Spring Picnic and Spring Flowers

Last Thursday the weather was perfect, so I organized a spring picnic with my friends.  We went to the beautiful arboretum and let the kids and dogs run around while we chatted.  After a while though, I couldn't help myself and I went to go run around with the little kids.  We played "try and hit Amanda with nerf balls".  I definitely got a lot of looks from the reserved and polite Swiss as I had a band of screaming kids chasing me around the park trying to throw things at me. ;)

Someone was getting tickled because they kept jumping in front of the camera

Now the little boy can have his own camera time

Showing off doggy tricks

Fearless little one petting the big dog

And all throughout this past week, flowers and trees have been blooming!  I've collected pictures from all of my walks that I want to share now.  I'm pretty proud of these pictures!  But this goes to show, you don't need a fancy camera to take good pictures when things are just naturally beautiful!  Good framing, focus, and subject are all you need.  No, commentary from me, though if you know what these flowers are, feel free to leave a comment.

Our First Visitor

We had our first visitor from the US this month!  This visitor didn't come by plane though, she came by mail!  In honor of the book called Flat Stanley (where a little boy gets flattened by a bulletin board and then travels around the world by mailing himself) my cousin made a flat version of herself and mailed it to us!  

On a nice, sunny day last week, I took Flat Abby out to see all the great sites in downtown Zürich.  We visited Grossmünster, but we didn't go to the top of the towers because Flat Abby was scared of being blown away since it was windy.

Flat Abby and I enjoying the sunshine on the bridge

 

We also saw St. Peter Kirche and Fraumünster, but we both agreed that Grossmünster was the best

Flat Abby and I also walked over to see Lake Zürich and saw lots of great ducks and swans.  We couldn't see the Alps that day because it was a bit hazy.  Flat Abby told me she still enjoyed the view anyways.

We had a great time on our trip downtown, and even though she doesn't speak German, she managed to meet a fellow American who was also traveling the world via mail!

Flat Stanley and his friend Michelle

Stanley and Abby enjoyed getting to know each other and swapped travel tips before we said goodbye.  Flat Abby is going to be leaving us soon to go to Texas, but we've enjoyed having her here!

Darren's 27th Birthday

Lots of great things happened last week like Darren's trip to Moscow and all my outdoor activities since it was beautiful here.  But the most important thing last week was that Darren turned 27!  So I will post about his birthday first before I post about all those other things.

This was one of the first of Darren's birthdays where we have actually been together.  The first two years, when we were still in college, Darren was away on Spring Break for his birthday.  The year after when we were in Seattle, I left to go to Salt Lake to plan our wedding around his birthday.  And last year I was in D.C. for a NASA review meeting.  It's funny how often we are together now as opposed to in years past.

Darren's birthday was on Friday, so unfortunately he had to go to work that day.  But it was fortunate for me because I had all day to work on a surprise present for him.  I decided this year that since I had a lot of free time and I was actually going to be around for his birthday, that I would focus on homemade gifts.  While he was in Moscow, I went over to a friend's house to make him a homemade card.  My friend is a professional greeting card maker and makes some of the most beautiful cards.  She was very patient in helping me design and put together a card for Darren's birthday.  The card I made, which is below, isn't as fancy as the ones she makes on her own, but I'm just a beginner.

The birthday card I made for Darren

Next I decided to bake him a cake from scratch.  They don't really have cake mixes in the box like in the US, so I was either going to have to buy a cake or make it from scratch.  Obviously, it would have been easier to buy a cake and there are some fantastic bakeries here, but my time in Switzerland is all about learning new things that I've never had time for, so I opted to bake a cake from scratch.  I'm sure I have baked a cake from scratch before with my mom, but it had been many years and now I was flying solo.  Not only that, but cooking and baking American food can be quite a complicated task for an expat in Switzerland.  To give you an idea, here are all the steps I have to take every time I want to cook/bake something here: 

1. Pick a recipe from our American cookbooks we brought

2. Translate all the ingredients into German using a German dictionary and Google Translate

3. Ask many friends and use many websites to find substitutions for ingredients not available in Switzerland (no baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, brown sugar, unsweetened chocolate, etc.)

4. Use several websites and cookbooks to convert all measurements of ingredients from volume into weight (all food is measured in grams, no cups/ounces/tablespoons/etc.)

5. Go to several grocery stores to find all ingredients you need

6. Check all appliances needed to see if they work with 250 V, and if not, then if they have a low enough wattage to work with our voltage converter

And now you can begin making something!  Whew!  Now you can see how preparing food can take up a lot of my day. :)  Anyways, Darren likes Devil's Food cakes, so I chose to make him a layered Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Ganache frosting.  As soon as Darren left for work on his birthday, I began the cake-making extravaganza.  

Used my stand mixer for the first time and wow, the cake-making process is a breeze with this thing

The finished cakes cooling before frosting begins

Frosted the cake on the platter given to me by my Great Grandma Williams

The cake took the whole day since I was slow and careful at each step, so I only finished a few minutes before Darren got home, but here is the finished product, complete with candles and presents!

The birthday cake with presents that were sent here

The birthday boy with his cake

Blowing out the candles

As the birthday boy requested, we had french toast for dinner and cake for dessert.  It was a sugar-filled night.  I'm happy to say the cake tastes great!  It's very rich though, so the two of us can only eat so much at a time.  I did actually get him a little figurine from a store, but it was a famous Swiss handicraft, so the gift was still handmade, just not by me. :)  Darren loved the card and the cake, so this birthday was a success!

Bürkliplatz Farmer's Market and Zürich Arboretum

Within walking distance of our house we have a fantastic park and the best farmer's market in Zürich.  The farmer's market is located on Bürkliplatz and is open in the mornings on Tuesday and Friday, year-round.  I was introduced to the market back in December by a friend as she helped me learn some key phrases in German for buying things.  Obviously, though, there wasn't much available in December, with only some baked-goods, fish, and some winter fruits and vegetables.

A Baker taking a pictures of some other bakers

Mushrooms were available in December

However now that Spring is arriving in Switzerland, the market is bustling with people and fresh ingredients.  I stopped by last week on my daily walk just to take pictures.  I'm still too nervous to talk to the vendors on my own.  I was trying to discreetly take pictures because my friend has mentioned some people don't like you taking pictures of their stalls.  I think they don't want professional photographers selling pictures of their wares without asking.

Lots of potted plants and cut flowers for sale, the Swiss love flowers on their balcony

A busy cheese stall

I'm sure I will be showing you pictures of this lovely market again as Spring gets into full swing here.  And maybe one day I will get the courage to buy something. 

Right on the water on the Northwest side of the lake is the Zürich Arboretum.  I love going to this park and do so often on my daily walk.  There are some great views to show you at the park, but right now I just want to highlight the first signs of Spring.

The open grassy area at the arboretum

The first signs of Spring are these flowers that are popping out of the grass at the park.  They are purple and white, tulip-looking flowers.  As you can see in the picture below, the Swiss have rules for everything and have put up signs next to the budding flowers asking people to respect them.  And of course, since this is Switzerland, everyone, thankfully, obeys!

I will take more pictures of these and all the blooming flowers in the next couple of weeks.  We are having lots of sun and a bit of warmer weather this week, so I expect lots of things to bloom.  Happy Spring!

Our Neighborhood: Enge

We don't have any trips planned for the next few weeks, so I have to find something else to post about.  Darren will be traveling to Moscow next week for a few days, but I am not going with him.  However, there are plenty of interesting things going on in Zürich to write about and also things that I want to remember.  So today, I will be showing you some highlights of our neighborhood.

We live in the Enge district of Zürich.  Enge lies on the northwestern shore of Lake Zürich.  It is a mix of  large business buildings, a shopping mall, and residential streets.  In the center of this district is a large train station (remember, Bahnhof means train station) where large commuter trains (like the kind we took to Geneva) and above-ground city trams stop.  We live just up the street from this train station.  We are lucky to live so close to a major train station like this because we can get to a lot of places from here, including the airport, without having to transfer trains.

The main train station in our neighborhood

This is the street we live on, which is just north of the train station.  There are lots of pretty houses along this street, though they are renovating one of the houses, so that's why there is a crane in the picture.

The street we live on, several houses down from our apartment building

This morning, I walked to the part of our neighborhood that is southwest of the train station, which has lots of great scenery.  There is a large hill there where this fantastic church is.  I love looking at it every day and I love listening to its bells ring.  The sign says it is a reformed Protestant church.

A large Protestant church in our neighborhood

Across the street from the church is this vineyard and lone house on the top of the hill.  This area is going to be so beautiful in a couple of weeks when everything blooms.  I will definitely be back.

Vineyard

Just south of the church and vineyard is the Enge Community Center, located on this picturesque corner. You can see a fountain right on the corner there.  This is fresh water you can drink.  They have these fountains all over Switzerland with cool water that is safe to drink.  I tried it this morning and the water was great.  This community center has a great park for kids to play and a little cafe inside.  This was where I helped out with a birthday party last week for my friend's 7-year-old son.  My friend needed an extra hand to control the ten rowdy boys.

Enge Community Center

These blue signs are all over Zürich and explain some history about the particular building it is attached to.  If only I could read them.  This one was next to the community center and I looked up some words when I got home.  I think it says this house was where Richard Wagner wrote his opera Tristan and Isolde in 1857.  I didn't know Wagner even spent time in Zürich, but apparently he lived here for about a dozen years.

I walked down the hill towards the east and ran into this old building.  

I headed back home and passed the main entrance to the church, which has a large staircase that leads up to the grounds.  I just happened to stop right at noon when the bells were ringing.  You can click on the video and hear the bells if you would like.

Looking west

Those are just some highlights from our neighborhood.  I really love Enge and I'm glad we found a place here.  More posts of Zürich to come.

The International Motor Show in Geneva

Last Saturday, Darren and I took the train down to Geneva, Switzerland to see the International Motor Show.  We had read about this world-renowned auto show when we were reading guidebooks about Switzerland some time ago.  Darren really likes cars, and I'm always up for an outing, so we decided we were going to attend.  We originally had planned to make a weekend trip out of it, but since Darren is teaching a class at church every Sunday for a while, we decided to try and fit everything into a day trip.  

We had an interesting start to the day when we got up at 6am, before the sun was up, and right when Darren turned on the light, the power went out.  Luckily, we had received some flashlights for Christmas from my family, so we just used those for some light.  So family, you now know that we did put your presents to good use!  The power came back on as we were leaving, so we didn't worry much about it.  We jumped on the 7:30 am train and were able to find an area without many people.  We had some stops in between Zürich and Geneva (Genf in German), so the train did fill up eventually.

A lovely Swiss train car

The 3-hour train ride to Geneva goes through some pretty countryside and at one point, runs beside the beautiful Lake Geneva.  I had been really excited for the view during the train ride, however, since it was still pretty early in the morning, there was some thick fog, so the picture below shows all I could see of Lake Geneva.  Oh well, can't ever control the weather as much as I would like.

The foggy view of Lake Geneva from the train, seems like it could be really pretty

We finally arrived at the auto show to see that not only was it gigantic, but it was already very crowded! The show had all the major brands that are sold in Europe, including the very high-end ones.

A view of how large and how crowded the car show was

We spent the next several hours visiting all of our favorite car manufacturers.  There were definitely some brands that I had never heard of that are not sold in the US, but that Darren was a little more familiar with.  We looked at a lot of cars, but I'll just show you some highlights of our favorite cars.  I can't give many details on the cars because I am not a car enthusiast.  Darren really should be writing this part of the post, but he has been working 11-hour days since we got back from Spain, so he doesn't have much time for the blogging.

The Chevy Volt!  We both like this one.

This is a Lotus, a blue one...?

This is a cool racing Porsche... a gray and orange one...?

The car below is a Porsche Panamera.  The base model is $86,000 in the US but, converting from Swiss Francs, $127,000 if you buy it in Switzerland.  Cars are very expensive in Europe and even more expensive in Switzerland.  Even if the car is made in Europe (like a BMW), they are still cheaper to buy in the US, even though they have been imported.  Weird, huh?  Just be glad we are on the winning side of that equation.  Anyway, I saw this Panamera just driving by our neighborhood the other day (oh the ridiculously rich Swiss), and I decided that I love it.  When we win the lottery, I'm buying this car.

My new favorite car, thanks to the Swiss, the Porsche Panamera

A Bugatti Veyron?

Darren in front of the Bugatti

A Lamborghini

The other half of the convention center!  So huge!

Now back to some more realistic cars to buy.  Below is my FAVORITE car.  Yes, I'm being serious, I love the Ford Fiesta.  I think it is super cute.  I am in love with hatchbacks and not just because I live in Europe now.  The Fiesta is really cheap and gets fantastic gas mileage.  Those are the only things that matter to me: cuteness, price, and gas mileage.  We got inside this sporty version of the Ford Fiesta at the show to see the interior.  Unfortunately, Darren does not like the interior.  I agree that the gauges and buttons look pretty lame, but I am willing to live with it just so I can have a cute hatchback.

My Ford Fiesta

Testing out a smart car, they are tiny!

Some Maseratis 

The last high-end brand we saw was Ferrari.  This isn't the best picture of the cars, but I wanted to highlight something else in this picture.  You can see in the earlier pictures that with the regular brands, you can get in the cars and play around with them, but all of the high-end brands would not let you in to touch the cars.  There were, however, some people who were let in to test out the cars.  We figured that these people either knew someone, were famous, or were very rich and were actually looking to buy one of the cars.  So the people in the picture below are those rich people who were looking to buy a Ferrari.  I have decided that the richer you are, the pointier your shoes have to be.

Ferraris and rich people

We took about four hours to get through the whole show.  We thought it had a nice variety of cars, but they could have used more signs in English.  Mostly everything was written in German or French, even though a lot of people visiting might not know either of those languages.  Since we had a few more hours of daylight left after we were finished with the auto show, we went over to downtown Geneva to see what it was like.  I don't have much background on these sites, so just enjoy the captions and pictures.

A Mausoleum

The Jet d'Eau, Europe's tallest fountain and Geneva's emblem

The historic part of Geneva

Part of the Protestant St. Pierre Cathedral

The inside of the St. Pierre Cathedral, where John Calvin preached

The Alabama Room at the Hotel de Ville, where the Geneva Convention was signed

Four leaders of the Reformation, though strangely lacking Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli

After our whirlwind tour of Geneva, we got a quick dinner and took the train back home.  Darren thought Geneva was just okay, but I thought it was nice, though I do prefer the German part of Switzerland.  We weren't able to see the Red Cross Museum or the UN Center because they are not in the downtown area.  It was a long day, but it is always nice not to have to pack to stay overnight and to be able to come home to your own bed.