Mission accomplished

We have a new freezer! As I said earlier the Swiss freezers are VERY small and can hardly have enough space for weekly necessities. I was searching for a freezer for a while now here in Switzerland as well as in Germany and I am shamed to admit but we ended up getting it from Germany again. Not only the price is almost the half what we would pay here but also I have not found a decent one that would be suitable.
After checking it online I found a couple I liked in Germany, however the problem was that they did not carry them in an actual shop only online. This is a problem when you want to get the VAT back as well as ordering it to a German address (which is possible) and end up paying for that service as well. Finally after spending some time searching, I found a store called FLÖSCH which has several shops even close to the Swiss border. Since the freezer is 'only' 65 l we were able to put it in the back of the car and carry it with ourselves. Now I am one happy person. No more food falling out on my leg.

I desperately need....

... a small freezer. Here is the thing. The average flat in Switzerland comes with a small fridge and a built in freezer (around 5 liter!!), which is ridiculously small even if you are alone but if you consider this space for a family it's even more ridiculous. Until now there were other household items that needed to be purchased so I did not pay too much attention to this subject. Lately however as our flat started to turn into a real flat with furniture there is more time to figure out what else we need. And not only that. We lately started to pop left over fruit in the freezer to save it for smoothies or ice cream and our tiny little freezer filled up quickly and I cannot take anymore the small frozen packages landing on my feet every time I open the freezer. It's so annoying! Even more if you consider that supermarkets close at 6:30 pm (and 4 pm on Sat, everything is closed on Sun) which means you cannot just run down and buy what you need. I am not sure how the Swiss do it, probably they go out every other day to buy what they need but we are in a serious need for a freezer. That's gonna be on my list for the upcoming weeks that's for sure.

HUG factory

And here we go again. After visiting the Kambly cookie factory back in November we decided to check out another one. One of the factories of HUG is maybe a half an hour drive from us which made it an ideal destination for a rainy afternoon visit. Compared to the Kambly one it's definitely much smaller but they still have a good variety. You can try out all the products and buy bigger packages of goodies than in a supermarket. You can also try out and purchase a few test product, which is also fun. While Kambly is a place to spend almost a day, this HUG factory store is mainly to have a quick overview of their products, try them and leave. It offers a different experience than the Kambly one but definitely worth a visit.
Sorry, no pictures this time.

Around Central Switzerland

We have been on a mission to check out places in Central Switzerland. We visited a couple of small towns/villages around Luzern. Here are a couple of pictures how they look like.

It's still cherry time

A couple of weeks ago we picked up some cherries in Zug. Afterwards we went on a holiday and was busy with daily life but I was longing for some more cherries. During the weekend we went to the same farm to see whether the season is still on. And it was on! Best cherries ever...

The seller told us though that that's the last weekend they are selling because the cherry season is over in a day or two. Until next year then!

Surprising stuffs in Switzerland - flyers 2

I mentioned some time ago that there are a few very strange flyers are circulating in the country and gets into our mailbox from time to time. Last week it was one about the Swiss Airforce.

Treat of the day

It's cherry time in Switzerland! Although the weather is not mediterranean in Switzerland, there are plenty of fruits available during summer and believe me it's worth waiting for them. At the beginning of summer they come from Italy or Spain. Canton Zug is famous of its cherries, cherry liquor and cake. We bought some cherries over the weekend and it was AMAZING. Probably the best I have ever eaten. Ripe, crunchy, sweet.

Food lately

This is how life look like food vise lately.

We put our hands on some very fresh ink fish that we cut into strips and fry it in a pan with olive oil. When it was done we added a mixture of garlic, parsley and olive oil plus some lemon juice.

These are two trouts (forelle in German) baked in the oven with lemon and thyme. The trouts were actually from the Black Forest (Schwarzwald).

A super easy and yummy cherry pie.

Shopping in Switzerland

I have to admit we regularly do grocery shopping in Germany and/or if we go to Italy or France for a weekend trip we do some grocery shopping there. Most of the products, to be precise, everything is much more expensive here than at the other side of the border but there are certain things we only buy Swiss mainly because the quality. We do buy Swiss meat, milk and locally grown vegetables and fruits whenever it's possible. We do not eat a lot of meat but since we moved here the amount certainly went up compared to the Netherlands. Although prices are INSANE here, we mostly would prefer the Swiss one.
One of the other expensive products include ice cream and creme fraiche.

As a comparison:
Chicken breast 1 kg:
CH: 33 Chf, which is about 27 EUR
Germany: 7 EUR


Haagen Dazs ice cream 500 ml:
CH: 9.95 Chf, which is about 8 EUR
Germany: 4.99 EUR

Creme fraiche 200 ml:
CH: 2.20 Chf, which is about 2 EUR
Germany: 59 cents

There are branded products we would only buy in Germany and that would include toiletries and other household items. Here is an example:

Nive sunscreen 200 ml:
CH: 25.40 Chf, which is about 20 EUR
Germany: 8.45 EUR

The ultimate problem

 Before I moved to Switzerland I had thought that the country is super clean and its people are super duper health conscious ones. This theory failed when I came to Switzerland for a visit a year and a half ago and realized that a LOT of people are smoking in the streets, stations and basically everywhere. I was previously in Switzerland maybe 15 years ago so I did not remember too much and definitely did not remember about the smoke.
Living in the Netherlands spoil me from this point of view. Not so many people were smoking (minus the weed obviously) and on the stations there are designated areas where it's allowed. To be fair, there were a couple of occasions when I run into someone who was smoking when biking which was pretty annoying but other than that it was OK.
Here it's a different story. Apparently smoking is not allowed in most of the bars, although there are still a few where it is and the smoking areas in general are not very designated. When I first landed in Zurich and got out of the terminal, I almost got a shock when I smelt the smoke.
Before anyone would think it's the usual whining about the smokers vs non-smokers, I think it's fair to say that I am basically allergic to tobacco smoke (among others such as perfumes) and without judgement it's only my opinion.