Brrr! Winterthur, Switzerland

Still here in Winterthur, probably will be for another week. The campground is rather pleasant - quiet, clean and folks here are very friendly. I think the entire campground came out to greet us when we pulled in. To give them credit, the site is not really laid out for a vehicle of our size; neither is the lane one must take to get here (think "alley" size). Most speak English – all speak German. Nice! I feel like we can understand our surroundings again.

We’ve spent a lot of time wandering the city and not doing much else (well, besides feeding the ducks that seem to be at virtually every campground we've visited. I'm starting to think they are following us).

Winterthur is a cute little town and has a lot to offer visitors in all seasons. On the agenda for this weekend: a marionette show (in German), a family concert (free!), the kid's science museum and maybe the “winter mässi” (mässi = fair) and hopefully some winter holiday festivities. Things are gearing up for the holidays with the decorative street lights hung; the Christmas trees up (there’s about one on every block in the center of town) and the stores decked out with trimmings of the season. Megan and I decided we really liked this non-traditional Christmas tree in the window of a nearby store (see right). Megan especially was excited about the oversized butterflies on the tree!

This is an interesting country – many of you may know there are 3 official languages: German, French and Italian. However, there’s no indication of what language each city speaks. So we find ourselves wondering how it’s determined and by whom. The folks we encountered in the French region did not speak German and definitely did not speak English (something we knew we would encounter in France, but in Switzerland?). Here in the cities that speak German, folks appear on the surface more friendly and they want to speak English! We’ve had more conversations with people from the area in Winterthur than in our travels to date. (Note: It's Swiss German - so I still miss a lot of the context sometimes. One mom I talked to told me that the kids are now being taught "high" German (aka: formal) in schools.)

On a whim, we jumped on a bus to the “Gürze Markt” – based on an advertisement on said bus. The advertisement listed MediaMarkt, Coop “bau and hobby” (which would be building and hobby supplies) and a few other stores. We were looking for a hardware store. We found the Coop complex (this is the primary grocery brand over here… this particular one was a huge store with sub-stores and a hardware/hobby store surrounding it). Not finding what we needed, we wandered out and looked around the streets…. Hmmm. Couldn’t see any sign of any other significant consumer stores. Later that evening, at the Migros (the other grocery store) near us, I found an ad for Obi (large hardware store) – and, guess where it was? Just about 2 blocks from where we were earlier in the day. Sometimes, you can’t see the forest for the trees (especially true if you don't know the name of the forest...we only saw Obi stores in Germany). The morale of the story is – the city centers seem to have the more boutique shopping and you have to wander out to more industrial areas for the hardware or other specialty stores. I know the same is probably true in Seattle, but I’m so used to our mass merchant, big boxed stores – with several of each in the shopping areas. Of course, it could just be that I’m used to having a car and being able to drive around, wandering a bit vs. hoping on/off a bus and hoofing it. =)

On the RV side of the house…
Dan took on the project of wrangling together a grey water drain hose. For a few bucks and an hour or so of work, we can now stretch a hose over to the dump station and empty our shower/dishes water. This saves us about 50% of the movement of the RV (we were needing to move about every 2-days to empty tanks). Though if we stay still too long, we might just freeze in place (there's about an inch of ice on the roof already).

Weather is very crisp but this city is only infrequently graced by snow (yeah!). Lows are in the mid-20’s and highs in the mid-30’s. A little chilly. During Dan’s outing to the hardware store today, he also found a propane filling station – this is GREAT news for us as it’s less than 5km away and we are definitely using the propane to stay warm these days. For others considering this trip, we recommend an electric oil heater (looks like a radiator) and a fan to help circulate air. (We had a little 12v fan that runs off a cigarette lighter, but it met an untimely death under someone’s foot.)

Condensation is a daily battle. We welcome any input or ideas from other folks who overwintered in a cold climate in their motorhome. We have the calcium carbonate blocks, intended for dehumidification in boats and RVs. They can't compete very well with a freezing window though, so aren't the most effective. We have been experimenting with running the AC and fans each day. The best solution seems to be to air the unit out early in the morning… which is not the most pleasant of exercises as we are all just crawling out of our warm, cozy beds. We’re also pulling the bedroom slide in at night to help minimize the amount of surface area exposed to the cold air.

The holidays…
The winter holidays are coming quickly and we are going to start asking around for local customs. We see bags of shelled peanuts mixed with candy in the stores (presumably peanuts for the reindeer and candy for the little guy?) as well as long sticks formed in the shape of a broom with candy tied to it. Add in the delightful display of all sorts of Christmas cookies and cakes and I'm wondering how we'll survive the cold, cold winter and NOT gain about 30lb each on all the yummy goodies.

Will update again in a day or so and let you know how the Marionette show and concert go. Hopefully we'll have some holiday market pictures soon too.

Keep the emails and comments coming. We love hearing from our friends and family - it's like little presents everytime a new message shows up.

Ciao for now!

Sherry, Dan & kids

Winterthur, Switzerland

We're settled in for a week or so in Winterthur, just outside of Zurich. No Internet at the campground - but there is free WIFI (30-min/day) at the local McDonald's. So much for staying away from the big scary man dressed in a clown suit.

For those RV.NET readers - Switzerland has only 7 propane filling stations! One was in Interlaken; the rest are supposedly near Zurich.

That's all for now - will post pics and more later.

Ciao!
The Scherer Familiy

Happy Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving and we have tons to be thankful for .... especially:

• having a spouse who is crazy enough to take on the adventure of travelling together.
• two healthy, beautiful girls who can manage to make me laugh and irritate me in the same breath.
• a network of friends.
• a supportive family (several families, actually) - whether it be by storing our stuff, sending packages, sharing our memories or in the case of my host family, welcoming us with open arms after so many years.
• it's not snowing (yet)!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. May your holiday be pleasant and your tummies full. We're thinking of you and missing you all.

Our holiday decorations:

Our menu:

• Ham


• Broccoli


• Rice


• Dinner rolls


• Apple torte with vanilla ice cream

Thoughts on travelling with kids

Two opinions occur to me when I think about our trip:

1. Crazy - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, full-time parenting in a space smaller than a studio apartment and with foreign languages, strange foods and no set schedule.


2. Idealistic - We'll never get this time with our kids back. We'll learn so much: new cultures; to be flexible; that the world is big; there's more than one way to do things; tolerance for other cultures.

Elements of both views exist in our reality. Neither of us stayed home full-time with the kids before (exception being short stints for maternity leave). It has taken the better part of 3-months to settle in to full-time parenting; to get used to the idea that we are not contributing to the "greater" good of some project for a corporation, but are spending "quality" time as a family.


Just as there are Murphy's Laws for every aspect of life, there should also be a set of them for traveling with kids. I propose the following (feel free to chime with edits or missing laws):

1. Your toddler, who has done fine without a nap for several days in a row, will suddenly, undeniably need one just when the rest of the family is really starting to groove on an activity.


2. Even though the kids will have eaten well all day, they will suddenly be ravenous when in public. Meltdowns often cummulate with a very high-pitched, loud out cry of "...but I'm hungry!" The children's exuberance over free samples at the grocery store will be embarrassing as the sample lady looks at the kids with pity and gives them more.


3. No matter how frequently you have used the bathroom facilities, just when there is not one in the area, your child(ren) will have to "go." Now.


4. Kids still live for TV.


5. As in normal life, when you finally get on the phone, the kids have some urgent need that can't wait. Only, when traveling in Europe, it's a bit more of an expensive interruption and when on VOIP, it is confusing to the other person who suddenly hears muffled cries in the background.


6. Every playground sighted will be met with happy cries of "playground! playground! playground!" even if it is the same playground you've been camped at for a week.


7. No amount of time on the playground is quite long enough.


8. It's always the right season for ice cream.


9. If it's on the ground, your kids will want it. Inclusive of leaves, flower, trash, broken jewellery, broken toys. All are treasures to them, not to be parted with.


10. Boundaries will be pushed. Tempers will flare. You will hear yourself raising your voice more than you had hoped or planned.


11. Kids are loud. No matter how many times we have taught, asked, begged, pleaded to "lower your voices" they will still pipe up louder than anyone else in the place, usually at the most inopportune time.

That said, there is no greater joy then hearing your two year old giggle uncontrollably (even if it is in response to a TV show) or to hearing your six year old exclaim "cool" when some piece of art, culture or history sinks through.



To hear the kids attempt a "thank you" or "please" in German, French, Italian or Spanish warms my heart. To see the response on other people's faces as the kids are trying is almost as warming. People are truly appreciative of any effort you make to fit in with their culture.



If I've learned one thing about parenting in the past three months, it's that I raise my own voice too often. Hearing your own voice coming from your six year old can be a rather unsettling experience. I growl at the kids too much - I need to remember to praise them more and correct them less.



I've learned that in running around, trying to survive in a corporate life and help manage a household and raise kids, that I've forgotten how to have fun. I've forgotten what it means to laugh at the hilarity of a situation and get over it instead of fuming about it. I feel like I'm just starting to grasp the true meaning of our trip and it goes far beyond bonding as a family - it's also finding ourselves again.



My hope is that the kids will remember some of the positive attributes of the trip. I hope they remember a little of what it's like to be a foreigner as they grow up. Maybe it will help build a higher tolerance for people around us as the world shrinks.

For me, I'll keep looking for my sense of humor. I temporarily found it the other day as Sophia and I played a leaf-jumping game on the way home from the post office. The two of us giggling, chasing after leaves that were blowing in the wind so we could stomp on the mercilessly. Impervious to the 30-degree weather. And the wind, for that matter.

Saint-Blaise, Switzerland

We're enjoying our visit to Saint-Blaise, a charming little village, just outside of Neauchâtel. The marina provides a Euro-Relais spot for motorhomes (basically a parking lot with self-serve station for electricity, water and dumping). We're oversized for the lot, but with virtually no one else here, it's no problem. Our guide book indicates the cost should be 8 CHF per night, but the man at the marina declined to accept payment from me. (Note to other European RV'rs - on one side is the autoroute, on the other train tracks so it has quite a bit of road & train noise.)



The town is quite tiny and everything is closed on Sundays. In addition, most shops are closed from 12/12:30-1:30 or 2:00! We keep wondering how businesses stay alive around here. I guess it's a part of the culture we still need to learn about. We arrived Sunday in dire need of going shopping. No such luck - everything but the bakery was closed! Dan and Megan headed out to get bread and came back with chocolate eclairs! YUM. Photo of the bakery that initiated us to all that is yummy and chocolate:



We've been mostly taking it easy - relaxing a bit and enjoying the scenery in the area. There's a playground at the Marina and the kids love it. Megan is so proud that she can use the rope glide by herself. She was a little scared of them when we left the States. She now loves them! She's growing up so fast - it's amazing to watch her play on the climbing rope structures and mastering how to ride her scooter. She's a great fan of small hills that she can glide down.



I was struck by the sunlight on the back of the church. It looked like the church was glowing and I couldn't help but snap a quick shot. Hopefully we'll visit the inside during our stay here - I'd imagine it's quite beautiful.

2) Sunset at the marina

The temperatures are dropping. It dropped below freezing last night (was 32-degrees outside at 9am this morning) and I think today's high was 45-degrees. So far it only rained one day - we went out for a walk anyway, but it was just plain unpleasant with the wind. The mountains are still hiding behind clouds, though when they peek out, you can definitely see the snow line creeping down.

We're hanging out here for a few days - mostly to get caught up on Megan's schoolwork and to allow for some packages from the US to arrive. We're finally in a spot that is central to shopping and a post office. It's great. We plan to take a day trip to Neauchâtel. Dan's bike was fixed today, so I think we can bike it - the trails are clearly marked from the marina.

We're also looking in to either a day-trip to Bern or we will relocate to a campground closer to Bern. The train from Saint-Blaise is about 40CHF per person for a 50-kilometer trip. Seems kind of expensive for such a short trip - but we may do it anyway given that we are enjoying a relief from campground expenses right now.

Not sure if anyone is reading the blog or not - feel free to post comments, even if it is just to say "hi." We miss our friends and family and love hearing from you and we would be thrilled to meet other travelers as well as folks from the towns we're in or near.

Lausanne, Switzerland

Goal: Find an inexpensive campground with Internet connectivity, near shopping, not in the mountains, and not too far of a drive from Geneva.


Destination: Camping de Vidy, Lausanne - about 1.5 hours drive from Geneva.


Enroute, we found an "outlet" mall with an IKEA! We were actually able to park, though it was a little tight getting in and out of the sub parking lot. We were hopeful that we might pick up some new pants for Dan and perhaps find a good deal on better winter wear. Did I mention that Switzerland is expensive in my last post?


At the "Outlet" stores, a pair of Dockers were still 89 CHF; ski gear was 200+ CHF. The only place we found close to inexpensive pricing was IKEA - where we happily spent about 2 hours wandering around, trying to understand the store directory, which is in French! New housewares in hand, we set out again for Lausanne.


We found the campground with ease and were only confused by the fact that directly in front of the campground was a "Euro-Relais" spot for 20 CHF per night, with the dump/water station nearby. Staying at "Camping de Vidy" would run about 34 CHF per night. Blame it on a launguage misunderstanding or tactics to get customers, someone came out and told us that camping at the Euro-Relais spot was "no longer possible" and that for a 1-week stay, they would give us a good discount - just come back to reception at 6pm. Needless to say, checking in at reception at 6pm resulted in there being no discount - only the 10% for the CCI (camping card international) on the per person rate (e.g. 1.60 CHF/day discount).


Most campgrounds we found in Switzerland charge a fee for the motorhome plus a per person fee. For example, 15 CHF for the motorhome plus 7.50 CHF per person plus 4 CHF for electricity. What's included in that price varies from site to site - most offer a warm restroom and free showers; but we are self-sustained and don't need those accomodations.

Lausanne is a very pretty city as is Ouchy, the area nearest our campground. We took the bus in to a market, but found only 3 stalls - guess it's not as popular in November. =)

Sample food/services pricing:

• Broccoli - 8 CHF per kilo - 1 medium head of broccoli costs about 3.80 CHF


• Chicken - about 10 CHF for 2 small breasts


• Sandwich meats - about 4.00-5.50 CHF for a tiny package (about 6-8 slices) of turkey or ham


• Internet - at the Camping de Vidy is 7CHF per hour or 40 CHF for the day (for comparison, T-Mobile offers 1-month cards in Germany for 20 Euro)


• McDonalds - about 20 EURO for our family in the rest of Europe; closer to 40 CHF in Lausanne

We're starting to miss Costco! And our always-on Internet.


The campground (even though I whined about the price) is right on Lake Geneva and situated among a huge park with extensive biking/running/walking trails. There's an onsite restuarant and grocery store. In the summer, it must be quite the place to enjoy the beautiful surroundings. Now, in the off-season, everything is closed up except for one restroom/shower area near the reception desk and the laundry room.


Mostly hidden in clouds during our stay, the mountain views must be quite beautiful in the summer. Lake Geneva is huge - the largest lake in Central Europe at 224 sq. miles. It's also known for seiches, which are water level fluctuations believed to be caused by atmospheric pressure (Encarta 2007). Was a little eery as I was walking alone along the quiet lake, and suddenly it started rippling but there were no boats in the area. No worries, the campground is more than 5 feet above water level, or is it? =)


Area stores close from 12/12:30-1:30/2:00; food is even more expensive than Geneva - even at the grocery store, and eating out seems cost prohibitive. We found ourselves wondering more than once how people survive in this area. Homes are not cheap (we looked at signs posted in a real estate window - they were 1M CHF and up) and the cost of living, once you have a home seems prohibitive. We're wondering what we are doing wrong - should we be shopping in speciality stores vs. grocery stores?


Everyone is healthy and happy. It's getting colder, but so far, no snow. We spent a day just wandering Lausanne and enjoying the hilly terrain (it's reminiscent of Seattle) and the lovely buildings. Our last day there was windy and it poured rain all day and snow was forecast for some of the mountain regions. Not nice weather at all. We huddled inside except for trips to the laundry room and Dan experimented with baking a cake... yummy way to spend an otherwise dreary day.

Pictures:

1) Cathedral de Lausanne

2) Entrance to the Cathedral

3) Inside the Cathedral - art students were sketching, light was filtering through gorgeous stained glass windows and someone was practicing the Organ. Beautiful.

4) Overlooking Lausanne from the sitting area outside the Cathedral

Geneva, Switzerland

We arrived safely in Switzerland - spent two days in Geneva at Camping du Bois. We would have liked to spend more time, but the campground didn't work well for our situation. It was really too bad - the campground facilities were nice and we were able to park across the road from a fantastic playground. However, it was a 25-minute walk to the bus (further to the closest grocery store) and another 20-minutes or so to Geneva by bus. In addition, the campground's Internect connection wasn't working correctly. We could see 4 antennas, but weren't able to connect. The manager of the site was not willing to discuss it further than to indicate he knew it was a problem, and they were in "test" mode.

Prices are expensive - lunch at a Thai resturant ran us 18 CHF per plate. With beverages and rice, the meal was over 70CHF for the family. Yikes! The city has some really pretty buildings - and great history. We were intent on fixing Dan's bike. We finally found the bike shop, only to discover they were closed for the day.

At 45 CHF (Swiss Franc) a night for camping with no Internet access, it was time to move on.

Pictures:

1) Playground at the campside - look at that slide!

2) Dan initiating the girls to the slide

3) Typical picture of Geneva

Tactical planning is over rated...

Headed out to Genova in search of the ferry to Barcelona, Spain. Given lack of Internet access and the sketchy situation in Rapallo, we just "went for it." We found the ferry terminal with no problems. Only, we arrived around 11 am and the gates to the docks don't open until 1pm/13:00. There is not adequate parking outside the gate for us. Reassured that as long as someone stayed with the motorhome, we were fine, I took off to secure tickets.

Good news: The cost was slightly under the 500 Euro we had guessed and we saved the cabin fare as we can camp onboard.
Bad news: The ferry departs at 9pm

Ticket in hand, I return to the motorhome and take the girls upstairs for lunch and to get some energy out. We had a very leisurely lunch at McDonalds, played on the few automated rides they had and did some shopping at the terminal grocery store. Cool. We're stocked up and ready to go!

Finally around 8:30 or so, we board the ferry, but are told to check in at "reception." Reception informs us that the seas are too rough to allow on-board camping. They have comped a cabin for us. We need to pack a few things and once we leave port, will not be allowed back in the vehicle until we arrive in Barcelona. The word cabin is probably overrated in this instance - it's a single room with a triangle shaped bathroom and a closet by the door and just enough room to walk between the beds. At first, we were fearful that we had been given a room with only two twin beds, but bunks fold out to make 4. The kids had a hard time going to sleep with the novelty of being on a ship and both on top bunks... and mom and dad had reading lights on below. Around 11pm, I realize that I felt a little queasy - maybe it's from reading / angle of the light mixed with the movement of the boat. Not thinking anything of it, I turned out the light and went to sleep.

Needless to say, I awoke feeling really sick. I fumbled through a shower, but then had to lay back down while Dan got the girls dressed and went off to breakfast. I was begging for an anti-naseua remedy. He came back with the tiniest roll of bread I've ever seen and said the crew indicated "it's a condition. bring her down to the common area where she can see the horizon." Right. There is no horizon on this ferry ... a tiny bit of bread and coffee didn't help. The girls, over running with energy and wanting to play and cuddle with me simply didn't understand.

Enough about me. I get sea-sick - now we all know. We arrived in Barcelona fine and found our next destination (mostly) without incident (warning to RV drivers ... some overpasses are angled in meaning while you clear on height, you may scrape your side mirrors). This "campground" is a parking lot with an area set aside for motorhomes. We are really quite oversized for their standards - but with overhang, were able to mostly fit into a spot. There was one electrical box which had 38 connectors (!). Water and dump facilities were located in a separate area, which had been fenced off for some reason, making entry for us a bit of a challenge.

• Day 1: Barcelona - we felt happy to find the parking spot and get settled. Dan starts reading up on the Schengen Treaty online.
• Day 2: Barcelona - it's a National holiday - we start out to explore - but head the wrong direction. We're surrounded by high-density (and appears to be lower-income) housing. Everything is closed. We head back to the parking place... start wandering the other direction, toward the hotel district. We find a huge (5-stories) shopping mall. Upon entry, it answers the question of "where is everyone?"
• Day 3: We depart. After more research and consideration, we decide we shouldn't tempt the regulations of the Schengen Treaty (allowing us to stay in the Schengen territories for a maximum of 90-days in any 180-day period). We're within a week or so of our 90-day limit - the primary issues that made the decision for us were:
• a) if caught, we have no idea what the prosecution / exportation process is like. Would we be jailed or do we just post enough money for airfare and leave? Would we be separated from the kids? We weren't able to find any process-related information, other than those who have been caught recently have been steeply fined (in the 1'000's of dollars per person).
• b) Dan found an article notating that most insurance policies are cancelled if the insured is doing something illegal. Definitely don't want our health, auto or life insurance invalidated IF something were to happen just because we selfishly want a warm winter.

This in mind and knowing we need to be good stewards of tourists, especially American tourists, we decided to burn a path to Switzerland. A tactical error. We could have saved a lot of money (ferry, gas) and time had we headed to Switzerland after visiting Milan. However, our initial plan had been to take the risk and winter over in Southern Spain, getting nice tans.

That's the story of how we came to be in Switzerland, by way of Italy, Spain and France... having not enjoyed any risotto, paella and only one crummy croissant. =)

Not all is lost - the drive is quite beautiful (though the toll roads will kill you - we spent about 200Euro in tolls through France alone). We had an interesting laundry day in France... a single washing machine (5 Euro per load) and no dryer. It was 3pm before we arrived and we had 3 loads of laundry. Well, almost everything was dry before we left at noon the next day.