Moving Day!

The apartment is one of four in a renovated old house. Ours is the "garden apartment" on the back of the house on the ground floor. The house is on a slight hill so the back of our apartment is partially underground.  We have a private entrance, real wood floors, granite counter tops, nice appliances including a washer and dryer in the unit (apparently this is unusual).  There is also a steamer above the oven, I guess the Swiss do a lot of steam cooking...I will have to learn to cook with steam! We liked where we lived in Bellevue because of the fabulous view and location but are looking forward to living somewhere well made and new.

Empty living room...notice there isn't a light fixture.

In Switzerland everyone gets one day off a year to move, so on Monday Torrey did just that.  We met the Property Manager at our new apartment at 8am. She did a very extensive inspection, noting every blemish. While she did her inspection Torrey took measurements and drew a plan of the apartment.  We had already made a list of items we needed to purchase but the plan helped us know exactly what would fit where. Yes, I married a very organized man and I am thankful.

Torrey is being patient with me as I begin the documentation of  our  shopping experience. 

After the keys were sorted out with the property manager we headed to Ikea. We spent quite a few hours at Ikea and managed to get most of everything on our list. We would have liked to have considered a few more items but simply ran out of time as we had a truck rented from 3-6pm.  We managed to get from Ikea, stop at our temporary apartment to pick up the boxes we shipped from the US, unload and almost get the truck back in time.  Thankfully, they didn't charge us for having the truck back late.

Torrey testing the Ikea umbrellas (he bought it).

Still smiling after a day at Ikea

Ikea rents trucks! Thanks to the Geels for the tip!

Torrey unloading outside our new apartment

Boxes full of items ready for assembly

Our first meal, that is our table - in the box

 I spent the remainder of the week putting together furniture, figuring out how to use the appliances, and organizing.

Putting together furniture in the front entrance  

Washing all the dishes for the first time, thankfully we have a dishwasher

 On Saturday as the weather wasn't supposed to be good we went to Ikea again. We expected our bed to come with slats but it didn't so we went back to get them. While we were there we hit the electronics store (Interdiscount) and bought a router, hand blender, and microwave.  We are planning a shopping trip to Germany at some point as it is cheaper especially now, because of the high Swiss Franc (sound familiar).  I had already bought a number of household items at some of the department stores in Zürich.  Apparently, this is the time of the year for sales. I was told to take advantage of them now as we won't see them again until next summer!  I am especially proud of my 75% off purchase of some Swiss cooking pots.  They are called the "entry-level line" but are excellent quality.

Waiting for the bus, Torrey is holding our bed slats (they are very heavy). Notice the other people waiting for the bus  with oversized bags and boxes.

And now on the tram

We will be fully moved in by the end of the month (end of next week). We should be getting our mattress delivered on Tuesday and we are picking up more furniture from one of Torrey's coworkers who is moving to the US.
 

Around Town

Google is Straight Across the River and Train Tracks

We have been here for about 3 1/2 weeks, hard to believe -  seems like much longer, it is so different than living in Bellevue. So what is a normal day like for us? We have been getting up at our usual time of 6am and after breakfast Torrey goes off to work to solve the Google Maps issues for the day. The office is quite spectacular, he has the usual perks of free food, a gym, and yes he does get work done. This is Torrey's current walk to work, across the river and train tracks.

Sihl River

For me, my tasks have included transferring money from the US, figuring out how to pay our rent, grocery shopping, cooking, and more recently trying to figure out where and what to buy for our new place. Most of these things are fairly straightforward, once you figure them out. For example, for paying our rent the rental company gave us a payment slip, which is like a bill. To pay it I took it into our bank and they debit our account. The slips can also be paid online and set up as a standing order. No checks, just these slips. It is straightforward, just took a number of hours to figure it out.  I mentioned our new place, we have rented a basement suite just a little bit south of the Google office. More about that in a later post. We spent a good portion of the first two weeks here looking for a place to live, we are thankful that that is over.

Our Local Migros Store

There are two main grocery store chains here, Migros and Coop they are about the same but have slightly different products. I have been shopping at both, there is a small Migros very close to us and it is easy to be in and out in 10 minutes. This is helpful as the refrigerator is so small in our temporary apartment. There is a small grocery store in each neighbourhood so people can easily walk to get groceries. There is also a big Coop a 5 minute bus ride (or 10 minute walk) down the street, in Sihl City which is a North American style mall. It has a lot more variety and is similar to a big Safeway.  However, the Coop is also a "Coop City" and sells household goods, electronics, and sports equipment. Both Migros and Coop have a decent amount of organic produce and products. It is hard to know how important organic is here as the standards for food quality are really high. Nevertheless we have continued to buy mostly organic when possible. There are a few other little grocery stores such as the Reformhaus Müller (health food) - they sell transfat free peanut butter and Barkat (Indian) - they sell hot peppers.

Coop Grocery Store in Sihl City

The public transportation system here is fantastic, the trams and buses come frequently enough that we don't bother checking the schedule. We are also becoming comfortable getting around, not having to always check the map. Trains are also very frequent and punctual.  

Tram Stop Close to our Temporary Apartment

Torrey on the Tram

This Tram is made by Bombardier

The city of Zurich has all these great playgrounds. Here is the playground in our neighbourhood:

The Local Playground

The Local Playground

We have been able to see steeple of this church on our walk to an from our apartment and Sunday night finally got around to walking up the hill to see it. I is not very big but is quite beautiful. The backside is covered with scaffolding and tarps as it is being restored. Also nice to see that they still have services.

Church on the Hill Near our Apartment

Zecke and Vitaparcours

I learned a few useful German words:

Zecke - tick

Arzt - Doctor

We knew that ticks were common in Switzerland and more specifically Zürich. I even had it on my to-do list to get a vaccination for Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) before we left, but never got around to it. However, we probably didn't have time before we left as it is a series of three shots.

Yesterday I went for a run to one of the Vitaparcours around Zürich. There are many of these throughout Switzerland. A vitaparcour is a trail run that has exercise stations with equipment made primarily out of wood. The exercises include pull-ups, balance beam, ring hold, parallel bars walk, jumping over logs, etc. I think these are great, as I can run and have a sort-of crossfit workout. The one I did yesterday was at the foot of the Üetliburg (which I wrote about a couple days ago) and I found a steep trail with stairs and switchback that went straight up the side of the mountain. I knew that I wasn't far from the peak (in distance) so I thought I would check it out. I gave it a try but when the stairs ran out and it was just muddy clay, I decided that my track shoes weren't so good for climbing mountains and headed down. I saw two other people grunting up hill but it was a narrow trail so I'm pretty sure that is where my hitch hiker joined me for the day.

Tick on the back of my left knee

I didn't notice the sucker until about 7:00 that evening, and by that time almost everything is closed in Zürich. So after consulting Doctor Google and calling the 24-hour medical clinic here, Torrey tried his hand at removing it. Unfortunately, it had burrowed in very deep and he wasn't able to get it all. I think digging in the back of my leg with a knife and tweezers was harder for him than for me. Aparently you can buy tweezers specially designed for removing ticks, I will be getting a pair of those. Again after more consultation with Google and an other call to the clinic (they weren't particularly concerned) we went to bed. In the morning, I took myself to the pharmacy and they recommended I go into the doctor and have the remainder removed.

I was a bit worried about this as we do not yet have medical insurance here. We are required to get Swiss medical and it is supposed to be retroactive to the the day we moved here, but I wasn't so sure that we would get reimbursed. The visit to the doctor only cost 36.50 Swiss francs which is about $43.00, so even if we don't get reimbursed, it wasn't expensive and was definitely worth the piece of mind. Having lived in the US and seen the bills that were paid for simple procedures I was expecting to pay a much larger sum.

So the diagnosis? TBE is viral and not treated with antibiotics, so not much we can do about it. However, it is quite rare to contract the disease even though most ticks carry it. We will however, be starting the vaccinations soon. Lyme disease is treatable with antibiotics so we need to watch for some of the classic symptoms, such as a rash with a white centre. Also, the tick wasn't engorged so apparently it hadn't been feeding long so it is less likely I would get Lyme disease.

The trip to the doctor's office wasn't really that different than in the US or Canada, they would have preferred I had an appointment but kindly fit me in. I did take a picture of the doctor's office.

I will be running on the Üetliburg again soon and won't be avoiding the forests but I think I will stick to the wider trails and wear pants when I hike. And be getting that vaccine...

Üetliberg

The Üetliberg is a small mountain (873 m/2864 feet) on the south west edge of Zürich which offers great views of the city. It is also a great way to orient yourself as there is a large TV tower which is visible from most locations in Zürich and from the surrounding area. There are a number of ways to summit the Üetliberg hike, run, bike, or train. I'm sure we will get around to the first three sooner or later but on Tuesday night we chose the latter. Sorry train fans, no pictures of the train, next time! Here are a few pictures:

Boxes, Apartment Hunting, and Paperwork

We have been here almost 2 weeks and our days have been mostly filled with getting settled. This post is a little bit of those "everyday" things. Torrey started work yesterday and seems to be settling in well, he is still working for the same company after all. I have spend time figuring out my courses and have a meeting with my advisor today.

We are staying a small apartment which is conveniently located close Torrey's work. However, it is noisy being in the city and the internet is flaky. Torrey is trying to "adjust" to the noise, I am not so willing and have been sleeping with earplugs. I think I am getting a much better sleep. The internet is causing much more problems as we can't really use it in the evenings. During the day only one of us can use it, and for some reason it boots me off and not Torrey. He is now at work so I get the internet all to myself. Also annoying is it can't handle video chat nor phone calls very well. So sorry family that we haven't been able to talk! Here are pictures of our little apartment, complete with dirty dishes.

We have also been apartment hunting, which is much more competitive than in Canada or the US. We have seen about 5 apartments and applied for 1. All the rest were either too expensive, too small, too noisy, or didn't have a dryer (so drying clothes on the line all year). Our requirements are becoming more and more flexible as the days pass. Here are two places we looked at, we applied for the first one. The unit is in the basement of a renovated old house.

The day before we left Bellevue, we mailed 5 large boxes to ourselves (17x17x30), we were told they would get here in 7-10 days. We were expecting 7-10 business days and more like 10 or so days. However, we mailed them on a Tuesday and we received the notice here on a Tuesday, the USPS and Die Post are efficient! Also, we didn't have to go through any customs when we received the boxes, again not what we expected! We just picked them up and wheeled them down the side walk. Die Post delivered them to the post office closest to where we are staying. Which makes transport much easier!

The Brienzer Rothornbahn

On Saturday, we decided to get out of Zurich for the first time since arriving, and do a day trip up to the mountains.  The transportation system is so efficient here that we were able to plan the whole trip that morning in about half an hour:

• Tram from our apartment to the train station
• Intercity Express train to Lucerne, then 7 minutes to change trains
• Intercity Train to the town of Schüpfheim, then 5 minutes to catch the Post Bus
• PostBus to the base of the Sörenberg cable car (The PostBus system goes to almost every little town and trail head in Switzerland, with a schedule synchronized to the local trains)
• Cable car to the Rothorn summit, where we had lunch in the mountain top restaurant, looking out over a spectacular view
• Steam powered cog-driven train down the other side of the mountain to Brienze

We returned the way we came, with a stop for dinner in Lucerne... We're going to have to return to Lucerne, we had only an hour there but want to see more.

If we had planned our trip a bit better in advance, we would have done this as a big loop through Interlaken and Bern, instead of an out-and-back.  We will try it that way next time, when we have some visitors from Canada!

The train at the top of the mountain, with lake Brienze in the background

The steam powered cog locomotive

A mountain goat (taken from the moving cable car with maximum zoom, it's a bit blurry)

The train steaming through the mountain meadows

Claire up at the top of the Rothorn!  The train station is behind her in the distance.

We took a lot of pictures -- these are just a few of the better ones!  If you are interested, there's lots more in our Picasa album here. Especially lots more train pictures, as Kaley, Kyler, and Leighton will be particularly interested in those.