travel

Colmar: France at its most charming

Day one of my recent trip to Alsace was spent in Colmar, an adorable little town full of narrow cobblestone streets and half-timbered houses painted in vivid colors. It’s just a 2-hour train ride from Zurich, changing trains in Basel (I’m being nice in this post, so I’m biting my tongue about the cleanliness and … Read more

France is growing on me

I never used to be a big fan of France. I wasn’t out renaming fried potato products just to spite its citizens or anything like that – I just wasn’t that into it. The language sounds ridiculous to me. The food is meaty. The trains… well, you know about the trains. But my last couple … Read more

Ode to the Swiss Transportation Network

SBB*, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways… I love thine extensive, inter-connecting network of trams, buses, trains, boats, funiculars, and donkey carts (ok, maybe there aren’t any donkey carts) which whisk me away to any corner of Switzerland with the greatest of ease. I love how very very clean and pleasant-smelling … Read more

Colorful Fribourg

This weekend we hopped on a train for a day-trip to Fribourg, a charming town which straddles the Röstigraben. The Swiss city Fribourg (which is primarily francophone today) is known as Freiburg in German, but don’t confuse it with the German city of Freiburg (also a fun place to hang out) or the two other … Read more

Weekend in Ticino Part 2: Bellinzona

Bellinzona is one of those places you go and think, why didn’t anyone ever tell me about this place before? Despite its beauty, charm, and UNESCO World Heritage Site status, Bellinzona is rarely mentioned amongst the highlights of Switzerland (perhaps this country just has too many highlights?). This Italian-speaking town is nestled into a valley … Read more

Weekend in Ticino Part 1: Locarno

This weekend we escaped the balmy heat wave of Zurich and went somewhere cooler and less sunny. You know, somewhere with palm trees and a Mediterranean climate. Ticino. Ticino is one of the southern cantons of Switzerland, bordering Italy. It boasts an interesting mix of characteristics from both Swiss and Italian culture, usually (but not … Read more

Carnival, Italo-Swiss style

After last year’s lackluster parade in Zurich, I was beginning to think the Swiss just didn’t know how to do carnival. I mean, a correct carnival celebration does involve a certain amount of coming out of oneself, public silliness, and, (gasp!) messiness. Oh yes, I’ve heard about how in Basel there is ‘craziness’ in the … Read more

Liechtensteiny blues

After not leaving the country in over a month, our wanderlust brought us to Liechtenstein on Saturday afternoon. It took about an hour and a half to get there from Zurich by train and then bus. We decided to head for the capital, Vaduz (who knew Liechtenstein was big enough for more than one town?), since it contained a few interesting-sounding museums and such.

We arrived around 1 pm and headed straight to a restaurant that promised Liechtensteinese (is there a real adjective form of this word? Anyone? Anyone?) specialties, which turned out to be strikingly similar to Swiss food: meat, potatoes, sausage, cheese, spatzle, beer. Actually a lot of things about Liechtenstein are strikingly similar to Switzerland: the Swiss Franc is the official currency, High German is the official written language, and an incomprehensible dialect is what they actually speak. Plus it’s generally clean, safe, and orderly, at least from what we saw.

Read moreLiechtensteiny blues

Planning ahead gets you nowhere

So my first attempt at premeditated week-long skiing was not particularly successful. We’re back from Grindelwald, two days early. I’ll let this article in SwissInfo explain why: The month of January is set to be the warmest on record in Switzerland despite the cold snap at the end of the month, according to the national … Read more

St. Gallen and Switzerland appreciation

This weekend we decided to get out and appreciate some Switzerland. On Saturday we hopped on a train to St. Gallen, a city in the eastern part of the country. We chose St. Gallen because 1) we had never been there, 2) we had heard it was cute, and 3) it was only an hour … Read more