Visiting Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland -- July 2014

Travelling again, and does it feel great!  This year I have resolved to relax more, to observe rather than sightsee, and to get the feel of daily life of the places I visit. 

Here in Zurich this resolution is quite easy to follow, as I have the unique opportunity to stay with my daughter and son-in-law, and share their daily activities and routines.  Getting that  ‘up close and personal’ view of life in Switzerland.

Work day starts very early with lunchtimes strictly observed, meaning the shops are services are closed from 12:30pm to 1:30pm, so don't plan on stopping at the post office or picking up your cleaning during lunch hour. Promptly at 5pm the workforce emerges from the trams for the short walk home.  The public transportation system of busses and trams is great here - convenient, quiet, clean (but expensive), and environmentally sound.  In fact, people here opt to use public transportation to get to work rather than their cars.  The city traffic planners seem to discourage use of cars here, methods of an unacknowledged “car-tax” which include steep parking fees (300 CF per year) to park on the street but with no guarantee of finding a place, city shopping areas with no parking lots, and extremely restrictive speed limits and huge fines for minor exceedances. And of course, the streets are narrow, winding, with tiny parking spaces - if you can find one.  In general, this is a very expensive city in which to live, but it is a very beautiful, safe, crazy-clean city.  As my son-in-law tells me, Zurich keeps you in a warm jacket, but it is a very tight jacket!

 

We went for a weekend drive south-east past the Bodensee, across the tiny land-locked country of Liechtenstein, to the Austrian Alpine resort of Silbertal.  Weather was stormy, but the dark clouds made the scenery even more dramatic.  The town of Silberstal was a quaint Alpine site with charming Gasthauses for the winter skiers, hi-end shopping, and a city hall flying international flags.  All the houses and businesses were decorated with colorful flowerboxes and Tyrolean woodcarving. Above the town was the 13^th century village of Bartholomäberg and a well-preserved Baroque church with the classic onion-domed tower, and we drove up to it and got a few photos of the amazing views to the valley below.

Lots more to see here in Switzerland, then I will be visiting Germany and France in the weeks ahead!