One rest day (Ruhetag) and one work day (Werkday)

On Sunday, most stores in Switzerland are closed.

We took the day to "be tourists", and walked through the historic old town during the morning.  We had a delicious lunch at "Nimmi", a South Indian / Tamil restaurant up on Josefstrasse.  The afternoon was very hot, perfect for a boat ride around Lake Zurich.  Here are some of the pictures from the day:

Claire on a bridge over the Limmat river

Part of the "Gold Coast" of Lake Zurich, so named due to the extreme wealth of the people who live there.

The Grossmunster Cathedral

One of many crowded beaches

On Sunday night we went to the evening service of the International Protestant Church in Zurich.  It was a friendly, informal church service with some familiar songs & biblical teaching. We felt very welcome there, with lots of people talking to us and welcoming us to Zurich.

Monday

So on Monday we got back to work.

We both got online and researched mobile phone plans, bank accounts, and rental apartments.  Our morning walk was to the Kreisburo, where we registered, and obtained our official residence documents.  This is a very important legal requirement for anyone living here.  After lunch, we did another long walk and got new SIM cards for our mobile phones, and as much groceries as we could carry home.

Monday night we went to Crossfit Zurich. It was great to get some high intensity exercise after so much waking and sitting.  The workout was outside in a local park, a first for us.  Some of the people there spoke some English and were friendly - we're looking forward to making that a regular part of our week.

The agenda for today is to visit a farmer's market, call some landlords and try to arrange to see some apartments, and then work out at Crossfit again in the evening.

Visiting Google and ETH

We've now been here two full days, and are mostly over the jetlag.

Friday was centered on visiting Google, about a 5 minute walk from our temporary apartment.  We arrived in time to join my new team for lunch, and then got a tour of the office.  Each floor has a theme: Jungle, Sports, Bunker, and many more, with lots of fun decorations.  Here I am next to a Street View car outside the office:

That evening we went to the Google Picnic at a park overlooking Lake Zurich.  We had some great conversations with friendly Googlers from Canada, China, Germany, and Sweden.  So far I haven't met anyone in the Google office  who is actually from Switzerland!

Yesterday (Saturday) we dropped in on Crossfit Zurich and had a nice chat with the owner.  We were relieved that it is not terribly expensive, so we will start workouts there early next week.

Then we did some grocery shopping at a big local "Coop" supermarket.  It's very different from Seattle, but we were able to find lots of great food, even organic.  It is more expensive than Seattle, but not too bad.  The only thing we're really missing so far is good peanut butter!

After lunch we went over to the university (ETH) and scouted around, finding the buildings Claire will have classes in, and figuring out the best ways to and from the University from the other side of the city.

We ended the day with a bike ride out along the river to the "Viadukt", where there are some very high-end food stores, like some of the fancy shops at Granville Island in Vancouver.  We found some peanuts (hand-roasted from Cameroon), sampled some very nice organic beer & cheese, and were given a little jar of hot mango chutney from a very friendly Swiss woman as a "welcome to Zurich!" gift.

The plan for today is to relax and "be touristy", and then visit the "International Protestant Church of Zürich" this evening.

Travelling to Zurich

We've safely arrived in Zurich without problems, after a very long day of travel.

Our flight left Seattle at 2pm and headed north, up over Canada, past Calgary and then over Hudson's Bay, Greenland, just south of Iceland, then northern Ireland, England, and down to Frankfurt Germany.

Here's a picture of the west coast of Greenland, taken about the same time as the picture above:

In Frankfurt we had a 5 hour stopover. I (Torrey) had done some reading, and learned that Mainz is a nice side trip if you have time in Frankfurt.  Claire reluctantly agreed to this quick excursion between flights, although she pointed out we would have very little time before needing to turn around and get back to the airport.  So we got to Mainz, had a "Doner Kebab" from a stand just outside the train station, and went for a walk in the park.

Then things got a bit complicated...   The train back to the airport was late (or missing?), so we took a different train, which did not go to the airport, contrary to our reading of the schedule... Uh oh!  So then we were in the wrong city, with less than two hours before the flight.  Claire managed to not say "I told you so" ... Fortunately, the train system is very efficient and we had some friendly help.  After another two trains connecting at the downtown Frankfurt HbH, we got back to the airport 40 minutes before scheduled departure.  So then we ran... 15 minutes later we were through security and at the gate!  Don't try that at a US airport.

Fran @ Northwest Crossfit

Torrey and I have been spending our mornings at Northwest Crossfit in Bellevue. Torrey was hooked first and after a little hesitation I was as well. What is Crossfit? Click here. Wednesday was my last day there, and the workout that day was a classic Crossfit benchmark workout, "Fran", which is: 21 thrusters, 21 pull-ups, 15 thrusters, 15 pull-ups, 9 thrusters, and 9 pull-ups.

Torrey's time: 2:52 minutes, mine: 6:51, Torrey's time is excellent, mine better than average. One of the best parts about Crossfit, in addition to the great workouts is the fun community atmosphere. We will both miss the 7am crowd who we have gotten to know as well as trainers Laurie, Kristina, and Joe.

Of course, we plan to check out CrossFit Zürich after we arrive... that looks like a great group too!

Two Weeks...

We ended May with a going away party and had the chance to say goodbye to a number of our friends. We made fondue, the quintessential Swiss food - even though is really supposed to be a winter dish. (Fondue in the summer would only be ordered by tourists in Switzerland...)

We have been concentrating on selling, giving away, or throwing away things for the last few months. The morning after our party we began packing in earnest. Torrey and I made quite good progress over the weekend, much more than we had expected. Then over the last week and a half I have continued the packing and organizing. This weekend we will be moving the majority of it to a storage unit.

Last weekend we went to visit my family for the last time. It was a little sad but we had a nice visit with my Mom, and watched the Canucks win a hockey game with my friend Evelyn on Saturday. On Sunday we drove to Hicks Lake where my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew were camping. It has been quite a long time since I have driving through Agassiz (where I grew up) and Harrison (where I spent many summers). I was reminded how beautiful the area is and it seemed appropriate as we are moving.