Today marks day four in Rüschlikon. (Yes, I learned this morning, I’ve been spelling it wrong.) Rüschlikon is a nice small town. It was voted as the number one place to live in Switzerland two years ago. The population is somewhere around 6,000. Approximately 30% of the residents are expats. The population number seems really low, based on the number of homes, though. The majority of the homes are HUGE, but they appear to be multi family lodgings.
Besides Lake Zurich, the defining element of Rüschlikon is the hill on which it is built. I kind of thought Julie was exaggerating a little when she talked about walking up from the train station. She wasn’t…. I have skied smaller hills. Yesterday I had to walk up the hill four times. My legs were really aching this morning, and it made my jog even more difficult.
My job yesterday was to hang a bunch of pictures, and then to get the home office set up. This took me a lot longer than I thought. I have been so used to just jumping in the truck, and driving where I needed to go. I didn’t allow for the slower speed of either walking, or riding my bike to pick things up. I rode over to the Bau+Hobby store in a neighboring town. (Bau is German for construction.). Bau+Hobby is Switzerland’s version of Menards. I was able to find everything I needed to hang the pictures, then I rode home. Finding a computer monitor was a different story. I got online, but couldn’t find anyplace close that sold computers. I remembered from my earlier visit, there was a large electronics store on the other side of Zurich. So I hopped on a train, and rode to the town of Dietlikon. I was able to buy most of what I wanted, and then came back home. Struggled to walk up the hill carrying the monitor. Where I finished up the day by cleaning, and waiting for Julie to get home from work.
The one thing I am struggling to find are some plugs that will convert the US electrical prongs to Swiss. Thank goodness the previous occupant in our apartment left us some. I am able to plug in one of my laptops, but that is about it. I have to keep switching the plugs for my cellphone, tablet, and garmin watch. Thank goodness we got the good advice to not bring a lot of our electric things here.
The one thing I am really missing is coffee. My wife bought a Nespresso maker that makes this horrid concoction of instant awfulness that pretends to be coffee. On our European vacation last year, I thought coffee was something that was done better in Europe, but that has not been my impression in Switzerland. Julie and I are going to Milan this weekend as I have to leave the country to actually get my visa, and when I return the first thing on my agenda is to find a real coffee maker. Hopefully one that I can also make a decent espresso.
The other thing I find really strange are the Swiss customs of recycling. You would think for a country that requires you to recycle things they would make it easy, but it really is not. You have to remember to take your empty plastic bottles with you to the grocery store. Out in front of every store, they have the plastic recycling stations, where you have to sort the different types of plastic bottles you are discarding. Glass is a completely different animal. I have found two places to recycle glass. One is at the train station. The other is closer to the apartment, but I am not sure we can use it, as technically it is in another town. So when I walk Julie to the train station every couple of days I have to carry a bag filled with glass bottles and jars. There are different receptacles set up for the different colored glass. We haven’t yet figured out how to recycle paper or cardboard. Our storage room has a bunch of cardboard stacked up until we can figure it out. I am sure that by requiring the separation they are able to to actually recycle the items (unlike the US where most recycling is simply ground up and then put in a landfill).
Well, that is about it for today. I will post again on Sunday with pictures from Milan. I have to get busy with my household chores. I have laundry to do, and breakfast dishes to clean up.
Talk to you soon!
The coffee really is terrible isn’t
Good luck with the plugs and coffee!
George – The Swiss make an excellent coffee machine that you must at least consider. It is a little pricy, and I can already sense your skin crawling at the prospect of spending money, but trust me, these things are worth the “investment.” See if you can find a Jura coffee maker somewhere. These things take coffee beans and fresh water and turn it into something AMAZING! Some day I will show you my “spreadsheet of justification” for the purchase I made! Good luck.
I trust you but it depends on how much money you are talking!! My trust only digs so deep in my wallet. 😀
Send me the spreadsheet! When I looked at the prices, I am going to have to do a lot of justification to the accountant in the family!
I don’t use the word “investment” lightly!
I like the coffee commentary. We do the same when we are in usa:)
I loved the coffee and espresso when we were over last year. I guess the Swiss do coffee differently.