My Thanksgiving(s) in Switzerland

Thanksgiving is one of those peculiar holidays,
or at least it has been for me. 

My family is spread far and wide across the US. My brothers live with their families on separate oceans– one in New Hampshire (the Atlantic) and the other in Oregon (the Pacific). And my parents, now in their eighties, live in Minnesota, not far from the roaring Mississippi River. As a result many of my Thanksgivings have been shared with extended family.

For the past several years Doug and I have spent Thanksgiving with friends in Seattle, or with my second cousins in Bellevue – the Marinig family. The celebrations have been special to us and memorable.

Last year, however, we broke with tradition. We had planned to travel to San Diego to attend Doug’s brother’s wedding. In early November I got a text message from Doug, saying, ‘How about Switzerland instead of San Diego?’ His work needed him to teach a class in Basel, Switzerland -- AND they offered to send his wife, too, because he would be teaching on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

So, Thanksgiving week 2007, Doug and I spent 5 days in Basel. While he taught, I spent time sightseeing in Basel, Bern, and Geneva. We had our Thanksgiving dinner in Reinach at the Ziegelhof Restaurant (Spaghetti Corner). We ate spaghetti for Thanksgiving dinner!

One of the other items on the menu was Svizzera. The very rough translation into English, printed in the menu, was ‘escalope* coated with breadcrumbs and sliced thinly pig.’ This was one Thanksgiving I’ll never forget.



Fast forward 52 weeks to this week, which is Thanksgiving week, 2008. Doug and I are again in Switzerland, this time in Zurich. Today, however, I did get a taste of turkey. That is, I went to a Starbucks this morning and ordered a frappuchino with a hot turkey, Swiss cheese and cranberry sandwich. It was tasty, but still not quite the same as a traditional thanksgiving dinner – given the fact that I ate it while riding the trams around Zurich and sightseeing.

We did have a nice dinner, though: at the Gnaedingerplatz (www.gnaedingerplatz.ch) restaurant, just a few blocks up the tram line from our apartment. I enjoyed my dinner, which was breaded pork stuffed with ham and cheese and an assortment of steamed vegetables, served with a Coke Lite. To the left is a picture of our meal ... mine is the blue plate.

The good part of each Thanksgiving is that we have each other, regardless of the meal we share or the humorous anecdotes we recall. In our hearts and in our souls we have friends, be they family or hand-picked, that make our lives whole. Even across thousands of miles.

So, from Zurich to Seattle, some 5,256 miles (8,458 kilometers) 

Happy Thanksgiving!

* the dictionary says this is ‘a dialectal expression in the northeast of rural France meaning shell from a nut or snail’.

P.S. I just found an interesting article on Expatica.com. It was written by an American expat Elain Chow. The piece won her a full turkey dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Amsterdam. The article: www.expatica.com/ch/life_in/feature/Turkey-day-away-from-home-.html

Getting Here ... Zurich

I’ve heard it said that ‘getting there is half the fun’. 

I couldn’t agree more!

I left Seattle on Saturday afternoon, November 22nd, via Air France. It was an uneventful flight, which took us over Canada, Greenland, and the United Kingdom. Most of the nine-hour flight was ‘in the dark’ … that is, nothing to see out the windows but black. It was a chock-a-block full flight. My seat-mate and her friends spent much of their awake time talking about their expectations for a week-long trip to Athens, Greece.

We landed in Paris, France, at 8am on Sunday, November 23rd, a bit later than scheduled. I made my way through Charles de Gaulle International Airport (www.paris-cdg.com) and the security checks as quickly as I could, but I still ended up missing my connecting flight to Zurich! The good news was that the travel desk was very helpful and scheduled me on the next flight out at 1pm. The challenge, however, was that I had no way to let Doug know I would be late. My cellphone only works in the US and no access to the internet.

The airlines provided me with a coupon for a sandwich and a beverage, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the experience. Finding my gate was interesting, to say the least. I was the first to arrive in a stark, tile-walled room that was located two long escalator levels below the main terminal -- on the tarmac level. There was no one there but me!

After a good 45 minutes people started to arrive, much to my relief. We checked in through a gate and boarded a bus. Then began a 30 minute drive, winding our way through buildings and across the tarmac, then finally out to an open field with no sight of the airport terminal. At one point, I thought to myself, “Are we being ‘driven’ to Zurich instead of flying?’”

It was a short flight from Paris to Zurich, maybe just over an hour. I arrived safely, but very weary. Maybe it’s me, the Minnesota Nice girl, but I ended up being the very last person from my flight to go through customs. The agent commented on my Wisconsin birthplace, by exclaiming “GO GREEN BAY PACKERS!” He waved me through when I retorted, “GO MINNESOTA VIKINGS!”

Doug met me at the airport with a huge grin on his face. He wrote me notes on a paper napkin, pressing them against the window glass that separated us until I retrieved my checked bags. In his hands he held a small, deep red heart-shaped pillow with the words Ich Liebe Dich, which is “I love you” in German.

After some negotiating with the baggage agents, I located my luggage (which had been put aside already by the time I got to the baggage claim) and walked through customs without a hitch.

I was now in Zurich! But the journey was not yet complete. After a warm embrace, several kisses and the whisper of sweet nothings … we left the airport to catch the Train into downtown Zurich. It was cold and crisp: you could even see your breath! Once at the train station we caught the number 14 Tram taking us north from old town Zurich (the Altstadt) to a neighborhood called Unterstrass: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_6_(Zürich) getting off at Kronenstrasse (crown street). A short walk down the hill to our apartment at the Lindenbach apartment building.

Our Apartment Building

(right side, one down from the top floor is our window)

The Front Of Our Apartment Building

(at night the name glows green)

Home at last! 

Now to catch up on my sleep and deal with jet lag.