Outings with Jesse

I can hardly beleive it has been two days since I last updated!

We have been on the move almost non stop since Sat. morning. Wolfram, Jesse's boss this side of the world, and his wife Sandra picked us up at 9 am on Sat. We went first to a nearby castle, Kyborg. It is unclear how old the place is but it was first mentioned in documents in 1025 AD. It is a fantistic castle that has been built on and changed throught the centuries. All day long I could not help but think that most of the places we visited were old long before the U.S. was founded, let alone Columbus sailing out!! We arrived at the castle about an hour before it was set to open, but it seems Wolfram charmed the people in the office to let us in early, seeing as we came all the way from America.

The next stop for us was the Rheinfall. The falls are amazing, the largest in Europe even. We did take many pictures, and at the moment I'm a little miffed that I can't get them uploaded so everyone can see. From the Rhinfalls we took lunch along the river at a small town that I found quite pretty with a covered bridge and narrow cobblestone streets. Sandra was telling us that the town was not a popular place to visit, and had very few visitors really. We were looking across the river to Germany as we walked along the river. We had to stop at 3 or 4 restaurnts to find a good place, but managed to have a fantastic lunch of freshwater fish with rice and vegtables. Apparently here as I found in Spain it is unusual to take coffee with a meal other than breakfast or dessert. We each had a different dessert, mine was just fresh Strawberries with pepper, whipped cream and Vanilla frozen yogurt. I wanted it because I had never had pepper with my strawberries and here it is the way everyone prepares them. It enhances the sweetness and overall flavor of the barries. Something to take home I guess.

We then visited a town called Scheffhausen. Picturesque old Swiss town along the Rhein. It was full of tourists and we didn't stay long. We jumped back in the car and drove around the country side some more and took in wonderful views of Lake Constance. Jesse and Torston are planning on going for a dip in the lake sometime this week if the weather is good. We tried to visit another museum in the childhood home of Nepoleon III, the son to Nepoleon's step-daughter. It sits on a hill above Lake Constance, and even though the Museum was closed we enjoyed a walk in the gardens and views. We ended our day at the home of Wolfram and Sandra, and met two of their daughters. They prepared a traditional swiss fondue, let me tell you, I never had fondue that good! We spent the day and evening compairing and contrasting and I asked alot of questions! Like there is an annual fee to keep a dog, so most people don't, and that is why I don't see many. The young men in top hats and tuxes are graduating from school. Oh and lots and lots more, I think I'm more greatful for having someone answer some questions for my curious mind, than I am for being driven around to the different sites.

Sunday brought with it steady heavy rains, so a walking tour of Winterthur did not sound so appealing. Jesse wanted to stay in and play some Catan and watch T.V. on the computer. We kinda got at each other a bit about finding something to do, but fianlly decided to take the train into Zurich, we figured that at the very least we would be inside the train, then the station, and if we needed to we could see Zurich from bus! We researched what kind of tickets we would need, and had very little difficulty navagating the transit system. We purchased all day passes and they are good for the trains, buses, trollies, and ferrys/boats. It's great! It was nice to get a little experience on the train so we can be more confident traveling farther out in the weeks ahead. It was raining in Zurich, but mostly sprinkling and that only off and on, so we braved a 2 hour walking tour of the old town. The views were great, the information was better, and being able to return to Winterthur in time for dinner the best.
At the end of the day I had to appologise to Jesse for getting my feathers in a ruffle about going out on Sunday. He really thought that it would be miserable out and didn't want to be grumpy all day. I told him that I just wanted him to feel like he was having as much oppurtunity to enjoy our visit and see the sites as I was. In the end I said I was sorry, and he was thankful that we left the room. He knows that if he were here on his own he would not be getting out and seeing nearly as much. And as for me, I would rather see these things with him, than on my own.

Less Wondering and more Working

Yesterday and today I have been focused on working on wedding details.

One of the luxuries of traveling with my laptop has been the ability to access my library2go account. If you don't know it is the Oregon electronic library. I can listen to audio books from my laptop or my iPod. I have been listening to Louisa Alcott's Little Woman as I worked on hand writing all of my wedding invitations and managing my Excel invite database. It has been a little meditative to listen to this book while I work. It has been reminding me about the importance of being grateful, and the rewarding nature of work.
I've never been away from home for such a long time as all of this, and I'm not working, in fact I'm currently unemployed. I don't have a home to tend, or local friendships to foster. I could be putting all my energy into packing in as many tourist activities as possible. But it is a lonely life being a tourist on your own. Taking it all in, recreating every day, is exhausting in its own way, and loses its luster quicker than you might think. If this is a vision of what retirement will be, I think you will find me working until I drop. Before you think I'm lamenting being in such a beautiful place, I'm not I promise! What I'm really trying to say is that I'm thankful for the work I have brought with me, and the work I created in keeping this blog. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be productive.
Every morning I sit in the hotel lobby on the free internet and I have felt like a nuisance. I think I might be the only guest that doesn't go to work every morning. I have felt like a mooch. But not today, and I’ve been down here much longer than normal. The difference? Well it may be that I've let the Swiss pace of life replace my American sense of hustle. Or it may be that I feel like I'm entitled to be in a space that allows me to create something. Something to take home from this experience: it is so easy to focus on the long list of things to get done that it is easy to miss the joy in simply being able to do. I find myself more interested in work than relaxing as much as I can. So I'm spending two days in a beautiful new place, sitting in the hotel and I'm grateful every minute of it. As for tomorrow, Rheinfall and Castles!!!! (The laptop will be in the room so don’t expect an update until Monday or so.)

More wonderings

I went wondering through a neighberhood yesterday. Found an English Reform church that was closed for remodel, a burger king, and a moder suspension bridge over the rail tracks. I went over the bridge and just walked up and down some residental streets, I found a beautiful park and took some pictures of a building there, its a kindergarden! Looked like a fancy mansion!! I was really close to the Rose Garden I want to visit sometime. I followed a footbridge back into oldtown and meandered back to the hotel. Today I will try to figure out the bus system so I can explore a new area of town.

For dinner we ate at the Hotel. We had rosta, a traditional Swiss dish, hasbrowns in a frying pan! You pick what goes with it, Jesse had the Swiss bistro which was mushrooms, tomatoes, and ham covered with Swiss cheese and topped with a fried egg. I forgot what they called mine, but it was a Swiss veal sausage covered in onion gravy. The food was GREAT!!! But Jesse and I should have shared one plate. We had beer, and finished dinner with an applestrudel and a drink the waiter said was the Swiss version of Jeager. The drink was awful, but we felt obliged to finish it. BTW, sorry for any misspellings, my spellcheck is set to German.
The rain held out until today, so I will spend most of my time indoors getting things done like picture labling and posting and invitation addressing.

Jesse's supervisor advised him that we didn't need to let anyone on this end know I was traveling with him, and since this supervisor spent 15 or so years in this office, Jesse thought he would know. Well the HR woman on this side is now concerned that the apartment she booked for us will not be adaquate for the two of us. It is a small apartment in a home closer to the office than we are now, and the owner is only in the building Monday and Fridays, we will go and see the place tomorrow and I'm really hoping that it will be ok. I told Jesse he may want to make sure he acknowledges the miscommunication and appologize for any inconvenience we caused the HR woman, maybe in a card. I'm glad we purchased some host gifts, one for her in-mind actually.

Please let me know if there is anything you want me to post about!

Thunder Clouds rolling in

Real thunder clouds, not metaphorical ones, today. I plan on discovering the mall across the street today, and I still need to find a laundry. Do you know what it costs to have the hotel do our laundry? Close to 4 CHF per item, so um no thanks. Speaking about money, everything we have read and everything I overhear from other English speaking tourists, is how expensive everything here is. Given Jesse and I are not footing the bill for our accommodations, and we are not driving, but I'm not finding it very different from home. Things to watch out for however, soda is 3 CHF or more per glass, so why not have a larger beer for the same price? :) Water, better off filling up a bottle or buying a large one at the CoOp, than getting it with a meal. We are in a suburb of Zurich and there is some type of Grocery store on every corner, I mean the real thing not a little convenience store with a produce section. I went roaming around some shops yesterday, and while you can go crazy and spend too much, for the things Jesse and I want the prices are almost the same as we would pay at home. For example, Jesse has been in need of a new work shirt for a while now, and he wears what I call 'the engineer's shirt', the nice work shirts with buttons and collar, but short sleeved. We have the hardest time even finding these at home and yesterday I found a whole section of just these, and we only paid 35CHF, so with our exchange we paid about $33.00. We didn't pack swim things so we purchased those too, again paying no more that we would have expected to at home. Eating out could be our biggest expense, however even street cafes display their menus so if it costs too much we move one, usually a couple yards, to the next offering. We can eat for under $10 per person, which is what we would expect to pay eating out at home (except for when we go to Burgerville! that place is spendy). So yeah on Switzerland being expensive, with things back home getting steadily more expensive in the last year or so, it reminds us of home.

In other news I found the tourism office yesterday! I wondered all around the old city which is all pedestrian only now. My album on facebook has some highlights. Located the museums I would be interested in, I will be purchasing a 20CHF day pass to all of the museums since one entrance is closser to 25CHF (maybe I will do that a few times). I also discovered that we can rent a headset for a self-guided audio tour of the old town, including a historic clockworks. I gave Jesse a reader's digest version of my findings yesterday, he is really glad that I came with him he is not sure he would be seeing so much if I wasn't here "scouting ahead" as he said. On Sunday Wolfram and Sandra, and possibly Torston (who Jesse took touring when he visited Oregon last year), will be taking us out to Rheinfalls, a castle and nearby lake. The Rheinfalls are Europe's largest falls and only about half an hour car ride north of here. The swimming gear is for the lake since Jesse took Torston "swimming" in the Pacific, he wants us to have the equivalent experience here. LOL Did I mention how glad I am that Jesse and I stopped into the Made in Oregon store in the airport before we left? Host gifts, one more thing that Jesse would not have thought of without me.

Jesse's First day of work

Yesterday we went for a bit of a walk and found some great pizza, I will try and make a map! I'm very excited, if a little apprehensive. It struck me as we were landing in Zurich that I don't think I've ever spent so much time by myself as I will in the weeks to come. Good news is that I feel really safe here. Jesse and I went for a jog at 5:00 this morning (I need to make a map of that too!) and there were covered bike parking everywhere, full of bicycles, none of which were locked! It's not like bikes are cheap here though, I saw an advertisement for something similar to my Schwin at home, 1400 CHF !!! Thats a house payment. So yeah I'm confident that I will be safe here wondering around Winterthur on my own.

On the agenda today is to wander around and see if I can find a laudry and a shopping center where we can buy me a watch, and Jesse a pair of casual shorts, its in the 70's here this week, we did not plan for that. Also I want to locate a city park where Jesse can have room to do his TaeKwon Do, and find some Museums. Apparently Winterthur is the home to a very large collection of French Impressionist art, Wolfram was telling us that while Impressionism was not popular in France it was being bought up in Switzerland long before the trend caught on. I see a day long trip to that Museum in my future. We found a flyer for an english language tour which includes 2 drinks after the tour for Thursday night, so I will need to locate the starting point today so we know where to go, then I'll book those tickets.

Right now we are staying at an international bussiness hotel, so free WiFi in the lobby and our room even has a view of Mc Donalds!!! LOL I'm sitting in the Bistro where Jesse and I had our breakfast, s nice buffet with fresh bread, cereals, yougurt, eggs to boil as you like as well as juice and Coffee. Have to say though, glad we brought our water bottles, since last night we paid about 7 bucks for a glass of Sprite and a bottle of flat water which tasted just like we get from the tap in our room.

Also note to self: must look up how to play Settlers of Catan with two players. We found a great travel addition, smaller than my laptop, but we forgot that standard rules require 3 or 4 players! Grrrrr!

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=115366543867116498783.00048758fa1843c8dbbc1&ll=47.496575,8.720033&spn=0.007684,0.019205&z=16