FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What the heck is going on here?

This is Mike and Hannah's travel blog. Here, we recount our adventures as Americans living abroad in Switzerland. Updates to this blog will occur as noteworthy (for us, anyway) things happen and as time allows.

Who are you, again?

Mike and Hannah are married yuppies from Albany, California. Mike works as a strategy consultant to companies making healthcare products and Hannah is a food and beverage publicist. We are affable folk who make great cocktail party guests.

When did all this happen?

In December 2019, Mike and Hannah left their home in Albany, California to live abroad in Zurich, Switzerland. We are scheduled to stay here for about a year.

What exactly makes you a good fit for Switzerland?

We're rather neat for Americans, but probably insufficiently so for the Swiss. We know a handful of German phrases; we're particularly good at, "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" We like chocolate, especially Mike.

My God. Who in the world thought this was a good idea?

Mike's employer asked if he would be willing to take a position working in their Zug, Switzerland (outside of Zurich) office. We jumped at the opportunity.

The Swiss Advance to the Quarterfinals

Zurich, Switzerland - Monday evening was one of jubilation in Zurich, and indeed, throughout Switzerland: the Schweizer Nati (Swiss National Team) advanced to the quarterfinal in the UEFA Euro 2020 championship (European soccer tournament). As you've probably guessed, this championship was supposed to be held last year, but was obviously delayed due to the pandemic. Despite that, the tournament organizers have persisted in calling it Euro 2020. This is the first time Switzerland has advanced this far in the tournament. The victory came over a juggernaut, the reviled French. Sports books significantly favored the French in this match (a $100 bet on Switzerland would have paid out $550) and in fact the French were the favorite or among the favorites to win it all. Indeed, the Swiss were down 3-1 into the later minutes of the game. The crowd gathered around our local bar, Le Calvados, was sullen and quiet. With ten minutes to go, the prominent cranium of Haris Seferovic, showin...

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 ...

We summit Rigi

Arth, Switzerland - H and I summited Mt. Rigi this weekend. Rigi is among the great peaks in this area, known to some as the "Queen of the Mountains." It's visible from Zug and nearby Lucerne. Starting in the early afternoon, Hannah and I slowly made our way to the blustery and snow-covered peak by 300PM. Our ascent was over 1,200 meters, starting from the nearby town of Arth. As you might expect, there was huffing and puffing and even a bit of rumbling as we chugged our way up, but not once did Hannah and I think of turning back. No, we were committed to riding that train straight to the peak! Rigi is actually something of a landmark in railway history. It was the first mountain cogwheel railway in Europe (though, the title for world's first mountain cogwheel railway goes to the Mt. Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire). Rigi's cogwheel railway was complete in 1871 and it's still in use today. Unsurprisingly, the railway greatly increased access to th...

The Neutral Zone

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