More Visitors

It’s been a whirlwind week as we’ve had more visitors here in Zurich.  My parents arrived last Tuesday and just two days later my cousin Catherine arrived.  That meant Christmas vacation for me as I finished up work on Wednesday not to return for a little over 3 weeks.  We of course had to tour around Zurich and see all of the main sights.  Then we were off to Paris for a weekend.  We kept quite busy in Paris doing a wine tasting class, the Louvre, shopping on the Champs-Élysées and Eiffel Tower at night.  I loved the Eiffel Tower at night….it was something I hadn’t done before.  And it was fun learning more about French wines.  Apparently 2005 and 2009 were great years for French wines.  All in all a quick but very fun weekend in Paris exploring. 

Then Monday we were off to Flumserberg for a day of skiing in the Swiss Alps.  It was only about an hour and a half away by train from Zurich so quite perfect for a day trip (much better than that 4 hour drive to Tahoe, that’s for sure).  It was also the same day that we had snow falling in Zurich.  Our first snow here!!!!  (A girl from California gets very excited about these things)  

We got up to the mountain and it was snowing quite a bit up there.  Lots of snow and gray skies which made for a challenging day skiing but it was our first trip out and overall a good one.  And we left the mountain with no injuries which is better than our last attempt at skiing in Europe. 

In the interest of trying to do as much as we could, Tuesday we were off to Konstanz for a taste of a true German Christmas market.  It was recommended by some co-workers of mine and was exactly what I was hoping for.  It was a little town with snow on the ground and in the air and just really cute.  The Christmas market itself was quite large and took up a good portion of the main part of town.  The items sold there seemed to be more unique and handmade compared to what we have seen in the Zurich and Paris markets.  Overall a great day….but cold!!!! 

Now Catherine has left and my parents are staying to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with us.  We’re looking forward to our Christmas celebration here in Zurich (hopefully with some snow) and then we are off to Spain for a week!

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Well it’s one of my favorite times of year now….the holiday season.  Usually that starts with Thanksgiving, which was a little bit strange for us this year being that they don’t celebrate it here in Europe.  I think the strangest part about it was working that Thursday and Friday and then knowing that everyone at home was gathering together to eat delicious turkey meals and celebrate the holiday.  Google did serve some turkey, sweet mashed potatoes and chestnut stuffing for lunch on Thursday though.  Nate came over and we had our Thanksgiving meal that way.  It definitely wasn’t the same as home but it was nice to get a taste of some turkey.  That Sunday, Nate made a pseudo-Thanksgiving meal by roasting a chicken and making mashed potatoes and then some stuffing from scratch (Stovetop doesn’t seem to exist here).  It was quite tasty!  Although our Thanksgiving was a bit different this year it’s all part of the experience and we have so much to be thankful for that I can’t really complain.

Zurich started putting up decorations and lights the weekend before Thanksgiving.  You’d start to see the Christmas stuff come out in the stores and decorations go up throughout the city.  On Bahnohofstrasse they have lights that they put up every year and those were “officially” lit that Thursday evening after Thanksgiving and that’s when I feel like the Christmas season really started around here.  The stores are playing Christmas music, and there are decorations and lights all around the city.  I just love it!!!  This also means that the Christmas markets have started as well.  For those that may not know, a Christmas market, from what I can tell so far, is basically like an arts and crafts fair with food and of course glühwein.  Glühwein is a hot spiced wine that is sold at every Christmas market you go to.  Zurich has a few Christmas markets around the city which start at varying times during the season.  They have one at the main train station which Nate and I checked out.  It actually wasn’t all that interesting to be honest.  Perhaps being that it’s inside and at the main train station has something to do with that.

Therefore last Saturday we were off for a day trip to Strasbourg, France for a true Christmas market experience.  I had read and heard that Strasbourg has one of the oldest Christmas markets in France and is quite nice.  We met up with our friends Stacey and Alex for the day.  I must say, it was quite nice!!!  Very Christmas-y indeed.  And definitely a much better market than the one at the main train station.  It was outside which was a step in the right direction.  The glühwein was tasty as well.  It was quite crowded though, which I guess is to be expected when you go to such a well known Christmas market.  But that didn’t impact our experience.  We walked around the market, had a good lunch and even strolled around the town looking at the shops.  All of the streets we walked down were decorated for Christmas and so fun!  And it was cold too which just added to the experience.  I mean, it wouldn’t feel right if we couldn’t be bundled up in scarves, hats and gloves, right?  Once we had had enough, we hopped on the train and headed home.  A great way to spend the day!

I must say, so far Christmas in Europe has not been disappointing!

Amsterdam

On the short list of places to visit that we had not been was Amsterdam, so the natural thing was to look for a time when there was work to be done in town, Google came calling and off we go for a weekend.

I mean a lot of bikes!

You hear about the canals, the red light district, the “coffeeshops”, museums, and general party like atmosphere of the place.  Sure sounds like fun and if nothing else interesting and different.  Amsterdam lived up to all of the above. What I didn’t realize was the bikes.  Wow, a lot of bikes.  And a very aggressive nature of those riding the bikes, cars and walkers are second class citizens in this town.

 Arriving on Friday afternoon, finishing up the week's work and looking for something to start the weekend of sightseeing.  The Anne Frank haus is in town, sounded both interesting and busy on a Saturday so we took the opportunity to check this out on Friday night before dinner and were glad we did.  Small-ish exhibit but quite interesting, you see the small hidden rooms two families lived in for several years trying to hide before they were ultimately found as well as a big display of many of Anne’s writings while living there.  Highly recommend making the trip if you have never been.

From there, time for a drink and some dinner.  We walked around a nice little neighborhood, found a neat little hole in the wall place serving Belgian beer and Nachos (yeah, nachos.  And have to say the Salsa was good.  Probably from a jar), then stumbled upon a little Ductch place for dinner which we enjoyed thoroughly.  From there we wandered slowly back to the hotel and called it a night.  It was a work week after all!

Saturday morning – let’s get some breakfast, and walk around some more.  Did some shopping, saw the flower market, and eventually found a littler corner café where we got a drink and sat outside.  (was cold, but not crazy cold!)  And this is where we witness the wrath of the bikes.

People about to get DINGED!

In Amsterdam they have roads, sidewalks, and specific Bike only lanes.  Problem is that for out of towners, these bike lanes look, well, just like a sidewalk.  So people across the street from our café kept walking in the bike lane and getting “dinged”.  “Dinged’ in the urban dictionary refers to walking in the bike lane while being given a warning “ding” by the person on the bike who is about to hit you.  One of those little bike bell “dings” that you would have had on your bike if you were a 5 year old girl.  Now the adults have them along with a right-of-way and they are pissed.  DING! “this lane is for bikes!”.  DING! DING! MOVE.  “DING” then give a stern head shake as you pass the walker who jumped out of the way just in time.

We watched this for about 20 minutes, it was very entertaining.

That never got boring but we did have to move on.   We decided to Visit the Dutch Resistance Museum which covers World War II from the Dutch perspective and what life was like while the Germans occupied the country.  Was again quite interesting and had lots of interesting artifacts and stories.  Not too big either but very well done.

Then off to dinner where we found a little Thai place, which was nice to have some variety.  And from there spent the rest of the evening  walking around including parts of the Red Light District which was far more circus novelty feeling than anything else.  It’s like it’s set up so that people can come “see” it but no way anyone would actually walk up and make a um.. purchase?    Not the most charming part of the city, that's for sure but something you have to go check out.

Overall a great visit and I know we'll be back.