OrangeCinema Tickets NOW ON SALE!

I got my tickets... did you?! Buy now before they are sold out and watch a movie under the stars with the Zürisee as the stunning background. I missed this last year and was not about to miss it again. Good luck and perhaps I will see you there!

• OrangeCinema Film program
• Buy tickets

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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

I hate Swiss coins

All my accumulating Swiss coins. I hate you...
but love the coin pouch (thanks, Jodi!)

Here is what I know:

• They are all too silver... I know US coins are also very silver, but... these are just way TOO silver. Too shiny.
  
  
• They are all too similar. I feel that US coins vary more - like with the States on the back of the quarter - that makes me happy. These all have the same pattern and same repetition. It makes my eyes hurt. Get creative Switzerland. You make your paper money colorful, what's up with the coins?
  

• Jace hates to use them. So we end up with buckets of coins around the house that we have to use up. Thank God there is no penny though... similar to Australia so I am over the fact that they are rounding up somewhere and ripping me off. Over that. Won't speak of it again. So thankfully no need for a huge penny jar. But I do wish that they didn't accumulate so much. I think it has to do with the fact that there are 1, 2 and 5 Franc coins and therefore there is always just so much coinage to go around... Hate their accumulatingness... know that is not a word. Hate that the coins force me to make up words.
  

I hate you most of all fifty rappen piece... ooh you irk me.
From bottom left to top right, 5 Rappen, 50 Rappen, 10 Rappen, 20
Rappen and 1 Franc/100 Rappen (Rappen are what cents are called in Switzerland)

• I hate the fifty rappen coin. It is way too small for its own good. Now, I know that the dime is small, but this is like if we created a fifty cent piece and made it smaller than the penny. It just does not make sense. They get it right when it comes to the Franc sizes: 2 is bigger than 1 Franc and smaller than 5 francs. Makes sense... But with the fifties - I am continually finding them stuck around the house and cursing the minters for making such a valuable piece so freaking small. I HATE YOU MINTERS! Why do you punish us so?... I can't imagine the small fortunes I must leave behind in other people's car or on the bus. Just follow me around if you need some dough - just follow the trail of fifty cent pieces to find me.
  

What do you think? Am I over-exaggerating here? Do you love the Swiss mint? Tell me... :)
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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

Adventures in the Swiss Allotment Garden

Sunflowers and zuchinni and pumpkins

Funny story: So the other day, I forgot my keys for the garden at work, but it was so sunny out that I just had to go tend to it. So I thought, for sure someone will let me in when I get there, right? So I walked the 10 minutes or so to the garden to wait for someone to let me in...

Beans and more lettuce

And I waited... and I waited. No one was around. How can this be? The weather was great?! The sun was shining. No one. I could see people in the distance but I did not want to force them to come a running to let me in. So I did what anyone would do...

Tomato

I jumped the fence... and just as I was relishing in my amazing strength and prowress, my cat like nature to evade the enemy and glide over an obstacle, my flip flop slid from my foot - landing on the other side of the fence, naturally just out of reach... so there I was, a fugitive in my own garden, with one rubber flip flop.

Potato flower

No worries, I thought. I am pretty skilled. I will just go barefoot and do a few things in the garden and get the shoe later. No problem! Then I realized...

Spring onions

The same set of keys for the garden have the keys for the shed. DOH! There was not much I could do then but harvest a bit of lettuce and make a run for it - with one shoe. So I went to go back and jump back over the fence, but there was a couple on the bench just outside now. My plans were foiled!

Peas

At that point, I saw a fellow gardener by the gate and decided to work my magic on him... but before doing so, I took of my remaining flip flop and shoved it into my bag. Everyone gardens barefoot, right? He would not notice a thing! So I hobbled across the stones to the gate, pleaded for him to let me out, which he did, and...

More peas

... scrambled to get my flip flop, saying hello to those on the bench, like everyone just randomly loses shoes these days and picks them up on their way home. And then I scuffled back to the house, vowing never to forget my keys or my sanity again. The things we do for fresh salad, I tell ya.

Salad. Lettuce. Love.

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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

Flumserberg Hike (part 2)

As promised, here are the photos from the hike a couple of weekends ago. Flumserberg is so different in the summer - green, flowers everywhere, warm. :) It was really a pleasure to hike there and I would recommend it 100%. Just take the train to Untertertzen and the Gondola up to the top (Tannenboden, it's about a 15 minute ride).

We went with Jace's work colleagues and their families, and the weather could not have been more perfect... doesn't this just look like a dream? I am really glad they organized the event!

Here is Jace, donning his now slightly used hiking gear, and I got to put my new hiking shoes (purchased in the US) to the test. They were great! Very light and comfy. For once... I had the right shoes! :)

We took the gondola from Tannenboden (where are the ski lifts are) up to Maschgenkamm (another 15 minute gondola ride) and from there walked down the mountain.

By the way, this is exactly my kind of hike:

Scenic.

Rolling hills perfect for replicating The Sound of Music scenes.

And easy, wide tracks that are not stuck into a cliff side. Boy I hate those! Never again.
I love safety. And flatness... yes.

And plenty of photo opps along the way! Not to mention lots of flowers!

We stopped after about 2 hours for a BBQ lunch. There was a grill and firewood all ready for hikers to use and we got quite creative when it came to drinking the wine, considering we all forgot cups. It worked out well in the end!

And then we walked for about another hour and a half down to where we started, Tannenboden. A few skiers might remember this little house near Tannenboden, usually covered to the top with snow!

I would recommend you go for a hike at Flumserberg this summer, before the snow sets in in August... just kidding, maybe Sept. :) It was a great way to enjoy the Swiss outdoors and get some exercise... lord knows I need it - I am still working off this!
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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

Flora of the Alps - Flumserberg Hike (part 1)

We went hiking a little while back at Flumserberg - yes, the very place we did our snowboarding lessons in the winter - and the mountains and day were just beautiful. It was the perfect hiking weather and I really enjoyed myself.

But before I write up the hike, and since I accidentally gave a sneak preview already, I thought I would share some of the flora that we encountered up at 6000 feet. I will preface these photos by saying that I have NO IDEA what they are - although I think one photo is of buttercups - so feel free to comment with the correct horticultural names - either common name or genius / species... we are pretty easy going here at Swisstory. :) Enjoy!

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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

Are the Swiss too trustful?

My online shipment,
delivered before I even had to pay one cent...

So I ordered some gardening gear online a few weeks back (boy is this a rarity - I miss shopping online), and as payment by credit card was not an option, I wondered if they would send me a payment slip in advance or just send it all at once... and low and behold, they did the latter. They sent it before I had even paid one cent!

I received all the things I ordered (new gloves and a special tool, a rotational hoe or something like that translated x 2 because I broke the neighbors!), plus the orange payment slip in the same box.

That just kills me. Every time...

I mean, what a trusting company. What a trusting country.

I cannot believe that they deliver the goods before I have even paid for them.

This is not the first time that this has happened, nor will it be the last, I am sure, but regardless I am always amazed when it does because THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN THE US. I mean, it just would never.

I suppose we used to operate on an account system. 'Just put it on my tab...' was all you needed to say and then you paid at the end of the month. People were just more trust-worthy back then I suppose.

But what has happened to the world in that this is endlessly fascinating to me now.

What do you think? Is this backwards? Are the Swiss too trusting or is America just too corrupt for its own good?
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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

New Facebook Fan Page!

Networked blogs, the application I used before to create a Facebook space, now integrates with Facebook pages... you know what that means?!

Announcing - the Swisstory Facebook Fan Page.

Become a fan today. You know you want to. Have a great weekend. Lots of strawberries and salad in my future... enjoy! ;)

Ferry me across the Rhein - Basel

As I mentioned yesterday in my summary of Basel, we took a very cool means of transport across the Rhein - the ferry. And this is no ordinary ferry - oh no - this is quite something. It is a ferry that is powered completely by the current, tied to a cable. Basically, the driver just change the direction of the rudder, put the boat at a 45 degree angle into the current and the power of the current moves the ferry across the cable to the other side of the river. Genius.

Actually, Wikipedia says it better:

''A somewhat anachronistic yet still widely used system of ferry boats links the two shores. There are four ferries, each situated approximately midway between two bridges. Each is attached by a cable to a block that rides along another cable spanning the river at a height of 20 or 30 metres. To cross the river, the ferryman orients the boat around 45° from the current so that the current pushes the boat across the river. This form of transportation is therefore completely hydraulically driven, requiring no outside energy source.''

On the other side, all we could talk about was how we wanted to make one of these in Australia... but where to find a river fast enough... hm... The ride was just 80 rappen per person and took all of 3 minutes, perhaps less... the current is fast! And it was awesome. I would highly recommend it and thanks again to Don for the tip!

Actually, the only thing that stopped us talking about the ferry was the view from the other side... and... something so crazy I still cannot believe it-- look close at what was crossing the Mittlere Brücke as we took in the view:

Do you see it? Click to enlarge if you cannot.

YES! Elephants! Crazy town that Basel... elephants and middle age ferries. What more could you want!?

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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.