Month: August 2011

Posted on

Without hindsight…

… I wouldn’t have no sight at all, to paraphrase an old Ray Charles tune.

Aare - Bern
The Aare River flowing through Bern

You see, Sarah and I have had this desire to swim in the local River, the Aare. We have wanted to do this since before we were in Switzerland over a year ago. We watched Rick Steves show us how people just jump right in, float along, and get out somewhere else down the river. To us, this was THE DAY. We were finally going to get our chance.

The Aare is a relatively fast moving, freshwater river that flows from a glacier of the same name in the Bernese Alps. It expands into Lake Brienz, then flows past Interlaken into Lake Thun, and courses north from Thun, past our small village of Münsingen on it’s way through Bern. It eventually meets up with the Rhine river near Koblenz, Switzerland. This makes it the longest river to arise and end in Switzerland. It is some of the bluest, clearest water that I’ve ever seen, and every year, thousands of people swim, paddle, and tube in the Aare. In fact, one could even jump in at Münsingen, and ride it all the way to Bern if they wanted. We did not do this.

Aare - Münsingen
The Aare flowing past the village of Münsingen

We decided to take the kids down to the river, throw on our bathing suits, and each of us (Sarah and I that is) take turns jumping into the river and float for a few moments before coming ashore and rejoining the family. Emily was there ready to cheer me on. James was snapping countless photos on our camera. Sarah had the camcorder in hand and was catching every second. And Henry was busy throwing rocks in the water. It sounded like a great idea, and indeed it was, except for one small problem…

So I admit… I forgot to take my glasses off before jumping in. As I hit the ice cold water, I thought to myself, “did I take my glasses off?” I reached immediately to my face as I went underwater and felt a moment’s relief when there were no glasses on my face, “aahhh, I DID take my glasses off.” This feeling was immediately replaced with one of dread: “No you didn’t, you moron, you could see fine before you jumped in.”

In fact, you can see the complete stupidity for yourself in the video below, intended to capture a moment of extreme pleasure while communing with nature. It really just shows an idiot, jumping into a fast moving freshwater river, with his glasses on. So while hindsight is usually 20/20, it is rarely, if at all, comforting.

Posted on

Small accomplishments, big mountains

The early part of this week was a bit slow. After waiting a week for the local bike store to open, it was closed again on Monday. So, we went there bright and early on Tuesday morning, only to find out that he didn’t have any used kids bikes. He told us those are pretty hard to come by. He did, however, have a cheap used bike for an adult, which we bought and immediately took to the grocery store to pick up several heavy items we’ve been needing to tote home.

The kids’ spirits were a little crushed. The weather wasn’t helpful either (cool, cloudy, and a little rainy again). But, on Tuesday night there was a beautiful rainbow right over our house and our luck began to change. Wednesday morning, Joe went into town with Emily to go to Bern and to find the hospital he’ll be working at. Right outside a shoe store by the train station, there were two used kids bikes! He bought them, and by that afternoon the kids were riding two wheel bikes with no training wheels. There were a few bumps and bruises along the way, but they are both doing great.

Thursday morning we woke up to a beautiful day for the first time in a while, and decided it was time to get to the mountains. We took the train to the city of Thun (only 10 minutes from Münsingen), which is a beautiful city on Lake Thun. Then we took a bus, a funicular, and a cable car to the top of the Niederhorn. The view kept getting better and better the higher we went. This really is a beautiful country!  At the top there was a restaurant and an area for the kids with a zip line, dragon slide and sandbox.  Most stunning playground location I’ve ever seen.  After making it down the mountain, spending a little more time in Thun and getting home in time to make supper, we realized how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place.

Don’t miss the photos of our first mountain adventure.

Posted on

We made it to Bern!

Our accomplishment for the weekend: taking the whole family on the train into Bern. That required several smaller accomplishments like getting my passport pictures for my train pass, buying train passes for me and the kids, and getting the whole family to the train station on foot at a reasonable time.

Once we got to the city (only 8 minutes on the express train), we walked through the old town to one of Bern’s best known tourist attractions: the bears. The city (and Canton) of Bern is named after “the Bear” and displays a bear on its red and yellow coat of arms. So, for many years there has been a bear park (“Bärengraben”) in the city that houses three bears. The best part of it is its location and beautiful view of the Aare river and the old town.

On the way there we walked quite a long way through the weekend outdoor markets, past the beautiful old church (Munster), the city’s clocktower (Zytglogge), and under the arcades past many high end shops. The kids are conditioning their Swiss walking legs, and they did great. But, after lunch by the Bärengraben and climbing up and down about a hundred steps around the bears and down to the river, we decided to take the tram back through town to the train station. We were home for nap time, and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at home. But we can officially check off one more item on our to do list: visit the city of Bern (check)!

Posted on

Living and Learning

In our first five days, we haven’t gone further than a couple of kilometers from our house. The reasons (or excuses) are that I haven’t gotten my train pass yet because it requires passport pictures, which I also haven’t gotten yet. Also, the train station is just far enough away to make it a challenging, though doable, walk with all the kids. Ideally we would all have bikes by now, which is how everyone gets around here, but the bike store is closed until next week because the owner is on vacation, and Emily and James don’t know how to ride bikes without training wheels anyway. So, at this rate, we won’t be going anywhere for several more weeks.

Fortunately, within our very small radius, there are two creeks, a swimming complex, the kids schools, and several neighborhood families with kids. Also, our shipment from America came, so the kids have at least a few more toys to play with. After over a month with just the items in their backpacks, it was like Christmas in August.

Our first week in Switzerland has been a balancing act of failure and success. If you define failure as doing something wrong, then that happens several times a day. In fact, the first time we do anything, we inevitably do it wrong. For example, every time we go to the grocery store, which Joe and I have been taking turns doing each day, we do something wrong: going through the express lane with way too many items, bringing up more items than I had the cash for (they don’t take our credit card), not having the right coin to unlock the grocery cart, etc. (Incidently, since we don’t have bikes yet, we also have to carry all of our groceries home over a kilometer in our backpack and grocery sacks, which makes me feel like I did a 250 rod portage in the Boundary Waters!)

We have also failed to get Swiss phones, internet access, or a bank account, some of which require a residence permit that is going to take a couple of weeks to secure. I got lost with all three kids trying to walk to a nearby playground. Oh, and I fried my hair straightener by plugging it into the wrong electrical converter.

Compared to our failures, our successes seem trivial. But you have to count all the small accomplishments that we take for granted back home. Like understanding a conversation with neighbors on the street (check), cooking a meal with no recognizable measuring tools and instructions in a different language (check), and figuring out the school supply lists (check).

The kids start school a week from monday(!) and it feels like we won’t have done anything. But, then again, we have moved to a new country, and I guess that counts for something.

Posted on

We have arrived, again!

In case we didn’t make this clear two weeks ago, traveling with three young kids is extremely challenging. We had a difficult day of driving in an overstuffed rental car filled with kids and luggage (and kids sitting on luggage). We made it to Bern, Switzerland and stayed one night in a crowded hotel room with one kid on the floor, and one two-year-old that doesn’t know how to fall asleep without his pack-and-play (which was wrapped in several layers of plastic with several other items and strapped to the top of the car — oops). No one got much sleep, tempers flared, and I wondered several times, “why are we doing this again?”

However, the next day, we drove to our new home in the town of Münsingen. After going through everything with our landlord, a 32-year ex-pat from Connecticut, we were even more overwhelmed and exhausted. But, we had arrived!

There are several things about the house that are fantastic. The yard is a beautiful, relaxing space surrounded by lush greenery, flower gardens, a koi pond with a bridge, candle-lit patio, two fire pits, a bench swing, a ping pong table, fresh raspberries and black berries, and a vegetable garden that has already been planted with lettuce, beans, tomatoes, rhubarb, radishes, and peppers. It will be a bit of work to maintain, but we love spending time and eating meals out there. The house also has plenty of space, including a guest suite with a room and bathroom that closes off from the rest of the house. So, if anyone is thinking about visiting us, come on over!

Also, our neighborhood is great. We are near a creek and in walking distance from everything we need. There are lots of kids here, and Emily and James immediately befriended a family across the street. We were fortunate to arrive on August 1st, which is Swiss National Day. The first night, though we were too exhausted to try to go to the celebrations in the city of Bern, we learned that the tradition for most Swiss families involves setting of lots of fireworks in the streets. We joined the families outside our house where the kids all had a blast setting off over a hundred fireworks of all sizes. The next day, the kids played together again, and we all went to the local swimming pool complex in the afternoon. Even though it has only been a couple of days, we love our new home. Already the challenges of getting here seem like a minor hurdle compared to the incredible experiences ahead of us.

NOTE: No pictures this time. We won’t have real internet access until we get our residence permit, which may take a while (I’m sitting in a Swisscom store right now). But we’ll post when we can.