The little things…

Some of the little things I’ve noticed during my first week living in Switzerland, in no particular order:

• Efficient.  The public transportation system is fantastic – trams, trains, buses, and ships are pervasive, efficient, integrated, clean, timely, and understandable.  I sold my car before we left the US, and don’t miss it!
• Clean and walkable. The city streets and sidewalks are spotless, and the air unpolluted.  Genuinely pleasant place to walk.  but:
• Smokers.  Lots of smokers.  Living in Hanover and the Upper Valley I forget how prevalent cigarettes are in Europe.  I enjoy sitting in an outdoor café or biergarten, but have now learned to check the wind direction and the location of smokers before I choose a seat.
• Friendly.  Everyone here has been super kind and helpful.
• Expensive.  And just try keeping an 18-year-old growing boy fed in this place!  (We will need to double our budget.)
• Beautiful.  Zurich is a beautiful city on a beautiful lake.  It helps that the weather this week has been downright perfect – sunny, warm, not too hot, not humid; perfect for an evening glass of bier at the sidewalk café below our flat.
• Historic. Everywhere I turn, as I stroll the old streets between our flat and the university office, are centuries-old buildings just dripping with history. Seven chemists received Nobel prizes from their work in this building.  Brahms played music in that house. Einstein was a student here at ETH around 1900.
• Bread. Fresh croissants every morning!  Enough said.
• Delectable food: so far I’ve had Thai, Japanese, and Indian food.  I suppose one of these days I need to find some Swiss food.
• Green.  Many tree-lined streets and microparks make for a pleasant walk through the back streets to my office.  Still need to explore the many larger parks.
• Sundays.  All shops close on Sundays.  It leads to a very relaxed feeling in town.
• No bugs.  With all this warm weather, we leave open the windows (really skylights, because our temporary flat is at the attic level).   No screens!  because there are, amazingly, no bugs.  I note all windows in the neighborhood are the same.

Author: dfkotz

David Kotz is an outdoor enthusiast, traveller, and father of three. He is also a Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College. View all posts by dfkotz