Sunshiny Day

Hiya all y'all. Well, much has happened since I last wrote. Many people have visited and we've taken them all over the country, German-part, French-part, Italian-part. I continued with my Deutsch course and actually know a bit of German now, but there is ever so much to learn. We travelled to Denmark for Christmas and had just a wonderful time there with Lis and her family. AND-ah, for those of you who don't know, I was ultra-fortunate to find a job that I really love in Zurich at Kraft Foods. Oh, and we're going to be moving back to the apartment where we first lived when we came here on April 1. With the grand piano for Rand, yeah! More on all that to come.

Well, to start small, today was just glorious in Zurich. I don't know where those blue skies came from, but we loved them. The funny thing is, I've been enjoying my new job at Kraft and living here this winter so much, that I haven't even minded all the overcast gray days. But today was a day to get outside. We started this morning by taking the train downtown and attending sung Eucharist at St. Andrew's Anglican Church. We have been going to the Baden Catholic Church (cathedral actually, see pic on side with one of the Christmas angels suspended over all) lately, and while we enjoy the experience because of the edifying space, well, the services are entirely in German, and as I think you all know, we're not Catholic. I was also mystified at first because Communion only included the bread, not the cup. I still don't know why: the priests have the wine, but it just doesn't show up for the parishioners. So, it was a nice change to understand not only the language but the service as well. The sermon about the 40 days of temptation of Jesus was intelligent and relevant, which was a relief. And it was interesting to see them take the children up to the rail for Communion and the priest blessing them. The choir was quite good and the hymns not too tone-deaf, but of course I'll always miss the Baptist gospel hymns and really getting to SING. I think we'll probably go back, although next time we'll try the International Protestant Church which is in the French Protestant Church building, right next to St. Andrew's. All the churches with services in English seem to be in two blocks there, so that makes it easy.

After church, we headed to a cafe, Bohemia, where they have a brunch menu. Pictures of Hemingway and Che Gevara on the wall. And they actually had a menu item called American Breakfast, with, get this, 2 fried eggs, bacon, potatos with onions, an "exotic" juice and coffee/tea for around $26. Not kidding. This is living in Zurich. We didn't actually order this. Anyway, we had just gotten our coffee when Rand saw one of his colleagues from work and we invited him to join us which was lucky because he entertained us mightily. Turns out he owns a farm outside of Edinburgh where he keeps animals, mostly rare breeds, and has a petting zoo there for children. The story went on, but he appears then to also be the chairman for the Rare Breeds Society in Scotland. How wonderfully strange is the world.

After our lovely brunch (with mimosas, I forgot to mention!), we headed out into the sunshine toward the lake. The lakeside was full of people strolling, enjoying the day, and you could see all the mountains at the other end of the lake perfectly. When I first came to Switzerland, I didn't see those mountains for many months and didn't believe the picture postcards they sell with the beautiful old city, river and then these stunning snow-covered mountains at the end. But it turns out it's true! They're just covered by clouds or fog much of the year.

We could see that one of the bridges across the river was crowded with people, so we figured it was one of the ubiqitous Swiss carnivals going on. As we got closer to one of the plazas, there were all these really brightly colored indigenous people from the Andes, playing and dancing to pan flutes. They couldn't have been more out of place or un-Swiss, but it makes one smile. We went a little further and there were floats lined up to head into a big parade, and next were the Gugga bands! It was another Fasnacht parade! And here I thought Fasnacht was done because in the service, he said it was the first Sunday of Lent. I guess the parties are just too fun to stop for Lent. So we walked amongst the musicians and partiers for an hour or so, entirely enjoying the day, and getting covered in confetti. Did I mention that I love Zurich?

Easter Dinner -- Francais style

It was hard to be away from home for Easter of course, but we were so fortunate to have our friends, Dominique and Daniel, invite us to a wonderful Easter dinner at their flat. And even more lucky because Mama and Papa Flahaut were there to help with the traditional French cookery.

Mama was resting when I captured Dominique and her dad in the kitchen, finishing up things. It was a communal effort and preparation took days, but the result was wonderful. They apologized for not having the traditional lamb for Easter, but we had no trouble making do with the coq-au-vin. Important to have dark meat, children, for the flavor. This was after the first course of avocado mixed with tuna meat and olive oil and stuffed back in half avocado skins. Yum! The cheese course after the main meal was wonderful, with, I think it was, five different cheeses from three different countries.

We took a rest then and went out to their large terrace to chat and have little Easter chocolate treats. Rand and Daniel enjoyed discussing the Sorry State of the World and All Its Inhabitants. I enjoyed Daniel's story of how much trouble he has Getting Things Cut at work. It involved much bureaucracy and foolishness. I took a couple of turns conversing with Mama Flahaut, which consisted mostly of her steady stream of French consciousness and my furrowed brow or once in a while nods of comprehension as I understood a stray word or two. But it really didn't matter at all; just being together is what's important.

LET THE SUN SHINE!!

So the sun is finally shining on our cold EuroWorld here. We've had so many lovely days now -- I'm in heaven. The Swiss kept telling us that this was an anamalous winter, but I don't know that we quite believed them... Of course, now we hear that it's too warm and sunny for the norm too, oh my. And the clouds, where have the clouds gone??

It's been such a revelation seeing our world in color again; Baden looks quite new and Zurich is just fabulous! So as the sun shines, Rand agreed to venture back into the city again and here we are. The Sunday before Easter we just wandered along Zurichsee (the large lake where Zurich sits) for a little essen und trinken. The water is of course filled with sailboats and yachts; what's the good of all that international banking money if you can't get out on the water? And yes, that is a palm tree where we were having our afternoon drink, at Acqua (http://www.acqua.ch/outdoor.htm). The tables were set up on the rooftop and also on the dock outside. We went up to the rooftop (of course!) and watched the water with sunglasses on. We would see the occasional muscleman paddling a kayak, looking just clumsy as anything because he could barely twist his arm muscles around his shoulder socket. He went fast -- how German! Or then there was a couple in a little row boat about to ram into a stationary sailboat. Since he was paddling, we figured we knew what he was saying and what she was saying. Can't you just hear it?

So when I found this place my first thought was, "Oh, good, we can go here on sunny afternoons now like we went to Top of the Hill at home." Tee hee hee. See the first little picture on the left? This was our view on the side of the building looking away from the city. I thought it looked so Mediterranean. Weird, and lovely.

Funny thing, we ordered two beers and when the waiter told us the cost, we both heard "50 Franks". This stunned us a both a moment until I asked him to repeat that. Oh, fif-teen Franks, well, that's a little better, we're now down to nearly $13 instead of $43! For, did I mention, all of two bottled beers? When the wait understood our confusion, he laughed and said, "Well, this IS Zurich after all."

I was carrying around a pocketful of change (Rand never uses it, so yeah, extra money for me!) and as we walked back around the lake toward the city center, I carefully counted out ten more Franks and got Rand to agree to ride the huge ferris wheel there where the city center runs into the lake. I can't remember the last time I was on one, but I won't forget this one very soon. Not exactly a cornfield for a view. Oh wait, no, that's the Grossmunster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grossm%C3%BCnster).

Our last stop was to have an ice cream and sit on a bench overlooking the lake. And it was a really good ice cream too, orange filling covered with dark chocolate. Yum!

When we're ready to leave, we have the option of walking back to the main train station (the Hauptbahnhof), which takes maybe 20 minutes, or to catch one of the many many trams that run all over the place. This time we opted for a quick tram ride back to the station and just caught the fast train back to Baden. Now that's a good day.