Arriving in Switzerland

We made it to Switzerland! We're actually in Italy right now, but I typed up a little journal entry for our travel across the pond and wanted to post it while we had some down time tonight. I have pictures to add, but I'll have to do that a little later.

We left Los Angeles at 7:30 pm Thursday, July 5th, headed to Zurich on a 11 hour non-stop flight. It really could not have been a better itinerary. Westin was incredibly worn out from the very busy week we had prior to our departure, so I was crossing my fingers he would sleep most of the flight. He watched one movie and then we got him ready for bed – tried to keep a similar routine as we have at home: pajamas, brush teeth, prayers, and a few songs. Within minutes of the songs, he was out and stayed asleep until 6:30 am (just an hour before we landed). Unfortunately, Ryan and I hardly slept. Westin was laying on us and moving around quite a bit, so it was hard for us to ever sleep more than 30 minutes before we had to stop W from rolling off the seat. But I’ll take Westin sleeping over me sleeping any day. 

Once he woke up, he was pretty excited to tell just about everyone around us that we were going to Switzerland to live for three months and then we would be in San Francisco. He’s an open book. Don’t try telling him secrets – he won’t keep em’.

Once we landed in Zurich, we had no problem finding our way through the passport checkpoint, to our bags, and over to the train station. Ryan’s work had told us a certain train to catch in order to get us to Zug and to meet someone at our apartment at 6pm. We basically had an hour from when our flight landed to get through passports, get luggage, and buy train tickets before we needed to catch that train. I was worried the passport checkpoint might slow us down, but we made it to the train with 10 minutes to spare.

We had five bags, a stroller, and a couple carry-ons, so getting on and off the train quickly was a little bit of a task. Then, once we arrived in Zug, we couldn’t find any luggage carts, so we piled the suitcases on top of one another as we found our way to a taxi. It was quite a site.

Right at 6pm we arrived at our new apartment, greeted by two girls from Partner's Group – Kirsten and Maykala. They were really sweet and very welcoming. They took one look at all our luggage and smiled, telling us we had a lot of things and that we’d be getting a good workout because our apartment was on the fourth floor and there was no elevator. Of course, after all my complaining about living on the third floor with no elevator in the UCLA apartments, we get the fourth floor here. I don’t think I’ll be complaining about the stairs anymore. Heaven forbid we end up on the fifth floor somewhere in San Francisco. I’m just not going to test my luck.

So we haul everything up the four flights of stairs to our apartment, which already had our name next to the doorbell. Kirsten gave us a tour – took about two minutes. It’s a little smaller than our previous apartment – two bedrooms, one bath, smaller kitchen. The highlight of the tour was when Westin discovered he had a desk in his room. Wow, if only I knew that’s the kind of thing that would make his day. He ran right in and sat at the desk and declared it, “his office.” He was ready to start work and pulled out his crayons and paper, saying he was going to be working with dad.

The rest of the apartment was pretty simple: small couch, TV, round table, two twin beds pushed together for our bed (wait till you see the bedding - it's priceless), closets in our room, kitchen (kind of small, but it does have a dishwasher and oven. No microwave and the refrigerator is tiny in comparison to what we are used to, and there’s barely enough room in the freezer for a itty bitty ice tray… ugh, what is with Europeans and their hatred for ice? Seriously? This is something you’ll likely hear me complain about throughout our stay. I love my ice and I already miss it… and Diet Coke. Coco Cola Light IS NOT the same.)

I know what you're thinking - what is up with the bedding? I know, it's ridiculous on all levels. I just laugh every time I see it.

A view from the back window

A view from the front window

After settling in to our place, we headed out to explore Zug a little. It was probably around 7:20pm when we walked out door and the streets were already very quiet. We found our way back to the train station where the hub of the city is. We went in to the Starbucks, hoping to find WiFi – which we did, but we only had about 20 minutes to use it because they close at 8pm. Apparently everything (except some restaurants) closes by  7 or 8 and nothing is open on Sundays. Good to know. We sent a couple emails to family to let them know we had arrived safely. We then ventured back out to the barren streets to look for some dinner. Since everything was closed already, we ended up with McDonalds – the one American delicacy I’ve seen here. The place was packed! Apparently, it’s the place to be on Friday night. And we knew coming into this adventure that life among the Swiss would be costly, and McDonalds was no exception. A hamburger was about $15, combo meal close to $20 – far cry from our value meals in the states.

After dinner, we walked in the rain over to the gas station run by Coop (a grocery store), to pick up a few things for breakfast in the morning, and then headed back to our apartment (which is about three minutes from the McDonalds).

We tried to get to bed at a decent time. Unfortunately, Ryan and I had a hard time adjusting to the new bed and then Westin woke up in the middle of the night and got in bed with us – we didn’t get much sleep that night either… but better than the airplane ride, so I was thankful for that and actually felt a bit refreshed in the morning.

On Saturday, we ate some Muesli (not a fan) and had a lazy morning before exploring Zug further. We walked back to the train station to purchase our Italy train tickets for Sunday. Afterwards, we hit up Starbucks again for Wifi and then made our way to the lake and Old Town Zug. I immediately fell in love. This was the area that had the old Swiss architecture we see in pictures. This part of town is nestled  between the mountains and the lake. It’s picturesque. At the lake, we discovered a park where I’m sure Westin and I will be spending a lot of time. We let him play with some kids there while we ate our lunch. We also met some ex-pats who had lived in Zug for 12 years and were back visiting friends. They happened to be from Salt Lake – go figure. They were nice and had great things to say about the town.

After the park, we were off to the boardwalk, where we stumbled upon a cherry festival. I guess Zug is known for its cherries. Anyway, the festival was quite entertaining, not big, but really charming. Vendors were giving out samples of everything cherry – juices, breads, cakes, jams etc. There was also a competition taking place where people took turns spitting out cherry seeds to see who could get their seed the furthest. Something I'll have to try with Westin some rainy day. He'd love that.

We further explored the old cobblestone streets and took in the beautiful architecture of the buildings. We continued to walk the boardwalk and ended the afternoon with gelato (the first of many, I’m sure). We then went back to the newer part of town, picked up a Britta water filter, took a peak at the two markets (Migros and Coop), checked email one more time, bought our half fare cards (which we’ll use for travel on the weekends), and picked up a pizza to take home for dinner.

Another night of very little sleep (this time it was my jet lag) and then we were up early Sunday morning to take off to Florence. We rode the train through the Swiss Alps - some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen, and arrived in Florence by 1pm. 

Next post will be pictures and then I'll write about Italy.

Ciao!