Category: Life in Switzerland
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Christmas Tag… 🎄 #Festive #Fun
A week or two back I came across a series of fun Christmas questions on lovely Shelley Wilson’s blog – so I accepted her open invitation to join in. What would your answers be? What is your favourite Christmas film? Probably Home Alone – escapism, good fun – and isn’t it the kind of thing…
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A walk around the old town…
Arbon has been here for many, many years. Centuries, in fact – it has connections to an Irish monk called Gallus who died here in 646. We have a castle, part of the original town wall still stands, and the old town has a real medieval atmosphere, wonderful for Christmas markets. Let’s take a walk……
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Four trains, two boats and a bus in Switzerland…
A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I took ourselves on a trip to the island of Ufenau, near the south end of Lake Zürich. Early-morning haze was hanging in the air as I stood waiting for the train at our local station, which isn’t much bigger than a bus stop. Lake Constance is…
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Autumn? in Switzerland…
It’s late this year. The woods across from my balcony are turning, yes, but not very far or fast. We can’t scrunch through autumn leaves as we wander along the trails, and the predominant colour is still green. So let’s have a look at some other slightly autumnal Swiss pics. Below was taken in…
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Swiss Mountains…
Scenic blog post alert… The past several weeks have been HOT here in N.E. Switzerland. 33-34°C every afternoon is a bit too much of a good thing – I wished several times I was halfway up a mountain, enjoying the snow squeaking under my feet. On the left we have our local mountain, the Säntis,…
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Statues (and things) in Switzerland…
On Friday and Saturday I spent a few hours in Zug, Central Switzerland, on the way to and from Louise Mangos’ Strangers on a Bridge launch do. There’s a lot to like in Zug – a beautiful lake, a lovely historic old town – and some artwork. The old town first – above is the…
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Wild Orchids in Switzerland
A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I went out in search of orchids… wild ones. Close to the Switzerland-Germany border, there’s a tiny place called Bargen. It’s known for being the most northerly village in the country, and also for its nearby woodland orchid trail. I have to confess I’d never heard of…
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Places in – pictures? Or words??
When I was seven or eight, our next-door neighbour – an elderly lady – had an ash tree in her garden, right on the border with ours. Her garden was half-wild, and to my great joy there was no fence between the two properties. Under – and halfway up – that tree became my special…
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2017 – the best of times and the worst of times… (a minimalist’s version)
Another year bites the dust, and like most years, 2017 had its ups and downs. Here are a few of mine: Best decision – turning some of my old magazine stories into a charity anthology for a year. All profits made by The Saturday Secret up until mid-February will go to Doctors without Borders. Worst breakage…
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Christmas Swiss-Style
So what’s the difference? Quite a lot, especially if you believe in the magic of Santa Claus. He doesn’t come to Switzerland, you see. But let’s look at the entire festive season, starting with Advent. (We’ll ignore all the Christmas decs etc shops start putting up in October/November.) The first Christmassy thing in most homes…
linda huber 