Zurich - Our second day in Switzerland (1 July 2006)

Since 1st of July is a public holiday, we decided to take a train up to Zurich. The first thing that struck me when I arrived at the station was the "big fat woman" was still hanging down the ceiling. Apparently it is a famous art work of someone and from my reading somewhere symbolises some god that protects passengers. A very very similar one (or could be exact) can also be found in Luxembourg. And the "fat woman god" is there until today.


Secondly, do you see how much it costs to take a shower in the public toilet at the train station (above)?? CHF 12! which in the currency I'm more used to is equivalent to Malaysian Ringgit 36 which ... can get one 6 big lunches! To pee it only costs you one sixth of that.

But the good news is, to change baby it's free of charge (FOC) and obviously no one will stop you from peeing in the changing room toilet :). If you don't have a baby the only FOC option available is in the train :)

Baden - Our first day in Switzerland (30 June 2006)

It is 1 July 2006, our first day in Switzerland as a family. 9 years ago we were in this country hopping on and off the Eurobus from London visiting European cities on tight student budget. It was a mixed feeling for me personally. It was a big step in my career and a big step as a family. In a way it happened at the right moment; Lana, our daughter is only 6 months old and at this age this change would be easiest to handle. She was good on flight and the moment we arrived she looked as happy as ever.

Baden is a small city about 27 km from Zurich, in canton Aargau, in the German region of Switzerland. The city was built pretty much through the establishment of a company called ABC what is today known as ABB and Alstom (previously only ABB until Alstom bought part of it). Until today, one can easily tell that ABB and Alstom continue to play an important role in the social and economical aspect of the township.

The photo above was taken on the first day of our arrival from a bridge a short distance from our temporary apartment Residence Am Wasser, that is part of the Limmathof Hotel. It is in this hotel where you find the famous Novum Spa with Baden hot spring.