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8 Tage bis unsere Abfahrt - Ready or Not St. John, Here We Come

Well, we depart Zurich for St. John next Monday, the 14th. These photos of our place were taken by our friend Hilarie at American Paradise Realty last Wednesday, Jan 2, so things don't look like they're quite ready for us, but nevertheless we will be there, along with Casey, in eight short days. As long as there's one working toilet, I'm good to go. A fridge full of beer...heck, who am I kidding....just a fridge, would be nice too.

Not sure if we'll be posting on this Zurich blog while we're on St. John (through late April) so check out our old new St. John blog site, created...like...four years ago by Matt, but severely neglected since then (kinda tough to write about things St. John when you're living 4500 miles away in Zurich): www.stjohntalk.com/blog We hope to rekindle our St. John Talk website as well, http://www.stjohntalk.com/.

In the meantime, we've been thoroughly enjoying and will continue to faithfully follow the blogs of other Virgin Islanders whom we've yet to meet in person: Frank Barnako's News of St. John, http://barnako.typepad.com/ and Jeff and Russ's On St. John, http://www.on-stjohn.com/

The Stupid Round-Up

As this year ends - well, in Zurich, it's already ended; it's 2008 - I love the Washington Post's round-up of 2007's biggest idiots. Though I agree with number one, definitely read through them all. They're funny.

Link

Enjoy! Happy New Year!

And Now...in it's First Zurich Appearance Since December 5, it's......

THE SUN!!!!!!!!!

Colmar, Better Late than Never

Just got around to having a look at our photos from Colmar, a beautiful Alsatian town we visited when Matt's parents were here back in the beginning of October. Although it's in France, Colmar is less than two hour's drive from Zurich. German architecture, great white wines and the French language. What can be bad?

Follow the link to Colmar http://www.flickr.com/photos/hthphoto/sets/72157603557227692/

Hochnebel be damned

I was so freakin' sick and tired of waking up to the same milky overcast every damn day this month that on my last day off, we went up to our local mountain, Uetliberg, the one you see from our apartment window, about 20 minutes by train from the main station, approximately 2500 feet above sea level. It's high enough to be over the hochnebel, where the skies are crisp clear blue much of the winter and the views of the Alps spectacular. Of course, it wasn't any warmer than down in soupy Zurich, but at least the sun felt good and the views of the sea-like cloud layer down below phenomenal.

Check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hthphoto/sets/72157603537462457/

Hochnebel, defined

The German word Hochnebel refers to the depressingly featureless blanket of overcast that drapes Zurich and other regions north of the Alps for much of the winter. It must explain in part the high suicide rate in Switzerland.

What's crazy is that you can take a 45 minute train ride up into the mountains, where the sky is deep blue and cloudless and look DOWN on the crappy Hochnebel that's making all us citydwellers miserable.

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

One nice thing about living in a place that is overcast so often is that when the sun DOES decide to peek through, it often results in dramatic colors on the buildings and sky. These were taken from my office window at 8 AM, shortly after sunrise this morning (yeah, the sun doesn't come up until really late this time of year). Of course, the rest of the day so far is completely overcast.

Out Our Window #3

It's been a while since the last installment of "Out Our Window" so it seemed about time to put in another one.

This is one of my favorite views, looking west-northwest across the other side of the lake to the area called Enge. This is the Enge Church in the center, my favorite church in all of Zürich. I find it to be the most beautifully designed.

There is a nice Wikipedia summary of Enge Church, called Kirche Enge in German. Check out http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_Enge

The text is in German, but it's not a particularly difficult language, so we believe you should have no problem understanding the web page, even if you don't speak German...not.

This pic was taken this morning. Yes, I know it's sunny. That happens here every now and again.

I Awoke Today and Found the Frost Perched on the Town

The title above is from a Joni Mitchell song, just so you don't think I'm poetic or creative or anything like that.

I took Casey for a walk yesterday morning to find frost all over the cars on the street as well as on our outdoor patio table. It's pretty unusual to get frost here. The main reason (from my science geek background) is that frost usually requires a clear sky overnight to allow the surfaces to give their heat back into outer space. I can count on one hand the number of clear mornings we'll wake up to in the colder months here. But as you can see above, this morning was one of them. It was a pretty refreshing change from the dull grey.

Get Your Mind out of the Gutter - They're Croissants

And I have no idea why our local bakery decided to make them in this shape, but there they were, peeking out at us from behind the glass window.

Happy Thanksgiving

We wish all of our American friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving. We celebrated here in Zurich with some ex-pat friends and a stuffed turkey which cost about $80. Don't even get me started on the currency rates at the moment.

Matt and I apologize for the lack of posts lately. We were away for nearly three weeks of November, traveling to New York, St. John (the house is coming along great!!), Miami then back to Zurich. Hopefuly we'll have some pictures to share soon.

We Have Foliage Too, You Know!

Everyone thinks about the Northeastern US, particularly New England, when foliage comes up in conversation. Sometimes, I think people neglect to realize that leaves change colors in all temperate zones throughout the world, including here in Switzerland. Now I will admit that the fall colors in most of Europe are not nearly as varied and vivid as in New England but they're still darn pretty.

Here is a shot I grabbed this morning with the crap-o cameraphone (I think the pictures it takes are becoming lousier - good thing my contract is up in January and I can get a new phone with a new built in crappy camera) a block away from our apartment. Pretty, huh?

Hike up Mount Rigi

Yes, I know it's already October (and there were SNOW flakes this morning), but Matt, Rachael (co-worker Doug's wife from Australia), Casey and I went hiking up Mt. Rigi back at the end of August. I forgot to post the photos until yesterday, so here is the link to them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hthphoto/sets/72157602470700402/

Rigi is between Zug and Luzern in North-Central Switzerland and is 5,895 feet above sea level. Pretty friggin high.

Have You Seen This Before?

Matt very excitedly made me take a left down the street away from our apartment when we got off the tram this afternoon to show me this Mini Cooper-a version we had never seen before. It's stretched in the back and has twin swing-out doors in the rear instead of a hatch.

We wondered whether they are new and if they are available yet in the USA. Anybody?

This Year's Oktoberfest in Munich

A couple of weeks ago, we took a four hour train ride to Munich for Oktoberfest for a day of unadulterated drinking and general craziness. You gotta love a city where all the men are wearing leather pants (lederhosen) despite summer-like weather.

Here are the unedited pics from the event as well as some other random shots of Munich,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hthphoto/sets/72157602529895651/

Swiss Graffiti

There is a LOT of graffiti in Zurich, something that takes most people who haven't been here before by surprise. I think the Swiss see it as a (relatively) harmless and healthy way for the otherwise oppressed younger generation to express themselves.

Here is one of my favorites, the Zurich "ghetto" equivalent of "yo sista." I like the proper use of the colon punctuation here.

Like the Travelocity Gnome...

Casey is making her way around the world, and we're documenting it.  Here she is in Zermatt at the Matterhorn:

Unfortunately, she wouldn't stay put for the picture alone...so you're stuck with me in the picture with her!  ;-)

Did We Tell You Casey Can Do Impressions?

Here's her impression of a moray eel:

Momma's got New Shoes

Well, new shoe to be more exact. Poor little Casey had a visit to the vet today because of an infection on her left rear paw. They gave us some Betadine cleanser, some antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and this cute little boot to prevent her from licking the wound.

She asked for a pink suede pump but this is all they had.

Congratulations, Tom and Stephanie

We are broadcasting to you live from the Connecticut shore, where we are about to attend this afternoon the wedding of our Zurich friends, Tom and Stephanie.

Weather forecast calls for dry conditions and temps near 80. Sounds perfect. Congratulations to the soon-to-be newlyweds!!!

Link to the photos from the Greek Isles

Here is a link to photos from our latest trip, Santorini and Mykonos, Sept 5-12.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hthphoto/sets/72157602113075710/


Yiasou

Pardon our Hiatus

After our recent trip to Mykonos and Santorini, we are waaay too relaxed to think about posting to the blog, so please be patient while our tans fade. When we come back from hiatus, we'll have a link to the Greek Isles pictures ready for you.

Racism at its Finest, just like during WW II

See the article here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070901/ap_on_re_eu/switzerland_deportation_campaign

And This is Why Zurich Sometimes Sucks

The weather forecast for today was supposed to be for mostly sunny skies, an uncommon (well, certainly less common than anywhere else we've ever lived) event here in Zurich. Well, wouldn't you know it that after awakening to overcast skies (as usual), we noticed rain shortly before 11 AM. A quick check at the radar (shown above) on http://www.meteoswiss.ch/ shows that most of this tiny little country is indeed enjoying a sunny morning while this pesky little patch of cloud sits squarely on top of Zurich and Zurich only. Where does it come from? How is it that it decides to materialize just over this place and piss all over what would have otherwise been a nice morning? And I had the day off from work, to boot. And that, my friends, is why Zurich sometime sucks.