We're legal!

Today we all had to go in to Zurich and have photos, fingerprints, and finger scans taken for our residence permits. We also had to present our passports and visas and match the signatures. So now we should be all done with paperwork. No more worries that something may have slipped by us and we'll be deported. I felt pretty confident once we'd paid all the fees, but now it's official.

T and L didn't have to be fingerprinted or any of that - they just had their photos taken. I don't know how much use or protection that is to anyone. T's passport picture was taken when he was only a couple of weeks old.

One thing I wanted to do today - rent our skis for the winter. I totally forgot. That's really a pain because it means that E will have to leave work early someday soon or we will have to set aside a hunk of some Saturday, seriously limiting where we can go that day. All the shops close around 6 here. The ski shop closes at 4 on Saturdays. Nothing is open on Sundays.




Because the post needs pictures, here are some we took on the infamous mountain hut hike. Switzerland is known for its often hidden shelter and defense bunkers - barns that aren't barns, and that sort of thing. We even have our suitcases stored in a bomb shelter in the basement since until not so long ago apartments were required to have one. Still, we were surprised to see these in what seemed to be not so strategic places.

Just two of us

On Saturday everyone decided they would rather spend their first day of October vacation sleeping in and relaxing than waking up at six and taking a two hour train ride somewhere. Fair enough. And yes, I said October vacation. Two weeks off from school. We are going somewhere awesome next week! I know, we already are somewhere awesome, but who knows when we might be in Europe again after this year?

S and I decided we'd head into Zurich in the afternoon and check out the design museum. The design museum was not at all what we expected. We hoped it would have lots of cool examples of European design: typewriters, teapots, furniture, advertising, etc. However, it had no permanant collection at all on display - just a couple of photography exhibits. It was sort of a bummer. But we did enjoy talking about the Martin Parr exhibit and the line between being an artist and a National Geographic photographer, for example. 

But the day wasn't wasted. We walked around the neighborhood and found a Middle Eastern grocery store (where we got some baklava which soaked my purse with honey - oops.) and an affordable Thai grocery and take-out place. Best of all, we  made it to the Brockenhaus which we always see from the train. It has all sorts of used household stuff and we did some Christmas shopping.  S has agreed to go to the granddaddy of the brockis - Brockiland- with me some Saturday.

 The next order of business was to check out a few places in Zurich where we hadn't been with the stroller. There is a little park on top of a well disguised parking garage down town. I was surprised by the area between the park and the river. I would expect apartments crammed together, but intead were these little apartment houses with a big garden between them. Notice the cute windows and the little house cap on the chimney.

I was also suprised by some people smoking a large water pipe next to the playground.  It must come apart somehow. I can't imagine anyone carrying that contraption across town or giving it its own seat on the bus.

Down the street is a place I've seen on maps and was very curious about. It is a terrace park on the top of a hill. Again, it's surprising to see such a prime spot as open space, but people were making good use of it. There were chess boards, swings and lots of benches Pretty fall leaves were blowing everywhere. It was so pretty that S has requested I include her picture there. I guess it's okay. My blog counter says the last few posts have had 0 views. I think that must mean only my three subscribers are looking anyway. That's okay. But if anyone outside my immediate family is viewing, it would be a great boost for me if you'd leave a comment! I know there is really no reason for anyone else to be particularly interested, but if someone I knew had a blog like this I would be reading out of morbid curiosity. It's like looking up the selling price of someone's home, or their age. Now I've admitted to doing that, and if a non-relative reader exists you can  leave an anonymous comment in response.

Rigi

I just realized that this never made it onto the blog since the week we went I was writing the saga of our hike to the mountain hut in Zermatt.

We did end up leaving the house that week. S had a day off from school and we rode the cogwheel train up Mt Rigi. Some of its trails are supposed to be stroller friendly. However, we didn't do more than walk around the summit and down to the first stop. T claimed exhaustion and begged to go home. Maybe he was afraid to hike! We'll have to ease him back into it.

Rigi was easy to get to, but the cogwheel train is pretty slow. When we go back I might consider going home down the other side of the mountain, even though the entire trip is longer, just for variety. I think they have winter walking on snow trails, which I'd like to try. It will be scary, though - getting up and walking around. There were several places where just a few steps from the path there was nothing but a strand of barbed wire to keep you on the mountain.

The train ride may be slow, but it has a great view!

This warning sign isn't as funny as the one with the saw, but S and I loved it because we would be thrilled if a certain someone would show up on our train with his saxophone. Tina Turner is a Swiss citizen now and lives fairly close. It could happen! Timmy Cappello, I'm sure this sign does not apply to you!

Timmy in action!  click the link
I have no idea how many times I watched The Lost Boys when I was a teenager. But it wasn't until a few years ago when I saw it again on cable that I thought to myself, "Did I just see that?" and rewound to watch Tim Capello. I'd seen him in Tina Turner videos, too, and never thought much of it. The eighties were full of awesome things which we took for granted then.

Jucker Farm

On Wednesdays the girls' have only a half day of school, so we went to Jucker Farm. It has pick your own fruit and activities for kids. It also has giant pumpkin sculptures. This year the theme is royalty, so we saw the frog price, Elvis, queen bee, king of the jungle, a throne, two knights jousting, and Robin Hood. The frog price was most impressive since it used the colors of the squash so well and didn't have visible wood part like the lion's head and legs.

The kids spend a long time on the hale bale climbing structure. 

Don't worry - T made the jump!

Relaxing in the hammock and enjoying the view. It's hard to tell in the picture,

but the farm overlooks a very pretty lake. 

The queen bees and the lion.

L can never resist a mini-goat. She loves loves loves them. 

The farm also had chickens, huge rabbits (Dutch giants, maybe) and a goat petting area.

Three apple mazes - like a corn maze, but with column trained apple trees.

Throughout the mazes were boards with all sort of apple trivia and information.

Here are the kids enjoying a snack. There were picnic tables everywhere, lots with views of the lake.

We got a rhubarb tart, a plum tart, a meringue with cream and currants for T, and hot chocolate.

The farm has a farm stand, too, selling all sorts of fruit and pumpkins. I got some of their fresh cider and some apples and pears. They had some nice old European varieties for less than at the market.

However, the prices for squash were outrageous - easily four or five times US prices. 

We got a green long necked squash I'd never seen before, and it might be the best squash I've ever had! I am absolutely going to try to find and grow it.

No bargains in the red light district

Instead of going to the beautiful Berkliplatz market we braved the 8 line tram and went to the Helvetiaplatz market instead. I say "braved" because the 8 line is one of the lines with the old trolleys which have steps in all the cars. They are not at all stroller friendly. According to the sbb website, certain lines have the old trams because if you can't deal with the steps there ares still other ways to get to most of the stops. Another reason this felt like an adventure - the market is supposedly on the edge of an area known for various crimes.

I thought that would be a good thing, since morning would be a slow time for crime and the market prices might be lower. No such luck. The market was small, the prices seemed even higher (maybe because there was less competition?), and the only other difference I noticed was that the Italians selling antipasto stuff were more aggressive in their cat-calling. There was one very nice seller, though. She was extremely helpful and she spoke slowly and simply enough that I could understand her. I learned that her cider was 10% pear, that you can eat kohlrabi leaves sauteed kale style but she wouldn't bother, and that she was selling two sizes of the same apple and I should get the smaller ones. I'd go back to Helvetiaplatz to buy from her again if it weren't for the 8 tram.

I disliked the 8 so much that I decided just to walk to the train station. We passed a cute park and the kids played there for a while. And then we went to the old botanical garden before going home.

Look who has moved in on our big hill! The walk up doesn't seem so bad now. I hope they stay a while.