Europe – Page 2 – Globitrotter

Ah, seasons!

Well, here it comes. The autumn. When I looked out the window this morning snow had fallen on the mountain tops. Above about 2000 meters the peaks were nice and white. Much of it disappeared during the day but it was clear that a new season is here.

I had some difficulties believing what I saw this morning considering the beach was full of people just last week when it was still almost 30 degrees Celsius. Summer was still going strong.

This is what it looked like at Ufschötti at the Lucerne Lake (Vierwaldstetter see) just a few days ago.

Actually I am pretty excited about the autumn since we have escaped colder weather for a few years now. Even though it has been great not having to wear lots of clothes for years I have missed the seasons. Last time I experienced a full autumn in Europe was 2010 and then we moved to Arizona in December and missed winter. So now it is time to dig out those boots and jackets. Looking forward to it!

First outing

We have lived in Lucerne since 1 June and from our balcony we see the mountains, particularly the Pilatus. It is regarded as the “house mountain” being the highest peak close to the city. With its 2128 meters it is higher than the highest point in Sweden. Considering our interest in hiking it is astonishing that we have not hiked one single time since we came back to Switzerland. The weather has been fantastic so there was really no reason. But I have to admit that after doing so much hiking during our trip and moving around every day made us lazy and we have enjoyed just staying put for the summer.

The Pilatus is very green this time of year. If you zoom in you can see the red gondolas on the right side of the mountain.

Lately though I have started to feel the urge to get up there again and on Saturday we did our first “real” hike since Tasmania in March. (I am not including smaller walks to see certain sights.) We decided to hike the Pilatus from the Alpnach side which is the most direct route and therefore also quite steep. You start at the Pilatus Bahn station (yes, there is a train going up on this side of the mountain) on roughly 450 m altitude. It starts off on the meadows but rather quickly you enter the forest and do not get out in the open until almost half ways to the top.

Before getting into the forest.

Once above the tree line you soon see your goal for the first time and it becomes very obvious that it is a fair way to go. You can see the switchbacks you have in front of you but you also have a nicer view and it is more alpine with beautiful meadows and steep rock faces. The top of the mountain was mostly covered in clouds so it did not make much sense to take pictures at this point.

What is a hike in the Alps without cows? In the background in the left image you can see the train track.

Being not in the best of shapes it took me about half an hour longer than last time I did this hike 3 years ago. We did not keep that good track of our time, we stopped and talked to fellow hikers on the way, but I think we did the 1700 m altitude in about 3 h and 40 min. My goal is to cut that time with at least one hour. I would be happy with 2.5 h. Andy’s goal is a bit more aggressive but he would have to run part of the time to reach his 1.5 h goal…

At last we reached the peak which is crawling with people. The amount of people that actually hike up is not very large, most come up with the train or the gondola on the north side of the mountain. Recently they renovated the facilities on the top to fit even more people indoors. I guess a lot of the tourists does not realize that it gets quite cold up over 2000 m, especially when the wind is blowing. This way they can get a nice lunch or snack without having to freeze half to death.

And being out of shape we took the train down. 🙂 It is quite a cool train being the steepest rack railway in the world. They say the steepest part is 48% which is quite impressive considering it opened in 1889.

This is the half way station. You can get off and on here if you don’t want to do the complete hike or just get off, stroll around, say hi to the cows and then continue with the train.

Movies in Switzerland

Yesterday we went to the movies. We attempted to go see something a few weeks ago but could not find the film in original language. It is actually still a problem to find the movies you want to see not dubbed in German. I very much believe that dubbing the movies destroys the original. It is obvious that everything is recorded in a studio, the speech does not match the lip movements and just hearing someone like Sean Connery or Morgan Freeman speaking German is simply wrong. Here they are used to it though and many prefer the German versions, obviously. Many think it is a nuisance to read subtitles.

However, Despicable Me 2, runs close by in original language. Luckily! I was almost expecting having to wait until I get back to Sweden to watch movies in the cinema. We have been waiting for this film for a long time and it did not let us down. Very funny. Go see it! 🙂

Another thing about going to the movies here is the break… Yes, they do make a break in the middle of the movie. When you are really into it and it is exciting and you just want to see how it continues the screen goes black and the lights are turned on. Come on! I guess the reason is that they sell beer at the theater so people need a toilet break and time to get another one. Annoying if you are not used to it. Next time I have to buy a beer to make it worth while.

Learning Swiss German

For those who did not know, Swiss German is very different from German. I did not understand anything the first time I came here. The good thing (for us foreigners) is that Swiss German is only a spoken language which means they all know German as well. In school they learn German because that is the written language also used in the German part of Switzerland. So if you don’t understand what they are on about you simply ask them to speak German and you are fine. During the years I have known Andy I have picked up some Swiss German and by now I usually understand the topic of the conversation but not the details. Thankfully many words are similar to German so when you learn how the Swiss pronounce things you can figure out what it means. They say it takes about three months for a German to fully understand Swiss German but believe me if German is your third language it is a bit harder.

Now when I am living here, it is time to learn more though… Since it is only spoken it becomes more difficult for me. Usually I learn languages through texts, I find it easier to remember words and expressions if I can see them written. Now I have to ask Andy to write down things for me which leads to the next problem. When they write Swiss German, like they do in emails and on Facebook etc, they write like it is spoken. There are no rules! This sounds lovely for someone who ever had to learn German but now you have to be aware that the words can be written in many different ways depending on who is writing them. The problem here is that every village has their own dialect (including different words!) and it becomes very difficult to learn to understand all of them completely.

I will mainly be learning the Lucerne version and hopefully I will then be able to understand most of what I hear. Also first I will be concentrating on understanding what they say, speaking will have to come later. I don’t want to confuse my German due to the fact that I will have to use my German for working. I need to keep focus on speaking and writing that properly and not mixing it up with the local dialect (which already has been proven difficult). The grammar is of course also completely different so let’s leave that for later…

Differences

Moving to a new country means learning a new language and culture. You might think Switzerland should not be too different from Sweden, even a lot of people think they are one and the same country… Both are in Europe and have a high standard of living. Seen from the outside they are similar but when you spend some time here you notice the differences. Some things are easy to see, like that the shops are not open on Sundays except for the ones in the train station. Luckily we live just around the corner from the central station so I can at least find groceries any time if I need something. But I can forget my favorite Sunday shopping tours in the city after a lazy brunch. Switzerland is also a lot more conservative than Sweden which you notice clearly on the family politics. Here it is still common for the woman to stay at home after having children which is rarely heard of in Sweden. Even though it is difficult to get used to other ways it is hard to say what is better and worse. Both countries have their ups and downs.

I notice new things all the time here and as soon as I find a job I expect to find more differences. Looking forward to that.

In the mean time I am trying to pick up some more Swiss German… for anyone who did not know: it is not like German at all!

The apartment

Soon we have lived a whole month in our apartment. The first few weeks we were busy driving around to all the furniture stores in the area, including IKEA of course. 🙂 As soon as we had brought something home we saw the need of the next thing. There are things still missing, the sofa and the dining table we ordered has not shown up yet. At the moment we are using the garden furniture in the living room and Andy’s old desk as dining table. Since we do not have all the furniture yet we have not really thought about what to put on the walls which are shining very white. The loggia.

The bedroom we have not bother about at all. Andy’s old bed will have to do for now and the “wardrobe” is some what temporary but functional. We could well do with some drawers but we will have to cope for a while longer. We can always stuff things in Andy’s old wardrobe that we put in the spare room.

We really enjoy having our own place with a big kitchen and living room. We spend a lot more time in the “loggia”, the part of the living area where you can open the walls completely to the terrace, than we thought. Now the very important task of finding the perfect furniture for it begins… I am thinking comfortable chairs for “fika” and lighter meals, maybe afternoon tea. 🙂