Wednesday, we went to Baden to meet Josh for dinner. We got there early, so we decided to wander around town for a bit. We heard that there was a small staircase that led to castle ruins. We were intrigued. We found the staircase, but it turned to be one of those never-ending staircases, and this was one of the most humid days we'd experienced yet. So, the kids were all too happy to stop and pose for this picture.
However, once we reached the top, we were rewarded for our exertions with a fabulous view of Baden and the castle ruins.
Most importantly for Russell, this high point gave him an excellent view of the Baden train station.
We had dinner with Josh shortly thereafter. (I think I paid the most I ever have for a salad with a chicken breast on top.) After dinner, the kids were still game to go exploring and find the thermal baths that give Baden its name. On the way, Maya snapped a picture of Russell and me on a bridge over the Limmat - the same river that we live next to in Zurich flows to Baden.
After a few wrong turns, we found the baths! One thing people should know about Switzerland is that there are public fountains everywhere with cool, clean water running from them. Near the thermal baths, we found one that had warm water. Here's the fountain with Russell and Maya's reaction to the sulfur aroma in the air. Maya noted later, "When the water dries on your hand, your hand doesn't smell like eggs!" Where does the smell go? (Maybe someone can address this in the blog comment section.)
More notes on shopping in Switzerland: We now visit the large Migros grocery store at Limmatplatz on an almost daily basis. The nice cashiers there give the kids tokens for a large gumball machine that dispenses marbles instead of gumballs. Even though my kids had shown no prior affection for marbles, getting these tokens has become a highlight of our shopping trips. The marbles get lost in the apartment as soon as we get home.
I forgot to bring my grocery bags with me on Thursday's shopping trip, so I had to load everything into my backpack. This is what it looks like when I have salad fixings, bananas, plums, 1 liter of milk, and 3 liters of ice cream in my bag. Note my use of the handrail.
I have learned many things about myself on this trip. Most notably, I really like ice cream, I can actually stand a little bit of humidity, and I can keep the kids movitated on big hikes and urban explorations. Another thing I have come to realize is that I really can't cook. Not from scratch, anyway. Granted, I don't have my usual recipe books here, but when I think about what to cook for dinner, it's hard for me to come up with something that doesn't involve a sauce or meat from Trader Joe's or something that is hard to get here (we had burritos once, couldn't find the right beans, and the tortillas here were awful). One thing that I can kinda cook from scratch is Chicken Adobo, a Filipino dish that the kids love. If I can find Filipino soy sauce, I can make the Adobo sauce myself. So, imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when I saw the following storefront out of the tram window, by the Limmatplatz Migros.
Golden Asian Store
Philippine Specialties
We had Chicken Adobo later that week.
2 comments:
We WISH we could help you out with the "where does the egg smell go?" question.... and we've pondered it over our Sunday morning decaf, but really can't figure it out either! We hope someone with more scientific inclinations than we have writes to the blog, so that we can learn too! :)
Congrats, Maya, on tooth #4!
Lots of love,
Adina and Dan
Sylvia, please post the recipe for Chicken Adobo! Sounds good. Congratulations on the lost tooth, Maya. Russell, please take notes on the transportation systems in Europe and design some good ones here for us in the U.S. Good to see that Josh is using his R&R time well. -- the other Adina
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