The Auto-WHAT?!

August 3-4 :We're off to Germany

First stop: Schaffhausen in Switzerland - love that the Bay windows and paintings  on the buildings were so ornate and beautiful. 

Autobahn: WOW!!! Why doesn’t 160km/hr feel that ludicrous?! I can confirm that 200km/h IS Ludicrous!!! Passing cars was extraordinary and scary!!! It is amazing how fast the kilometres go by at that speed!! The rest of my racing crew was smart to hit the gas when I was asleep - I was white knuckling the car door handle in the back seat when I was awake!!!

For this road trip, I pulled out some of the treats that I brought back from Canada. The fuzzy peaches were a hit with the gang, and they definitely survived better than the chocolate we brought!! The chocolate ended up in a melted chunk - rest assured, we let it cool and enjoyed it from the fridge when we were back from our trip!

Tübingen: to the castle that is now a university (and perhaps was back then?) where we stepped into the laboratory where DNA was discovered in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher! I totally geeked out - truly, I am in awe that I was there! In my next life I am going to go into science instead of accounting! We had to be fast, since we were heading to the AMG factory tour, and there was no way we could be late for that! Construction on the highway meant that we couldn’t benefit from kilometres of unlimited speed limit!!!

The castle was up on a hill, overlooking the area of beautiful countryside, slanted roofs, and vineyards. It was a trek up in the 35c heat and we were thankful that there was some shade in the cobblestone roads heading to the car. 

AMG Factory tour: saw the Formula 1 safety cars and medical cars in for service. They repair the cars every time they need to. 

Dinner was nearby the AMG factory. It was a deliciously traditional german restaurant with schnitzel bigger than the  size of my head! It was superb! So was the local white wine - I tried a Riesling since it was local.

Then on our way to Freiburg the navigation took us through a windy twisty route. Justin wanted to go faster, and said “let’s get slippery and autobahn this  shit”! 

We finally arrived in Freiburg at 9:30pm. Hot day and we are tuckered!! The hotel has no air conditioning and is at least 30c!! Ugh!!! 

It is interesting that even though we are about 150km from Baar, there is a noticeable difference - Town cleanliness, organization, etc. 

Saturday August 4, 2018

Freiburg, Germany: 

There was a market so close to our hotel and it was filled with fruits, veggies, meats, wood workers, wines, honey, and more... plus a couple musicians! 

We went for a walk up into the forest to get to a beautiful look out- well, the actual lookout was a spiral staircase that rose so high, and had a fabulous feature of wobbling when you were at the highest point!!! That was a tidbit only Sarah learned because she was the only one who went up!! We can’t wait to see her photos - I am sure hey are spectacular! 

It is so hot - it said 37.5c at one point. I mentioned already that this is the hottest summer in Switzerland since 1854! But all across Europe there is a heatwave now. And there is hardly a break at night. 

After the hike where we all sweated buckets and soaked through our clothes, we found a cafe. I am craving a coffee but I couldn’t do any more heat, so I enjoyed a smoothie, as did each of the girls. So cool and refreshing!!! Then back out into the heat to wander around before seeking refuge in the Air Conditioning of the car for the drive back to Switzerland . 

Sunday August 5, 2018

Justin had a great time going to the old car show that happens the first Sunday of each month in Zug. He went with Peter, who also loves cars.

The girls and I rested up for our afternoon adventure to Sisikon to watch the RedBull Cliff Diving competition!

It was so cool to be a part of that. There were floaties, boats, canoes, kayaks, dingies, paddle boards, and of course boats of all kinds, all crowded together to make a grandstand. We watched from on the shore, on  the docks (where we were under a sprinkler for some of it!), and from the water. The town of Sisikon has a population of 382, and during the cliff diving event there were over 8000 people!! Taking the train was super easy and we were there in less than 50 minutes. 

Tour de Beaches

The driving age here is 18 years old. They can drive a Vespa or Moped at 16 but a car is 18. They can drink wine and beer at 16 and Strong liquor at 18. It makes some sense to me but I can be confident that Shannon is not too happy about having to wait until she is 18 to drive!!

We continue the beach tour today since it is another super hot and sunny day. Fun fact: this is the hottest summer in Switzerland since 1854!!!! They are actually getting concerned because it is so dry and hot and they are depleting the drinking water reserves. But in typical Swiss fashion, they are Uber prepared with plans and rules: camp fires in the forest are prohibited; and they already conserve about 70-90%of the water used in an average building by recycling and by trapping rain water. It is very

Shannon spent the afternoon with her school friend/ambassador yesterday and it sounds like she is a nice girl. That was a welcome break from hanging with me and Sarah and she seems to be in better spirits after that.  The real meeting of new friends will come when School starts on the 21st of August. And we have a few travels planned for the weekends before that, so that is nice. Sarah is spending time with the 13 yr old daughter of our landlord upstairs. She is so sweet and kind and active (like Sarah) so they seem to get along well. She has come with us to he outdoor gym a couple times, and we went to the outdoor pool with her yesterday.  The outdoor pool was very cool - we went early and by the time we left before lunch, there was a lineup outside to come in! And no wonder in this heat!! There are splash pads, wading pools, lap pools, diving platforms (1 m, 3m, 5m) outside and then a lazy river, hot tub, lap pool, diving pool and leisure pool inside!! I didn’t think I would enjoy going with the girls but I had a great time actually. 

I am so happy with our IKEA furniture. It looks great and works with out apartment. We had to change our typical traditional style to look a bit more modern and I really like it. The couch is huge and we can all sprawl out or we can cuddle close together. Our kitchen table is big enough for an easy 8 chairs so we can have friends over easily but we also have plenty of room for homework and work at the table. We also have a couch and chair on the balcony to enjoy the view and the outdoors.

Our Beach tour has been successful. Here is the rundown so far:

Zug Badi Seeliken: Great location, close to downtown Zug. Nice changeroom facilities so easy to meet Justin after work. Popular meeting spot for people of all ages. Almost entirely grass.

Strandbad Zug: Easy bike ride from the apartment. Super facilities including rest rooms plus a restaurant with drinks and ice cream. Plenty of bicycle parking. Super popular meeting spot for all ages, but it didn't feel too busy. Nice area to swim.

Bruggli Lido: We stumbled here before meeting Justin at Strandbad Zug. There are paddleboards for rent here, and it is a spread out area of beach. Easy bike ride from the apartment and only about a hundred meters from Strandbad Zug. It is next to where the Lorze river flows into Lake Zug.

Oberwil Bei Zug: This beach is much quieter than the other badis. It was an 8 km bike ride from the apartment, but an easy bike ride, now that Sarah and I know the way! We learned the hard way! Very rocky, so we better bring our flip flops next time. The water gets deep very very quickly, which was super nice.

I will update this as we go! There are still some beaches to discover:
Choller - apparently we can take the dog to this beach!
Cham Lido
Strandbad Hunenberg
Strandbad Unteraegari


Lots of work ahead of us in the next couple weeks!!

The Pure & Simple Joy of a Fresh, Soft Towel

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Justin is likely most thankful for the arrival of the remaining bikes in his fleet when the sea container arrived on Friday afternoon. I, on the other hand, am most thankful for the arrival of bedding and new, soft towels!!! Oh, the joy of a soft towel after using a dry, cardboard like compact camping towel!!! And sheets on the bed instead of a sleeping bag....Oh how I love thee, let me count the ways! I'm not sure what the girls are most thankful for, but I think it's their momentos from home: pictures, bedding, and more clothes as well as the bikes and the towels...

We skipped our outings this weekend in favour of unpacking. It was a wee bit like Christmas! We had forgotten when we packed! And I made it a little more fun by packing away candy from Canada and Chips from Canada, which were mostly discovered by my helpers. 8 little bags of Canadian junk food were not discovered and have been squirrelled away into a secret hiding spot (that hopefully I will not forget) so that I can pull them out when the going gets tough...

Yesterday was a real lazy day. The girls and I hung out at home - they fell into the Netflix vortex and came out reluctantly. Sarah made some Snowball Cookies and Shannon made some delicious Lemon Curd and Raspberry Coulis for a dessert with Meringues and lemon sorbet. MMMMMM...that was a delicious way for her to spend some time! Today, Sarah is baking up some chocolate chip cookies, but since we couldn't find any chocolate chips, she is using a Swiss chocolate bar - not a substitution I could argue with! I am sure they will taste delicious!!

We haven't made much progress on my newly created challenge: to explore all the pools and beaches we can find by bike, bus, train or car. It's heating up here for the next week or two so I thought it would be a good challenge to keep us busy, to help us discover the area and to stay cool.

This and that

July 10:
Tomorrow is IKEA arrival day - it will be great to have the furniture and of course it will be exhausting to put it all together!

Today was a sad day...I'm not sure why, but it could be due to missing friends and familiar faces, not knowing German and feeling helpless to communicate, not having much to do other than a grocery shopping trip every day, not feeling settled while we wait for our residency cards to arrive.....maybe that has something to do with it!

4 trips to the Handy Shop: yup, it took 4 trips to finally get signed up for our cell phones. Things don't move fast in Switzerland and they definitely follow the rules. But we now have our own cell phones that are not dependent on wifi and now I feel liek we can communicate much more easily!

Home-run dinner: cheese fondue, vegetables au gratin, and nectarine topped puff pastry for dessert. Phew - I am trying to experiment with local food, recipes that will work in the CombiSteam funky oven and recipes that will keep my crew happy!

Shannon visited a barn: I learned how to understand “please close the door/gate” but don't expect me to say it!

Remote bidet will help cut down on toilet paper costs - that's a plus! Toilet Paper and many other things are super expensive here!!!

Friday, July 6: Ah, the furniture is great! it feels fabulous to have a ginormous couch inside, and a lounging couch outside and a big table to eat at!! It is luxury!!!

Sunday, July 8:  Today we did a big Swiss hike. Murphy needed to recover for 2 full days; Sarah was almost unaffected,  Justin next, Shannon and I were the slowest and huffiest. We went unprepared into the mountains - 28 in Baar, but 19 in the mountain town. That was a good lesson to learn, and we are lucky that we could still hike. Next time: layers, rain layer, bug spray, tick remover.


Saturday July 14:
Into Zurich: I am blown away by how beautiful the city of Zurich is!! I had no idea that the lake would have such a presence and the waterway provides beauty as well as refreshing relief.

We had the best gelato here in Zurich!!

Dinner at a little Mexicans restaurant in a fun neighbourhood after our “appetizer”  of Sausage and Brote!! Fabulous

Sunday July 15: drive to a Swiss national park about 2 hrs away. The drive was scary and fabulously gorgeous!! The hike was a beautiful mountain hike but the real show stopper was the drive!! Thank goodness Justin was driving through the incredibly tight hairpin turns!!! I can't believe how many hardcore bicyclists were riding UP and DOWN those hills, sharing the tight roads over which I couldn't even look without feeling woozy due to the height!!! It was 15C when we started out hike, and maybe got a bit warmer, but nowhere close to the heat of 31C back in Baar! Ah the mountain elevation keeps things cooler! We didn't know that dogs are strictly prohibited in the Swiss National Parks, so Murphy had to stay in the car for the duration of our hike, but at 15C we didn't have to worry that it would be too hot. He was happy and comfortable while we were gone.

Tuesday, July 17:

 The girls and I are spending A LOT of time together and I am sure that they would rather have people their own age to hang out with!! They each have met their "ambassador" friend, a girl from their grade that is "assigned" to them. Sarah got a 2 for 1 since her ambassador has a twin sister. And I lucked out because they have a dog and the Mom took me on two dog walks to show me the ropes and the routes. That family is now back in the US on holiday. Our landlord and his family are super nice and generous and kind. They live above us, and they have a daughter that is 13 years old. She and Sarah seem to get along well and they have hung out a couple times. I am pushing Sarah to plan something with her this week, and I'm pushing Shannon to plan something with her ambassador friend for this week too. They are both spending WAY too much time on their devices, in my opinion, but it's hard to argue and stir the pot when they are so new to the area and I really don't want to drive a wedge between us with my nagging. . So I try to plan an outing each day and at least get them outside for that.   They miss friends at home, of course, and I cannot blame them for that. Maybe tomorrow afternoon will be a movie afternoon!

There is an outdoor gym, of sorts, that Sarah and I have been visiting. It's pretty cool - 15 fitness stations spread across 2.6 km in the forest that is only a 15 minute walk away!!  Unfortunately for me, it is in the forest and Murphy returned home today with at least 2 ticks. Ticks are a real problem here in this area of Switzerland. I should say that he returned with AT LEAST 2 ticks....those 2 are gone now, and I checked him over as best I could, but finding tiny black insects on a black hairy beast is challenging!

Our apartment is great. It is in an amazing location geographically, and with our furniture now here, we have comfy places for us all to lounge together, or separately! The girls will each benefit from a chair in their room so they can hang out somewhere else, but that will come when Justin finally earns some Swiss Francs! Justin came home for lunch yesterday, for the first time in 18 years!!! Work is demanding for him, but he has been able to ride his bicycle to work, and we go hiking on the weekends, so he seems to be having an ok balance. It doesn't feel like home yet. The container with the rest of our stuff should arrive by the end of the month, and then we'll have some of the luxuries: blankets, duvets and bedding, a few more clothes, towels and beach towels. THAT will be nice! Luckily, everyone we have met has been super nice , very welcoming, and kind. 

 We are planning a trip for this weekend to possibly go to Geneva for an overnight. Whether we do that now or another time, will be fun either way.

I'm feeling very homesick right now....I have to get learning German and maybe then I will feel more able to understand people and more able to converse... Add to that the fact that the girls and I are spending A LOT of time together and it's no surprise we are a little stir crazy!!! Sarah and I went to the village library yesterday and got ourselves a library card and a couple Learn German books. That should help!!

I have been trying out the new ovens and they are very cool -one is called the Combi Steam and it is probably way more amazing than I already think it is!!! It can cook with steam, partial steam and convection. So far I have only used recipes from the cookbook that came with the oven (that I found in English online- what did we do before Google and the web!??!)  but eventually I will branch out. So far I have done a cool baked cheese (basically a mini fondue), a vegetable gratin (that the whole family loved!), a pasta gratin (yes, with dried ham because that's what they use instead of bacon), a super moist but crispy marinated chicken skewers, and tonight is a risotto....the family thinks I am a superb chef since arriving in Switzerland!!! ha! Wait till the thrill wears off and I'm back to my horrible cooking! 

Thank goodness for the hiking and the VItaParcours!!! I will eat my share of chocolate and cheese and drink the Swiss wine (I am trying all the $6 wines and I'm not disappointed yet!) and then my exercise regime will be just to keep me even (hopefully)!!!

That's it from me...time to pay bills and tidy up the place, get the shopping done for today and try to get the girls out of the house and off their devices!

A new forest walk

I met a mom from the middle school, and she kindly invited Murphy and me along for her morning walk.  An hour later, I was more in love with Switzerland.   Within 10
-15 minutes from the apartment, I was in the forest. We walked up a gravel path and had gorgeous views out over Zug.  An hour later, we had passed by fields of spelt and wheat, passed 4-6 other dogs that Murphy greeted and  then moved on by with no reaction. It was great for him to enjoy some off leash time. I peppered my friend with questions about how to recycle, where to recycle, tick vaccinations, where to buy things, etc...

Oh the bells - they ring all the time here! Even last night at 11pm, they were ringing. And this morning, I knew it was 6:30 by the chiming of the bells.

The local market was open this morning - gorgeous fresh produce, meat, fish, and even a band playing! It seems to be quite a gathering spot.

Justin’s work event was last night. It was A-LOT of hand shaking and smiling. We were the first to arrive and the last to leave so we shook literally everyone’s hands when they arrived and again when they left.

Thunder...da na na na na na na na....Thunder!

July 5, 2018

Holy Thunder and Lightening Batman! There was a huge thunderstorm last night and a beautiful lightening show too. The wind was howling through our open windows, so I did my best to close them up tight. When I didn't get the windows sealed properly, there was a definite whistling to let me know. One thing is without dispute: the Swiss construction is very high quality. We haven't heard our neighbours above, beside or below us even once! And the detail of all the finishing is so particular and complete. 

It is a little cooler today, which is nice. Ontario is suffering a long heatwave still, so I am not complaining about the weather here, that's for sure.

Murphy survived the flight really really well!! He was jetlagged for a few days, but seems to be his normal happy self. Not any more skittish than normal, so no worse for wear from the flight. It's an adjustment living on the third floor of an apartment - Lucky for him he has an iron bladder, because we are not used to having to take him down the elevator to outside!! 

We are settling in pretty well. The girls have their beds set up (finally) so they feel a little more settled, and more furniture arrives next week, then we can truly unpack and have places to sit and chill and admire the view.

We have all become a little more accustomed to shopping Swiss style: buy just what you need, when you need it. There is an incredible farmers' market super close to our apartment- as in a 2 minute walk.  Incredibly fresh fruit, vegetables and eggs!!

Before my crew arrived, I found my way to the forest nearby. Tomorrow I hope to make it back to the forest to the "VitaParcours" which is a fitness circuit set up in the forest. With all the chocolate I am enjoying, it's going to be handy to have access to a "gym"!!! It's only a few minutes' walk from where we are, and then it's a couple km consisting of 15 fitness stations. 

A quick departure....

It all seems like a whirlwind now. We realized so quickly that the impending heat wave was going to mean that either I go ahead of the crew by a few days, or I stay behind for a week or more, until the heat clears. We decided to try to send me and Murphy ahead of the heat, leaving 3 days earlier than planned. Well, I did it! I left more than I planned to fall on Justin’s plate, I got a lot done very quickly,  I forgot to do and to pack more than a few things, and I maneuvered Murphy and the crate through the airport.  It took over an hour and a half before they confirmed he could fly, and it was within .5C of maximum temperature!! It was definitely a waiting game. Once they checked me and Murphy in, the race to assemble his crate began...I  barely got it assembled, gave him his calming drugs and I had to run to get through security and to the gate in time for boarding.  Close call!!!

Once we arrived, it was smooth sailing.  Murphy looked happy and calm when they ever so gently placed him on the conveyor belt, and he happily wagged his tail and hopped out of his crate, wagging his whole body in appreciation of solid ground and a familiar face. I was able to get him outside within about a half hour, and we found an area that I *think* was dog friendly.   Longest pee ever!!!!

Justin’s colleague met us at the airport about a half hour later and we miraculously fit the crate and luggage into his car.  Off to the apartment we went!

I couldn’t ask for a more warm welcome to Switzerland !! The family welcomed me by stocking our fridge, Nathalie took me on a walking tour of the village, Peter lent me furniture (far better than hanging out in Murphy’s crate!), and the girls introduced themselves and gave Murphy treats and a new stuffie!