nice view of the valley, but we decided to go up to the viewpoint to see what was on the other side of the ridge.

We started up the path towards Kleine Sternen and there we were stunned by the view of the Alps, most notably Tödi (3614 m). Unfortunately in our rush out the door we had forgotten the camera, but the sun angle was wrong anyways, so no pictures of the mountains. You'll have to go see them yourselves. At first I wanted to keep going up the path, but then I realized that it was a series of false summits, the trail was pretty muddy, and it was best probably to turn back. However, we decided to watch a group of paragliders launch, and it took a while to convince LGG to leave. We stopped off at a bench to have our picnic lunch.

We then went for a nice walk along the ridge towards Spirstock. At one point Zürich Daddy Geek scrambled up to a peak, but it was mostly cross country and pretty muddy, so LGG and I kept going. She is such a good hiker. She also talks a lot while she's hiking, but I'd rather have her talking and hiking, than not hiking. We got to the base of the Spirstock and at first we decided to walk around it, but LGG wanted to climb up it, so up the many stairs we went to the Spirstock (1771 m). Here we took a break for a snack and a family portrait with the iPhone:


LGG was ready to take the chairlift down the mountain, but we wanted to get a little more walking in, so we convinced her to continue on and that we would take another chairlift down. The route we walked down alternated between boring service road and interesting detours throught the forest. Unfortunately at one point I slipped on the gravel road and skinned my knee and tore my jeans. We found our way to Laucheren (1483 m) and stopped at the restaurant for refreshment. ZDG and I had coffee and LGG had cold milk. They were out of apple strudel, so we tried the spice cake. LGG is a strictly chocolate girl, so after a bite of spice cake she asked for more Pringles. She then jumped on the trampoline for a little bit and then we took the chairlift down to the bottom to catch the bus back the train station.

Earlier in the day, as we were drving through Einsiedeln, ZDG and I both noticed a beautiful building -- the monastery (I also noticed that there were a number of bakeries open on a Sunday!). On our return, there were many people in the city. It turns out that Einsiedeln is the most important place of pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary in Switzerland. It's supposed to also have a pretty good Christmas Market, so we may be returning soon.

Zürich to Lugano

On Thursday, October 16, we woke up to rain in Zürich.  Hopefully the weather would be better in the south.  We took the bus and tram to the Hauptbahnhof with plenty of time to catch our train (every once in a while Zürich Daddy Geek will humor my need to not arrive with one minute to spare).  We picked up a newspaper and new sudoku book and went to find our reserved seats.

One minor complication.  Someone was sitting in Little Geek Girl's seat.  As in the forward facing window seat.  She doesn't like to sit backwards and she doesn't like to sit next to strangers.  Yes, we need to convince her that she can't always have her way, but when we can we try to see what we can do.  (Yes, this means we have stood on a bus/trolley for 20 minutes due to lack of appropriate seats.  She will sit on a parent's lap next to someone, but that's not fun for the parent.  Sometimes she'll sit on her knees facing forwards in a backwards facing seat--if one of us is next to her.)  The gentleman in her seat insisted that it was his seat, his company had reserved it for him, he spoke to someone on the train and they told him it was his seat.  ZDG went to look for train staff to help out, but couldn't find anyone.  The rest of the car was full of people already in their reserved seats.  I explained to him LGG's seat preferences and if it wasn't absolutely critical that he have the window seat facing forward, could he please move to the window seat facing backwards.  Otherwise, LGG would probably be very unhappy and whining for most of the three hour train ride.  He conceded that what was most important to him was to have a window seat and he then changed seats.  Fortunately he spoke English so we were not required to dig into our dictionaries for this exchange.  

The rest of the train ride was uneventful.  I had purchased rub-on decals especially for the train ride, so LGG happily colored and transferred decals.  ZDG and I worked on our German homework.

We arrived in Lugano and it was overcast, but at least it was not raining.  Because we had a travelpack and LGG with us, we decided to take the bus to our hotel.  We were staying at the Hotel Colorado (yes, our last US state), which was offering 50% off the second night's stay during the month of October.  Originally we had hoped to stay in Lugano for three nights, but we changed it to two nights after looking at the hotel rates.  The hotel was not that full so we were able check in right away and drop off our stuff.  

We walked down the hill to the lake front and were greeted by the following statue:

It was about a 10 - 15 minute walk into Lugano proper and we looked for a place to stop for lunch.  We decided to go to the same place where Auntie Geek and I ate back in April, Bottegone del Vino.  After about a ten minute wait we were seated.  ZDG had rabbit, polenta with porcini mushrooms, and green beans, LGG had some pasta, and I had tuna tartare.  The waiters there were really nice about trying to find a comfortable chair for LGG.  At first they brought a high stool, but her knees ended up hitting the table, so they brought her two seat cushions.  Also, they did not charge us for her pasta or her milk.  At the end of our meal there was no sign of our waiter so we ended up asking for the bill from another waiter.

Afterwards we walked through the town to the funicular back up to the train station to catch the S-bahn to Melide for our visit to Swissminiatur. 

Lovely Leeks

Leeks are very long here. There's plenty of light green and white parts. Here is a lovely specimen:


I might be remembering incorrectly, but in the US, the leeks are a lot shorter and consequently there's a lot less light green and white bits.

I used this one in variable roasted vegetables from Just Hungry. I used butternut squash, fennel, leek, broccoli, and garlic. About ten minutes from the end I added some diced smoked sausage and before serving topped with Pecorino Romano. Eaten with some pumpkin seed bread.

We do have pictures from our Lugano trip, but right now we're trying to get through the busy part of the week.

Failure to Communicate

Fall Holiday is over, but there was no school today due to teacher training.  This afternoon Little Geek Girl and I went for a walk in the woods and as we approached our apartment building we saw German Neighbor Girl and Swiss Neighbor Girl.  German Neighbor Girl asked if LGG wanted to play, but LGG wanted to have a snack first.  I suggested having the snack in the yard, but she wanted to go inside to get rid of her gum.  I thought I told the girls that we were going inside to eat but we would be back in five minutes.

We go inside, eat the granola bar and drink some milk and go back outside.  No sign of German Neighbor Girl.  Swiss Neighbor Girl is there, but acting pretty shy.  We end up following her around to the front of the building and then German Neighbor Girl's mom comes out on her way to the store.  She kindly goes back inside to see if German Neighbor Girl wants to come back out to play, but German Neighbor Girl wants to stay inside to watch TV.  Obviously my attempt to explain to German Neighbor Girl what we were going to do failed miserably.

Everyone says that kids at this age learn new languages easily.  Well, our kid is quite stubborn and we think that she's waiting until she's perfect before she'll speak.  Often times she's worried about other kids "asking her questions that she can't answer", but frequently she'll want me to tell them things for her.  Hopefully one day she'll see the light and realize that if she wants to communicate with the other kids, she better do it herself if she wants it done right.  And hopefully I'll be able to do it too eventually.

Junior Card

We're leaving tomorrow morning to spend some time in Lugano. We plan to meet up with some friends who are in the region on holiday from Edinburgh. The last time we met these friends was in San Diego, and the time before that, was in Paris. Who knows where we will meet next?

It's about a three hour train ride and even though we might not need them, we wanted to get seat reservations. Little Geek Girl is still pretty light, but she is long and poky, and neither of us wants her on our lap if the train ends up being full. Since LGG is still five, she doesn't need a ticket, but in order to make a seat reservation for her, she needs a Junior Card. For 20 CHF a year, a Junior Card allows a child between 6 and 16 to travel for free with a paying parent.

We were wondering if we would have to choose a parent to get the card. It turns out both parents get the Junior Card. So now we have the ability to make seat reservations for longer trips, and we were going to need the card in another four months anyways when she turns six.

Four to a Box

Before we even moved here I had learned about Luxemburgerli -- the scrumptious mini macarons. The first weekend we were here, Zürich Daddy Geek purchased a small box. He said that was the smallest box available. The smallest box holds about 12 and while Auntie Geek was here, we worked our way through all of the flavors, three at time, for the four of us.

Now, Little Geek Girl would happily eat four Luxemburgerli at a single sitting and for special occasions it's okay for the rest of us. However, I'm trying to exercise moderation these days. I haven't gained the expat 15 lbs (we live in the land of cheese and chocolate, you know), but I think I have some pounds that would not be missed, so I'm starting with portion control rather than eliminating any particular foods.

Yesterday we stopped off at Sprüngli to pick up some chocolate for some friends we're meeting in Lugano and of course LGG was eager to have some Luxemburgerli. I decided to ask if it was possible to purchase only a few, and hooray, there is now a box that holds just four perfectly. LGG lucked out and was offered one for the road, so she had a chocolate in the store and two for home, I picked a pistachio for ZDG, and for me, the flavor of the month, Bailey's. Yum. I also picked up another cookie for each of us. See, that's kind of moderation, right?

Our ballots are here! Our ballots are here!

I've been checking the mail frequently and this morning I found what I've been waiting for.  Our ballots have arrived.  Zürich Daddy Geek will be watching Little Geek Girl at lunch today so he can fill out his ballot then and then LGG and I can go to the post office this afternoon.

By the way, LGG wants me to point out that she is a "big girl".  I guess she can read some words over my shoulder.  Usually she claims she can't read.  

Another trip to the Basel Zoo

Have we mentioned that the Zürich Zoo doesn't have giraffes.  And that Little Geek Girl loves giraffes?  So on Saturday, we took the train to Basel and spent a nice day at the zoo.  A minor flaw in the plan was that they working on the giraffe enclosure so we weren't able to get that close, but it was nice to see some horned, spotted, and long-necked creatures.

After the zoo we walked towards the city center.  LGG climbed the sculpture by Paddy Reilly's and then we stopped for a drink elsewhere and a snack of Tarte Flambee.  We went up to the Münster to look at the Rhine and the view and then headed back to the station, stopping for a quick dinner on the way back.

On the way to Basel, our German neighbors were on the train (continuing on to Hamburg for the second week of Fall holiday) and on the way home one of Zürich Daddy Geek's colleagues sat with us.  We were quite surprised that the Saturday 8 pm train from Basel to Zürich was so full, but were happy to get seats.

Anyways, here are some photos so you don't forget what we look like.

Almost back to normal

Our streak of no lost baggage ended this weekend at almost 4 years. The last time the airlines lost something, it was Little Geek Girl's carseat in December of 2004. On Sunday, Zürich Daddy Geek's duffel bag decided to spend a little longer in Brussels than he did. Arrving at Zürich airport is usually a piece of cake, but dealing with the lost bag added an additional hour. LGG and I could have slept in. Oh well. (It turns out that the duffel bag was found without tags and it was delivered to the apartment on Monday morning).

Sunday was a lovely day to be outside and down by the lake we could see the Alps with their dusting of snow. However, ZDG was exhausted from his long travel day and he went to bed early and I tried to convince LGG to go to sleep. On Monday, ZDG and LGG went to the zoo to get some outside and sun time, and I caught up on my German homework and laundry. On Tuesday morning, LGG received her first of three vaccinations for tick-borne encephalitis and then we split up. I went to an exercise class and met a friend for lunch. ZDG and LGG had lunch and went up to the Uetliberg. After lunch I called ZDG and decided to join them at the top (this way LGG could have an additional hour of playing at the playground) and we walked down the Planet Walk a little bit and then down the steep trail to the tram, Nimmi's for yummy Indian/Sri Lankan food for dinner, and home. ZDG was shocked when an older woman on the tram actually opened a window for ventilation. The horror of fresh air!

ZDG returned to work yesterday, but he's still pretty tired. LGG helped me with grocery shopping and in the afternoon we went to a playground in the area we lived in when we first arrived. Last night was a pretty amazing rainstorm and this morning was overcast, so LGG and I had a stay at home day playing with Playdoh.

The sun is shining! The sun is shining!

After two days of incessant rain the sun is shining again!  Perfect weather to take Zürich Daddy Geek outside and reset his body clock.

We had a fun time with our friends last night.  We ate gooey melted cheese on potatoes (well, the kids had pasta), built train tracks, and feasted on lemon bars and chocolate chip cookies.  Our friends left around 10 pm, but I couldn't get Little Geek Girl asleep until after midnight.  However, she still wanted to go meet ZDG at the airport so right now I'm trying to get her fed, dressed, and out the door so we can hopefully run into ZDG.  And then wander outside in the glorious sunshine.  It looks like it will be a beautiful day.

Chocolate Cube Cookies

A couple of months ago, I posted about my confusion about baking chocolate.  Tanya at Expat Chow pointed out that they do have chocolate chips here, but they're actually chocolate cubes and packaged in an opaque bag.  Now that I knew what I was looking for I was able to easily find them (must get over thinking things come in packages that I'm used to).

Here's a bag of them.  

Here's a picture of Little Geek Girl modeling a chocolate cube, but I think it's already been eaten.  She's a cube off the old chocolate loving mother.

In preparation for having friends over this weekend, we made a batch of my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough.  I usually add a mix of semi-sweet and milk, but for today's adventure I used all semi-sweet.  Next time I'll have to remember to get a bar of milk chocolate to add to the cookies.

Back in July, the New York Times had an article on tips for chocolate chip cookies.  One of the tips was to let the cookie dough age to let the dough fully absorb the eggs.  So, we baked a few cookies (just to check the dough, you know) and the rest of the dough will age in the refrigerator until Saturday.  We might even leave some for Zürich Daddy Geek to have when he gets home on Sunday.