Skip to main content

Logistics

Zurich, Switzerland - Yesterday was mostly logistics. First, we met with a friendly Swiss accountant and lawyer named Patrice in Zurich. Patrice's office is located in a nondescript business park near the airport. Hannah and I were ushered into a conference room, where we were each treated to an espresso, a small Swiss chocolate, and a small biscuit. Patrice gave us a high level overview of how we would be taxed and what information we would need as the occasional plane rumbled overhead. I will spare you the details, except to say that Patrice's nonplussed demeanor reassured us that our taxes were simple and straightforward - perhaps disappointingly so for poor Patrice. 

 We left Patrice's office and headed to the bohemian Werd district in Zurich for lunch. Before lunch, we quickly stopped in at JB Labat - a liquor store operated by a middle-aged hipster who has resuscitated an older retail space. Hannah and I enjoyed the vermouth selection here and picked out a Swiss label for some local flavor. We continue to get confused looks when we initially ask for "Ver-moo-th," as most Europeans call it something more like "ver-moot." My mother tells me with great confidence that this is because the "th" sound that native English speakers pronounce is actually incredibly difficult to say. I haven't independently verified this, but my mother is near-enough an expert in linguistic trivia.   

 For lunch, we went to Metzg, a meat-focused spot in the bohemian Werd district of Zurich. I got a baloney sandwich with sinus-clearing mustard. Hannah got the chorizo with chickpea soup. I kicked myself for not getting the roast beef with potatoes and salsa verde. Most of the other (Swiss) patrons had gotten this and it looked great. My sandwich was good, but the grass is always greener...

 Next, we visited the immigration office in Zug. This was actually our second visit to the office since we dropped by the day before. Again, I'll spare you the details and provide you with this quick summary of what is required to get a visa to live and work in Switzerland:
  • Various documentation proving you are, in fact, a person: Passports, birth certificates, etc. 
  • Various documentation proving you won't be a drain on the Swiss economy: employment contracts, diplomas, etc. 
  • Completion of an alphabet soup of forms: A2, STA2, etc.
  • Months and months of time
In the evening I left Hannah behind to drop by the office. I met all of my lovely coworkers there, set up my desk, and then headed across the street for a brief happy hour before going to the old city of Zug for a celebratory end-of-year dinner at Aklin. Aklin was founded in 1787 by the Aklin family, an old-time Swiss family that still has ties to Zug. The restaurant is a classic Swiss experience. It's located on a little cobblestone street in the heart of the old city of Zug. Inside feels like a cozy lodge with wooden rafters and prodigious Christmas decorations. Between glasses of bordeaux, I had the green leafy salad served with roasted nuts & seeds, sun dried apricots and the sliced Zuger veal, served with mushroom cream sauce and Rösti plus market vegetables for, you know, health. The veal is a classic of the region and it was good!
JB Labat

Metzg, obviously.
Dining room at Restaruant Aklin. Photo from GaultMillau

Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 12, 2019 at 3:26 PM

    Michael, I don't know if your Dad told you about the cute train that I have taken from Zug to St. Moritz in winter. I highly recommend it. --- Rich Rosen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MikeDecember 13, 2019 at 6:24 PM

      We are eagerly anticipating taking some of the tourist trains around. We heard its best to wait until there's snow, so we're probably going to go in January.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We're Back!

Paris, France - We've returned to Europe for a three-week sojourn in France, Switzerland, and the UK. We're obviously very excited. We arrived in Paris Sunday around 11AM. Our approach to jet lag is akin to tearing the bandaid off quickly: We purposely sleep little if at all on our transatlantic flight (below is a photo of Hannah, trying not to sleep on the flight), consume copious amounts of caffeine after we land, slowly descend into irritability and mild delirium, and then collapse after staying up as late as we can on our first night in Europe. Our body's, overcome by shock from this maltreatment, eagerly accept a full night's sleep, even if it's offered at an hour that's entirely out of keeping with our normal schedule. Works like a charm.  After depositing our things at the hotel, we aimlessly wandered around Paris for a few hours before meeting up with Maggie, an acquaintance of Hannah's from work. Maggie took us to the wine bar Delicatessen where we ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fording the Fjords

We stayed one night in  Ålesund and for a few days in  Øye. These cities are fun for me at least partly because they use letters unique to the Danish-Norwegian alphabet, the 'a' with the circle on top and 'o' with the line through it (official letter names pending further review). Ålesund  is a port town of about 70,000 on the western side of Norway on the Atlantic coast.  We landed there  around 1100PM, but it looked more like 700 or 800pm, owing to the latitude (about 62 degrees north). Throughout our stay here, I've been very excited about the (nearly) never-ending daylight. The sun sets at about 1130PM rises about four hours later, but the hours between are marked more by a duskiness rather than a true darkness. We only stayed in  Ålesund overnight (if you want to call it "night") before departing the next morning for  Øye, which lies at the tip of a remote Fjord, the Norangsfjorden. Some locals told us that another nearby town, Urke, had less than...
1 comment
Read more

Edinburgh

We stayed in Edinburgh for two days to conclude our Scotland adventure. Hannah spent a semester in Edinburgh in her spritely college days and she remembers it fondly. As we wandered through the city, Hannah would point out various places and reminisce. Here was the restaurant where she would gather with friends to celebrate special occasions (The Outsider), here was the local café they frequented between classes (Peter's Yard), this was the park she walked through to get home (The Meadows), and there is the shitty hostel she stayed in when she arrived (less interesting!).  Edinburgh was fun. We liked it more than Glasgow. Edinburgh had more to see (more ancient castles, museums and monuments) and the city was denser and more lively. Glasgow just felt more utilitarian.  Hannah - of course - led me to the far-flung corners of the city in an effort to find the newest and best food, including marching me straight out of Edinburgh and into the neighboring city of Leith. We ate well...
Post a Comment
Read more