One year in Switzerland!

That's right, we made it through week 52.  We have now been living in Switzerland for one year.  To celebrate, we went out to eat at an organic restaurant in the woods, l'Aubier, west of Neuchatel.  It was quite good.  K had an excellent lamb dish and a cauliflower soup, and M had chickpea fritters.  We had tasty Barbera wine with dinner and finished the meal with a dessert of moelleux au chocolat (chocolate lava cake) with pink peppercorn ice cream.  Delicious.

Across the Limmat in Zurich

This weekend we were planning to "go somewhere" because it is a four-day weekend due to Neuchatel Independence Day.  However, since we've been here a year, it means that it's time to renew our residence permits.  When we handed our permits to the office worker at the Controle des Habitants, we were told that the process will take longer this year.  We have to set up an appointment with some other office to get our biometric data taken.  Of course, we can't just set it up; we have to wait until we get a letter in the mail. We make the appointment, go to the appointment, and then we wait again to get another letter in the mail that says that we can go back to the Controle des Habitants to pay for our permits.  (We're not clear if we need to wait for another letter in the mail with our actual permits, but we think that's what happened last time.)  SO...long story....they kept our permits and said we can't leave the country until we get our new permits.  IF we do need to leave the country for an "emergency", we need to talk to the immigration office to buy re-entry visas (50 francs each).  Therefore, we can't "go somewhere" this weekend.  Ah, Swiss efficiency bureaucracy.

Zurich's Fraumünster

Instead of going "somewhere", we decided to visit Zurich for the first time.  Although Zurich is not the political capital of Switzerland, it is the largest city in Switzerland and is considered by some to be the country's cultural and financial capital.  We decided to take the train from Neuchâtel to avoid having to deal with traffic or parking.  Our first stop in the city was the Landesmuseum, or Swiss National Museum, located behind the Hauptbanhof train station.  The Landesmuseum is like any of the various folk art museums we've visited, but on a grander scale and with some other exhibits.  The permanent exhibits included Swiss furniture, pottery, clothing, and weapons, as well as various religious relics and works of art.  There was a large room on the history of Switzerland through many, many centuries that was quite interesting.  All in all, a good way to kill time since it was raining outside.

After the museum, it was time for lunch, so we walked south down the Limmat River, then west in search of Zurich's vegetarian restaurant Hiltl (also self-proclaimed as Europe's oldest vegetarian restaurant).  We ate in the bar, making our selections from the giant buffet.  You pay for your food by 100 grams, which is a little depressing at a buffet because 1) it's harder to sample things and then go back and eat what you want and 2) you don't want to really see the weight of the food you are about to eat (Actually, K was rather proud of the mass he consumed!).  Regardless, we ate well and were quite stuffed at the end of the meal, which included a variety of Indian dishes.

Zurich's Kunsthaus

After lunch, we walked back towards the river, visited the Fraumünster and then went in search of Zurich's fine arts museum across the Limmat.  The Kunsthaus had a decent collection of old masters and modern artists.  Favorites included works by Monet, Dali, Munch, and Van Gogh.  

Monet's "Le Bassin aux nymphéas avec iris"

After the art museum, we walked to the Grossmünster, which was supposedly founded by Charlemagne.  There is a large 15th century statue of Charlemagne in the cathedral's crypt.  From there, we ambled back to the Hauptbanhof to catch the train back to Neuchâtel.

Since we have reached our one year milestone, we would like to take the time to reflect on some accomplishments from "Switzerland, Year One":

• We, collectively, visited 8 European countries (Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Italy, and The Netherlands).  This list includes all countries that border Switzerland as well as some "bonus" countries.  Highlights included some of the most amazing museums, best beers and wines, the most velvety chocolates, and some of the oldest examples of Western architecture. 
• We can name some saints and identify an Annunciation of the Virgin at a glance
• We've visited at least 11 cities in Switzerland (Neuchâtel, Bern, Geneva, Fribourg, Grindelwald, Murten, Yverdon, Bienne, Basel, Montreux, Zurich).
• We have become functionally literate in a second language (French).  
• We've scheduled doctor's appointments and dentist visits.
• We've obtained residence permits, driver's licences, parking permit, and library cards. (But, as noted above, we've lost our residence permit...)
• We found an apartment and a car. 
• We've expanded our music collection with some French rock/pop artists.  Very dance-able!
• We survived confetti-crazy Fête des Vendanges.
• We went skiing/boarding in the Swiss Alps.
• We found most of the foods we normally cooked back home in the states (including tempeh this past weekend, almost 30 CHF/kilo!). 
• We overloaded on fondue.

Here are goals for year two:

• Visit Spain, Ireland, and Greece for the first time.  Go to Oktoberfest in Munich.
• M would like to take more cooking classes.
• K would like to take advantage of our close proximity to the lake, e.g., sailing, wind-surfing, etc.
• Increase our French vocabularies and be able to carry on a 10+ minute conversation in French.
• "Figure out" French and Italian wines.

Also, we'd like to take the opportunity to thank our readers, which include both family and friends.  We hope that you've enjoyed the blog so far.  We'll try to keep up the adventures so we have enjoyable stories to share with you.