According to the recently released Mercer Consulting's annual 'World-wide Quality of Living Survey', Zurich was ranked #1 for the sixth consecutive year as the best city in the world to live in. After living here for three months now, we could not agree more. In that short time, we have personally been able to experienced Zurich's positive political, social, economic and environmental factors, work-life balance, extremely low crime rate, unbelievable (and most likely unsustainable) healthcare system, world class educational system, incredible public transportation, and beautiful women roaming the streets (now that I am married, I shouldn't say these kind of things...there is only one! Chris, please change when you edit.).
Another benefit that Steve has been fortunate to experience is all the public holidays in Europe. Unfortunately, Chris is still working for the US firm, remotely from Zurich, so she is held to the traditional US holiday schedule. However, we were able to use the 2.5 day Easter holiday to visit Munich, Germany. It was a great city (ranks in the top 10 on the Mercer list) and allowed us the opportunity to practice our improving German skills, without anyone speaking annoying Swiss-German. We decided to fly, as the cost of the flights was cheaper than taking the train. We arrive late on Thursday night (as Chris had to work) and headed for the train to Munich. The airport was very modern and had a very high-tech, automatic revolving door/exit. It was huge and like a ride out of DisneyWorld. This thing automatically spins like a normal revolving door, but if it senses a lot of people coming, it would stop spinning, and the middle of the revolving door would open and become a normal, motion-sensor door. It was big enough to fit 4 to 5 people in one of the revolving door compartments, even with luggage. We were rolling our suitcases, trying to figure where to catch the train, and at the same time, trying to figure out how this "ride" worked to exit the airport. We timidly entered one section of the revolving door, as the growing line of people waited behind us. After completely inside, the revolving door suddenly stopped and we were trapped inside. We were not sure what to do. We tried everything – pushing, backing up, jumping, and waving our arms – but the revolving door would not budge. Several people tried to help and were trying to give us instructions (in German, we think), but we had not yet covered the "stuck in a revolving door" lesson in our German class. Eventually, we pried ourselves out of the revolving door, with some help, and jumped on the train for an uneventful trip to our hotel.
Or so we thought. We took our seats and soon the ticket takers came to collect our tickets. Directly across from us, there was a single, lady in her fifties, talking loudly on her cell phone. We listened intensely to see if we could pick out any words. When the ticket takers got to her and asked to see her ticket, she kept talking on her cell phone, raising her voice as the ticket taker pressed her for the ticket. We were excited for some action and were happy it lasted the entire trip to the main train station (about 35 minutes). This was our stop, but we waited as the official police were called in. When they came, she opened up her purse and produced a valid ticket and started to laugh hysterically at the two ticket takers.
While in Munich, we saw a lot of the sites. Here were some of our favorite things:
1) Taking a 4 hour walking tour of Munich, there is so much history to discover.
2) Exploring the English garden, which is a park four times the size of Central Park,
3) Having a half liter of German beer in the outdoor Chinese beer garden that sat 10,000 people inside the English Garden,
4) Hofbrau Haus – We stopped for a beer here on our walking tour. This beer hall has existed since 1644 and lives up to its reputation: beer, food, tourists, oom-pah music, drunken revelry and Lederhosen. It seats about 4,000 people and a local band usually plays some real Bavarian music. We watched people have beer after beer after beer...very impressive anytime, but it was before noon on Easter Sunday! If you look around on the ceiling, you will notice painted swastikas. Adolf Hitler got the swastika idea for his third reich from sitting in the Hofbrau house and gazing up at the ceiling.
5) Neuschwanstein Castle – One day we took a day trip with a tour group to the Neuschwanstein Castle, about 2 hours south of Munich, near the Austria border. This was the castle that inspired the Disneyworld castle. The views were incredible (see attached pictures). This royal palace is in the Bavarian Alps of Germany, and the most famous of three royal palaces built for Louis II of Bavaria, sometimes referred to as Mad King Ludwig. The castle consisted of 60 rooms, but only 16 were finished when we died, after only living in the castle for 6 months. The Germany government, who owns the castle and gives the stripted tour, said he died a "mysterious death". A few days before his death, the police took him from his bedroom and arrested him. They thought the castle was a waste of money and wanted him evaluated by a psychiatrist. Later, he was found drowned in a nearby lake. Our private tour guide said three pieces of evidence indicate he was shot: 1) A bullet hole was found in his coat (but the evidence room that held the coat burned down shortly afterward), 2) a journal after the death of a fishman who had witnesses the death reveled he was shot (he didn't say anything while he was alive for obvious reasons), and 3) the government has the body, but won't perform an autopsy (However, a group was allow to take an X-ray from outside the coffin, and indicated a bullet by his lower rib). Ironically, the castle was turned into a museum six weeks after his death and now attracts 1.3 million visitors a year at 14 Euros a pop. I would say it was quite a wise investment that Mad King Ludwig made.
6) Pizza Hut – After having lived on Swiss and German food for the last three months, our mouths started to salivate like a Pavlovian dog when we saw the Pizza Hut sign. All 13 Pizza Hut's in Switzerland went bankrupt a few years ago, as Swiss people prefer the thin crust, Italian-style pizza usually without meat. Not us, after an order of breadsticks and an extra large, thick crust, deep dish, meat-lovers pizza, we were thinking this was the greatest meal ever. (Subsequent note: We recently saw a pizza delivery guy on a moped near the Zurich airport, with a Domino's sign. We confirmed that our apartment is located in the delivery area, so our US style pizza problem might be solved).
Our tour guide to the castle was great. He was a professional magician, so after we hiked down from the castle, we had about 1 hour before the next train back to Munich. We stopped for a coffee in a restaurant, where he pulled out some wicked card tricks. We were both very impressed, so we purchased his DVD's from him to learn how he did them. If Steve can figure them out, he might have a card trick to show you the next time we are back in the US or visit us in Switzerland.
The next week, Steve traveled to Geneva for a week for work. Geneva is a beautiful city (not as nice as Zurich, but #2 in the world on the Mercer list), located on Lake Geneva and surrounded by mountains. Since it is so close to France, they speak French, which is a little annoying if you are trying to learn German.
Monday, April 24th was another holiday called Sechselauten (6 o'clock bells), quite possibly the strangest holiday in the world, but since it was a half-day at work, we are not complaining. On this holiday, the members of all the 25 guilds (only men) proceed through the flag bedecked city, wearing historical costumes and accompanied by various bands. Until the end of the eighteenth century, the guilds were associations of craftsmen who participated in governing the city. Since then, they have only carried out social functions, of which Sechseläuten is perhaps the most colorful.
This holiday in Zurich got its unusual name from the fourteenth century custom of ringing a Grossmünster bell at six o'clock in the evening to proclaim the end of the summer semester working day. At six in the evening, everyone converges on Sechseläutenplatz at Bellevue, on the shore of Lake Zurich. There the Boogg, or snowman, symbol of the wintertime of which everyone is weary, awaits his fiery and explosive end. Groups on horseback, representing some of the guilds, gallop around him to the music of the Sechseläuten march, an old hunting march, until the Boogg finally explodes. The quicker his symbolic end occurs; the sooner the long awaited spring comes. In the evening, the guilds visit one another in their guildhouses, where jovial, witty speeches are given.
This year's holiday was not without controversy. A group of leftwing militants stole the giant cotton snowman only a few days before the holiday. It was the talk of the town for days. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the thieves smashed a window of the garage where it was stored, leaving a chocolate Easter bunny and a hammer and sickle emblem in its place. The extremist group, calling itself the "1. Mai – Strasse Frei" (loosely translated as Retaking the Streets on May Day), sent a letter to the Swiss media claiming responsibility for the theft, saying the 3.5-metre tall snowman "had had enough of putting its head on the line for capitalists."
Fortunately, they keep a spare snowman in case things like this happen, and the Boogg's head exploded in record time – 10 minutes and 30 seconds, compared to the 150 year average of 14 minutes. This means a long and hot summer awaits us and our summer visitors! We had a great view of the event from the balcony of the school where we take our German classes. Please see attached pictures.
There is speculation that the stolen Boogg might make an appearance on May 1 st during the May Day (European Labor Day) protests. (Editor's Note: Given the length of this month's newsletter, it took a couple of extra days to write and issue it and May 1 st has already passed. I am sure some of you will not sleep at night without knowing if anything happened to with the Boogg. If that is the case, sorry, but you better get some Sominex, as I will leave you wondering the outcome until May's newsletter).
Love, Steve and Chris
Another benefit that Steve has been fortunate to experience is all the public holidays in Europe. Unfortunately, Chris is still working for the US firm, remotely from Zurich, so she is held to the traditional US holiday schedule. However, we were able to use the 2.5 day Easter holiday to visit Munich, Germany. It was a great city (ranks in the top 10 on the Mercer list) and allowed us the opportunity to practice our improving German skills, without anyone speaking annoying Swiss-German. We decided to fly, as the cost of the flights was cheaper than taking the train. We arrive late on Thursday night (as Chris had to work) and headed for the train to Munich. The airport was very modern and had a very high-tech, automatic revolving door/exit. It was huge and like a ride out of DisneyWorld. This thing automatically spins like a normal revolving door, but if it senses a lot of people coming, it would stop spinning, and the middle of the revolving door would open and become a normal, motion-sensor door. It was big enough to fit 4 to 5 people in one of the revolving door compartments, even with luggage. We were rolling our suitcases, trying to figure where to catch the train, and at the same time, trying to figure out how this "ride" worked to exit the airport. We timidly entered one section of the revolving door, as the growing line of people waited behind us. After completely inside, the revolving door suddenly stopped and we were trapped inside. We were not sure what to do. We tried everything – pushing, backing up, jumping, and waving our arms – but the revolving door would not budge. Several people tried to help and were trying to give us instructions (in German, we think), but we had not yet covered the "stuck in a revolving door" lesson in our German class. Eventually, we pried ourselves out of the revolving door, with some help, and jumped on the train for an uneventful trip to our hotel.
Or so we thought. We took our seats and soon the ticket takers came to collect our tickets. Directly across from us, there was a single, lady in her fifties, talking loudly on her cell phone. We listened intensely to see if we could pick out any words. When the ticket takers got to her and asked to see her ticket, she kept talking on her cell phone, raising her voice as the ticket taker pressed her for the ticket. We were excited for some action and were happy it lasted the entire trip to the main train station (about 35 minutes). This was our stop, but we waited as the official police were called in. When they came, she opened up her purse and produced a valid ticket and started to laugh hysterically at the two ticket takers.
While in Munich, we saw a lot of the sites. Here were some of our favorite things:
1) Taking a 4 hour walking tour of Munich, there is so much history to discover.
2) Exploring the English garden, which is a park four times the size of Central Park,
3) Having a half liter of German beer in the outdoor Chinese beer garden that sat 10,000 people inside the English Garden,
4) Hofbrau Haus – We stopped for a beer here on our walking tour. This beer hall has existed since 1644 and lives up to its reputation: beer, food, tourists, oom-pah music, drunken revelry and Lederhosen. It seats about 4,000 people and a local band usually plays some real Bavarian music. We watched people have beer after beer after beer...very impressive anytime, but it was before noon on Easter Sunday! If you look around on the ceiling, you will notice painted swastikas. Adolf Hitler got the swastika idea for his third reich from sitting in the Hofbrau house and gazing up at the ceiling.
5) Neuschwanstein Castle – One day we took a day trip with a tour group to the Neuschwanstein Castle, about 2 hours south of Munich, near the Austria border. This was the castle that inspired the Disneyworld castle. The views were incredible (see attached pictures). This royal palace is in the Bavarian Alps of Germany, and the most famous of three royal palaces built for Louis II of Bavaria, sometimes referred to as Mad King Ludwig. The castle consisted of 60 rooms, but only 16 were finished when we died, after only living in the castle for 6 months. The Germany government, who owns the castle and gives the stripted tour, said he died a "mysterious death". A few days before his death, the police took him from his bedroom and arrested him. They thought the castle was a waste of money and wanted him evaluated by a psychiatrist. Later, he was found drowned in a nearby lake. Our private tour guide said three pieces of evidence indicate he was shot: 1) A bullet hole was found in his coat (but the evidence room that held the coat burned down shortly afterward), 2) a journal after the death of a fishman who had witnesses the death reveled he was shot (he didn't say anything while he was alive for obvious reasons), and 3) the government has the body, but won't perform an autopsy (However, a group was allow to take an X-ray from outside the coffin, and indicated a bullet by his lower rib). Ironically, the castle was turned into a museum six weeks after his death and now attracts 1.3 million visitors a year at 14 Euros a pop. I would say it was quite a wise investment that Mad King Ludwig made.
6) Pizza Hut – After having lived on Swiss and German food for the last three months, our mouths started to salivate like a Pavlovian dog when we saw the Pizza Hut sign. All 13 Pizza Hut's in Switzerland went bankrupt a few years ago, as Swiss people prefer the thin crust, Italian-style pizza usually without meat. Not us, after an order of breadsticks and an extra large, thick crust, deep dish, meat-lovers pizza, we were thinking this was the greatest meal ever. (Subsequent note: We recently saw a pizza delivery guy on a moped near the Zurich airport, with a Domino's sign. We confirmed that our apartment is located in the delivery area, so our US style pizza problem might be solved).
Our tour guide to the castle was great. He was a professional magician, so after we hiked down from the castle, we had about 1 hour before the next train back to Munich. We stopped for a coffee in a restaurant, where he pulled out some wicked card tricks. We were both very impressed, so we purchased his DVD's from him to learn how he did them. If Steve can figure them out, he might have a card trick to show you the next time we are back in the US or visit us in Switzerland.
The next week, Steve traveled to Geneva for a week for work. Geneva is a beautiful city (not as nice as Zurich, but #2 in the world on the Mercer list), located on Lake Geneva and surrounded by mountains. Since it is so close to France, they speak French, which is a little annoying if you are trying to learn German.
Monday, April 24th was another holiday called Sechselauten (6 o'clock bells), quite possibly the strangest holiday in the world, but since it was a half-day at work, we are not complaining. On this holiday, the members of all the 25 guilds (only men) proceed through the flag bedecked city, wearing historical costumes and accompanied by various bands. Until the end of the eighteenth century, the guilds were associations of craftsmen who participated in governing the city. Since then, they have only carried out social functions, of which Sechseläuten is perhaps the most colorful.
This holiday in Zurich got its unusual name from the fourteenth century custom of ringing a Grossmünster bell at six o'clock in the evening to proclaim the end of the summer semester working day. At six in the evening, everyone converges on Sechseläutenplatz at Bellevue, on the shore of Lake Zurich. There the Boogg, or snowman, symbol of the wintertime of which everyone is weary, awaits his fiery and explosive end. Groups on horseback, representing some of the guilds, gallop around him to the music of the Sechseläuten march, an old hunting march, until the Boogg finally explodes. The quicker his symbolic end occurs; the sooner the long awaited spring comes. In the evening, the guilds visit one another in their guildhouses, where jovial, witty speeches are given.
This year's holiday was not without controversy. A group of leftwing militants stole the giant cotton snowman only a few days before the holiday. It was the talk of the town for days. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the thieves smashed a window of the garage where it was stored, leaving a chocolate Easter bunny and a hammer and sickle emblem in its place. The extremist group, calling itself the "1. Mai – Strasse Frei" (loosely translated as Retaking the Streets on May Day), sent a letter to the Swiss media claiming responsibility for the theft, saying the 3.5-metre tall snowman "had had enough of putting its head on the line for capitalists."
Fortunately, they keep a spare snowman in case things like this happen, and the Boogg's head exploded in record time – 10 minutes and 30 seconds, compared to the 150 year average of 14 minutes. This means a long and hot summer awaits us and our summer visitors! We had a great view of the event from the balcony of the school where we take our German classes. Please see attached pictures.
There is speculation that the stolen Boogg might make an appearance on May 1 st during the May Day (European Labor Day) protests. (Editor's Note: Given the length of this month's newsletter, it took a couple of extra days to write and issue it and May 1 st has already passed. I am sure some of you will not sleep at night without knowing if anything happened to with the Boogg. If that is the case, sorry, but you better get some Sominex, as I will leave you wondering the outcome until May's newsletter).
Love, Steve and Chris
