El Andalous - Trip to Siwa Oasis

Cafe at Cleopatra Bath

We finally arrived in Siwa from Marsa Matrouh; the original itinerary was from Cairo direct to Siwa with a stop-off at El Alamein and Marsa Matrouh, but we’d asked to break the journey at Marsa Matrouh and forgo one night in Siwa. Arriving in Siwa made us appreciate just how long the journey would have been had we not had an overnight in Marsa Matrouh.

Siwa is still like old Egypt; not so long ago, there used to be only donkeys and carts in the town, although cars do now drive through. The taxis are still donkey-driven, tuk-tuks, or carts pulled by a moped. The roads were uneven and narrow; the people were relaxed and just wandering around doing their own thing.

We arrived at our accommodation which was an EcoLodge; it had a swimming pool, which wasn’t filled with water, beautiful trees and plants everywhere and the buildings were made out of the traditional clay and salt which is supposed to be a natural insulant. Electricity was low-key but the shower was big enough for three or four people. It was very picturesque.

One of the first things that strikes you about Siwa is all the palm trees. Of course, it’s an oasis, so there’s water, but since the water was not directly where we were (Siwa has around 7000 inhabitants) and the water is in any case more like a huge lake than what you would imagine an oasis to be like, it’s the palm trees that first stick out, especially after a long car journey through desert landscape.

There are a surprising number of things to see at Siwa. We weren’t able to get into the local museum, which was closed each time we went, but we visited the Shali village. This was an old fortress at this location, made out of the traditional clay and salt, but had been washed away over the years . The fortress is being renovated and because we were such a small group. They allowed us to look around.

We were then taken to the Cleopatra Pool; this time, there is some evidence to lead people to believe that Cleopatra was actually there. Joke and I had a quick bathe in the water (with expectations of looking instantly younger, so we were led to believe). Afterwards, I drank a Siwa shake (cinnamon, dates, banana, milk, and ice – delicious!).

After this, we went to Fatanas Island to watch the sun set over the oasis. Once it was dark, we moved on to a local hot spring to relax in the waters – the water was hot enough to make you sweat, but we had the entire place to ourselves, so we were privileged.

The following day was also action-packed. We started off visiting the Temple of the Oracle where Alexander the Great received the oracle as to whether he really was the son of Amun (Zeus). Views from here were amazing – a sea of palm trees to the left, and the edge of the oasis to your right. Then we had a quick visit to the temple of Om Obaidah, although only a few remains were left.

After this, we proceeded to the Mountain of the Dead; it houses over 100 tombs from Pharaonic times and was discovered only during WW2 when the people of Siwa fled to the mountain to hide. We saw one of the tombs that had retained much of the original painting; it was amazing to see something like this outside of Luxor.

Our afternoon was taken up with a trip into the Sahara – the “sea of sand”. We had to be checked in by the police beforehand and the car had to be checked for safety (we had a special 4-wheel drive). Of course, the landscape was vast; there were fossils lying in the sand, and we flew over the sand dunes in our 4-wheel drive. Suddenly, before us, there was an oasis just as you imagine it to be, right in the middle of nowhere in the desert. It turned out to be a hot spring and there was a small cold water lake not far away; we bathed in both and had the hot spring to ourselves. We then watched the sun set and made our way back to Siwa for our last night before travelling back to Cairo the next day.

It was a memorable trip and great to see the less-visited (but equally remarkable) parts of Egypt.

El Andalous - Trip to Marsa Matrouh and Siwa

Entrance to the El Alamein War Museum

The very next day after I’d arrived back from Luxor, I was off again. This time, it was destination Cairo, from where a group of four of us (Joke, Maria, Nicole, and myself) were doing a 3-day trip taking in El Alamein, Marsa Matrouh, and Siwa Oasis. In this blog, I’ll just cover the first part of the trip to El Alamein and Marsa Matrouh. The rest will follow next week.

We took the first class “Blue Bus” to Cairo. This was the first time I’d traveled with Blue Bus and it was a good experience. They had an air conditioned waiting room, the seats were large and you had your own TV screen with music, games, films, etc. There were two drivers for the six hour journey and a guy serving soft drinks on request (included in the ticket). We were provided with a lunchbox with a cheese sandwich, juice, and chocolate baguette. One-way cost around 25 GBP.

It felt quite strange arriving into Cairo and seeing all the trappings of a large city that I hadn’t seen in quite a while – there was the mass of traffic driving in a not particularly orderly fashion (that’s Egypt), many billboards lit up with advertisements (including advertisements of Sahl Hasheesh!), and all the buildings. Progress through the traffic was slow, but it was interesting.

In Cairo, we were picked up by the owner of the B&B where we were staying (a friend of Joke’s) and he recommended somewhere for us to eat. Cairo turned out to be quite different from Hurghada, where it’s fairly easy to get alcohol in restaurants. Here, it seemed like we were the devil incarnate for asking for it, it was placed in a black, opaque bag (as in Hurghada), and we were asked to take our rubbish with us and not leave it in the room since they didn’t want cleaning staff seeing the alcohol. It’s not really unreasonable, it is a Muslim country after all, but it was very different from Hurghada.

Our initial day was a lot of driving, but we had plenty of room in our minibus and plenty of refreshment stops. The first major stop en route was at El Alamein, where there is a military museum on the battle at El Alamein, a decisive point in WW2, of which Churchill commented that before then all battles had been lost and after that point, all battles were won. There was a huge peace sculpture outside, videos and exhibits inside, and then outside there were life-size models of tanks and aeroplanes, along with large embossed plaques depicting the battles. Apparently, the museum had recently been refurbished, so it was all spotless and a credit to Egypt. There were quite a few Egyptians looking around as well.

A little further down the road, we visited the cemetery dedicated to all those who had lost their lives during WW2. It was remarkable for being in pristine condition and it was a sobering reminder of all the young people who died before they’d even had a chance to live, all for giving us the privilege of living the lives we’re able to lead today.

We continued our journey and arrived at Marsa Matrouh at around 4pm. We visited Cleopatra Beach where quite a few Egyptian films have been made. The coastline was beautiful with clear water, interesting rock formations, and jagged coastline. After that, it was sunset and so we checked into our hotel and then dined at a local restaurant in our own separate section. We had the choice of mixed grill or chicken and had all the traditional Egyptian accompaniments (tahini, hummous, bread) by the bucket load.

The next day we set off early (by now this was the fourth consecutive early morning for me including Luxor!) to go to Siwa. However, astonishingly (for Egypt), we got held up by fog. We couldn’t see in front of us at all. The police stopped all traffic from going any further and so we had to wait in the minibus by the wayside. Eventually, a police car came through to let us know that the fog cleared further up the road, and the traffic started moving slowly again.

However, before we knew it, the truck in front of us crashed into a car in front, so we had to stop yet again. Nobody was hurt. Finally, we were able to start our journey once more. We stopped at a roadside café for a refreshment stop and all the drivers there were curious to know if we’d seen the accident. Our driver became the hero of the day as he was able to explain that we’d been right there and had seen everything first hand. It made the other drivers’ day. The Egyptians love a bit of gossip.

We finally arrived in Siwa in the early afternoon, and I’ll cover those two days in the next blog.

(PS. Merry Christmas everyone, if you celebrate, and thanks for reading!)

El Andalous - Aida

Aida in the Backdrop of Hatshepsut's Temple

In my head, my return to Egypt signaled a year of sitting back, relaxing and taking stock of how my finances would last. It’s been a while since I’ve had the luxury of not working and I thought I’d not do much at first and wait until I got a bit bored before I started to plan anything.

However, it turned out that my life had other ideas in store for me.

I was excited to hear that Aida was showing in Luxor with orchestra and singers coming in from abroad to perform it in the setting of Hatshepsut’s temple. Wow. How often in your life do you get to see something like that?

Tickets were expensive (cheapest was 150 USD), but it turned out that this included your return travel to Luxor from Hurghada, a night and breakfast in a 5-star hotel, and transport to the opera and back from the hotel. Suddenly, it didn’t seem quite so bad.

I tried to persuade some friends to come over and see it with me, but I didn’t get anyone taking me up on the idea. In the end, I decided I’d just go on my own, although fortunately, it transpired that Horst and Hilde were also planning on going, so I wasn’t alone after all.

Fox Travel, who were organizing it, at first seemed very efficient. They came to Sahl Hasheesh to collect our payment since for some reason they couldn’t supply an IBAN number for us to transfer money directly. Well, they tried, but it didn’t work as my bank wouldn’t recognize it as a valid code. Nothing is straightforward over here.

However, they came to collect the money and to give us our tickets, so it all went well. Nevertheless, after that, it was much more of a struggle. I emailed them to ask when they’d be picking us up and whether they could give us a full itinerary (eg, time of arrival, time of departure to opera, end of opera, time of departure to return, etc). They said they’d pick us up at 8am (but didn’t say where) and didn’t answer any of the other questions.

We waited at 8am on the day in question at El Andalous, assuming pick up must be from our residence. The bus was a little late, but not too badly so, considering this is Egypt. It was just a small minibus and we picked up other people from Sahl Hasheesh who were also going (Azzurra, Palm Beach, and Ocean Breeze buildings). We were then informed that we would change bus just on the border of Sahl Hasheesh. This was a bit surprising and we assumed we were joining a larger crowd in a larger bus that had come from Hurghada. But no, we transferred to another minibus with a different driver and our guide left us.

At around 2pm, we arrived in Luxor. We were staying in the Steigenberger, which was a wonderful hotel, and a band of men played to us as we arrived and entered the building. There was some kind of confusion over our booking when we arrived and the Steigenberger had to phone the agency to clarify. Consequently, we had to sit round and wait. We still didn’t have an itinerary, so we asked at what time we needed to meet for the bus to take us to Aida, but nobody was able to give us any information.

Eventually, we made it to our lovely rooms, but we still didn’t know what time we were going to be picked up. We all sat round for an hour while the agency tried to find out. The view was lovely and the bar was open, but it was still very frustrating.

In the end, they said we needed to meet at 16:30. By this time, there was only an hour left, so any plans of going out somewhere in Luxor were now scuppered. Horst, Hilde and I had lunch – I was wondering if we’d be given something to eat at the opera, but Horst and Hilde were sceptical (and, it turns out, were right to be so). After this, Mohamed, who used to work in El Andalous but had since become a teacher in Luxor, came to meet us in the hotel, so it was good to see how he was doing and to see photos of his new baby girl.

Soon it was time to change for the performance. We all sat round in our glamorous garments for 30 minutes and then were told that they’d got the time wrong and actually we wouldn’t be picked up until 17:30. Grrrr.

It still seemed quite early to be going to the opera if we weren’t going to be fed, but the journey there took longer than we were expecting. I think they’d laid out a specific route for all buses to the opera to take; every 500m or so there were police along the wayside. The security was amazing.

Once there, there were hundreds of people. We had to queue a bit, but really it wasn’t too bad. The seats were well spaced with plenty of legroom; there was a section for the people who had paid 750USD and who were provided with food and drink. Hatshepsut’s temple was lit up and it was amazing to see it at night in the backdrop of the mountains.

The performance was good, but was hindered by the wind which howled over the speakers. The choreographer was apparently someone famous but controversial in Germany and we’d been promised special light effects using modern technology, but all that happened was that they highlighted Hatshepsut’s temple in different colors and sometimes the mountains, too. The costumes and staging were a bit lacking with the characters mainly coming on stage and singing and not doing much else; the chorus merely stood in the background. I’d been expecting to see them marching down the temple and bringing the ancient setting to life. The orchestra remained largely hidden.

Nevertheless, I don’t regret going. Seeing it in the backdrop of such an iconic monument was incredible and it was hard to believe I was actually there and experiencing it. I can also appreciate that it took a huge amount of organization.

It must have been about midnight when we got back and at this point we still didn’t know what time we were being picked up the next day. In the end, they finally told us it would be 8am. We all complained, asking why we had to leave so early, but they would not budge, claiming that this was what the Opera had specified. Really? Why not benefit from all the extra tourists in Luxor who might spend money if they could stay a few hours longer? It didn’t make sense, but there was nothing we could do.

So, all in all, the organization was lacking, but it was still an amazing experience. And the benefit of leaving early was that by the afternoon I was swimming in the sea again.

El Andalous - Visa Problems

Life's Not Always a Beach!

This is Egypt (TIE), so of course not everything went smoothly. Moving back always starts with a pile of admin to do, not the least being getting a visa. This time, I wanted a year’s visa, since my intent is to live here for most of the year.

I always feel nervous going to the visa office because there are so many tales about the randomness of it all. Anyway, it had to be done, so off I went. Stephen and Kathryn were getting their visas at the same time and they have rented a car, so I was able to go with them rather than having to pay for a taxi. That was a good thing.

The visa system has vastly improved in my absence. Previously, you had to queue to collect a form before you could even start and the queues were disorderly with people pushing in. Actually pushing in is even factored into the process as you keep on having to go away to do things (pay money, get a photocopy, etc) and you are allowed to push back in, although it results in people shouting at you and complaining. That’s how it used to be.

At last, they’ve decided to hand out visa forms as you enter the building and, even better, you get a number and you are called to the window when it’s your turn. I can’t explain how much better this is. They even have an electronic voice in English and a display up announcing each number as it comes up. It is brilliant.

I’d spent the previous evening photocopying the 32 pages of the purchase contract for my flat as that was required for the visa; I’d got my photographs, I’d remembered to bring a pen (or two), I’d sorted out which was the most recent entry visa in my passport (helped by me being able to read Arabic, I’m proud to say!) and also photocopied that and my main passport page. I was fully prepared.

However, when I was called up to the desk, the woman refused to accept my application. She said I needed an extra document (the “tawkil”, which is confusing, because this means “power of attorney” but in terms of your property purchase, it’s a document saying that the property has been paid for and the previous owners have relinquished it). I pointed out that my contract was stamped and stickered, which means that it has gone through court and been approved and registered, but apparently this wasn’t enough. I wasn’t at all sure I had the extra document she demanded; I knew I had one sheet of paper with stamps on it and a load of handwriting on one side, but it didn’t really look like an official document and it was all in Arabic.

Anyway, I had to leave the visa office without even having applied. What a waste of time! I got a taxi back, which also didn’t go too smoothly as the guy didn’t come for a long time and decided afterwards he was my friend and kept on sending me pictures of where he was via WhatsApp.

I dug out the other piece of paper that I had, scanned it, and emailed my lawyer to ask him if he had my tawkil or if what I attached was the tawkil. It turned out that he was on vacation and wouldn’t be back until after my current visa had expired. Help! I asked if he could just take a quick look at the attached document and say if it was the tawkil. He responded it wasn’t; it was the court judgment. I wasn’t too sure if that court judgment was the same as the tawkil required by the visa office. I was confused, but no help was forthcoming.

In the end, there was nothing I could do other than to return to the visa office with the additional piece of paper and hope that another person would not be so stringent or that the piece of paper would be sufficient. This time, I also took my original documents, just in case that would help. On this occasion I was able to get a lift to the visa office from Horst and Hilde who took pity on me in my plight and were in any case going themselves.

I got the same woman serving me again. She recognized me (I don’t know how the Egyptians do it!) and immediately looked for the tawkil among my documents. To my relief, she pounced on the new bit of paper, and nodded that it was the tawkil. Phew. She looked at my original documents and then said that my photocopy wasn’t good enough as although the stickers of the contract were showing, the photocopy hadn’t picked up the stamps. I had to go to their copying counter (which they never used to have when I first came to Egypt) and have it all copied again.

Finally, everything was handed over, I went to the bank in the visa office to pay. I’d got my phone with me so that I could photograph the receipt rather than queue again at the photocopy counter as you have to give the receipt to the person at the visa counter. However, they’d now also improved this and give you two copies, one for you and one for the visa office.

The visa office captain signed my application, which he only has to do for those wishing to stay a year, the lady wrote something on the form and also in a large ledger. I ensured I had my original documents safe and sound and went away happy; we were due to collect our visas the next day.

Once home, I realized that I’d left my mobile phone in the visa office; I’d spent so much time worrying about losing my original contract documents that I’d forgotten to check that I had my phone. I wasn’t too concerned as we were going back to the visa office the next day.

And so we returned the following day to collect our visas. The staff remembered Horst very well. He’s quite memorable in and of himself, but apparently they’d originally thought his name was “Horse” and found this hilarious. The whole hilarity was repeated all over again on his return as they recalled the error and the entire office was laughing.

However, alas, it turned out that my phone was not there. This was a disaster on several levels – it was the first phone I’d actually liked (it was wonderfully thin and had this amazing metallic blue color which was an object of beauty, it had also been easy even for me to set up), I’d just spent 600 LE (which is a lot of money over here!) on the phone package, and it had my Swiss SIM in it that I use for all my banking / credit card identification verification codes.

I was so preoccupied with my phone not being found and all the implications, that I didn’t think to check my visa. When Horst asked me before we got into the car, I looked, and found they had granted me only 6 months and not a year.

After all that! A 6 month visa costs the same as a year’s visa; although I can renew the 6-month visa, it means it costs me twice as much for a year and, worse, I have to go through all this hassle again. With that and my lost phone, it was not a good start to my new start in Egypt!

El Andalous - The Return

El Andalous - Old and New

I’d been so busy in my final week in Switzerland that I hadn’t even gone swimming for an entire week. The weather had been extraordinarily good even though some trees were starting to turn into their autumn colours. All this transpired to make me feel, for the first time, not yet ready to go back to Egypt. I think if I'd have stayed one more week in Switzerland, I would probably have wanted to leave as the weather was just starting to turn as I left and the film festival had just finished. Still, it’s maybe nice to depart with the feeling of wanting to stay.

My flight back was fine and I was picked up at Hurghada airport by ABC taxis with no problem; indeed the fare was very cheap (125 LE – around 6 GPB or 8 CHF). I wondered what my flat would be like, since Ahmed had expressed concern over email that I hadn’t given him enough time to get the flat sorted before I arrived back. I was a bit surprised, but on my return realized that since they were currently renovating the entire building, getting my flat ready also meant repainting my balcony.

I arrived in darkness, so I didn’t have the full effect of arriving and seeing El Andalous in its newly-painted state. My first task was to unpack and, perhaps predictably, this was when I discovered that I’d made a few wrong decisions in my packing prioritization (after all that!).

I decided my curtains wouldn’t really go with the rest of the furniture (so I’ll use them in my Edinburgh flats, I guess), the seat covers that I’d bought for my sofas didn’t really fit properly, although I’m still using them; they just look a bit messy as they’re always coming off. I’d brought back a bedspread as I’ve got a bit fed up with looking at the one I’ve had for over 10 years, but actually it isn’t really usable as it’s too thick for the hot nights over here. That too will have to go over to Edinburgh at some point.

I’d brought over some rice flour with me, but it turned out that Spinney’s now stocks this; I wish I’d brought chickpea flour across with me instead (to make bhajis and falafel) as it’s been difficult to get that and when I found it in my very own local BestWay, it turned out to be very expensive (although I was delighted to find it and felt renewed amazement at just how good that small supermarket is).

I went outside the next morning to have a look at how the painting of El Andalous was progressing; Ahmed caught me looking and asked my opinion, so I gave him the deserved praise he was seeking. He came round to my flat to check that I thought the cleaning had been OK and even got me to turn on my TV to check that my reception had been recovered. As the new manager, he’s doing a great job.

Every time I go to Egypt, I assume that nobody much will be there and it’ll be quiet. And, almost always, to my surprise, it’s a hotbed of social activity. This time when I returned I discovered that Stephen and Kathryn, Horst and Hilde, Jason, Janice and Chris, Karl-Heinz, Adi, Essam, quite a few Ukrainians, and the Russian Abbas family were all already over. Thus, my beach visits were full of catching up with people. But I’m not complaining.

I’d collected my old internet SIM from Nicole to see me through until I went to Spinney’s. Unfortunately, the free bus wasn’t running on the day I wanted to go, but I got a taxi, so it wasn’t much of a problem (just a bit of extra expense). Anyway, it appeared that my usual guy at the kiosk must have left his job as he wasn’t there and I haven’t seen him since, either. Thus, I didn’t get the promised extra special deal on renewal. In fact, there weren’t any special deals at all and I had to renew my bundle without getting two for the price of one. The good thing was that it was all done really quickly as I didn’t have to sign a new contract. It was slightly cheaper than before but maybe that’s because I didn’t need to get a new sim card.

The things I’d managed to forget this time in the intervening period were that Fridays are often busy on the beach due to Egyptians having the day off and also that it’s not easy to ask for things to be done on that day. I’d also forgotten that while I can’t get European / UK breakfast cereal at a reasonable price over here, they do have Nesquick cereal at a good price (no idea why!). I never eat this when I'm in Europe, but over here I have it as a weekend treat and as a change from Spinney’s Cornflakes (which are perfectly OK, but still not as good as Kellogg’s). My breakfasts are important to me.

So, all in all, it was a fairly smooth return to Egypt. I had to ask for one dead mouse to be retrieved from above my kitchen as it was smelling, but everything else was fine!

Zurich - Final Week

Goodbye Zurich!

I was hoping I could just relax for my final week, since theoretically all my packing was already done and the flat should have been handed over. I’d moved into a studio flat on Saturday for my final week so that I’d still have my own space and could cook for myself rather than having to eat out (which I’d have had to do if I were in a hotel). Even at this stage, I discovered that I still had too much stuff, so put aside yet another rucksack for Lena to store for me. Slowly, I thought, everything was finally coming together.

However, this being Switzerland, I went for my flat check on the Monday to hand over the keys and for the letting agency to check the cleaning. They have a whole check list for you to work through when cleaning, which includes things like “dismantle the double glazing and clean between the windows” and “treat everything with limescale remover”. In addition, when you originally move in, you sign a form which has every flaw listed when you take the flat (they walk you through it when you move in) and they compare the condition of the flat when you leave with the condition of the flat as noted on the form. It takes at least an hour, so it’s not like you can ever just collect or hand back the keys.

Unfortunately, the agency did not accept the professional cleaning as to an acceptable standard. The cleaning manager was there and he phoned the cleaner responsible to come back and do it, since the cleaning was under guarantee. However, foolishly, I guess, I paid him the money there and then since it was otherwise going to be difficult for me to pay. Even now, I’m not sure if the cleaning was completed as I’m still awaiting my deposit back. Moving in Switzerland is a right faff, although it does mean that when you move in to a new place to live, it’s always spotless.

In addition to the cleaning failing the test, I was asked to remove two sets of shelving that I’d taken over with the flat and a brick from the balcony that had been left there before. You always have to restore the flat to original condition.

All this meant that my final week ended up being not quite so stress free! The agency said they would come on Friday to check it again, so I went to the flat for the next three days to check on whether the cleaner had turned up (she hadn’t). I tried to dismantle the shelves, but could only do one of them, as I couldn’t get the other one to budge. As it was, the one I’d taken off the wall was too large for the rubbish bins and too heavy for me to carry to the dump. In the end, I decided the agency could deal with it and charge me, if need be. But it was quite a few days wasted as I went backwards and forwards between my studio and my old flat trying to sort things out.

Once I’d given up with my old flat, I devoted myself pretty thoroughly to the Zurich Film Festival. I bought myself a day pass that allowed me to go to any film that started before 6pm. I must have seen about 8 films altogether. Two of them ended up with Commendations. One was an Icelandic film called White, White, Day and had been my favorite, even though it was very slow moving. It was basically about a man coming to terms (or not) with the death of his wife. The other one was a documentary about a private ambulance service in Brazil (I think it was Brazil) where there is a chronic shortage of state ambulances. Thus people in accidents have to agree to accept the help of a (more expensive) private ambulance or not have help at all. Having said that, the film portrayed the private ambulance as often helping and getting no payment.

I enjoyed staying in the studio flat; I’d forgotten how nice it is to be that much closer to town. The flat was also very nicely laid out with a bed area, a walk-in wardrobe area, and plenty of space for the lounge. The kitchen was small but perfectly adequate; it took me a while to get used to the bathroom being so near to the bed. It was fairly quirky as the owner seemed to like to collect things. He had a collection of hats, a whole cupboard of towels, a great big box of slippers (taken from hotel rooms?), a whole jar of pens, and a similar container of scissors. Cushions abounded everywhere. It had an arty feel and I could quite easily have lived there permanently, particularly since it had a balcony. Even though it was October, the weather was still good enough for me to sit outside at times.

It was on the same bus line to go to the airport as from my previous flat, so taking my luggage to the airport was also easy. All in all, it was perfect. I just wished I’d had more of the week as pure relaxation rather than the added stress.

Zurich - Preparing to Leave My Flat

Bye, Bye, Dear Flat!

I managed to get rid of all my furniture, but somehow disposing of all the small stuff can sometimes be the most problematic. This isn’t helped by my reluctance to throw things away.

It’s at times like this that you realize just how odd some of your behaviors can be. I thought I’d been quite restrained over the last few years, but somehow I ended up with a huge plastic bag full of shampoos, conditioners, soaps, creams, body lotions, shower gels etc that I’d received either as free giveaways or had taken from hotels. Faced with them all en masse, it suddenly seemed bizarre. And it seemed even more bizarre that I should now be packing them when my space was so limited, as I can easily buy these items in Egypt. However, it seemed really stupid to end up throwing away items that I’d diligently taken from hotel rooms. So, I packed them, while thinking I was a little bit nuts as I did so.

I’d also developed a bizarre attachment to the free towel I’d received for completing the Sempachersee crossing earlier in the summer. It was a little smaller than the towels I usually take swimming and so made packing my rucksack to go swimming less of a hassle and this had caused me to get quite fond of it. However, I have plenty of towels in Egypt and I was storing 4 matching towels from Switzerland in case I set up a flat in Edinburgh as a holiday let, so I really didn’t need that Sempachersee one at all. But it was an enormous struggle to let go of it. I kept on telling myself it was only a towel, but my heart just couldn't understand.

I completely overestimated how much I could fit into my suitcases and was continually packing and unpacking. Fortunately, my Bosnian neighbor from upstairs wandered in each day to have a look at how I was getting on and each time she’d take loads of things away with her. It was a bit unpredictable as to what she’d take. She was happy to take any fabrics (which were currently going to recycling anyway), but she had no interest in a very nice picnic basket that I had, complete with contents. Nor did she have any interest in the plates that I tried hard to take with me to Egypt, but just couldn't fit them in, not even into my storage bags. I dithered for ages about whether I should offer my toilet brush and holder (ugh!), which was only a month old but I had to buy it as the other one broke. In the end, she asked if she could take it, which saved me the embarrassment.

I have kept my curtains as they are expensive to buy and I may need them if I want to do a holiday let, but they were very bulky. I could even put them up in Egypt. I’d also bought myself some Nescafe when it had been on special offer to take back with me, which, by the time I came to pack, I rather wish I hadn’t done. Having said that, I’m drinking it now and am grateful to have spared myself the cost for another few weeks since expenditure on first returning is always a bit scary! 

I can't remember what it was now, but there was another thing that I was struggling to let go of, and the Bosnian neighbour also didn't want it. She said, very matter-of-factly, that I should just throw it out and somehow that really helped.

From previous experience, I already knew that sorting out my papers takes a long time, so I'd done that some time back; this was one thing that wasn't a problem this time round, apart from finding the room to pack them (but at least I knew it was all essential stuff).

One day, someone rang my doorbell. I was expecting it to be my Bosnian neighbor, but it was actually someone who had come to one of the flat viewings who wanted to know if my flat had been rented yet! I was completely shocked and told him that the agents hadn’t managed to find a tenant. We both stood and moaned about this; he was annoyed because he could pay and really wanted the flat; I was silently thinking that if they’d let him have the flat, he could have taken some of my stuff off me and spared me the cost of having all my electric lights shut off. I really don’t know what the agency is doing!

In the end, I managed to choose what to fit in my suitcases and I ended up having to give 2 bags and a fold-up chair to Lena to store for me. Everything else had to be thrown out, although around 95% of it was taken by my Bosnian neighbor, so at least it was going to be used or recycled. I was completely exhausted by the end of it.

For my final 6 days in Switzerland, I was moving into a studio flat, so that will be next week’s topic!

Zurich – Swim from Eich to Nottwil

Swimmers Warming Up

The weather improved again towards the end of August and, to my surprise, I was able to fit in one final lake crossing on 31st August. This happened to be the grand finale of the Swiss Open Water Cup that I mentioned previously. It was the event where they would hand out all the cups and medals, plus there would be events held in and around the lake for a general day of fun. They were lucky that it happened on a really hot day, so around 200 people turned up for the swim, I believe. This was the longest swim I would do all season (2.5km).

I had registered to take part, but I hadn’t paid online as for some reason my payment wouldn’t go through. I queued to get my starting number etc and saw all the medals and cups starting to be lined out on the table. I heard the person in front of me commenting on how many cups and medals there were but still there was no way she was going to qualify for any of them. Those were exactly my thoughts!

I finally got to the front of the queue; to my surprise, they didn’t seem to have a record of who had paid and who had not paid. I volunteered the information that I hadn’t paid and they happily took my money, but this is very Swiss – so much is done on trust. It’s both admirable and puzzling.

Since it was the grand finale, we got an astonishing number of freebies. On registering, I got not only my starting tag, but also a rucksack, four little packs of Haribo sweets, herbal shampoo, a swimming buoy, discount off the local gym, and I can’t remember what else. We all had to wear a swimming buoy for the swim (this is becoming more and more common); usually you have to rent a swimming buoy for 50 CHF (refundable?) if you don’t have your own, but here we got one for free.

I couldn’t work out how to put on the electronic tag on my ankle, which would time my swim, but someone in the changing rooms helped me. She’d obviously seen me staring at everyone else, because she volunteered the information that it didn’t matter which ankle it went on.

We were given the normal introductory talk and to my dismay there were two lanes, one for the swimmers, and one for stand up paddles (SUPs). They stressed that it was very important to keep in the correct lane and not to end up at the wrong exit point since the timer would only record your arrival once. I could smell disaster in the air! In the end, I decided it didn’t matter too much, since I wouldn’t be in the front and thus could just follow everyone else. There are advantages to being below average!

They interviewed some people before the swim took place, which made me feel a bit out of place at first since some seemed to have expectations of time that seemed impossible to me. Finally, the interviewer found one person willing to say that anything under an hour would be an achievement (I was expecting to do it in about 1 hour 10 minutes), and another person saying that he didn’t care because he was just there for fun. That’s more like it!

The swim itself went well and started at the civilized time of noon. My plan was to keep near the back to avoid the rush at the start, but we were all asked to start at the same time, so this wasn’t really possible. However, I was able to follow other people and I didn’t lose my way. I had to psych myself up for swimming for just over an hour so that I wouldn’t have expectations of being able to stop any time soon, and also had to tell myself to relax on the initial push and shove at the start.

I finally reached the buoys marking the end of the swim and could feel the ground under my feet. I stood to stop my watch (which has GPS to time and record the swim), while someone yelled at me to continue running as I had to reach the mat first. I began to run, being the obedient person that I am, but then realized that actually I wasn’t racing, so I slowed down to a walk and took my time. I’m proud to say that to my surprise I managed to do the swim in just under an hour (59 minutes!). As I stepped onto the finishing mat, I received a finisher’s medal, which I proudly wore for the next hour or so.

I came in 54th out of 85 women, which I don’t think is too shabby a performance! The fastest person did the swim in 30 minutes (male, 19 years); the fastest woman (18 years old) did it in 33 minutes! I can only dream of swimming at 5km per hour, let alone sustaining it over 2.5km. It was the swim where I felt the most tired at the end, but not exhausted.

Sadly, the organizers of the Swiss Open Water Cup made a loss, despite sponsorship, and it’s no longer going to continue as far as I know. I feel lucky to have been able to take part in it and sad that it won’t happen next year. One year isn’t really long enough for such an event to gain sufficient traction to get people to take part, so I wish it could have tried to keep going for at least one more year. Life is tough, sometimes!

Zurich - Disposing of Furniture

Wardrobes For Sale! (Sold)

Once my flat viewings were over and Geraldine had left, it was time to start getting rid of my furniture. This was easier said than done. I’d had the furniture in my flat from Stephanie and Nicolas in Basel, so I needed to liaise with them about how to remove it again. My work stuff had to be sent by UPS to Germany. And then there was the furniture I’d bought myself that I now needed to dispose of.

I hate shipping things by UPS. Last time I did this, there was something wrong with how it was billed and I ended up paying a fine for non-payment of the shipment. I should probably have charged this back to the company (since they were supposed to be paying), but it all got rather complicated and more and more overdue. It wasn’t helped by me ignoring the first few demands because I thought they were emails from UPC (my internet provider, where my bills are paid automatically) rather than UPS. Since my bank is UBS, it all gets rather confusing!

Anyway, I packed up the laptop/printer/screen etc into the boxes (but not terribly well, I must admit, since I’m not much good at this kind of thing), but had a problem because there was supposed to be a billing label, but there wasn’t. I queried to my work place, but unfortunately the person seeing to it was on holiday and the person deputizing basically told me I needed to sort the problem out myself. I had already set up a collection date, so I decided just to make up my own billing labels. Surprisingly, when the UPS guys picked the items up, they didn’t seem to think I was completely mad; instead they just forced me to put a value and weight to each item packed in the boxes. I really had no idea, but I made my best guess and they took them away. I haven’t heard anything since, so I assume it was all OK (let’s hope I’m not forced to write another blog about that!).

Nicolas tried to give away / sell their furniture in Basel and I tried the same in Zurich. It was easier once there was a blank sheet regarding the pricing, where it was even OK to let items go for free. With some trepidation, I tried selling the wardrobes on facebook. I’d heard the site is a bit of a nightmare and indeed I was inundated with dozens of requests, everyone wanting to bargain down on the price, even though the initial price was already cheap. Then Nicolas thought he had someone, so I had to close the item for sale, and then the person fell through, but by then I’d lost all the contacts and when I advertised again, no-one replied. I eventually discovered that there was a way to re-open the offer and then you get to see the old conversations, but it was a bit late by the time I’d worked this out. 

For a long time, I'd hoped that my letting agency would let the pregnant woman rent my flat who wanted to buy all the furniture, but the first two people fell through (they were taking up references and then they'd moved onto the next person who, it turned out, had already found somewhere else) and then I gave up hope that my replacement would take anything.

I tried the local Brockenhaus (second hand store), but they already had too much stuff and refused to come round. This is what happens when you force everyone to move house on the same day of the year. As it is, the second hand stores over here have a reputation of being quite fussy as to what they will take. 

Anyway, I did find someone in the end for the wardrobes, I offered him a really cheap deal just to take them off me, since he’d been haggling and I’d kept him hanging for at least two weeks. I didn’t want to lose him as now he was he only person left who was still interested!

When he came (from quite some distance, actually), I was a bit astonished at just how long it took him to dismantle them (several hours), so then I didn’t feel so bad about the lack of money for them; just to have them gone was a huge relief.

After that experience, I decided to offer reasonable, but higher prices than I was really expecting, because people obviously wanted to bargain. Indeed, I was shocked when I saw how much other people were charging for some items; it seems that somewhere the rationale for selling second-hand has been lost in Switzerland (the rationale being that you sell at a lower price because the article has been used, but at least you get some money for it and someone else gets to pick it up for quite a bit cheaper than new). There seems to be a fixation on high prices; on the other hand, if it’s second hand, the mentality seems to be that you should get it almost for free.

Nevertheless, to my surprise, a few items went for the asking price with no argument (what a relief!). I also sold a few things on Ricardo (the Swiss ebay equivalent), which is a bit more civilized since it’s either an automized auction or people buy it straight away for a given price. Consequently, there’s no need for me to do back-and-forth emails and arrangements and deal with multiple people asking about the same item at the same time.

Although all this meant that much of my final time in Switzerland was spent putting out advertisements, measuring furniture, answering questions, and waiting for people to collect things, it was also interesting to see such a cross-section of society (although, obviously, it’s only a cross-section of the types of people who are willing to buy second-hand, which is a small population in Switzerland, it seems).

Fortunately, people collecting items generally seemed happy and everything was cordial. I was a bit disconcerted by one man giving me Euros instead of Swiss Francs (he’d come from Germany to collect) and by another man who had come without any help and was expecting me to help him carry (when he was paying a mere 10 CHF for a sofa!); however, the Euros were fine and the sofa guy also ended up taking, and paying for, my second sofa, which at the time was the last thing not yet sold. So, no complaints, really! People coming round ranged from the super-enthusiastic, to a woman who was clearly used to being the boss, to those exhibiting pure delight on seeing the item, to those who looked initially skeptical but then accepting. I probably spoke more German than I have all year. When Nicolas next came round, I automatically held out my hand to do a hand shake because I’d got so used to doing it!

The really good news was that I did manage to get rid of all my furniture without having to throw any of it away. Last time I left Switzerland, I had to pay for it to be disposed of, which seemed like a crime. At least this time, everything found a new home – even my sofas, which themselves were now third-hand. So, all in all, a good result.

Zurich - Trip to Glarus and Liechtenstein

Vaduz, Liechtenstein

I did two further trips while Geraldine was visiting. One was to Glarus. This was supposed to be for our birthdays and I’d read that the nearby Sadona Geopark was a world heritage site. Since Geraldine is trying to work through all of these sites (well, I think she mentioned it as something she could maybe do, and I’ve now assumed she is doing it), it seemed like a good birthday plan. It was not the most successful trip.

We boarded the train, Geraldine checked that she had her ticket with her, only to find she hadn’t got it. I checked in my purse, and I also didn’t have mine. We had to leap off the train and we stood on the platform puzzling over how each of us had managed to lose our tickets. It was bizarre. In the end Geraldine found hers in the bin at my place; she’d thrown it away by accident. I think I must have left mine on the train the night before when we bought them. I rather liked the idea that it wasn’t our fault and it was an evil demon or some mysterious force whisking them away from us, but I guess the pedestrian explanations are more likely. Anyway, we had to buy our tickets all over again. Grr. On the plus side, we had time for a coffee and a chocolate croissant at the station, so it wasn’t all bad. And we shared the blame, so it was all very equitable.

I’d read that Expedition Tschinglen was the most popular walk, so that’s what I’d planned we’d do; I hoped that it would be obvious as to how to get to it when we got there, as I couldn’t find any information online. However, we arrived at Glarus only to find that the Tourist Information place didn’t open until 2pm. So, it didn’t matter that we arrived later than planned anyway. None of the maps in the town showed the planned walk.

We walked about a bit aimlessly, although it was picturesque, so no great hardship, had a bit of lunch, and by then it was past 2pm. We went to the Information centre to ask about the walk and it turned out that we had to get a train to somewhere else first. We popped over to the station ticketing booth, but they said the next train to the destination wasn’t for another hour. We deliberated, but felt it was really too late, since we didn’t want to rush the walk or end up lost on the mountains in the dark. We returned to the woman in the information centre and she kindly suggested another walk; this too required a train. Once again, we popped over to the ticket office, but that train too would not be arriving for quite some time. At this point, we didn’t feel we could go back to either the information place or the ticket office again, so we slunk out the side door.

In the end, we did a 15-minute walk (only I think it took us 30 minutes) up a mountain to get to a restaurant where we had some wine. We were able to see snow in the distance. But it was quite a long way to go for the day just to have a glass of wine (or two..).

The final trip was to Liechtenstein. I was a bit luke-warm about this as many people find Vaduz boring, but I’d heard that Feldkirch in Austria wasn’t so far away and was very pretty, so we could do both Liechtenstein and Feldkirch and thus do three countries in one day. That’s pretty cool.

Our travels all went well this time (we were one year older and therefore wiser, perhaps?). To my surprise, the bus to Vaduz, Liechtenstein was also the bus to Feldkirch, Austria so it would be very easy to do both. We awaited eagerly for the announcement on the bus or even by the roadside that we were arriving in Liechtenstein, but it never came. It turned out that once we crossed the Rhine, we were there, but apparently they’d made some agreement years ago not to have borders.

Liechtenstein felt orderly and clean and, to my surprise, its currency was Swiss Francs. The whole country has only 38,000 people, with Vaduz holding just over 5000, so I decided it would be good to live there as it would be relatively easy to be one of the country’s best – for example, I’m pretty sure I could present myself as the country’s foremost expert on Schelling if I lived there.

We ended up spending the whole day there and we never got to Feldkirch. Liechtenstein is dominated by its castle, seated dramatically on the top of a hill among a backdrop of mountains. There was some pretty interesting modern architecture, too. We started off visiting the cathedral. The weather was glorious, so we did a long climb up to the castle, taking in some wonderful views along the way. At one point, we stopped by an interesting fountain representing all the different parts of Liechtenstein through the use of stone and the flow of water. Finally, we arrived at the castle only to find that you can’t actually go in, since it’s the Prince’s residence. But the walk alone was worth it.

All in all, we had a great day, and it leaves me still with Feldkirch on my list of places to go!

Zurich - Flat Viewings

Lounge

As I’ve mentioned before, the rental market in Zurich is completely different from the UK as there’s a shortage of properties and people are competing to get a flat (at least on the lower end of the scale). In the UK, you want to leave your rental property? Well, you hand in your month’s notice and then leave. Easy. In Zurich, you usually have only one or two days a year where you are allowed to leave your flat (end of March and end of September, or maybe end of September only, depending on your rental contract). From my UK perspective, this is madness, since everyone then needs cleaners, removal people, electricians, etc at the same time and they are always fully booked.

It is possible to leave your flat outside of the two dates (and many do), but then you are responsible for finding the next tenant. Well, you have to find three potential tenants and then the rental agent has to decide if they are suitable or not and which one they will take. You are obliged to keep on paying rent until a new tenant moves in.

Anyway, I was planning to leave my flat at the end of September, so I gave my three months’ notice (which you still have to give) and got the letting agency to do all the advertising. In retrospect, it seems almost as easy to leave outside of the two standard dates as in my case it appeared that if you leave at another time, the letting agency simply asks you to pay for the advertising but they still put it up on the website for you. However, at least I knew I wouldn’t have to pay rent beyond September this way.

Two viewing dates were duly organized (I was allowed to choose the date and time, but I had to be there for the viewings). Obviously, I tidied up and cleaned beforehand (always a chore!) and I also got a price list ready of all the furniture I wanted to sell. I asked the agency if they could put in the advertisement that I would give away all the light fittings to the next tenant (this would save me from having to block up all the light fittings only for the new tenant to pay to have them all reinstated), but they refused, since this was basically my property and they weren’t advertising anything that wasn’t theirs. I thought this was a bit crazy as it would surely help rent the flat out more easily, but hey ho.

One evening, a couple came round asking to view the flat outside of the given hours since they were going to be on vacation at the time of the viewing. I let them in, but wasn’t too sure of the rules. The Swiss can be quite strict at times. Moreover, I wasn’t really quite ready as I didn’t have my price list available yet and hadn’t decided what was going and what was staying. After they viewed it, I gave them an application form, they thanked me, and left. I have no idea if they’re allowed to apply before the first official viewing has even taken place.

On the day of the first viewing, five minutes before the allocated time, I opened my door ready for people to come. To my astonishment, there was a queue of people from my door, down the stairs, and out the front door waiting to come in. I told them to come in and within 5 minutes all 20 application forms were already gone.

It was a confusion of people and I was like the light to the moth as people clung to me asking questions – twice I was asked if there was mould (? I think they must have got confused with another property?), could I put a word in for them so that they could get the property, was the flat going to be renovated, could I put in a word for them for the property, was the building going to be torn down soon, what were the neighbours like, could I put a word in for them for the property, how long had I lived there, was there a basement…

One thing I hadn’t thought about doing was finding a secure place for my valuables. With so many people everywhere in my flat, it was impossible for me to keep an eye on everyone; besides, people were grabbing me to ask questions and taking my attention away. And then they wanted to see the basement, but if I showed them the basement, there was nobody at all in my flat and anything could happen. I got quite stressed, but I had to show the rest of the building. Fortunately, people are generally honest in Switzerland, so I didn’t have any bad repercussions, but it was a lesson learned for my next viewing.

One couple explained that they’d already failed to get several properties and they’d tried applying for my apartment before seeing it. Apparently, they were told it wasn’t possible to apply for a flat without seeing it first. They showed me their completed application form and asked if I could put a word in for them. Another girl explained that she was pregnant and getting married soon. She wanted to buy all of my furniture, the flat was just round the corner from her family, so the flat was ideal. Could I please put in a word for her? Another woman said she’d let me stay in the flat until I left (I’d booked an airbnb studio flat for my last week) if I would put in a word for her and let her have it.

It was exhausting. A few days later, the pregnant girl came round with her fiancé asking if her fiancé could see it quickly. Again, I wasn’t sure of the rules (and was not really prepared for it), but I let her in. She asked if I could put a word in for her. Then I bumped into her at the bus stop and she asked again. At this point, I was desperate to get rid of my furniture, so I asked the agency if I really needed a second viewing and could I recommend the pregnant woman since she would take my stuff.

To my surprise, they made a note of this and noted that I must have had quite a lot of people round already (so I assume quite a lot of applications were on their system). However, they said the second viewing still had to take place. Ugh.

The second viewing (two weeks’ later) wasn’t quite so busy, but all application forms were taken. One guy tried to buy my laptop, which wasn’t for sale, and wanted to take the TV with him straight away (which I wasn’t prepared for). One woman came round and passed judgement on each room (“typical Glattbrugg” to my spare room, which I think was not a compliment, and “now this is a pretty room” to my lounge…), another guy wanted me to start up my printer and print him out some application forms.

It was a bit of culture shock and I was glad when it was all over!

Zurich - Swimming Lesson in Basel

Me at Start of Insel-Ligerz Swim (No Basel Photo Available!)

I’m actually already back in Egypt, but I have a backlog of things to talk about and sooner or later I will be in a dry period where I’m struggling to think what to write, so I’ll just pretend I’m still in Switzerland for now.

In addition, I thought I’d take a break from describing all my trips before this becomes a travelogue.

Anyway, as well as doing the lake swims, I’d also taken some swimming lessons. There are two main online swimming schools with different philosophies – Swim Smooth and Total Immersion. I can’t quite remember what got me interested in Total Immersion (TI), despite my initial interest in Swim Smooth. I think maybe I’d seen it mentioned here and there on the internet; I was initially a bit put off because it seemed rather evangelical in its approach.

However, the more I looked into it, the more attractive it sounded. I was drawn to the claim that it focused on efficiency rather than effort and that you shouldn’t practice struggle. I had given up trying to do better at one point simply because I found I wasn’t enjoying swimming once I pushed myself all the time to go faster; in retrospect, it seemed more sensible to focus on efficiency and streamlining rather than to thrash my arms about more quickly. Also, the videos made the TI swimming style for freestyle look very elegant and effortless; as time went on, I decided I wanted to look good while I swam as well rather than it being obvious when you see me that I'm struggling.

After a lot of time thinking about it and watching videos on YouTube, I finally bought the TI book and accompanying videos online. I got so far with the videos and managed to decrease the number of strokes I needed for each length and finally managed to establish a bit of a glide. However, I was still slow, and I couldn’t get the recovery arm right (ie, the arm's position when it is out of the water); this wasn’t helped by the fact that I can’t see what my recovery arm is doing (because my head is down in the water and my arm is up in the air). I posted a video of my swimming (from my May trip to Egypt) on the TI facebook page and got some helpful feedback from coaches all telling me to improve my recovery. I tried my best, but my speed got slower and slower the more and more I tried. It was dispiriting.

I finally decided to take a lesson and decided it should be with someone qualified to teach TI. There’s only one person in Switzerland, and she is based in Basel. Eventually, we agreed on a date and she sent me directions to the pool where we would meet. I was a bit dismayed when I saw that the bus didn’t stop just outside; that spells trouble.

Anyway, I managed to walk in the wrong direction when I got off the bus (it was confusing because the map seemed to indicate I should go one way and a street sign indicated another way). It was a very hot day, and after a while of wandering and wondering, I needed to phone the coach to say I was on my way but lost.

However, I wasn’t too sure of her phone number and needed to check emails and websites to see if I could find out what it was. I couldn’t read the phone in the bright sunshine so I had to find a bit of shade. I stood by a car to try and look at my phone, but a man asked me what I was doing because I was on his property. Whoops. I asked for directions to the pool, he helped me, and I went on my way and had to wait until I could find another bit of shade before I could phone. By this time, I was already quite late. Stress!

When I finally found her number and called, she didn’t seem to understand how I could have possibly got lost. She said she’d wait for me at the entrance. When I got there, I looked around, and decided she must be inside the entrance. I wanted to pay for my ticket using my debit card, but for some reason it wouldn’t work. I got a bit flustered and starting digging around for some spare cash at which point the woman standing behind the cashier asked me if I was Fiona. It turned out to be my coach. So, there I was caught in the act of abject failure yet again!

My coach showed me the way to the changing rooms and I proudly showed her my padlock that I could use on the lockers, but when I came to use it, it was too thick to go through the hole for the lock. It wasn’t my day. She directed me to the lockers by the cashier's desk to store my valuables, but they required 1 CHF and for some reason I had only 1 EUR. Fortunately, my coach was able to persuade the person at the front desk to trade it for me. I felt I was being a nuisance. Then, while changing, I asked how to get to the toilets (first door on the right – how hard can that be?), but I ended up in the showers instead. I hope my coach didn’t see me. I must have looked like a complete idiot.

The lesson itself was good, although I think I didn’t really give the responses she was expecting ("can you feel your leg moving down? no? well it is is! Try again"). She videoed me before my swim and then we focused on the two-beat kick. I knew my kicking was bad as I can never be bothered with it. I don’t know why I didn’t try to learn the kick before; I think it just looked too daunting as you have to time it properly with the correct arm, so it was good to have someone to teach it to me. I was also surprised to learn that I was over-rotating (having previously not rotated at all). 

TI has a philosophy of hands-on help, so at one point, my coach grabbed my legs and moved them how they were supposed to go - it felt really bizarre, but after a number of repeats and further explanations I could sort of see what she was trying to get at. It just didn't come naturally to me, so it was all a bit of an eye opener.

I’ll write more later on my progress, but despite looking like a complete idiot, I did find that having a teacher is invaluable.

Zurich - Trip to Appenzell

Appenzell - Main Street

Another day was taken up visiting Appenzell, often called Heidiland by the tourist industry. It was quite an expensive train fare (if you don’t have half tax, the card that gets you half-price rail fares for a year).

I didn’t know much about Appenzell before I went other than it had a pedestrian centre and the houses were all traditional Swiss chalets. On arrival, it already felt quite rural because we had to cross the rail tracks, whereas before we’d seen and talked about all the signs you usually see warning you always to use the underpass and not to cross the tracks.

Our journey, and around Appenzell itself, was very pretty with scenery replete with rolling hills that looked so green and smooth in the autumn light that they could have been fake. Given that it had been stressed to me that Appenzell was pedestrian, there were more cars than I was expecting. Although the main street was indeed closed to vehicles, traffic flowed either side of it, so it didn’t seem any less open to traffic than many other towns.

Nevertheless, the town centre was worth seeing. The chalet-type buildings for the shops were huge. We looked round the church and from there saw a little picnic table and chairs by the river, which seemed like a nice spot to have lunch if you had something with you. But, as we gazed out, the chair reared up on its back two legs and spurted water into the river from the front two! Just as well we didn’t sit ourselves down there. This repeated every ten minutes or so – it was equally fun to watch other tourists gasping when they saw it for the first time. Appenzell also had something that looked like the top of a pothole where you could stand and it would turn round very slowly so that you could eventually get a 360 degree view. It was in the middle of the road and not in the pedestrianised bit, so it felt a bit risky!

We stopped for a bite to eat and found a bakery selling yesterday’s “fresh” cakes for half price. I can’t resist a bargain (or a cake, come to that). So, we sat outside to look at the menu. The waitress came up and asked if we were ready to order, so I asked if it was possible to reserve two cakes before they sold. However, I wasn’t entirely sure she’d understood, as she asked us to order. We ordered, and I said again that I’d like a cake. She didn’t ask me what cake I wanted, so I explained again that we wanted one of the half-price ones. She gave me a quizzical look and said “cake is very important to you, isn’t it?”

We laughed and by this time I was too embarrassed to ask again about reserving a cake, but fortunately she volunteered the idea that we look at them and set aside the ones we wanted. When it came to the time to have the cakes, she brought them with a big flourish of “Ta da! Here are the cakes!”

Meanwhile, a man walked past with a monster dog, causing many people to stop and chat to him. I’ve seen a few people recently with remarkable dogs and they always get accosted by onlookers. If you want to gain attention, it’s a good method. It must be difficult for the owners to ever get anywhere, though. It’s like in Egypt, only in Egypt, you don’t need a dog; you just can’t go anywhere for people asking you to come in for a cup of tea.

After our cakes, we went for a walk along the river that had been recommended by Tourist Information. It started off badly as we had the map upside down and so we walked in the wrong direction and up towards a busy road. Eventually, we managed to get on the path, but we decided to deviate as the scenery looked more interesting up the hill. There was the occasional chalet dotted about here and there and we stopped for some time to watch the red squirrels (only they looked black) playing in the trees. As we progressed, we weren’t too sure where we were, so we strode across a field where we could see the railway line and then the town on the other side. On arriving at the other side, we were confronted by a notice to the entrance of the field saying “no entry”. Whoops.

After that, we walked a little way up the other side of the river, visited the small chapel, and then ate in Appenzell in a bar/restaurant in a small, leafy courtyard. And we got home with no further incident.

Zurich - Trip to Stein am Rhein

Painted Buildings in Stein am Rhein

Our first day trip when Geraldine was here was to Stein am Rhein. I wasn’t even sure whether this was in Switzerland, but it was. The last time I went there was when I was working in Freiburg im Breisgau back in the year 2000, and Emil very kindly spent a day with me and Julie taking us round some beautiful places nearby. That’s almost 20 years ago now - time flies!

When I went to Schaffhausen to look at the house to buy, I noticed that one of the banks was offering people free trips on the boat for a year to Stein am Rhein from Schaffhausen if they became customers with them, so that’s what reminded me. Having said that, it was also an itinerary item from last time that Geraldine was over that we hadn’t yet done.

For some weird reason, we both thought we wouldn’t need our coats. Our plan was to go to Stein am Rhein, sail along the Rhine for 2 hours and then explore the town afterwards. I’d bought the train tickets the day before so that we didn’t have to worry about it in the morning.

We got there just fine and after a little confusion about which boat it was, we bought our tickets just in time. There was a Japanese couple in front of us who had lots of questions and didn’t seem at all worried that the boat was leaving in 5 minutes. Maybe they didn’t understand Swiss punctuality? Having said that, the person serving also seemed very relaxed, so perhaps it’s just me that gets in a tizzy about getting to places on time.

Everyone else on the boat was wearing a coat, and although the day was fine, it was definitely autumnal, and the extra breeze from floating along the river made it quite chilly. It was the first day of the winter timetable. Fortunately, the boat had some blankets, so we were fine to sit outside

The Japanese couple asked us to take a photograph of them and they seemed to be having a whale of a time. They got off half-way to explore, whereas we changed boats (as you had to do) and went back. I hadn’t noticed that there were several boats as the times were (to me at least) quite confusing on the internet. The Japanese couple had asked several times at the counter whether they could stop off and come back later (with an affirmative answer).

The second boat didn’t have any blankets, which was strange as it was the same company, as far as I know. Anyway, we still sat outside to get the best view and were just about OK! We didn’t come down with colds afterwards, at any rate.

Stein am Rhein is famous for its painted houses; it’s an old town and is well worth a visit. We dithered a while about where to eat and ended up at a waffle place. It turned out that a lot of places were closed on Monday (eg, the cloister, and quite a few shops), so bear that in mind if you are planning a visit.

There were quite a few quirky shops, including one selling items (eg, handbags, rucksacks, flipflops, etc) made out of cork. If I hadn’t been moving and need to reduce the amount of things I have rather than increase them, I would have been very tempted to buy something. They also had a barrier with a carved wooden hand holding it, which was another unusual touch to an everyday thing.

On the way back, we stopped off at Winterthur to have dinner. It was maybe not such a good idea since after Stein am Rhein, Winterthur looked less impressive, even though the Old Town is quite pretty. Many people commute from Winterthur to Zurich as it’s only 15 minutes away by train and is itself a big town with lots of facilities (like Zurich city, Winterthur counts as two zones for the rail fares, since it’s so large and has so many transportation options). We ended up in a packed Italian restaurant and then made our way home. All in all, a great day.

Zurich - Bruno Weber Park

Into the Dragon's Mouth!

My life continues to be busy (which is always the case as I’m about to leave!), and this last week has been taken up with a visit from Geraldine, since we share the same birthday. Astonishingly, I managed to find quite a few things for us to do that I had either never done before or done only many years ago. I believed I’d been everywhere by now!

I thought I’d start off by talking about the trip we did to the Bruno Weber Park, even if it's not the first thing we did, since it’s open only between April and October. Thus, if in the next few weeks you are in Zurich and are looking for somewhere to go, you still have a chance to give this a try!

I’d never heard of this park before, even though I’ve been in and out of Switzerland for the last 14 years or so; I found out about it through a leaflet on a tram. The Park is in Dietikon, which is also somewhere I’ve never been, although I don’t think it has a reputation for being a hot spot for tourists. Dietikon is still in Kanton Zurich, so I regard it as local (we also have a place called Dietlikon, with an L in the middle, which is very confusing). 

I originally planned for us to go here on Wednesday. However, we were invited round to a friend’s for dinner on Thursday and it seemed sensible to go on Thursday instead, so that we wouldn’t have too much stress about getting back to Zurich in time.

This turned out to be a mistake. We managed to get to Dietikon without a problem; once there, the bus stops indicated which buses went to the Bruno Weber Park, but they did not include the bus I’d planned to use (from the Park’s leaflet). Nevertheless, we got on the bus I'd planned and hoped for the best.

The Park was signposted when we got off the bus. In fact, we could see it in the distance. It was a very hot day, we were in the middle of the countryside, and it was very quiet given that a public park was in sight. As we went up to the entrance, there were only a few cars in the car park. At the gates, a notice proclaimed that it’s open only on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays. Doh! I’d forgotten that this was why I’d originally planned the trip for Wednesday. I had no Plan B.

A group of people arrived and stood there while I poked my nose through the gate to look at what I was missing, wondering what on earth we could do. I made a point of looking at the notice again and mentioning to the group that it was closed and that Geraldine and I had come on the wrong day. I probably also made a few sounds of anguished frustration and I noticed the group talking among themselves as I made a bit of a fuss. Somehow, we found out that they had a booked private tour of the park, so I asked if there was any chance we could join them. There was more discussion and they said we could (as long as we paid our share, of course)! What a stroke of luck. If we’d arrived any earlier or later we would have missed them.

It turned out to be a work trip. They’d arrived at work that morning to find that a surprise outing had been organized for them and this was it! There were only around ten of them, and they were all Swiss, so everything was in Swiss German. But we got to see round the park and also got a little information on various parts of the park (not all of which I could understand) from the tour guide.

The park was the work of an artist and is itself supposed to be a work of art. It’s a fantasy world with dragons and Alpine spirits; it has a water section, a forest section, and I think maybe the third was a love section, but wasn’t available? It is still a work in progress as the artist has died, but they don’t have the monies to further it (so do go and help support them!). I believe it closed down entirely at one point, but there was public outcry, and so they re-opened.

It is really pretty amazing. You can walk along a dragon’s back and into its mouth; you can blow life into an Alpine spirit; you can sit on thrones. There’s a dining hall where they serve brunch on the last Sunday of every month (which I think includes entrance into the Park); the toilets were adorned with a peacock. The grand finale was the house (or should I say palace) of residence; so much detail you cannot take it all in.

We were lucky also to be part of such a small group and to have the park relatively to ourselves. The group was very friendly (one woman kept on stressing to Geraldine how hard you have to work in Switzerland!), and we tried to be as accommodating as possible given that we’d just tagged on to their event.

Anyway, I’d recommend it as a place to go. I even fantasized about getting a job where I could market the place for them, because it seems to be so neglected and unknown. The Swiss people were also saying that they had no idea it was there and they were born and bred in Zurich!

Zurich - Trip to Cinque Terre

Corniglia

Although I knew I wanted to visit Cinque Terre before I left Switzerland, I somehow ended up booking it in a bit of a rush. I couldn’t buy the ticket online because it was an international trip. So, I went to the main station with all my times planned out. However, the man serving me didn’t think the route I’d chosen would give me enough time to make the connection (even though it was a recommended route online), so I had to get an earlier ticket. Ugh.

As it turned out, his recommendation was golden. Every single train I entered was jam-packed. I was a bit tired as I sat down in my reserved seat, but I was opposite a very chatty (and pleasant) Swiss couple, so sleep or reading my book wasn’t going to happen. I mentioned to them that first class had already been fully booked when I reserved (as a Brit, I find this astonishing, since I’m sure in the UK first-class would not be fully booked before second class), but the couple’s reaction was to say that they had also wanted to travel first class but had been unable (but I hadn’t wanted first class, I had just thought it was extraordinary!). I pretended that I too was the sort of person who travels first class, but my pretence fell flat since they kindly said that second class had actually been better due to superior company.

After discovering I was English, the Australian guy opposite me also started talking. He didn’t speak any German, but I think he understood more than he was letting on. He communicated by gesticulating, which, weirdly, I needed the Swiss people to translate to me in German. At one point, the Australian asked me about Brexit (it’s what everyone wants to talk about but I’d really rather not; it’s such an emotional topic and I can’t be doing with the stress). The Swiss guy turned to me with surprise, commenting that he didn’t know that I spoke the same language as they do in Australia. His wife (I assume that’s what she was) asked him if he hadn’t grasped that I was English, and he said no, but still seemed extremely surprised that the Australian and I could converse.

After that, we (the Swiss couple and I) had the obligatory conversation about me living in Egypt, and then they started to complain about how stressful it was that in Italy, you never know which platform your train is going to leave from and you have to look on the boards. They couldn’t understand how it couldn’t be as organized as it is in Switzerland. I agreed, but found it amusing, since in the UK, at least when I was living there, you also never knew in advance which platforms trains would come in on (indeed, if they would even arrive at all). In Switzerland, the platforms for arrival are planned for the entire season or maybe even year(s), so you always know which platform to go to even if you book months ahead. To me, it’s this organization that is more astonishing.

Anyway, I arrived safely. My initial aim was to go on a sunset tour by boat, so I tried to rush to wherever the boats might be, but I was unable to see any. Online, it said the tours started at 1730 and it was now about 1720. I asked at the Tourist Information and they told me just to look by the harbor if there was a tour. That wasn’t very helpful, but I decided the lack of boats meant that no trips were available. I later saw that the boats can leave at 5pm later in the season, so maybe that was it.

My hotel was further from the station than I thought, so I felt a bit grumpy when I arrived. Then I found that my room was three floors up and there was no lift, which made me more grumpy. Steps became a general feature of my trip but I’d got used to it by the end. And they had no water or fridge in the room and no air conditioning, just a fan. However, it turned out that the fan was fine, so I became less grumpy the longer I stayed.

I did immediately feel like I was in another country, though. It was hotter than in Zurich and the air somehow felt different. Since I couldn’t do a boat trip, I went for a swim. The sea was beautiful and warm and underfoot it was a bit like fine pebbles and rather dark in colour, which made your feet look dirty!

Finding somewhere to eat turned out to be more difficult than I expected. My first problem was that although there were hundreds of restaurants, almost all of them served only fish or cheese dishes; I don’t eat cheese and I don’t eat a lot of fish. My second problem was that they were all heavily over-booked, so although some would offer a single meat option (always steak) or a pasta non-main dish without cheese, I would feel hesitant to go in and take up their only remaining table for four. In the end, I realized I had to eat even if I was just one person and so at 9pm hunger overtook my sense of morality.

For the next day, I’d planned to follow the itinerary suggested in someone else’s blog. I purchased my Cinque Terre day pass, which included all transport and access to the hiking paths in the region (I hadn’t realized that you had to pay to use the hiking paths) and set upon the hike. In the blog, it says that she did it with her children without any problem. It sounded great!

In reality, it turned out that the blogger and her family were a lot fitter than I am. It was extremely hot (around 28 degrees) and I hadn't fully taken on board that the first bit was all uphill on stony ground with lots of steps. I guess, since Cinque Terre is basically 5 mountain villages, I should have taken it for granted, but it just hadn’t dawned on me that you had to climb up and down mountains to get there. The paths were narrow, so sometimes you had to wait for people coming down (or vice versa). I took plenty of rests as I climbed up for what seemed like forever. I sweat very easily and a couple of people asked me if I was OK when I stopped! The views were beautiful.

Anyway, I was exhausted by the time I got to Vernazza (but did feel a sense of achievement), and the walk had taken me 30 minutes longer than the suggested two hours. The original plan was to do another 90 minute walk to the next village, but now there was no way I was going to do this. I had a milk shake and wandered round the village (beautiful!) and decided to take the train to Riomaggiore, which was the village that was the furthest away and so would allow me more time to sit on the train.

Waiting for the train was an experience. The stations at midday were full of tourists (trains were easier after 5pm) and much of the station was a tunnel. Most people were standing in the open air, but they continually announced that you should wait further down (in addition to announcing delays of 10-20 minutes). About half the breadth of the platform under the tunnel was was taken up by the area past the yellow line, where you weren’t allowed to stand. I went as far down the tunnel as I thought wise, hoping to get an emptier carriage when the train eventually came. A passing train was like the coming of the holocaust. Long before the train arrived, a wind whipped up in the tunnel; suddenly I felt cold instead of hot, my dress flapped around my legs and I didn’t feel particularly stable. There was a handrail, which I grabbed with both hands. And then the train charged through. It was quite scary!

After looking round Riomaggiore (and another milk shake and an iced coffee; I was on a liquid lunch, but a non-alcoholic one!), I took the train to Corniglia, planning on visiting Manarola last for sunset as suggested in the blog. By this time, I’d forgotten that the blog had mentioned impossibly many steps from the station at Corniglia. I remembered once I started climbing, though. However, my initial climb from Monterosso on the way to Vernazza was worse, I think. Or maybe I’d just loosened up by that point. Someone coming down the steps grunted when he suddenly realized how many there were – and I was going UP them! If I’d thought more about it, I would have got the bus (which does exist, as I got it going back down), but, alas, I simply didn't think on this vacation.

This activity earned me a crepe with chocolate gelato on arrival. Corniglia was the village situated most in the countryside. I walked down a bit of the path that I decided against walking from Vernazza and the town looked beautiful in the late afternoon sunlight. As in all the towns, the narrow cobbled roads gave an atmosphere of times gone by (if you ignore the tourists). Finally, I took the train to get to Manarola by sunset.

On getting off at Manarola, I dashed up the hill, not really knowing where the best view would be, but thinking maybe up was a good idea (see how much I’d changed from the beginning of my stay where I was cursing the word “up”!). The church looked beautiful against the backdrop of the golden countryside in the setting sun; on the other side, the town of manarola perched by the sea glowed pink. I took some photos, feeling happy.

I made my way to the harbor and then realized that actually this was the place to take my photographs. Doh! There were lots of people on the path on the other side of the harbor armed with their cameras. I made my way to join them. Sunset lasts quite a long time and the camera doesn’t really pick up on it until it’s quite dark; in fact, those photographs look more like daylight ones than the ones I took from the church, so it must depend on the direction of the light.

My original plan was to visit Porto Venere the next day before I left, but I was too tired. If you go to Cinque Terre, I recommend doing it over two days (then I would have done both walks, one on each day, and a boat trip), a  third day at Porto Venere, and then a fourth day at Pisa. But, of course, it all depends on how much time you have available. I would also have brought a change of dress for my second day as I was drenched in sweat after the first day and possibly getting a bit smelly!

I was too late to book a boat trip for my final morning (which I quite fancied), so went swimming instead on the longer beach closer to the station (so no hardship there!). The sea was wonderful, but I got stung twice by jellyfish before I’d swum 500m, so had to give up. Looking out onto the sea from the beach, it seemed that no-one else was getting stung at all. Children and families were playing happily in the sea, another swimmer was going back and forth, people were standing and chatting or just drifting in the water.

I searched the internet afterwards to determine whether some people attract jellyfish. Apparently, you can buy jellyfish repellent which makes you smell safe to the jellyfish so that they don’t sting. So maybe I sweat more than most people also when I swim and thus seem more like a danger to the jellyfish?

At 3pm I had equally busy trains home as on my journey there, but arrived back safely, albeit tired. It was a busy, but great trip, and I would fully recommend it. The area is stunning.