Heavy Rain Showers
August 2–6, Zug, Switzerland
Seasonal Memoir Entry #18
If I didn’t know any better, “Zug” means “constant rain” in Swiss German. The Swiss have been incredibly apologetic for the damp weather, for which they’ve had something like months of near-constant rain. Most unusual for a Swiss summer. The Zugersee (the massive lake at the foot of Zug) has even overflowed its banks in some places, making the walking path inaccessible. All this moisture has simply meant that everything is super green and lush, and given that this area is predominantly farmland, the landscape results are sublime. (But I’m sure the farmers are not celebrating the mud.)
I’m slowly acclimatizing to the Swiss Way, for which there is certainly no rule book, and for which you can only learn the hard way (i.e. by making a complete fool of yourself). Here are some examples:
- A driver will gladly stop for you at the crosswalk, without any outward sense of frustration, but you must be in the crosswalk. I suspect that if you deviated outside the yellow streaks, they would run you over, just for the principle of it.
- I went into the local COOP supermarket and filled my basket with groceries, and then a bar of soap from a nearby Body Shop display. When I checked out, the very friendly cashier did all the grocery items, but then pointed me to a different cashier about ten meters away. It was there that I was to purchase my toiletries. Huh? This was all in Swiss German, of course, but I figured it out.
- Cycling is king here, but what’s strange is that to get from point A to B, say from Zug to Arth along the lake, the accepted route includes road with a bike lane, road without a bike lane, and instructions to ride on the combo walking/bike path. Oh, and there are times when you are to cross the street to bike on the sidewalk, but in the opposite direction of traffic. Rarely do these zones last more than 100 meters at a time, so you feel like you’re in some sort of sporting obstacle course.
- Public transportation is done via the honor system (much of Europe operates this way). It’s your responsibility to purchase the appropriate ticket, and in theory, have it ready for inspection if asked (which they never do).
- Things are CLOSED on Sundays. I mean everything. If you don’t plan carefully, you’ll be “shopping” at the train station for supper (the shops at the station, however, are surprisingly good!).
- The quarter step-up in my Airbnb. Apparently, this is a thing (ostensibly done for acoustics?). You won’t notice the slight rise in the floor as you go from bedroom to kitchen until you smash your toes into it in the middle of the night. And then you’ll never ever forget that it’s there. Ha.
- Recycling is strange here, and surprisingly lax for a country that has so many other things refined to perfection.
First and foremost, “everything must go in the blue bag”, says the Airbnb host.
“Everything (food, bottles, paper, etc.)?”, I reply.
“Yes. Everything. But in Switzerland, we do like to recycle.”
“OK. Where do I put it all?”
“Well, plastic goes in one place. The glass another, and paper somewhere else.”
“Is there a recycling receptacle for this?”
“Yes, but you have to go find them around town, because they are in different places depending on the village you live in. I’ll send you a map…. (long pause) In fact, why don’t you just leave it piled up by the door, and I’ll do it myself.”
She ended our conversation by saying, “Or, you can just throw it away in the blue bag, which goes in the trash.” What?!? Recycling here seems to be an aspiration rather than an ethic. I would have just shrugged and perhaps thrown everything in the blue bag (for which you are required to put in a certain trash bin — but only blue bags!), but I also heard the Swiss may sometimes go through a trash bag to see if things were done properly, and they will find you to give you a talking to. So, I have a pile of cardboard, glass, and plastic accumulating in my flat. I’ll figure out what to do with it later. Ha.
