anyone with an interesting fact/story about SWITZERLAND

[kakapo]

Hello all

It looks like we might be moving to Switzerland soon, and I'm pretty excited about it

I was wondering if anyone has any interesting stories about Switzerland to share, so I can get even more excited! Or even just more informed about the place and culture.

For example, have you been to an interesting place on holiday? What are some of the major differences from living in the UK?

Thanks in advance!

This is fascinating!

They really have no gas?

I knew about the bunkers from Mme's blog and they have inspections of them too.

Well, I have lived in flats with gas hobs/oven, and some places have gas heating systems too though the majority will be oil, and electric hobs/ovens.

I was going to say I was green with envy at your gas, but I won't bother. Nobody I knew had gas and the restaurants used camping gas but in huge bottles.
We had a bunker inspection, I was told off by our hauswart for not keeping 6 litres of water and 3kg of currants down there.

Really, Kreecher?

They could hardly get into our bunker the last inspection but never looked to see if I had anything useful in there. We did have to have a cover installed over the vent because "if a Nuclear bomb went off, outlr eardrums might be damaged"

I refrained from remarking, that this would be the last of our worries.

Hi,
With the laundry I think it just depends on the flats that you look at. We have just moved to near Zurich and most of the flats we looked at had individual facilities.
Its worth, if you can, getting a relocation agent. They make getting a flat so much easier. We got told there isnt much housing because there are lots of people compared to the number of places.
Oh and the children in the local schools come home for lunch and have very random days off and short days. So different from home!
Good Luck with your move.

Honestly Mme, you really couldn't see any floor space, but he was interested to know whether we were fulfilling the requirements of the canton. It could just have been his power hungry quest to humiliate us though.
He didn't like being called Herr Shorts, but once we'd seen him in the snow wearing his shorts, DD called him that and the name stuck. He had Frau Shorts and the kinder Shorts too.

I'm interested in the state of crime. I figure little ones in the UK can't really walk to school alone due to traffic hazards and fear of something happening to them.

I take it traffic on the way to school is not an issue and that children are somehow safer in Switzerland??

I don't think CH is inherently any safer, there is simply an illusion of such. True it is perhaps less urban in places and there is more of a culture of stopping to let kids over the road on crossings and allowance for small children being around at certain times of the day. tbh it is more an attutide towards acceptance of risk and learning about it from a young age than it beign safer. Exposure to unfenced lakes, rivers , forests, high climbing frames over concrete (there was a tower in a local park over 20 feet high, whcih toddlers could climb), animals , traffic and so on generates a certain level of common sense which isn't now the norm in the UK. And yes stranger danger is taught and a problem there too.

kakapo thanks for starting this thread, we too are moving to Basel in the next couple of months and I have been reading these stories out to my DH and we have both having a bit of a chuckle!

We are really looking forward to the move, we have a newborn and can't wait to start our new life!

Some Swiss are seriously bonkers about rules. I went strawberry picking today. The owner remembered me from last year as a customer who had failed to abide by the stick to your row and move your pole rule. I guess it must be very unusual and shocking behaviour for her to remember it.... I thought she was going to send us away, but my children were getting upset so eventually she agreed to let us go picking under constant observation from a farm worker!

Don't forget the four times a year moving rule.

Let's have something positive. The petrol prices fluctuate, the not only go up, they come down too.
The bread is very nice, but goes stale very quickly, the cheese is OK, the meat is poor and expensive. Milk available straight from the cow. DD honestly believed that when you put your CHF in the slot a cow shuffled up and stuck her udder in something to be milked. I never liked the unpasturised full fat stuff, but DD did.

Oh, Kreecher, I have to contradict your statement that the meat is not good. It is expensive but fabulous. I buy from Manor, and it costs a fortune but it is worth it. Seriously good food. And the cheese is heavenly.

I agree that the Swiss are more risk friendly. We were at a bonfire night (to mark the end of winter) and the children were allowed to run around the fire. There were a few firemen there to make sure everything went ok, but none of the Health and Safety barriers or anything like you would find in UK.

Same with lakes and rivers. It takes a while to get used to but they don't have fences and walls around them.

With the walking to school thing, I think that people drive more carefully. We don't let the DC walk alone to school because it is down a windy road with no pavement, but if we lived in the village then they would go alone.

And people are not scared to tell a child off if they see them doing something that they shouldn't. If you see a child in trouble, you go and help.

DS fell off a bike at a wine fest last week and by the time I got to him, a woman had whipped her scarf off and applied it to his head wound. Someone else found some plasters, another woman had spray disinfectant and they bandaged his knee while I was looking at his head.

I only just managed to stop them dousing him with hydrogene pyroxide.

We didn't have Manor, we had the ubiquitous COOP and Migros and a couple of independent butchers. I used to drive to Mulhouse once a month and stock the freezer up with meat taking care not to be stopped at the border.
Another positive is the lakes, we lived three minutes from Zug lake and DD and dH would spend hours swimming in there. For Free. Too many fish for my liking.

It's also a pretty hi-tec place to give birth. My (public) hospital had a policy that, if you asked for an epidural during labour, they would guarantee to have one in place within 20 minutes, or they'd stop your labour with drugs so you weren't uncomfortable?! Then after birth, you get a minimum of 5 days in hospital where they bring you weird herbal soups and schedule psychologists and breastfeeding counsellors to hold your hand.

I've enjoyed reading this - thank you for starting his thread!! I am moving to Switzerland on Friday and am preparing to embrace form filling, rules, expense, not negogiating (though we did get the house!!! if that was me MmmeLindor - very happy!!) but also looking forward to fabulous mountain views, efficient train services, local celebratons, outdoor swimming and amazing wildlife!!

Wow, what a lot of responses, thanks everyone!! Looks like you'll both be getting there before me ng1412 and MistyB, please do come back to the thread and let me know if anything funny/useful strikes you during the move

That's good to hear waedigirl, since there is a good chance I will have a baby in Switzerland eventually.

Kreecher, maybe I have missed a post, but what is the moving four times a year rule? Sounds ominous

The less stringent health and safety sounds pretty good to me MmeLindor! Sounds much more like it was when I was a child.

Each canton has fixed removal dates - ZH was 1st April and 1st October and most (but not all) leases have break clauses around those dates (ours was 3 months' notice prior). Beware: removal firms get booked up quickly. Also there are times when you cannot move in or out, as the lorries have to park up over the various bank holidays and weekends across Europe.

It was the cheapest place we ever lived, we could barely spend half our wages. Tax was incredibly low and went to almost single digits depending on how many children you have.

Zero crime rate practically and very clean. Really boring shops that close about 4pm Sat and don't reopen until Monday. Only allowed to use communal washing machine once a week.

Never really Swiss even if you live there for years but good expat community and Swiss people are polite. Public transport scarily clean and punctual.

MistyB
Which house did you go for in the end? No, it wasn't you but I think I told you about the non negotiable.

The cheapest place you ever lived? Cannot say that. I spent CHF 260 today for weekly shop - just for food, no toiletries etc.

Tax was low teens and I pay over 50% here. Rent was reasonable, no clothes shops I actually liked, car much cheaper than England etc but I wasn't in either Geneva or Zurich which I think helped.

MmeLindor - I hope I won't live to regret it but we went for the more expensive farmhouse which the landlord finally agreed to let us have at the lower rate. You will have to come round for a coffee!!

Oh, fab. MistyB. Bet he had trouble getting it let at the higher rate. Good for you.

It costs nearly 30 euros for a mcdonalds for 3 at Zurich airport.

Wow, I love this thread, it is like a walk through my childhood.

I can tell you that I grew up in Switzerland (the French-speaking part, near Lausanne) and loved it - as a child and teenager, it was a great place to live, lots of freedom, access to arts and culture, concerts, a great education (as long as you are capable), beautiful countryside, and great access to the rest of Europe.

The weather is generally good, summers are warm, with lots of pools and lakes to swim in, and the winters are fantastic for skiing and ice skating,etc..

And the people of Switzerland, in general, are warm-hearted and welcoming - although you will find LOTS of exceptions.

School was very strict and you only had a few choices on where to go. If you did not pass the exams or make the grade, then you were stuck in a lower non-academic stream. And the things about private school is true - you went to private school if you were not able to cope with the state school system. You could not question teachers' decisions, and I still love the fact that my mother fought for us tooth and nail, when Swiss Moms would never have - it must have been so hard for her, but she stuck to her guns when unfair decisions were being made about our futures.

A great example is the fact that my brother, who still lives there, has twins, 4 year olds, one of which has been recognized as Gifted & Taleted by his doctors. However, the school teacher says that is not possible, because he asks too many questions, and that must mean he is not that clever. The poor child is desperate for extra stimulation, but the teacher will not give it. My DB is trying to find a suitable private school, but does not know how it might affect his future.

However, as an adult, I did not like it and took a one-way ticket out of there: people can be very small-minded and extremely bureaucratic, the racism when I lived there was bad, and quite overt. And women are not expected to achieve great things. They do, but against high odds, and the struggle is hard.

I know things are changing all the time, but believe me, this is Switzerland and it changes slowly, tres lentement.

All the things about rules are generally true: in apartments, no baths or showers after 10pm, no toilet flushing after 10pm, no hanging out washing on Sundays, no lawn mowing on Sundays - which is why expats tend to want their own houses after a while. I know all those rules by heart, i suppose you basically internalize them as second nature, as a Swiss.

The rules do work, and generally make for a good life, as long as they do not drive you completely potty in the meantime. You are not likely to see the sort of neighbor disputes that you see in the UK, or at least not as much, but that is because they are all very regulated - there will be a rule to resolve it, whether a noise complaint or a boundry complaint, etc...

Anyway, will come back to this later, as it is fascinating.