Men's Shopping: European Fashions in America

At the risk of sounding a bit metrosexual I wanted to post about a recent shopping experience that I think many U.S. men living overseas in Europe might face. Where the heck can we buy clothes?

As I have posted before differences in sizing, styles, and cuts of clothing, particularly in work attire vary drastically between North America and Europe. A new job in Europe means new clothes, and potentially a new image. So how can an American man prepare or update a wardrobe to fit Europe? The answer is simple, find the right stores in the U.S. and stock up while the prices and cheap.

As my wife will attest, I am not the prolific shopper, however, when I do find the right combinations of style, price, and sizes I am known to splurge a bit. Yesterday I had such an event so I thought it was time to share some thoughts about work clothes and fashions from my experience.

First before shopping consider the styles being worn at work in Europe. As a general rule Europeans dress much better than Americans in the office. Dress pants and crisp ironed shirts are the norm, not the exception. The days of ragged polo shirts, and ratty kahkis will be long gone if you are moving to Europe from the U.S.

Black is in. Everything is black in Europe. Pants, Shoes, Belts, Jackets are all black. Brown has it's place but focus on black. To update your closet I recommend you start with a couple of pairs of basic black dress pants. Get rid of the American kahkis, they are only good for gardening and the weekend hike in the mountains once you get to Europe.

Shirts need to be fitted. Men's shirts are not as billowy as the shirts in the U.S. People in Europe are not trying to hide a gut under baggy clothing and prefer cleaner slimmer lines in their shirts. In the U.S. such cuts of shirts are refered to as 'fitted' in most stores. Give a fitted shirt a try, at first it will seem a bit tighter than most American shirts, but in the end I actually think they look much better than most Sears, or Kohl's shirts that American's may be accustomed too.

If you want to add color do it with a tie. Yes, I said tie. Can you believe it. This trend differs from office to office but ties are much more common in Europe than the U.S. so prepare yourself by brushing up on your tie knots.

So next you need to know where to get such styles and fashions. While it is easy to get such clothing in Europe you will pay the price. Good clothes cost money, and even more money in Europe. With the current financial situation and exchange rates I always bring empty suitcases with me to the U.S. and stock up where prices are cheaper, and I understand and kind find the right sizes of clothing. Below are some of my picks for where you can find European styled clothing in the U.S.

1. Express for Men

Express for Men has a good selection of dress shirts and dress pants that fit right in in Europe. Their MX1 line of shirts is a great choice. Some of their casual clothing may appear best suited for the 20 something crowd but their pants are shirts will look at home in a European office setting. Express can also be found in most larger malls in the U.S. so no matter where you are on business or travel you are usually within striking range of one of their locations.

2. Kenneth Cole

I like alot of the Kenneth Cole line. Kenneth Cole can be expensive but if you can get to one of their outlet locations you can get great deals. I was at their store at the Chicago Prime Outlet's in Aurora Illinois recently and the enitre store as 36% off. I can gaurentee you I got some great deals on shirts and shoes.

3. Calvin Klien

Calvin Klien in another line that has a good selection of styles that will fit well in Europe. Again the key is to find a good sale, or visit an outlet store to get the best deals. CK shirts are fitted, and have the right cut. Dress pants are also nicely tailored and are a great updated to you closet.

4. Gap

Now some people would question my addition of the Gap to the list. And I would agree that they are not the best place to get dress clothes for the office. However, you will probably want a few things for your leisure time outside of the office. The Gap has some great deals on pants, and basic solid sweaters that are a perfect fit for the weekends in Europe. As Jeans aren't the most common weekend fashion something like their charcoal grey surplus straight fit pants are great. Such pants in Europe would be something like 50-80 USD. While back home in the U.S. at the Gap you can get such pants on sale for about 25-30 USD.

To wrap up good luck preparing you closet for Europe and hopefully you'll have some ideas on where to start while at the same time saving some money.

The Grocery Store

I was in a Dominik's grocery store this weekend. Dominik's is a local chain in Chicago that has stores across the area. Typically big, huge, American, grocery stores. With selection, lots and lots of selection. As this is the first time I have been back in the U.S. in about a year I found it a bit overwhelming.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the chip aisle, and the soda aisle, wow! I don't know why I was so overwhelmed. I guess it is because I am used to the largest grocery stores being about one sixth the size of anything I would see in the U.S.

All the selection and choice makes it a bit difficult to shop. What do you choose? What is the best? I can't tell there is just too much. And, as you go from aisle to aisle there is more and more that you can buy, more and more to take home.

At the end of the usual shopping trip in Switzerland I am usually walking out with 1 or 2 bags of groceries. In the U.S. things seem to multiple 3 or 4 fold. Gotta love it.

Some time before I left on vacation I was telling some friends about twinkies. As Europeans they had never heard of the things. I need to be sure to remember to buy a box before I go back to Switzerland. I just hope I will have room for them.

Baden Christmas Lights

The Christmas lights have been up in Baden for a few weeks now. I finally had a chance to get out last night and takes a few photographs. My wife was brave enough to grab a tripod and come with me. I was surprised she wanted to head out into the cold. For me the evening was a great opportunity to be a little artistic and try out some of my HDR capture techniques.

The image above was created from 3 images over-layed using the picturenaut tool. Final edits were done in Photoshop CS3.

I am not completely happy with the color tint of the image. I have to play with it a bit more but I think overall the picture turned out pretty cool.

For those that are interested the image was made of a -2, 0 and +2 exposure biased images.

Getting And International Driving Permit In Switzerland

I had a recent need to get an International Driving Permit for an upcoming trip back to the U.S. Since my last visit to the U.S. my U.S. license has expired. Instead of going through the DMV lines when I get back and taking tests I decided to see if I could get an International Driving Permit.

These permits are essentially a paper that with translations of you driving privileges based on your current driving license and the permit is sometimes useful when trying to rent a car. I did some investigations and found that the Swiss Touring Club www.tcs.ch can issue such permits.

If you have a valid Swiss drivers license your local TCS office can issue you a permit very quickly. All you need to bring is a passport photo and your Swiss license. The permit will cost 25 CHF and takes about 15 minutes to process. Be advised that the TCS office can only issue International Drivers Permits for Swiss Licenses that were issued in the same canton as the office.

Swiss on Cleanliness: Clean Your Darn Desk

Sign Left on My Desk

My wife had told me stories, funny stories, about the cleaning lady at her office that complained that her co-workers left the office in a state of disregard. The office kitchen was just way to dirty at times. It seems a bit ironic that the cleaning staff was telling the office staff to shape up and keep the place clean, after all, their dirtiness was keeping them employed.

Well today I realized this is an issue not isolated to my wife's office. I arrived at work to find a small neatly place sign in a plastic holder on my desk. The sign had a picture of my office's cleaning lady. The sign kindly asking me to straighten and clear my desk so that she could clean it. I found this hilarious. Especially due to the fact that my desk is probably 3 times as clean as most U.S. office desks I have seen.

As the custom is to not put personal items on your desk in Europe the only additional elements to the required computer hardware like computer keyboard and mouse pad is a small pile of 3 or 4 neatly arranged file file folders and a coffee mug. My co-worker that sits next to me also had the sign on his desk this morning. We had a good laugh over it.

But that does not top what we saw at lunch today. Often times we will go to a local place called the Trafo Hall which is a large building with a couple of small restaurants in it. It was an old warehouse converted into a retail space so there are the typical iron beams and large open spaces in the airy foyer. As we were sitting in one of the restaurants I looked out in the open hall to see a man walking across the rafters with a vacuum cleaner. He was literally walking across the I-beams vacuuming dust.

What are these people thinking? Is this level of obsession with cleanliness healthy? It is one of the strange quirks of the culture that I still can not understand.

Metric Baby Announcement

Today a Swiss Colleague sent me a baby announcement. He is the proud father of a 3296 gram, 53 centimeter long baby boy. For the most part metric units really don't bother me. That is probably in part due to my engineering background. Years of university study and engineering problem solving in metrics units I suppose. But in this case, it just seems strange.

Being American I'm use to something like a 6 pound 9 ounce 21 inch baby girl announcement.

I'll get over it I suppose. In the mean time, congratulations on your new arrival.

Snow and a Christmas Tree

It has been snowing all weekend. Saturday it was bit too warm for the snow to stick other than on a few roof tops although Sunday morning when we woke up everything was dusted in a few centimeters of snow. Most of the snow melted by about lunch time on Sunday but then again this evening it really started to come down.

On Saturday we were thinking about what we should do for a Christmas tree this year. We are going back home to the U.S. a little earlier than we normally do. So we decided to head over to the local home/hardware store, Jumbo, to look at some artificial trees. We had the intention of getting an artificial tree and putting it up this weekend so we could enjoy it before we went home.

Once we got to the Jumbo we realized that they already had real Christmas trees. We looked at the artificial trees and then took a look at the real ones. We discussed the real versus fake tree in the store for a few minutes. I think we both knew that a fake tree would be more suitable. We wouldn't have to rush to take it down before we left. But in the end, neither my wife nor I are really fake tree people. We decided to get the real one, and we'll just have to pull it down the evening before we leave.

So, we spent Saturday evening putting up a Christmas tree. It is the first time I have ever had a Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving. The tree looks good. I haven't had time to setup the tripod for the annual picture. Maybe sometime this week I'll have some time to take a photograph and post it.

The Stuff of Dreams

I am not one to speak in public toilets. I prefer to keep to myself and go about my business. Other than a polite excuse me, I keep my vocalizations to a bare minimum.

The other day I was going about my business and there were two gentlemen in the stalls. They were also obviously, and shall I say loudly going about their business.

That is when I heard it:

'Das ist die Stoff auf Traume sind,' one proclaimed to the other. Which roughly translates to 'That is what dreams are made of.'

I would have never put that phrase together myself, but after hearing it in such a strange context I'm quite sure it is now locked in my brain forever. It's funny how new languages work like that sometime.

Supermodel Sighting

Jesica from Swiss Supermodel (Dark Hair)

So I had my first ever public celebrity sighting today. As some of you might know I had been watching the Swiss Supermodel show, based on Top Model program. There was one model in particular named Jesica that was very, different. When 'dressed down' she didn't look much different than any other young woman you might see on the street, but when she was 'made up' she looked quite attractive. She is the dark haired girl in the trailer above.

Anyway, I had been telling the guys at work about this crazy show every once in a while and hadn't thought much about it. Then today we went to a local place by the office to get some lunch. Just before paying the bill I got up to get some cash and noticed this girl sitting at a table with an older woman and she looked remarkably like Jesica. I did think much of it and went to the ATM to get my cash and then on the way back I did a double take. I was almost 98% sure it was her.

As I went back to the table, I huddled the guys in close and explained that I thought she was the 'Supermodel'. One of the 3 finalists, and the one sure way to find out would be to hear her voice. If you are a fan of the show you know exactly what I mean. She has a very distinctive, harsh voice. It sounds almost like a smokers voice. I am not a smoker but have a harsh rasp to my voice, and I almost feel like she sounds like me at times.

Anyway, I told the guys if I could just get close enough to the table and hear her speak a few words I would know immediately. We took our time walk out, and I elongated my exit to walk by her table trying not to be too invasive, and then I heard it. That distinctive heavy voice. If you want to hear her voice I found a link to an episode here. She starts talking at 4:30 into the video if you are patient.

Evening With David Sedaris

On Monday night we had tickets to see readings by David Sedaris. Sedaris is known as a regular contributor to the WBEZ Chicago radio show This American Life. His humor is really fanstastic and his delivery when he reads his essays is unmatched. If you haven't read or listened to any of his work I highly recomend that you do.

Sedaris read a great story unpublished story on Monday, i belive it was titled 'Innocents Abroad'. The essay was themed around that fact that even when you are speaking english abroad local languages or accents slip into you conversations. 'Paris' becomes 'Paireeee' or 'Street' becomes 'Strasse'. It isn't so weird when you are talking to a non-native english speaker, but as soon as you find another American and you start doing this is just becomes a little wierd.

Sedaris had submitted the essay to This American Life but the producers didn't accept it. He talked about it a bit, and said that they were completely wrong, none of the producers had lived abroad and probably would never relate to or understand the essay. I can understand his point, at times when you talking to others that haven't lived over seas, you try explaining something, a quirk in living, and strange tradition that you have to follow, whatever. Some just don't get it. And probably never will unless they decide at some point to live outside their boarders and outside of their comfort zone.

The roars in the club after the reading by Sedaris illustrated the fact that that the essay was right on the mark. Many of us in Switzerland had shared similar experiences to Sedaris who currently resides in France. Although we may never see this yet unpublished work in writing because of the difficulting of the nuances of pronunciation that make it such a great spoken piece I do hope that he will record it at some point for an audio collection.

Am I A Beer Snob?

One of Many Recently Sampled German Beers

So last week to celebrate the US election I bought a round of MGDs for some friends at work. I thought the imported American beer would be a fine way to celebrate the first tangible signal of the passing of the Bush era. Although the celebration in itself was good, the beer was terrible. This leads me to the question.....

Have I become a beer snob?

I remember when I was living the US and I was a genuine Miller man. Miller Light actually. Loved it. Much better than Bud. Yeah, I would really reach out once in a while and have a Michelob, or a Pabst Blue Ribbon if I was really feeling wild but I never understood all those Heineken types.

Why the heck would someone pay a couple of bucks more for that stuff from Europe. Beer is beer.

After moving to Europe I discovered the beer section at some of the big stores in Germany. Aisle upon aisle of half liter bottles in neatly stacked plastic crates. One can roam the halls and pick up a case, or if you so choose a single bottle from any case. And that is how it all began.

I took to the habit of grabbing a bottle here, and a bottle there. Always taking one bottle of something that I knew I liked, and a few others because the bottles looked pretty, or had funny names, or were from a region I had not heard of. This habit lead me on a path to try many different styles of beer over the last two years.

With all that experimentation I have found my preferred bouquet. I prefer beers in the Hefewiezen (Wheat Beer) style. Something like a Schneiderweiss or a Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier.

There is a bit of an art to pouring a good Weiss beer. There is a Spanish woman at a local tapas bar in in Baden that pours quite possibly the best weiss beer this side of the Rhine. It his difficult to explain the process but lets just say she puts every once of her concentration and effort into ensuring that you get the optimal pour if you so desire. When she serves you she asks you if you would liketo pour it, or if you would rather have her pour it for you. Only a fool would pass up the opportunity to have this seasoned veteran who has undoubtedly served hundreds of thousands of beers in her lifetime not pour you the most perfect, tall, cool, glass of weiss beer you have ever tasted. I found a fitting website that illustrates the practice. The best part about the site is it has pictures, and of course, the guy doing the pouring is wearing Lederhosen. (Note to those less informed, the part about rolling the bottle between your hands is key.)

I diverge briefly to speak fo Lederhosen. What a disappointing word once you learn German. I thought it would have some kind of great transaltion, like 'little funny pants that fat old beer drinking men wear on Tuesdays at Octoberfest.' Instead it just translates to 'leather pants' What a let down.

So after my continued sampling of some of those God awful 'European Beers' that I once despised I now begin to understand those guys. The beers here are a hell of a lot better than MGD, Coors, and I hate to say it, Old Style (sorry Mom). Ah, I fear it has happened, I have been transformed into a bit of a beer snob.

Three Days of Sun And The Alps

We have had three days of what I would call sun. That has been a pleasant surprise for this time of year. By now it is usually the case that 'the cloud' has landed and we don't see the blue sky again until about March in our valley.

Not the case this weekend. While it wasn't full sun, there were plenty of breaks in the clouds and some sun light made it through to our town. The clouds were also just high enough so we had a terrific view to the alps from the trail we hike near Baldegg. It is a view we get only a couple of times a year, so when you do see it, it is something worth a short pause for reflection.

Getting up this morning it looks like another great day. I just hope the clear skies hold. At this time of year I need all the sun I can get. The longer we continue the good weather now, the less impact the cabin fever will have in February and March as I really start to get depressed by the grayness of things.

Digital Photo Event In Baden

A few weekends ago I had noticed a sign for a digital photography event coming up at a local conference center in Baden. The conference hall is small, and I couldn't imagine what kind of event it would be but I made a mental note that I wanted to stop by and see it when the day arrived.

Last Saturday the appointed hour came. I almost forgot about it but after a morning run to Waldshut for a little shopping we headed over to the Trafo hall to take in the Digital photography show. It ended up being sponsored by a local school (I believe an art school or something) and the hall had three distinct things going on. A photography exhibit and contest, a senimar area, and a few vendor booths.

When we arrived a swiss outdoor photographer was giving a slide show and talking about taking outdoor pictures of rock climbing. Although the pictures were good, the presentation was a bit hard to follow because it was all in Swiss German. After about 10 minutes of listening and watching slides I just couldn't take it. Without understanding the commentary it was a little boring.

I saw a co-worker there as well. He had stopped in to get hte sensor in his Camera cleaned. Canon had a booth there and was offering free sensor cleaning if you brought your camera in. I probably should have brought mine but I just didn't feel like lugging it around.

Some of the photos in the exhibit were good, others were a bit of a strech to be in a juried show but regardless I like to see such shows because they always give me some new ideas and inspiration.

Das ist horrible gsi

A post about Swiss German today. I was watching Swiss supermodel last night which is nothing less than strange considering there are searching all the valleys of a country 1/3 the size of the state of Illinois to find the countries next supermodel.

The language is great. Most of the girls speak some form of Swiss German, with a few from the Italian region speaking high German because that is what they learned in school. The funny think about Swiss German is the way the English language permeates their vocabulary.

Last night I heard the following

Das ist horrible gsi.

Translating to That was horrible.

Other popular phrases included

• Tip Top - Great
• Mega Schöne - Really Great
• Separate - when paying a lunch bill individually
• Kick-Off - when being removed from Swiss Supermodel
• Photo Shooting - Photo shoot
  

Congratulations to Barack Obama

I was shocked today. I was shocked by the number of e-mails in my inbox from my European colleagues congratulating me on the Barack Obama's victory. Is it possible that one singular event in time could restore the faith of others in the US. Unbelievalbe.

I was walking to work this morning after having heard the election results. Today was the once a year fall market in Baden, vendors come from around the region to sell their wares. Jackets, candles, belts, shirts, hats, candy all the typical flea market fair. One both in particular struck me. We have the same type of booths at the swap-o-rama in US. Vendors that sell mirrors with heavy metal band logos, or American Indian images etched in the middle. If you have ever been to an American flea market you know what I am talk about.

When I passed the both, the vendor had just hung a confederate flag in the back of the trailer and was just setting up two American flags in front of his truck. While the huge 3 foot by 5 foot Confederate flag caught my eye two small American flags, no larger than a piece of 8 x 10 paper struck me. These little, almost unseen flags brought a great sense of pride to me as an American.

It is this sense of pride that I think is being felt across Europe. I recieved congratulatory remarks from Brits, French, and Spainards. E-mails from countries across the region. It was an amazing thing to witness from abroad. The emotion I saw in the eyes, and heard in the heartfelt remarks of others today really made me feel proud to be an American. That is something that I have to admit I haven't felt is some time.

While politics is politics and it is will always be a bit of a show I will be going to bed tonight with only one thing on my mind.

Yes We Can.

Joe The Computer Guy

I want to thank Joe The Computer Guy. I'm not sure how Joe will be affected by the outcome of today's historic American election but I can tell you that Joe The Computer Guy is making my live, minute-by-minute US election tracking possible.

Thanks to Joe The Computer Guy I've got my slingbox running full gear watching US cable TV to keep track of the election.

The way I look at it the polls on the west coast will close about 8:00 am on 5 November Central European time. That means I don't expect to get the final results until after lunch tomorrow. Maybe the if we are lucky the projections will be clear earlier but I am still not not convinced.

Lets wait and see what happens. How exciting.

Thanks Joe.

As my friends know. I have a think for bikes. I've got three. One for road biking, one for mountain biking, and one for commuting to work. That may seem excessive but because I don't have a car and the network of bike paths in Switzerland is so great I feel I can justify it.

I was out a few weekends back and spotted this guy on a classic bike. I believe these were built in the late 1800's. I'd love to try one out some day if I ever get the chance.

Halloween Pumpkins

Halloween Pumpkins

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because I get to carve a pumpkin. I absolutely love carving pumpkins. Looking at it from abroad it must seem like a strange and bizarre American pop culture thing to do. Pumpkins here are used primarily for making soup this time of year. The pumpkins used for cooking are much different than the traditional large orange pumpkins Americans are familiar with. European pumpkins are generally shorter, greener, or even slightly brown, squash like really. But the soup from these ugly little things in always goods.

I usually spend way to much time selecting a design for my pumpkin. I get out a pad of paper, and sketch a few ideas, pick one I like, refine it a few times and then start carving. Usually by the time I am done with my sketch my wife is already done carving her pumpkin. This year was of course no exception.

I tried something a little different this year and actually carved my pumpkin on it side. Usually the orange pumpkins we know of for carving lay in the garden on their sides. So I decided to exploit the flat side as a base and carved a skull this time around. I think it turned about pretty good.

First Snow Of The Season

We had the first snow of the year last night. When I woke up this morning everything was covered. I started yesterday afternoon here in Baden and continues to snow this morning. This is the earliest I have seen snow in this region of Switzerland.

Taking Traffic Direction To A Whole New Level

Street Cadet in Action in Bremgarten

I have never seen a culture embrace traffic control the way the Swiss do. I have realized that one of the reasons for the cultural obsession seems to be a program to develop talent from a very young age. They seem to pick out their high performers and really coach them to future success.

One excellent success story is the traffic control man that I see when leaving my office each day. He seems to be in his 50s. He stands duty at a busy intersection just outside my office to assist people in crossing the busy streets. Such positions are not staffed by local police units like in the US, but rather seem to be 'outsourced' to the streets department.

The pride, and grossly over animated gestures of these patrons of the pavement pale in comparison to their counterparts in the US. I'm am thinking of my experiences when I used to commute to work in Chicago and there was a CPD (Chicago police department) officer on each corner. Not so much directing traffic but rather standing on an island in the middle of the street, sometimes blowing a whistle and mostly cussing at taxis and bike messengers.

So, While in a city of 8 million like Chicago a traffic cop might make sense, and Swiss 'traffic cop' in a town of 16,000 directing a few white collar workers crossing a street to get the bus station seems like a bit of an overkill to me as an American.

Regardless, there is a job to be done, unemployment here is low, and our local traffic control staff take their job very seriously. Even if they do appear at times to be dressed like over zealous school crossing guards.

The 25 Hour Day

The 25 Hour Gas Station

Thank God we had an extra hour to sleep last night. I needed it after a late night last night at the Kunsthaus (Art Museum) in Zurich. Last night we went to event at the Art Museum that a friend was DJ-ing at. It was an evening event call the night of illumination and had a couple of special activities for the occasion.

While I think the idea of keeping the Museum open for an evening is a good idea I thought the special events were a bit lame. In one area of the museum they turned off the main lighting and you went through the exhibits with flashlights. As a guest you literally had to point your flashlight at the painting to see what it was. It was cool for about the first 60 seconds, and after the feeling of snooping around the museum like a thief wore off it just got old.

The event lasted until midnight and we just missed the 12:06 train from mainstation so we had to wait around for another hour to catch the next train at 1:06 AM. I didn't get home and in to bed until about 1:45 so it was a late night that made Sunday even tougher.

The good thing about Sunday was that we did get an extra hour for sleep since we set the clocks back. The funny thing was during the day on Sunday we took a trip to Bremgarten for a festival and we walked past a gas station with a type-o on the sign proclaming it was open 25 hours a day (25 h). This was the only day of the year when that could even be remotely considered true so I just had to take a quick snapshot.

Schloss Hallwyl

Schloss Hallwyl

Swiss culture dictates that things must be celebrated with a fest. One needs not have a monumental reason to celebrate something. As long as you have a piece a paper and a pen, it seems you can draw up a little sign plaster it somewhere and people will come to celebrate something with you.

A few weeks back there were a series of chestnut and apple festivals. We had wanted to attend one of the chestnut festivals but most of them were in the Italian region of the country and were a little far for a day trip. Instead we opted for an apple festival at Schloss Hallwyl about an hour by train from Baden.

The festival was small, about 10 to 15 booths selling various organic produce and apple products. There was also a small outdoor cafe setup. Picnic benches if you will with several people serving various grilled items, baked goods, and one of my favorites, Aplener Macaroni (Swiss Mountain Macaroni). I found a recipe here, have not tried this one so can't recommend it but you'll at least have an idea of the ingredients. It is usually served with a side of apple sauce.

The Hallwyl Castle (Schloss) was one of the best preserved castles I have seen in Switzerland. It was really something to see and included the story book moat, and drawbridge. There is a small fee to enter the castle, 12 Francs for adults, itself but I believe you can wander through the courtyard for free. For the kids with your admission the kids can wear a knight costume.

We didn't have time to enter the castle itself but just wandered through the courtyard admiring the vendors.

About a 10 minute hike from the castle is a beatiful lake with trails around the preimeter. We spent an additonal 45 minutes walking along the lake as well. It was really a great place to spend an afternoon and take in the sights. I would highly recommend it for a weekend day trip.

Hiking Along the Aare River

Bench along the Aare River

The leaves are absolutely spectacular this time of year in Switzerland. It is one of my favorite times of the year. I have been surprised by the weather lately. The clear blue skies on the weekends have been a pleasant blessing. I expect the winter 'cloud' that last from end of October to March to move in any day now and linger over the city for the next couple of months.

But until then it is time to enjoy the outdoors while we can. We took the train one stop to a small town called Brugg and walked from Brugg to Schinznach Bad. The hike took about an hour and a half and was a pleasant, flat trail through the woods. The trail and surrounding scenery reminded me a lot of the landscape in the forest preserves in the area where I grew up around Chicago.

There weren't too many people along the trail which was a surprise given that the weather was so great to be outdoors.

In Schinznach Bad, I looked for a couple resturants recommended by a co-worker. I found the Resturant Zum Bahnhof but I couldn't seem to find White Diamonds. Guess I'll have to check for that one next time I am there.

Eating Lunch at the Company Cafeteria

I had lunch at the company cafeteria today which reminded me of a movie from 1959 titled Lunchroom Manners. I had first heard the sound track to the move as part of a sound bite in a song by a group called Mr. Bungle. Here is the orginal movie.

The Gardner Visits

Our gardener visited this weekend to tend to our terrace. It was time for a final cleaning before the winter sets in. At least that is they way I'd like to think of it.

This past week our neighbor was cleaning her terrace. Both of our terraces share what appears to be a common gutter if you will. The gutter collects rain from both balconies and directs it to two downspouts. Of course both downspouts are on our side of the terrace.

This gutter is very similar to a house gutter except for the fact that there is a heavy metal grate over the top. And just like a gutter on a house it gets clogged with leaves. So while our neighbor was cleaning her balcony this past week a wad of wet leaves got stuck in our downspout and in her own words it was a catastrophe.

I was not her on Friday when she knocked on our door, informed my wife of the problem, and then showed herself through our apartment to inspect our decidedly atrocious balcony. After she had a closer look she informed my wife that she would be back on Saturday to show us how to clean.

So like clock work on Saturday morning around 10:00 the doorbell rang and there she was, buckets, brooms, saw, shovels, and knee high rubber boots. As I really do like my neighbor, I let her in and changed into some work clothes and we rolled up our sleeves for some work. We both started at separate ends of the balcony meeting somewhere in the middle. Of course I had not cleaned sufficient, so our neighbor had to double check, and reclean everything that I had done.

Knowing I could never quite match the proper degree of Swiss cleanliness I gave up and just stood around holding a broom, looking busy while she continued. That is when I notice her boots. The boots she was wearing looked like Grey trooper boots. On closer inspection I noticed the emblem on the side had a star and over it it said 'California Highway Patrol.' Oh, my God, my neighbor is a Ponch fan!

After two hours of work she was finished and began to pack up. I asked if she was familar with CHiPs but she had no clue what I was talking about. Either that, or my German was a bit off after two hours of heavy use.

So the balcony is clean, no more catastrophes, and we owe are beloved neighbor a raclette dinner as a thank you.

Walk in the Woods Today

This afternoon we took a walk along the river. The leaves are at their peak now and it was a nice warm afternoon. Indian summer at its best. We walked for about an hour or hour and a half to the next town on the train line and then jumped on the train for a short ride back home.

Tomorrow we are going to try to make it to some kind a apple festival that my wife spotted in a local magazine. It should be about an hour train ride. If the weather is as good as today I expect we'll have a nice time.

Not much else to write about today.

US Bailout - At Least My Money Is Safe

I was reading about the some of the items that were included in the recent US bailout legislation. One item that caught my eye was the increase in the FDIC insurance limit. Instead of the previous insured limit of 100,000 USD, now bank accounts are insured up to 250,000 USD. For those not familiar with the system this means that if your bank should fail, and it is FDIC insured, then the FDIC guarantees your deposits up to their limit. Most banks are FDIC insured.

Knowing the spending habits of Americans and the fact that they love credit cards I wonder how many Americans this change will actually effect. I read a recent New York Times article that said only 1% to 2% of Americans have more than 100,000 USD in the bank.

I do have to give the US the upper hand compared to the Swiss banking system on this topic. For all the hype about the Swiss banking system I think it does not live up to the expectation. One good example is the deposit insurance limit. Where the US is now 250,000 USD, the Swiss system only gaurantees 30,000 CHF (26,000 USD).

Grapes Are Ready

Grapes Just Before Picking

This past Sunday we took a 2 hour stroll through the vineyards not far from our apartment. It is getting colder, but the day was sunny so it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. There were a lot of people out, walking the paths, just enjoying the day. The calm afternoon gave me a bit of time to reflect on the past week, and what came to my mind was a lunch I had with a colleague that just moved here from the US.

We had been e-mailing for several months before his move and I was sharing some thoughts and ideas with him to help answer some of his questions and prepare him for the big move. This week, I finally had a chance to meet him for lunch after he had been here for about 2 weeks.

What was so interesting about the lunch was listening to him talk about all the things that frustrated him or annoyed him about the culture. Things like all the rules, the fact that there are no ceiling lights in apartments when you move in, the fact that the housing market is a difficult thing to manage if you don't have connections, that fact that something that used to cost 2 dollars in the US, now costs 6 or 7 dollars because you are in Switzerland.

I heard a little bit of myself in those comments. Some of the same things I blogged about when I first got here. And to some degree it makes sense. Another American, with the same cultural background, complaining about the same things. And the cycle repeats.

Those same things, that used to drive me nuts now don't bother me. I have just become accustomed to them. At one point, I almost wanted to stop my colleague to tell him he shouldn't complain, that is how it is. But I thought to myself, no, that is part of the adjustment. Talking about and learning to accept the differences. That is the key to adapting to the culture and it just takes a bit of time.

Returning Home (To Baden)

The last week I have been traveling on business. It was a bit of a long trip considering I am not a fan of business travel. The trip was prolonged by the fact that I decided to take advantage of a 4 day event in Paris and stay for a weekend. My wife had decided to join me in Paris Friday evening.

The weekend in Paris was beautiful, the weather was unbelievable for this time of year. Sunny and in the 70's (lower 20's for those on Celsius). Just a really great weekend to find a plaza, some grass to sit on, and hang out people watching.

This trip I feel like the dog poop issue was really under control. I remember a few times walking down the street when my mind was wandering and all of a sudden realizing I better snap back to attention and turn on my poop radar, but miraculously I didn't have a problem. I wonder if the city has been on a campaign to clean things up. With the poop issue apparently resolved
my only grip about Paris is that wherever you go it seems to smell like urine.

But after all that 6 nights away from home is a long time. Hotel rooms, business dinners, late nights working on presentations for the next day, it takes its toll. On the way home on the high speed train (TGV) some women got on at Strasbourg and began speaking to be in German asking about the seats. I didn't panic, I understood what they asked, and replied correctly. It was a strange experience. The reason being after a week of being surrounded by French, I was actually pleased, and somewhat relaxed to hear German. I never thought German could be so calming to the soul.

And for one of the first times, when I got off the train returning to Baden I had a sense of arriving home. Surely, not the same sense of the word when you arrive at your childhood home, but it was one of the first times I felt relaxed to arrive in Baden.

I was looking forward to jumping into my own bed, making my own dinner from that should surely include some form of Cheese, Pork, and potatoes, and getting back into the routine.

Sking in the Alps, Zurich Airport, Apenzeller Villages All At Swissminiatur

Waiting for a Train At the Swissminiatur Museum

When we were in Ticino last weekend we made a stop at the Swissminiatur museum. Swissminiatur is an outside exhibit of small models of the most famous buildings in Switzerland built at a 1:25 scale. The park also includes over 3500 meters (2.1 miles) of model railroad track.

I had not known quite what to expect when my wife announced she wanted to visit the park. I told a Swiss co-worker from work before we left that we were going to visit and he explained that a visit to Swissminiatur was a right of passage for Swiss children. It is a popular school field trip destination for those in the region.


With that in mind I was expecting something that was aimed towards children. In that sense the park was targeted towards a younger audience with train rides, bumperboats, and a few other activites for children. However, the models did manage to capture my attention and were interesting to see first hand.

As a photographer the park was a great opportunity to practice my skills. Depending on the angles and distances from the models I was able to get some facinating images that in some cases look almost as good as the real thing.

Exhibits featured boats cruising on miniature lakes, working trains that stopped at varios stations throughout the park and even several functioning model cable cars. There was even a model of a popular highway rest stop overpass in our region of Switzerland with a working 4 lane highway of cars passing underneath.

The park was opened in 1959 and the care takers are in a constant cycle of reparing and updating their models. Despite the revitalization efforts some models are clearly in better shape than others. We spent about an hour and a half wondering the grounds and getting lunch.

If you are in the area I would consider it worth a visit. It is good fun for both kids and adults and you'll go home with some great snap shots as well.

HDRI with Picturenaut

Zürich at Night

A friend introduced me to a freeware application used for creating HDR images. HRD High Dynamic Range images are a neat way to enable a photographer to combine a series of pictures to expose more details in the shadows while also brining back highlights that are often blown out in overexposed areas.

The premise is that you shoot multiple images at different exposures and then use a software tool to reassemble the series. Above is my first example uisng the picturenaut software. I found a short tutorial on youtube that gives you a 5 minute intro to develop an image.



The software lets you quickly select a series of images and with a few clicks puts them together. To make this work well, you must shoot the original images using a tripod.

Just to demonstrate how the concept works its wonders I am also posting the three images that I used to create the HDR image. The images were taken with the -2 EV, 0EV and +2 EV exposure settings.

The final outcome is amazing. Seeing as this is only my first attempt I can't wait to see what happens if I actually experiment a bit with the tool. Looks like I have a new photo toy to keep me busy for a while.

Night of Photography in Zürich

Downtown Zürich at Night

Last night I went with a friend down to Zürich for a photography outing. We where there before the sun went down, took some pictures, had dinner, and then headed out into the evening darkness to see what other low light images we could capture.

The one above was one of my favorites from first glance. I still need to go through all of the images in more detail. That might be a task for this weekend. My friend was also telling me of how he works with HDR. This is a method of combining 3 images, a underexposure, and neutral exposure, and an overexposure. The concept is that by combining these three images you can achieve greater tonal range in your photograph.

He explained how I need to bracket a few shots, and he would send me a link to the software that I can use to experiment. I have a feeling I'll be playing with the rest of the photos this weekend.

Where is the Compassion in Swiss Culture

I am continually reminded in daily life in Switzerland that the Swiss do not have the same sense of compassion, courtesy or respect for other people. There words and actions sometimes strike me as being self-centered and egotistical. Everything seems to be done for the benefit for oneself without a consideration for the greater good.

Go ahead, smoke, and blow it right in my face, please, I beg of you.

That would be fine, just run your shopping carts, and bikes into me and don't bother saying excuse me.

And yes, every seat in this train car is clearly reserved for you even thought there are 20 people standing in the aisle and your friends aren't getting on for another 4 stops.

I had an experience this past weekend where a gentlemen was being what I would consider so absolutely rude that I confronted him in German. I told him he was being discourteous. He acted like he did nothing wrong and I passed him and went on my way to find another seat in the train. My comment must have gotten the better of him because after a minute or two he changed his behavior.

So one small victory in building a bit of compassion and respect in Switzerland.

Ticino, Italy Swissified

Gandria, Switzerland

During our recent family tour we spent some time in canton Ticino. The small canton is right on the Italian boarder. Italian is the local language and the architecture, food, and tempo of life seem to be greatly influenced by the Italians.

However, there are a few things in Ticino that you will not find in Italy. Clean streets and timely and efficient transportation to name a couple. Having visited Italy and then Ticino I found myself thinking that Ticino had all the same pleasures as norther Italy (Como, Belagio, Milan) without the problems associated with those cities.

I wonder what it would be like to live in Ticino for a longer period of time. From a culural perspective it would interest me to find if there the people had more in common with the German speaking regions of Switzerland or their close Italian neighbors. If they do inherit some traits of there Germanic Swiss counterparts what other characterisitcs other than cleanliness have they adopted. Don't know that answer to that question, but it would be interesting to find out.