Episode 8: December 2005
Well, another year is winding to a close, and the Christmas season is upon us again! Europe is truly a beautiful place to see at this time of year. The locals do such a magical job of celebrating Christmas. Straight after Deb arrived back in Zurich from her trip to Australia, we headed to one of our favorite Japanese restaurants for dinner. It was over some sushi that we decided to drive to France the following day to check out the famous Christmas markets there.
True to our word, we headed off the next morning to the beautiful villages of Riquewihr and Kaysersberg, both located in the Alsace region of France along the “Route du Vin”. Our first stop was Riquewihr. The town closes off its main road to cars during the Christmas market, so we had to park our car outside of town and “hoof” it in. As we walked toward the market we soaked in the beautiful sight of the leafless vineyards, covered in a light dusting of snow, and the smells of mulled wine (known as Gluwein in German or vin chaud in French) and baking cookies. The Christmas markets are essentially large outdoor markets, where vendors set up booths and sell mainly baked goods and handicrafts. Needless to say, we spent the day strolling around, shopping, and drinking the occasional glass of Gluwein, and eating far too many cookies (Neal moreso than Deb)!
The following weekend was another action-packed one. On Friday night we celebrated the 30th birthday of one of our friends, Ana. Being Spanish-born, Ana arranged a Spanish feast, catered by a local Spanish chef and restaurant owner. She rented out a little house along the lake, which we had all to ourselves. There we “limbo-ed” the night away and stuffed our faces. The next morning, Deb and I headed into town for a greasy (but good) breakfast at one of our favorite hangouts, an Irish pub that Carol might remember from one of her visits called the Noble Dubliner. (Plus, they serve my favorite beer, Kilkenny’s.)
After stuffing our faces, we hit the shops to finish up some Christmas shopping. We first visited the main train station, where the city had put on its elaborate annual Christmas market. This year, the city put up a huge Christmas tree, fully decorated with Schwarovski crystals (and thus surrounded by very tall Plexiglas). It looked really fantastic and encouraged a few impromptu Christmas songs out of Deb.
That night, we went to the second birthday party of the weekend. This time, we gathered at a little bar near where we live to celebrate the birthday of Deb’s friend, Jen. Funny story about how we came to know Jen. She’s the cousin of a good friend of ours, Patty, who lives in Midland, Michigan. When Patty found out that Jen was heading to Zurich, she put her in touch with Deb. Small world, eh?! Given the melting pot that is Zurich, it was no surprise that Jen’s birthday featured a very international crowd. To top it off, some of her friends even took to the “stage” and belted out some of Jen’s favorite American folks songs. And, no, John Denver did not make the playlist.
The following day, a friend of Deb’s, Daphne, came over for a leisurely brunch and to help us begin our new jigsaw puzzle. (We really challenged ourselves this time by buying a 2,000 piece puzzle.) After she left, we donned our winter gear and headed into Zurich to participate in a fun run thru the middle of the city, known as the Silvesterlauf. The Silvesterlauf is an annual event in Zurich, with runs scheduled throughout the day in a variety of categories, from professional to very amateur. We participated in the last race of the day, the Run for Fun. Our run was roughly 4.5 kilometers long, involved about 2,000 people (many in costume), and was done at night. In fact, our race path was entirely lit by either streetlights or Christmas lights. While some runners arrived in full costume, Deb and I chose to keep things more subdued. I wore a Santa hat and Deb a pair of reindeer ears. It was a really great experience, not only to run through the city and all its decorations, but also to see how many people showed up to support the runners and cheer us on.
The race was a great display of Swiss organization. Several hours before the race began, we had to collect our registration information from a central location in the city. When we arrived to get our things, we were given a little backpack filled with goodies, including a commemorative hat/beanie to keep us warm, our race numbers, an energy bar, a stick of gum, and an electronic device to attach to our shoes so that the race officials could track our time. For an hour prior to each race, a local fitness club offered a free, open-air workout for the runners. The club had set up a stage near the starting line. Of course, when our race neared, we joined the workout with what seemed like 500 other people. Imagine all of us, dressed up in winter gear, in the middle of Zurich’s streets, doing jumping jacks, while some crazy Swiss guy is barking commands at us. Hilarious! I must say that it was effective. I completely forgot that the temperature was -2 degrees Celsius!
And then the race began. Actually, it was not that bad. Deb and I paced ourselves smartly and actually ran a faster second half of the race. Once we reached the finish line, we were greeted by people handing out bananas and water. Amazingly, by the time we dressed into dry gear and walked home, our times and places had been posted on the Internet. (For those who are curious, Deb and I finished the race in 30.5 minutes, which was in the time that we were aiming for. If you’re curious, you can see information about our race at www.silvesterlauf.ch.)
Another nice thing about the race is that it filled up the streets of Zurich for once on a Sunday. In fact, the city looked a little unlike itself. There were people everyone, visible litter on the streets, and lively noise! It made the whole experience a really nice one!
The following Tuesday, Deb needed to go to London to run a meeting for the remainder of the week. We decided to take the opportunity to make it a weekend, and I joined her in London on Friday evening. We decided not to do the sightseeing “thing” while we were there, opting instead to do some general exploring. Instead, we took in the sights close to our hotel, which included Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, and Trafalgar Square. We spent Saturday walking around the area, shopping, and eating (English pasties!). That night, we went to a local pub for a beer and some snacks before going to see the musical, “The Producers”. From those who have not heard about this show, we highly recommend it. The show has basically won every award possible, and it is a Mel Brooks (director of Space Balls and Blazing Saddles) show and, hence, extremely funny! We will not give away too many details about the show. Let’s just say that the main song of the whole production is called “It’s Springtime for Hitler”. Too funny! After the show, we caught some dinner and walked back to the hotel. On Sunday, we met up with my friend from business school, Rado, who is now an investment banker in London. Unfortunately, we missed his wife and baby (Olga and Elisabeth), as they had already headed home to Prague for Christmas. It was great to catch up with Rado and hear about his now-hectic schedule. We all grabbed some lunch and took a walk through Covent Gardens and over to Picadilly Circus.
Shortly after lunch, we caught a cab back to the airport for our flight home. This is where things started to get interesting. After checking in and arriving at our gate, we waited there for about two hours while Swiss Air tried to solve a mechanical problem with the plane’s braking system. In the end, our flight got cancelled, the airline put us up for an additional night near the airport, and we finally returned home around midday on Monday. It was not a big deal to us, as we did not have any burning issues to address on Monday. The only bad thing about it was that Swiss did not handle the whole situation very well. I suppose we can file that discovery under the title “welcome to the airline industry”. Overall, despite the flight cancellation, we had a great weekend in London.
The next week was full of Christmas parties and celebrations. We ended the work week by taking each other out on a date to the movies followed by dinner. We saw the movie “The Constant Gardnerer”. Deb loved it. Neal liked it, but possibly not as much as Deb. In our opinion, it is worth a see. On Saturday we drove over to Dad and Julie’s place to celebrate Christmas together. There, we got spoiled with lots of presents, good food, and plenty of rest! In between, we played cards (rediscovered the game Uno) and watched a few movies.
The next week was fairly quiet. Many people take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s, so it seemed that there was hardly anyone around the office. That was nice because the office was quite calm, but it also made work a bit boring! Never mind, though, because it was an extremely short week for us. We had Monday off for Boxing Day, and we also had the Friday off. Tough, eh?!
That Friday, my parents arrived from the U.S. for their first visit together to Zurich. Actually, my mom was flying in from the U.S., while my dad was coming from India where he had been for two weeks. We first picked up my mom in the morning and took her for a drive around. We visited Einsiedeln for lunch and took a look at the monastery there. It was very cold, so we tried to enjoy as much as we could indoors. That afternoon, my dad arrived, and we picked him up from the airport. Unfortunately, his bags failed to show up with him, so there was a bit of drama to start his visit to Switzerland. That night we stayed in and relaxed. The next day, we took mom and dad to the village of Rapperswil, which is located across the lake. After walking around a bit, we came back home and got ready for our New Year’s plans. This year, we got tickets to a restaurant along the lake that offers a very nice dinner and a good view of the fireworks that are launched over the lake.
As we counted down another year, we reflected on the passing of another terrific year. It was certainly a busy one for both of us, what with travels, graduations, work and, most importantly, the end of having 5,000 miles between us! We hope that 2005 was as productive and happy for you as it was for us, and we wish you an EVEN better 2006! We look forward to sharing next year’s adventures with you, too! Happy New Year!
