During the Easter holiday I travelled with my friend Christopher to the beautiful country of Switzerland. I had not been there for several years now, in the late nineties I and my family used to visit this our old home every few years or so. Since I now am studying to become a M.Sc. combined with German and have a compulsory year abroad at a German-speaking university next fall, I am hoping to come to Zürich and study at the renowned ETH. Being born in Zürich, I am really excited to come to the school, and one of the top priorities when visiting Switzerland was of course to go see the school.
As we left Skavsta Airport in Nyköping at noon on Tuesday, the 25th of March, the low temperature had made that week in the entire Europe one of the coldest in the entire winter.
There was about ten centimeters of snow at the airport, and when we landed in Basel the weather was chill and snowflakes filled the air. It looked like it was going to become a cold week in Switzerland, but the weather would take an unexpected turn later on.
The first thing we did was to buy a “Swiss Pass” a ticket that allowed unlimited train, bus, ship and metro travel for the entire week. After checking out Basel for an hour or two and buying a prepaid phone card, we took the train ride to the village of Siggenthal Station, where our “hotel” was — or at least it felt like that when being taken care of so well. We stayed at my old neighbor, Irma, who took good care of us all the time. During the week, she lend us her spare bedroom, made breakfeast every morning, and served dinner was more often than not. Talk about us becoming a bit spoiled by that great hospitality! “Ihr habt ja Ferien!” (but you have holiday!), she always told us.
The first morning we went walking up the hill to the local overlook. A quite steep walk that made many times when I lived there as a boy. Up there, we had a great view of the whole Siggenthal valley, and could almost look into Germany. At that time there was overcast and a lot of wet snow that had fallen in the night, so the walk up and down was quite slippery.
Returning to the village, we went to the station and took the train to Zürich.
In Zürich we made some sight-seeing downtown and went to the local Student Housing Agency, to see how to find an apartment in Zürich for the future studies. As it turned out, you have to come down in person to the office a few months before you need your apartment. Now how am I going to do that? Fly down in June, get an apartment, fly home to Sweden and then fly back to Zürich in time for school? I’ll have to figure something out.
Walking through the old city, I found a store with lots of Steinway grands. I went in and tried them out — Excellent sound and great feel. Some day, perhaps, I will own one of these great instruments.
Of course, we went to the ETH (Eidgenösse Technische Hochschule – Federal Swiss Institute of Technology). First the central Campus, with the famous dome on the roof. It is built in an interesting and classic style – and really looks like a renowned University should. I won’t be studying there, though. The new and modern campus at Hönggerberg nowaday hosts most of the science and technical faculties, and that is the place I will be at during my stay in Zürich.
The Hönggerberg campus was an interesting sight. Highly elevated, you could see all of Zürich as well as the Zürich lake. I guess biking to school is out of the question. The school houses were futuristic, with lots of glass and steel. The only thing it lacked was students, because of the holiday. We decided to return again on Monday and went back to Siggenthal.
The next morning we woke up early to make a longer excursion through the eastern parts of the country. We would take the train to Luzern, cross the Vierwaldstättersee, take the train through the Gotthard tunnel and stay the night in Bellinzona.
Before we settled for the night in Bellinzona, we took the train to the Italian border and back, staying for dinner in Lugano (and some night-shots of the mountain and the lake!) Early morning we left the Canton of Tessin to take the Postbus through San Bernadino to Canton Graubünden.
North of the Alps again, the weather was noticabely warmer, and this day would become really hot, totally contrasting the first, cold day we had in Basel.
Liechtenstein was close by, so we took the bus over the border to visit Vaduz, its capital. We had lunch and Apfelstrudel in the town square.
We stepped off in the small town of St. Margerethen to meet up with some old friends of my family. We had an hour or so before they would arrive there, and since the train station was close to the Austrian border, so we walked there. There was no border control, the officials barely looked at us when we passed. Upon realizing we could do and buy nothing without Euros, we walked back. Our friends later picked us up and drove us to their home in canton Thurgau, passing some beautiful sights of the Bodensee on the way back. They served us dinner and we stayed a few hours. We have had stayed longer if we could, but since we had arranged to meet one of Christopher’s family’s friends later in the evening, we had to make our way to the station pretty soon. The train took us to Schaffhausen, where the Berli family picked us up and took us to their home. Christopher and I had some Raclette before going to bed after a long day of travelling.
Waking up to an early morning in Schaffhausen I found that also this day would give us great weather. Our hosts lend us two bikes, and we went to see the city and the Rheinfall. The Rheinfall is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Switzerland, and is a large waterfall on the Rhein downstream from the Bodensee.
Downtown Schaffhausen
Next day, we took a day-trip to the French-speaking district and the city of Geneva (and the famous fountain).
I thought of buying a nice watch, but decided my hard-earned money was better spent elsewhere.
That evening,our hostess Irma took us to a local chinese restaurant.
Siggenthal Station
On Monday we went to see the ETH again. This day, the place was filled with students.
We listened to a lecture in Physics. The lecture hall and its equipment all held very good standard, and as far as language was concerned, I had no trouble at all understanding the Swiss German dialect of the professor.
Back home in Siggenthal Station I and Christopher made Spätzli, a Swiss speciality.
Christopher, Irma and I in front of the house as we left for Basel and the flight home
We returned on Tuesday, filled with experiences and well rested for the upcoming two months of intense school and studying. As for me, I got really interested in studying at the ETH, and am looking forward to the fall of 2009, when I move to Switzerland for a year.