The Neutral Zone

Zurich, Switzerland - The Swiss are serious about their beloved cows and they go to extraordinary lengths to protect their portly livestock. The Swiss enlist their military (yes, they have one) and emergency rescue teams in the service of cow support and rescue operations. During recent droughts, the government set up emergency hotlines for farmers to call in airborne bovine rescue teams and the military airlifted water to cows stranded on drought-stricken mountains. These are not insignificant operations: In 2015, the Swiss military conducted a 31-day operation to airlift 1,840 tons of water to cows in the Jura and Vaud alps. This involved four Super Puma helicopters and 120 military personnel. The government claims that cow rescue operations serve as invaluable training for their pilots.  Water is not the only thing that may be airlifted. Occasionally, the cows themselves are also hoisted aloft by helicopter (pictured below).  Bovine airlift in picturesque ...

Arosa, Switzerland - Dear reader, it's been a minute. Apologies for being negligent in keeping you aware of all our activities. We moved Last weekend - the weekend of February 8 - we moved to Zurich. H had been itching to get out of Zug, a lovely but sleepy town. Our process for selecting our apartment included countless hours (mostly Hannah's hours) searching online, followed by an afternoon spent visiting apartments throughout Zurich with a bubbly French apartment broker named Catherine.  Over the course of that day we ultimately narrowed things down to two options: a stunning but unfurnished apartment in a historic building that was sandwiched between the opera house and the Grossmünster, Zurich's largest church. That apartment was recently renovated and had some of the original beamwork integrated into the open floorplan in a rather elegant way. Views included the historic city and, in the distance, the Alps. Our other option was a furnished apartment in Wiedikon...