Category Archives: Switzerland

Food, Switzerland

Summer Sales

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While Switzerland might not rock at sales, I have come to accept that the “sales rack” simply does not exist in Switzerland. Instead, you have “summer sales”, which is the one time of year when you can find massive discounts on almost everything. This was how we scored our gourmet coffee maker with a 500CHF reduction.

This year I received a gift card for my birthday to the fairly expensive, “luxury” department store Globus, where in search of taller cake caddys, I noticed Le Creuset pans on significant discount.

The gourmet version of this 6.2L/30cm pot normally runs around 339CHF and was on sale for 199. Apparently it even runs for $600 in the States, which just seems nuts.

I ended up dragging Kay back with me on a Saturday to buy one… plus a crepe pan, which was definitely not on sale.

But with the gift card and the reduction on the other pan, my total still came to way less than what I would pay for these pans in the States, on sale from Amazon. Yeah!

I also told Kay that these are “forever” pans and wherever we ever move, they are coming with us, non-negotiable. Kay’s response was just that I had better stop making salads like below and start making yummy food in my new toys. I forgot to mention to him that I planned for him to make the crepes in the crepe pan since he’s better at it than me… 😉I also did manage to find what seems to be a nice, tall cake caddy online from Pro Idee, which seems very similar to something you can get on Amazon. And I bought a ton of gluten free food online, including beer, which I plan to try with Kay soon. 🙂Have you made any home purchases this summer?

 

Switzerland

Happy Swiss National Day

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It’s here, it’s here again! Happy Swiss National Day!

(Badi Tiefenbrunnen)

We are celebrating today with Kay’s family. His brother flew in from Madrid and we are grilling and enjoying some gluten free goodies.

Of course it will be a bit sad and definitely different without my MIL to celebrate, but we will remember the nice holidays we enjoyed with her. When Kay was away for work one year, I spent one of my first Swiss National days with his parents seeing the parade and festivities in Zurich. I remember being proud that I was making the step to spend time alone with my then boyfriend’s family.

I’ll be sure to take some pictures and make an update, but for now I’m enjoying a cold, gluten free beer. If there is one thing that is really on my to do list this weekend, it is taking a family photo!

Switzerland

Enjoying all things summer

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In some ways, this summer feels like the last summer because next year Kay will be in a different country. Ever since the temperatures peaked to HOT, we’ve been spending night after night outside enjoying fresh air and everything gorgeous Switzerland has to offer in the summer, from swimming in the lakes and rivers to climbing in the mountains.

(Walking past the Sihl river on a warm night.)

Every day it’s warm enough at lunch, I also head to the lake for a quick dip and swim in the lake. It’s really heaven on Earth.Now that Kay is “in” his school, the stress of applications is over and we are really trying to maximize our time together.

(Bürkliplatz, on the way to Bade Enge for my birthday)

For instance, after we took our second climbing course in June, we decided to order a set of express (quick draws) and some carabiners. Now with our other gear, we have everything we need to head to the mountains and climb all on our own for the rest of the summer. 🙂My cute boy on my birthday. We probably won’t see each other on either of our birthdays next year.Evening sun.Below we were swimming at Obere Letten, a public swimming bath at the Limmat river in Zurich where you can jump into the river, take a float or swim, and then pop out. We stopped by shortly on my birthday before dinner and movies. It was glorious.

Sushi in the park near Limmatplatz. Everyone was playing in the park and enjoying themselves. With the warm weather, there’s really a lively feel about the city.

I’m also obsessed with all these flowers planted around many towns around Zurich and in the city. I didn’t notice them last year, so they must be new, but they are beautiful.

Between all the swimming, weekend activities, socializing, and planning for the future, life is very, very busy at the moment!

Are you enjoying summer in your city to the fullest?

Life, Switzerland

Temporary Graves

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Being a very small country, real estate is extremely expensive in Switzerland. Still, many foreigners from the Americas are surprised when they learn just how far this constraint takes the country when it comes to burials.

I had already learned about the temporary nature of Swiss graves before my MIL’s sudden passing, but had I not, it would have made things very difficult to understand during the week that we arranged her funeral because we had some choices to make that would affect how long we have a grave to visit.In Switzerland, graves are usually “rented” for a period of 10 to 20 years. Different grave sites have different periods of rental beyond that and it is generally not possible to prolong the period of burial by buying more time.

What does this mean?

Whether people are laid to rest in an individual grave or a mass grave, after the time period is up, it is possible that a newer death and burial will bump older burials out of the memorial site as a need for space arises.

We had already visited the family grave site together with my MIL a couple years ago to see where Kay’s grandparents are laid to rest. Now they have already torn out two rows of graves next to his grandparents to make space for new burials.

In a couple years, Kay’s grandparents’ graves will also be dismantled and renewed for new arrivals. His uncle who died young at 42 is in the same row, and in a few years, my FIL won’t be able to visit his brother’s grave anymore either.

How does this affect funeral decisions?

To us, it meant that my FIL had to make the decision between burying my MIL in the family grave site where she stated that wished to be laid to rest for a period of ten years or burying her closer to his house with a grave that would be secure for twenty years.

My FIL was asking himself what happens in ten years when he is turning 70 and he cannot visit his wife’s grave anymore? It’s a sad thing to think about, but it’s a fact of life in Switzerland.  Ultimately he decided to go with the family grave site still because he wanted to lay her to rest where she said she wanted to be, in the way that she desired.

What do they do with the remains of old graves?

To my knowledge, if people are buried without cremating, they are then cremated and moved to a mass grave. If they were already cremated and in the mass grave, I think the remains stay there, but any “packaging” like the urn or anything is removed or destroyed to make way for new burials and their name is removed from the current plaque on the mass grave.

My MIL was buried in the mass grave already because she did not want to be alone in death and my FIL already stated that it is more practical to go in the mass grave because it is cheaper. My MIL is the first new name on a stone with about nine other inhabitants of the mass grave, with deaths ranging from the 90’s until now. If few or no people wish to be buried in this particular spot, it is possible that her memorial plaque will remain there for more than 10 years.

What about death records?

Just because graves are recycled does not mean that there is not a good if not better system of death records than a country like the US. Everything is entered into a record, also when graves are recycled and none of the information about genealogy is lost. It is just a practical matter of space.

What is the point of burying someone in Switzerland or Europe?

The whole point of the grave is to have a place where loved ones can physically mourn their loss. After 10, 20 or even 50 years, the government considers that people should have made peace with their loss and if they want to remember their loved one further, they need to do it in their own way and not with a physical grave.

It does make sense considering how small Switzerland and how populated the continent is in general. If we compare to the US, how many graves are set up and forgotten for years and years afterward? It is also a bit depressing to think of the mass of graves that are unattended, no longer cared for, and completely forgotten about.

At least in Switzerland when you “rent” your grave, it is meticulously cared for during the period of time meant to appreciate it and after that, we are meant to let go. After all, none of us will be here forever and eventually we will all become part of the Earth again.

Switzerland

Sport Climbing Course 2

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After an exhausting week, I was not at all looking forward to our climbing course on the weekend; I actually wanted to stay home and sleep. The weather forecast was not promising, but after Kay checked on Friday evening, we were told chances were 50/50, so we still had to prepare the climbing gear. Sigh.

The next day, Kay got up at 5:55am to call and check if the course was on before our 6:30am train to get to Solothurn on time for the 8am course. I was not a happy girl when Kay came back to bed to tell me the course was on and it was time to get up. I was a grumpy, grumpy, tired Katie. But we got ready, caught the train, and arrived at Bergsport Bordogna in Solothurn just in time.I was still not in the greatest mood as we drove to Farnern. It was 9C/48F and COLD. I did not bring enough clothes for it to be this cold. I was not really a happy camper as we started our first ascent. But, by the time we climbed all the way up and were taught in Schwiizerdütsch how to abseil down, the sun was shining some and it had warmed up to a brisk 13C/55F. It was at least warm enough that I could feel my fingers on the rock again.

And look at me there, abseiling down like a rock star. I was terrified to do it by myself the first time, but it was quite fun!

As this is considered “sport climbing” in English, where the route is set up beforehand with anchored bolts, Kay and I would climb up in turns using express quickdraws while belaying each other as the other person climbed.

It’s always a little confusing for me to explain it in English because I am learning the climbing terms directly in German and they are not words I am familiar with in English. Everything in the climbing world is new to me and because our courses are in German, I am actually more comfortable giving all the climbing commands and information to Kay in German.

We climbed two multi-pitch routes. Since I was feeling a bit more nervous, I usually had Kay do the lead climbing and I trailed behind picking up the quickdraws on the way up.

There was one route that was hard to make ground for the mid-point and I didn’t want to climb past him and keep going up, so we switched mid-route and I had him continue. I’m glad, because just after the grounding area was a very tricky part and I completely lost my footing and fell, which always scares the bejeezus out of me, but it was right by an express, so I didn’t have anywhere to fall and did not hurt anything more than my nails.

They say with climbing that in order to progress, you need to push yourself to your limit and that falling means you have pushed yourself to that limit and that you will learn from it. So while it is scary to slip, it means that I am trying hard to become better at climbing.

Below is Kay starting his descent and some of the group waiting at the bottom.

It was our first time using our new climbing shoes on real rock outside, so that was nice, but a little tight after awhile.

My mood improved a lot over the day and while I had some, “Oh shit, what am I doing here?!” moments on the rock, I was happy that I went and proud with what I accomplished.

We have our own shoes, belts, rope, and helmets; now all we need is our own express set, belaying device and break, some locking carabiners, and a belay station sling so we can start climbing any preexisting route, which we have plenty of in this country.

I still really recommend the climbing courses through Bergsport Bordogna because they are great value for a whole day of climbing. For beginners, you pay just 90CHF and the course is from 8am-5pm and includes all your gear. You would easily pay 300CHF for the same service in a climbing hall and would probably learn less.

For course level 2, we paid 110CHF and they provided all the gear we did not have ourselves yet. It’s not often you find an all day activity like this in Switzerland for so cheap!

This is the rock formation we climbed up to from the parking area.

It’s always insanely beautiful in the countryside. There’s also something really calming about being in the wilderness with only the sound of the cowbells jingling in the background.

So now Kay is buying the rest of these items for us so we can go climbing outdoors. Our only problem is transportation, as most of these routes are very faraway from public transportation and we just have Kay’s motorbike. We are looking into buying a pacsafe bag so that we could lock up the bike gear to the bike and avoid schlepping it up the mountain with us.