Floating through the city

After two years of cancellation, Zurich’s annual Limmat River Swim was finally able to take place yesterday. The weather was gloriously sunny, making us oh-so-excited to jump in the cool water for a leisurely float through the city. The event was extremely well organized (as we should have expected). We purchased our 27-franc tickets near … Read more

What you can learn from a Swiss newspaper

Do the Swiss more resemble each other or their respective language groups? Despite speaking German, French, Italian, and Romansh, surely the Swiss have some common thread that binds them to each other culturally? Their fondness for yodeling and cuckoo clocks? Their love of melted cheese, perhaps? These are questions that keep me up at night. … Read more

Fondling food in the darkness

Last night we crossed another item off the things-we-should-do-in-Switzerland-but-haven’t-gotten-around-to-yet list: dining in the dark. Apparently dark restaurants are becoming quite trendy these days, but Zurich’s Blinde Kuh (German for ‘Blind Cow’) was the very first of them. I found myself giddily excited while anticipating the evening, something which almost never happens to me. We arrived … Read more

Zurich turns into one big party

Saturday was Zurich’s annual Street Parade, a gigantic techno party which takes over all of downtown. In addition to the parade with floats blaring out dance music, there were several stages with DJs blaring out dance music, and pretty much every restaurant and bar in the downtown area seemed to have hired a DJ to … Read more

Zurich Public Transport: 0, Mariachis: 2

For those of you following the Zurich trams vs. mariachis story with baited breath, here’s your long-awaited update. According to this morning’s 20 Minuten (which, in addition to The Daily Show, is the source of all my daily news intake), the VBZ has finally relented and pulled the commercial featuring mariachis busking on a tram. … Read more

Zurich: upcoming events

Just in case you find yourself in Zurich in the month of August, I figured I’d share some upcoming events we’re looking forward to… Street Parade – Time to break out the peacock-feather pasties, boys and girls! This coming Saturday, downtown Zurich will turn into one great big techno dance party, with floats, costumes, and … Read more

Doing Dublin

We spent a little time in Dublin at the beginning and end of our trip to Ireland, split up that way so we could take advantage of the direct flights between Dublin and Zurich on Aer Lingus. It was one of my first experiences with European discount airlines (since most don’t fly out of Zurich), … Read more

A snack with a view

Back in Zurich, more guests to entertain. This time we opted for a trip up the Zürichberg, the mountain which borders Zurich on the east (take tram 6 from the main station). Although less celebrated than the Uetliberg to the west, the Zürichberg can be entertaining, too. The zoo is up there, as are several … Read more

Driving on the left and other notes from Ireland

We had a wonderful week exploring Ireland. The cities and towns were simultaneously charming and rough around the edges; the landscapes were sweeping and beautiful. The weather was intermittently rainy, but we hardly minded since the temperature was so cool and nice. If only they had real, snowy winters, it would be the perfect climate … Read more