D-Day in Switzerland

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D-Day. Monday, June 6 

I'm writing this diary entry sitting on the shore of the Zurichsee (Lake Zurich in English) at Rüschlikon and can see the Alps in the distance. Kate and Cindy are at their KBS conference nearby. 

I've walked here from our motel, the Jolie Ville up the hill a bit in Adliswil where there's a cable car that goes up to the hilltop at Felsenegg about 450m above the lake. There's a restaurant and good views of the lake and country side there but, as luck would have it, the cable car is closed today for repairs. I briefly thought about walking up the hill but the walk to the cable car was steep enough so I thought again and decided no. Damn, foiled again!

On my walk down to the lake shore I visited a garden center (or a community garden plot). The Swiss are big on gardens, you see them in many backyards and even along the railway line. By a garden center I mean several acres of garden broken into tiny plots with little garden sheds. People grow all sorts of stuff. The strawberries are just turning red. Grapes, tomatoes, lettuce, leeks, etc. are all packed into tiny raised plots. The sheds usually have a little veranda with a table and chairs to sit and enjoy the fruits of your labors. It reminds me of the trailer parks we have back home (we also have community gardens but they're not as common). In any case, it looks like a fun way to get out of the city. I'd enjoy a plot like one of these.

At these gardens I meet an elderly lady who is tending her plot. She comments in German about the ripening strawberries. I reply as best I can and the conversation switches to English. Her English is far better than my German. She thinks I'm an American and comments on the TV news shows today from the beaches of Normandy. It's the 50th anniversary of D-Day and President Clinton, who is there, has given a speech already. The US troops landed at Utah and Omaha beaches. I explained that I'm Canadian — yes, Canadians (at Juno Beach) and British (at Sword and Gold) were there in Normandy as well but you'd hardly know that from the TV coverage. Queen Elizabeth II will be there later today to make her speech and restore some balance to the coverage.

The lady at the gardens is old enough to remember the war. She was a child in Austria during the war (the "Sound of Music" is a World War II story set in the nearby Austrian Alps which is only a little to the east). Austria was annexed/occupied by Germany in 1938 well before the invasion of Poland in 1939 when Britain and France declared war. The US only joined in December 1941 after Pearl Harbor. She says it was a hard time and tells me she thinks of it every day. She comments sadly that it's really no different today — "Look at what's happening in Yugoslavia, right here in Europe and not really that far away. And then there's Rwanda in Africa." She says the Germans must find it hard today but we do need to remember. I mentioned my uncle Mac who drove an amphibious tank and landed on D-Day. He never talks about it, nor do many of the veterans. The TV says 1,500 Yanks died on the beaches that day but makes no mention of the many British and Canadians who also died there. The Canadians were under the British command, I believe it was Montgomery (British). The combined forces as were under Eisenhower (US). It was an interesting conversation and an odd time to be tramping around Europe.

Today is cool and cloudy. I wander the empty streets and enjoy the view. Houses crowd the slopes and reach from the wooded peaks to the water's edge. Nearby is a park on the water's edge with a diving board and floating docks. People must go swimming somedays. But not today — perhaps it warms up in July and August. These mountain fed lakes have got to be chilly at the best of times.

Pleasure boats are tied up at the dock and commuter boats busily ply the long narrow lake stopping at the many villages on each side. These are local commuter transit boats to get you from one side to the other or on to villages further down the lake. I ought to take one but sit instead and write these notes listening to the birds, and enjoying the view. Some sunshine would be nice.

Right in Rüschlikon, by the church, a fellow has a couple of pigs rooting around in a small field. The church has a big clock tower — every town seems to have one. This one has gold numerals and a tile inlay for the face. Across the narrow lake there's another town (either Küsnacht or Erlenbach) with yet another clock tower that's easily visible. The trains rumble by all day long.

I am told James Joyce wrote Ulysses in Zurich. Albert Einstein was at the university and Carl Yung too. Cindy tells me that Einstein wrote "The Theory of Relativity" in Bern (to the southwest and north of Interlaken). We were through Bern on our way to Interlaken. The other day I wandered up to the University and Polytechnic in Zurich as there is a good view of the city from there. I have yet to find the "Swiss Vitamin Institute" (is there really such a place?). Instead I'll go searching for a beer by the lake shore and exercise my German: "ein beir, bitte."

The local beer is Hürlimann with the brewery in Zurich. It's a lager very much like what we have at home. At the Mövenpick chicken fiasco the other night I had a "wheat beer". It was served in a tall glass, it was very cloudy, slightly acid, and served with a slice of lemon. They ask, "Das ist gut?" and I reply, "Nicht, Nien!" I guess it's an acquired taste. The standard measure for a beer seems to be 2 dl (two deciliters, 200ml) and runs about three francs. The beer glass has a mark for the two deciliter line and room on top of that for some head/foam. At Titlis I swiped a beer glass, likewise at our motel. They make a nice small portable souvenir and have the local brewery crest.

While wandering back along the tram line from downtown Zurich the other day I passed a wine store specializing in Italian wines. They had two different 1988 Chiantis Classico in five litre bottles on display in the window. That would be almost 7 regular sized bottles of wine. At 100 Swiss francs it's a pretty good deal and 1988 is Pat's favorite year for Chianti Classico. I thought about buying one to take home, but how would one manage the trains through Switzerland to Germany and then back to Frankfurt for the plane back to Canada? It's one more idea that will not pan out. Sorry Pat, it would be a nice souvenir but it's not very portable!

This bar where I'm writing on the lake shore in Rüschlikon is near the Hotel and Conference center where the KBS conference is held. On a nice day one would sit outside and enjoy the view. Today we're inside where the locals chat and drink coffee. There's a wood stove but no fire today — it's cool, but not cold enough for a fire I suppose. In the bar there's a couple of one-armed bandits — slot machines like in Las Vegas. There's a couple at our motel as well. The fellow playing the slots actually seems to be winning — or at least there's lots of clanking coins coming back at him. There are a lot of coins in Switzerland from a large 5 franc coin, to one and 2 franc coins, half a franc coin (I suppose that's 50 centime), 10 and 5 centime coins. You end up with quite a pocket full of coins. The five centime coin is very small. The Swiss franc is about $1 — $100 Canadian is 97 Swiss francs at the exchange. We are travelling with American Express cheques in Canadian funds.

Cindy tells me that people pay cash all the time. A colleague KBS from Geneva doesn't even have a checkbook and plastic isn't used much at all. However, at the Titlis cable car you can pay with plastic and run it through the reader yourself. Train and tram tickets are purchased through automated machines which accept cash, coins and cards. They work great if you can figure them out and punch in the right magic. Since there are four official languages in Switzerland (plus English), instructions are printed in each language on these machines. Trains are easy, especially with the Euro-Rail pass. City transit machines, we've found, can be very hard to figure out. And then there's the Mövenpick chicken menu — of all things why should this be unilingual in German?

Coca-Cola is the same price as a beer — go figure. And water is the same price as a beer — go figure again!

Tonight we're having a Swiss dinner at the conference center. Perhaps there will be more tiny chicken? Is "squab" a tiny chicken or a big pigeon? Actually, neither were served. The KBS dinner was a cold buffet served promptly at 6:00. Recall that everything runs on time like clockwork. We ate our fill and enjoyed smoked fish and thinly sliced meats — I wonder if that was carpaccio? There's nice breads and Swiss cheese too, but of course!

The wine comes in what looks to us like ginger ale bottles. There are no corks in the bottles, they are sealed with the kind with the metal "crown cap" that you would use a beer bottle opener on — it's a soda pop bottle. They've obviously been recycled and refilled many times as the glass shows the wear. One wine was a "Beaujolais" and has "Appellation Contrôlée" on the label. Oh, really? I think we got that figured out — it's only a meaningful label in France and the EEC where "appellation d'origine contrôlée" actually means something and is enforced. The local Swiss wine we had seemed to be from "Fred's Bulk Wine Barn". It's not very good. The best wines we've had so far has been the Chianti from Italy and a Cabernet Sauvignon from California. I had a local beer as well at this dinner and almost ended up with a 0% version — fortunately the server warned me. Who wants 0% beer anyways?

The conference had some local entertainment after dinner out on the patio where we were sitting — others stayed inside at windows overlooking the patio area. A fellow and a young woman played  "Alpen Horns" — the kind you've seen in TV advertisements for Ricola cough drops (where a fellow in leather lederhosen sings a long drawn out "Ree-coal-ahh!" to a long low bleat from the Alpen Horn). The horn is about 15-20' long and made entirely of wood. It's long, straight and narrow and curves to open in a slight bell at the end facing upwards.  The player stands and the other end rests on the ground (how would one carry one of these around?) It's all wood, even the mouth piece is wood, and there are no valves, so it's played sort of like a bugle. There's been a number of tunes written for the Alpen Horn and they played maybe four which I believe might be all of them. We had thought that these were just for making a long low bleating noise (cf. the commercials) to summon the farmers home for dinner from the summer meadows high up the mountain slopes. Apparently there are these tunes as well.

As well as this trumpeting on the Alpen Horn the young woman did a couple of yodeling songs. She could really make the hills sing — "The hills are alive, with the sound of music!" (Julie Andrews, 1965). The conference center is on a hilltop overlooking the lake so I hope the locals in Rüschlikon enjoyed the music. But perhaps they're not so keen and seek refuge elsewhere during the summer conference season.

We had a psychiatrist, Hans from Luzern, who joined us for a bit. Cindy had made some passing comment about the medical profession in her talk and Hans jumped in to defend them. He proceeded to tell us about the pharmacology of benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium). He says the evidence is that one does not develop a tolerance for them and for certain problems massive doses are required and therapeutic. Nevertheless we all agreed that they are over prescribed. I'm thinking, "Gosh, let's change the topic!"

He tells us that in Luzern, a city the size of our London, Ontario, has something like 450 psychiatrists and they're all doing very well. He says there's far too many doctors here in Switzerland, as in Canada (I think there's not enough doctors in Canada and the Luzern sample suggests that there are far too many psychiatric problems in Switzerland). We learn that medical care is not public health care in Switzerland as it is in Canada. People have insurance through their work or public health care only if they are poor. I suppose there must be some poor hiding somewhere but I've not seen them yet. If there are any, I know some of some small farmers who need help raking their hay.

It turns out that Hans has a cottage in Nova Scotia and he holidays there every summer. He's at the university so he must get a very long holiday. I suppose, that for him, getting away from the mountains, clanking cow bells, and these bleating Alpen Horns is a holiday!

We ask Hans about the tiny farms and learn that the Swiss are not part of the European Economic Community (EEC). The farmers are protected and heavily subsidized. Hans says the Swiss spend more per capita on the farmers than they do on booze! And farm products aren't cheap in spite of these subsidies. That explains why the Mövenpick chickens are really just squab and why there's no vegetables served with them. This might also explain the garden centers where people grow their own veggies — or perhaps it's just city folks trying to get a farm subsidy. And I wonder if the fellow in town here with two pigs in his backyard would qualify for a subsidy too? In any case this explains why you see farmers raking their hay by hand — they have a subsidy. Otherwise, it really isn't cost-effective. If you have open borders, like the EEC, there are lots of countries better equipped to produce these agricultural products with mechanization at far cheaper prices.

Hans also tells us that every town, no matter the size, must be serviced by public transit and the trains must go there at least four times a day. That explains why the train service is so excellent. He also tells us that everyone (or at least every male of age) in Switzerland serves in the Army and when the service is complete they get to keep their gun. This means there are a lot of guns in Switzerland but they apparently don't have a problem with them. Should anyone decide to shoot someone (it happens, but very seldom) they'll go out to get a new gun.

It was, another interesting day in Switzerland. We've learned a lot by talking with the Swiss.

Slides scanned and notes composed during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, March 2022 — as if living through the OMIGOD! COVID variant wasn't bad enough! The diary entries were made by Cindy, Kate and Reg at the time.