Zurich

Switzerland is a small country anchored by Geneva on one end and Zurich on the other and it only takes three hours on the Interstate to drive between the two cities but as a friend said " the Swiss look at traveling between the cities as a major excursion." Our trip actually started at Chris's school during his discovery week. It is a week in September where the kids do something entirely different than regular school with some going off to other countries to live with host families, some taking on new week long courses, and other signing up for an experience, such as cleaning up the town. Chris wanted to take hang gliding so I signed him up. In filling out the form I asked what should I put down for his second choice. He wouldn't respond and after multiple times asking him, he said to just put down anything. I did and he got it - Salsa dancing for an entire week for six hours a day, I've never seen him so tired. From that he was telling me how much he enjoyed dancing to Santana and of all coincidences, Santana is on tour and appeared this week at the Zurich arena.

It also was my birthday so a Zurich Santana trip was on. On the way, about an hour out of Geneva we passed through a series of tunnels. As a detour, the Europeans love to have tunnels and we've been through them all over western Europe whereas in America we seem to just bulldoze down the mountain. Not sure what that means other than it is an interesting difference. We came out of these tunnels and our old familiar Exit ramp sign which is Sordie in French was replaced by the more guttural Ausharft. We had crossed into the German Swiss area that encompasses more than 70% of the country where we were to find that more than the language had changed. Switzerland has four official languages based mostly on the geographic location to another country. In our area, Geneva, we are surrounded by France and the French language, customs, and traditions are prominent. Towards Zurich are the German Swiss and there are Italian Swiss and a small group of Romanian Swiss. I was told that each region studies their regional language for six years of school and the remainder of the time they study English so that they all can speak English. Not necessarily so.

In our area, there are many English speaking Swiss but I find as many that do not or will not speak English so we struggle along with our French which actually is good for our learning. I was surprised to find in Zurich that everyone we talked to spoke very good English with us. We couldn't be more delighted because while our French is limited, our German is almost non-existent. So Roads which had been Rue's became Strasses and the entire sound of the language took on a different flavor. Additionally, we ran into the Germanic rigidity and high standards of which the Deutch Swiss are famous.  It really paid off in our room which was scrubbed sparkling clean, spacious, quiet, with the European style of two single beds pushed together with down duvets instead of sheets and blankets. The best was the breakfast delivered to our room and a total feast: several kinds of cereals, a basket of breads, meats and cheeses, yogurt, pots of coffee, hot and cold milk, etc. It was spectacular. At the hotel, there was a key to do everything including unlock each floor on the elevator and enough rules to need a book. The people were gracious and kind and it all made for a great weekend birthday experience. Oh, and Santana was in excellent form too, a great concert!