Autumn at the Rheinfall

It's been pointed out to me that I have been more than a bit remiss in posting pictures of our adventures since we've been in Switzerland. The last weekend in September we went to the Rheinfall in Neuhausen which turned out to be a wonderful day. So, I thought I would post a few photos here in an attempt to repair my sloggish blog reputation. The Rheinfall is the largest waterfall in Europe (not by height but by the amount of water that flows over the falls). Not exactly Niagara Falls but pretty none the less an I suspect that it is bit more impressive in the springtime. And as you can see the surrounding area is far more pleasant than Buffalo, NY...

We're Just Here for the Sightseeing...

Here it is October and somehow I've not posted a thing for over a month. So much has happened that it seems I've been too busy to write. I'm finally legal and working and this has severely cramped the life of leisure to which I had grown too quickly accustomed. My month long paid vacation is now just a distant memory and work and real life seems all consuming. What I have realized in the past month is that life is just life where ever you may be living it. You still have to go to work everyday and raise a child and make dinner and pay bills. However, the weekend adventures are far superior to life in suburban Philadelphia but the day to day is practically indecipherable. So, I'll post a few pictures of last weekend in Bavaria (no, we did not go to Oktoberfest with a 2 year old) to help make my point...Hannah dining on Spaetzle in Austria, Neuschwanstein Castle, random Austrian Alps photo, Castle Hohenschwangau and Castle Linderhof....just a few of the sights that we took in.

All is NOT lost

After a near sleepless night thinking about our missing belongings and how one would replace all those U.S. toys and DVD's and books and clothes etc we received some very happy news this morning!! A telephone call from the Swiss moving company revealed that our air shipment of goods was not only found but had already cleared customs, had landed in Basel this very morning and would delivered tomorrow afternoon at 14:00!! Hannah can talk of nothing but her castle (the Fisher Price Little People Castle, that is). In addition to our long lost air shipment, delivery is due to begin on our ocean shipment on Monday as well!! Now we just have to coordinate the removal of our rental furniture on the same day...one tiny elevator, two movers and 5 flights of stairs - this should be interesting. OOOH WAIT - make that FRIDAY for our ocean shipment! They've just called to ask if this Friday will work instead. It seems the ocean shipment has arrived EARLY if you can believe it. So, our air shipment comes tomorrow and all the rest of our belongings on Friday! A complete reversal from yesterday!

Internet Finally!!!

So we finally have the internet...but it has been 2 weeks since we arrived in Basel. So much has happened that I should have been blogging about all along but now so much of it seems a distant bad memory. So for those we have not heard yet, there are two big lowlights of the last two weeks; the lost air shipment of all our "essential items" which can only be tracked at far as Germany and no further and the fact that I am not working yet at all due to what can only be described as a paperwork nightmare. One wonders when the air shipment or work will ever surface. In the meantime we are trying to enjoy our new world, and despite the hiccups, Basel is a pretty nice place to be!

Basel Bound Belongings!

Thursday afternoon - the truck leaves for port in Philadelphia with all our belongings headed to Basel, Switzerland...eventually.

8 Days to go and the Movers have Arrived!

Impossibly, our move to Switzerland is just a mere 8 days away now. And so today began a 4 day moving marathon. We all slept in a little later this morning, not bothering to set the alarm for my standard 5:45 wake up time. After all, with Hannah, no chance in sleeping past an 8:00 am appointment. But alas, the movers came early - 7:30! I step out of the shower to the sound of the doorbell! Eek! Mark had gone for coffee so in a panic I'm digging through my suitcase trying to find something to throw on before the movers either drive away or start peeking in the windows!

I worked from home today - not that we had to do any packing, thankfully, but to help ensure that we did not end up in Basel with boxes of newborn clothes and a lobster cooker. Those items did succesfully make it to the storage pile and SHOULD end up in long term storage. I guess we will find out for sure when we get there.

Our tiny air shipment was completed within an hour. This consisted of 3 large boxes of miscellaneous items that should arrive in 14-21 days (yeah, right) in Basel - diapers, DVD's and toys for Hannah. Spoiled! The rest of the day our three movers spent packing items for our sea shipment. They were here until 4:00pm and DID get a lot done but there is MUCH more to do. How did we accumulate so much stuff??? There was only one injury, which I suffered at the claws of Arbuckle. She has never liked the sound of packing tape being pulled off the roll. I now have the scars to prove it.

Now we wait for Hannah to wake up from her nap so we can all stare at each other in this house full of boxes. I've taken pictures that I wanted to post but....as luck would have it....the cord to download the pictures from the camera has been packed!!!

We Have a New Home

And so it has begun.... last week I caught the first glimpse of our new life in Basel and went on a whirlwind house hunting excursion! I left Philadelphia on Sunday night, arriving in Zurich Monday morning. After the short train ride to Basel, we began house hunting in earnest. With the help of our fantastic relocation consultant I was able to see 14 apartments and houses in a day and a half. By the end of the second day, one place started to run into another and it was hard to keep them straight in my mind. In the end I was able to narrow it down to three top choices. We applied for but did not get our first choice of apartments; a large LOVELY roof flat overlooking a peaceful garden, hidden away in the heart of the city. Apparently a local Baseler was also vying for the same apartment and we were not able to compete with lure of a potential 5-10 year tenant. However, happily we learned yesterday that our second choice, a HUGE flat on the 5th floor of a larger apartment building near the main train station, was ours. This is good news for all those thinking about visiting once we get settled in Switzerland....we have plenty of room and we just a short walk away from the Basel SBB!