A Grateful Thanksgiving

...pretend I posted this on Friday as that's when I wrote it and now I'm a little lazy on Sunday to update the details... :P

Things I am most grateful for this Thanksgiving: Love & Technology. :)

We feel so blessed for the joy each of you brings to our lives and we are lucky that even though we are far away by distance you are incredibly close in our hearts. I love that technology enables us to stay closely connected while we are abroad and especially during family holidays, which I find are the hardest times to be away from the ones you love. I'm beyond grateful for each and every email, adorable eCard, photo like / comment, blog comment and FaceTime / Skype date! We felt so loved this Thanksgiving. Thank you!

Obviously, I dressed the little man up for Thanksgiving as ~80% of my daily entertainment involves dressing up / role playing with my son. :)

Love from our little Butterball

 Other than that, unfortunately, our Thanksgiving was pretty "non-traditional." In Basel, it was the opening night of the Christmas Market! Get excited! This is no ordinary Black Friday affair. While the wifely thing to do would've been to stay home and cook my husband a magnificent Thanksgiving feast upon his return home from work, he agreed to be a great husband and give me a little evening to myself. (I know the fact that it was Thanksgiving wasn't ideal, but we're doing a mini Turkey, aka. Chicken, dinner tonight. :) ) I heard that the opening ceremony of the Christmas Market was not to be missed.

While Matt took on bath time and bed time duties, I headed into the center. Up at Munsterplatz (site of the Ferris Wheel during Herbstmesse), was the opening. When I arrived the music had already started, the shops were lit up (but you couldn't buy anything yet), however, the tree was not lit nor were any of the lights on the trees or anything else. Plus, they had a stand setup with free baked treats plus hot cider or coffee. I grabbed a cookie (or two) and a hot cider and found myself a spot to view the stage and the shops.

Pre-lighting

A little before 7pm the carolers started. Then the President spoke and while we spoke all the lights from the shops went out. And while I didn't understand his German speech, I did understand when the countdown begun!

...drei, zwei, eins....!

I loved the carolers, all the lights and all the adorable little crafts & goodies. I don't know if it was the fact that it was Thanksgiving or the start of Christmas, but while I really enjoyed the ceremony, it also made me miss my family. So I headed back home for some hugs and many more thoughts of all of you.

Happy Thanksgiving! Let the Season of Giving continue! Lots of love.


p.s. WahooWa!!! :P

We're teaching him about disappointment early...

Haus Hunt: Quick Update

I visited my dream home yesterday. ... There are a couple quirks that make it slightly less dreamy...

#1. There are stairs. Even though the listing says "Lift" and there is definitely a lift, there are also 2 sets of stairs before one can get to the lift. I should've known from this photo...

Let me zoom in for you.

 

This is the 1st set to even get into the front door, then the 2nd 4/5 stair set is just inside. Again, no baby, no problem. Unfortunately, our little guy LOVES sleeping in his stroller.
I did a practice run with taking the stroller down these mini flights of stairs. Absolutely doable, slow-going, but doable. However, there's no way he'd sleep through that.

This prompted me to do a quick search for "Portable Stroller Ramps"  I don't think such things exist, however, I did come across these beauties.  For dogs. Thoughts? :)

#2. The listing says "Washer & Dryer Room".  My interpretation was that said room was in the apartment. Au contraire, mon frère. It's in the basement. You can actually stand up in the laundry room, which is an upgrade from our Chatham basement. Yes, accessible by said "lift", however a communal washer / dryer. Ugh. They actually had someone come out to see if they could add in a washer/dryer to the apartment and either their telling the truth & "there's no room" or it's cost prohibitive.

Other than those 2 flaws, I still LOVE this apartment. Love the space. Love the neighborhood (2 blocks from the zoo, right near 2 tram lines, a grocery store across the street that's open on Sundays (a true gem!!!), 2 blocks to one of the big parks...

We applied for the apartment. At what point in this post did you think I'm starting to go crazy? :) Was is the dog ramp?

They still have more showings next week so we need to delay our response to the other listing that we already have been accepted for (the modern angle-y place) and wait to see how this one goes.

I feel like we're getting close. Either way, I'm thinking we should have a place by the end of next week.

Haus Hunt: Part 2

Wow! So much can happen in 3 days in the Basel housing market.

Monday: We went to see #4. It was just lovely! Everything was renovated with great attention to detail, i.e. how they hid the washer / dryer, the entry way lighting, the coutertops / all surfaces. Modern functionality but still maintained that charm I'm looking for with the floors, windows, etc. Not to mention the current tenants have great taste (see cowhide rug. ;) .. plus the blue fridge in the kitchen is completely full of wine. these are our people!)  Unfortunately, the layout wasn't going to work. Where the little guy's bedroom would be was on the main street and it was loud! And there was no room for a guest room... the hunt continues...



Tuesday morning: Went to see #5, the modern building with the funky angles. And it is funky! Why do I keep finding places with the bathroom right up against the kitchen / dining area? We could certainly make it work, but here are the pros & cons.

Pros:
- Enough rooms for our liking (although so many weird angles & wasted space)
- Great outdoor play area behind the building
- Tons of light
- 3 terraces!
- All the modern amenities (washer / dryer, dishwasher, etc. p.s. no places have AC)
- Matt's commute, which also translates to more time home with us.

Cons:
- the Kitchen! Yikes! Again, for such a great idea of a space this kitchen is just plain wacky. Basically, a one-sided galley kitchen. Kitchen in photo is smaller than it appears. I thought I could put a little shelf / counter on the opposite wall / window, but then I dont think I'd actually fit in the kitchen... Let's be honest here, if this were Shanghai or NJ, it wouldn't really be that big of a deal being that we ordered in 90% of our meals. However, here I have made dinner every single night except one. (It's expensive to eat out!) I think I might go insane in this kitchen...
- the Stairs are metal. This may seem like an odd thing, but the conclusion is that, man those stairs are loud!!! Even when we took our shoes off they were loud. For a sleeping baby this doesn't seem like a great situation, but think this was be fixed with a a rug on the stairs? (not sure how we would install?)
- the Neighborhood. It's just removed from most of the best parts of the city. So while it is conveniently located on 2 different tram lines and would be easy to hop into & out of the city center. I'd spend most of my time doing that...
- Top of our price range. (Learning: Matt is totally immune to cost if the place is a 5min walk to the office)

We applied for the place. (That's how the system works here. You pretty much apply for everything you think you'll like and then if the landlord accepts your application, you are the winner! Then you decide if you actually want to draft & accept a lease, at which point actual $$ changes hands.) Normally, it takes a couple days / week for them to review your application, but we already heard back that we got this place! So that's good news.

Tuesday Afternoon: We got another place! I didn't even mention this one before because Matt isn't keen on this because his commute would be 25min on the tram (or 10min on his scooter! which I'm arguing is perfectly acceptable!).

Pros: 
- Great space! Enough rooms + tons of play room for the little man and outdoor areas.
- All the amenities we want
- I like the neighborhood better
- Built-in closets. Sounds silly, but as with most European apts there are no closets so we would need to purchase wardrobes...

Cons:
- Mainly Matt's "lengthy" commute
- Slightly dark? But I think I could freshen that up with decor.
- Only 1.5 bathrooms
- Nothing great to look at, but certainly not a deal breaker
- Top of our price range. Do we really want to pay that much for a place we don't LOVE?

Tuesday Evening: I received an email from Denise titled "This is IT!" ... oh so true, This beauty came on the market! It's exactly what I'm looking for!!! 5 rooms (3 bedrooms), building from 1905 but renovated in 2013, balcony + outdoor shared garden, and in the area I want to live in!! (15min tram / less than 10min scooter commute for Matt. A great compromise!)

The catch... everyone wants this apartment. They have an open house tomorrow afternoon (Denise tried to get us in earlier but no luck). This means we definitely have to put our best foot forward as we might not get it. (There was another apartment that we also didn't get because we weren't willing to sign a 3 year lease with a parking space, because we don't need a parking space and 3 years is a long time!)  This one is already at the top of our budget, so we don't want to put anything else on the table and we could easily be beat by someone who is willing to pay more (i.e. there is an additional room you can rent for another $200 / month. We don't need it but someone else might, which would sweeten the deal for the landlord).

While I have the floor plan, I've hesitated designing my dream home just yet as I don't want to get my hopes up.

In conclusion, wish us luck!! Cross your fingers for us! ... the Haus Hunt saga continues...

Saturday in Rheinfelden

Saturday we took a trip to Rheinfelden (Switzerland), not to be confused with Rheinfelden (Germany). The German town is right across the river, via walking bridge so it wouldn't be too devastating if you got them confused.

Rheinfelden means "fields of the Rhine", and it's only an 11min trip on the train outside of Basel (same train you would take to the Zurich airport).

Our trip to Rheinfelden served 3 purposes:
1. I wanted to test out the train. See how easy it was to buy tickets, check out the station, etc. --> Incredibly easy. Although we may not have purchased the correct tickets, but I think we got that figured out. :)
2. I wanted to test out EZ on the train. Will he like the train? (He loves moving objectives so my theory was yes.) Will the stroller fit on the train? --> He "loved" it? Well, he slept the entire time, so that's the best we can ask for! And there's a handicap car so we "strolled" right on.
3. The weather was lovely and we heard Rheinfelden was just a cute little picturesque town to walk about for the day. --> It was lovely! I swear all these cities are too cute. We walked around the little town & shops for a bit. Then the plan was to play with EZ in the park with a variety of different playgrounds, but again, he slept through the whole trip.

Of course I still took a ton of photos! No family selfies sadly.

And our tour wouldn't be complete without a Flipagram! :P (just makes it so easy to not have to decide between all the photos)

On our way in we noticed this huge castle right before our stop at Rheinfelden. We forgot about it until our return train trip. Of course at that point we googled what it was and turns out it's this Feldschlösschen castle brewery! (of the Carlsberg group)

We could've walked there and continued our little adventure, but now we will just have to go back! :) (Plus, there's a 9 hole golf course at the same location. Just saying)

Also, a future visitor excursion could include a boat trip through the locks on the Rhine from Basel to Rheinfelden.

Haus Hunt

Finding a permanent home in Basel is DIFFICULT! Everyone told me this beforehand but I didn't necessarily believe them. The facts I guess speak for themselves. Vacancy rate is about 1%. To give perspective, a housing marketing is considered full at 5% vacancy and NYC is typically at about 3% vacancy. Awesome.

That being said, I've seen quite a few places in the 3 weeks we are here. Main issues are finding a place with the right space in the right area, that isn't a complete baby death trap. There are some real beauties on the market! Here is just a sampling.

Haus #1: Tiny Top of the Line
This listing isn't available anymore, so I can't find pics, but it was a brand new condo building where the owners were renting it out. Pretty much everything was automated. Automatic blinds, light sensors, auto floor heaters. It was quite nice, but a little small for our purposes. For example, I don't think a king bed would fit in any of the bedrooms.

Haus #2: Charming Baby Death Trap.
This place was a trick I tell ya! Look at that front door. How lovely.

You walk through the beautiful green door and into this even more adorable courtyard! Where we were greeted by the owner, a dear old man who reminded me of great-grandfather. He was so kind and kept talking about how wonderful it would be to have a little one in the apartment again.

He first showed us the cellar as he described that the building is from the 18th century. How endearing! The cellar was more like a castle dungeon that should be in a museum, but somehow had character and since EZ would never be going down there, and we'd just use it for storage, I was unphased.

Then we headed back to the main building which would be our apartment. We climbed up the 3 flights of stairs with EZ in my arms. Manageable, but daily?! The place was certainly charming.

Cute little European kitchen.

Upgraded bathrooms.

But, these stairs?!!!!! These were not stairs. This was more like a precarious baby death trap ladder.

This dangerous equipment leads up to the "2nd floor" aka. Munchkin Attic, where Matt or I would only be able to stand in the very center. Basically, useless space. This picture must be taken from below floor level, because there is no way the ceilings are as high as the appear.

Needless, to say, I don't think this is the place for us.

Haus #3: European City Perfection ... Except ...

When I was walking up to this gem, I was falling in love with every passing step. Here's a little snapshot of the walk up to this old apartment in the city center. 

That's the one!

That door!

There it is!! It's absolutely beautiful from the outside and you walk into the courtyard and it continues to be quite old city perfection. Even stepping inside the incredibly cluttered apartment, I see great potential! The kitchen has most certainly updated as have the bathrooms and while the rooms are stuffed with the current renters belongings, I'm torn between thinking the space is incredibly small and that it must be larger than it seems if this couple can fit so much random stuff in here! We go upstairs and I'm sold. The downstairs living area is certainly small, but I could keep that as a dining area and make this upstairs room into a master bedroom / living room, like a studio apartment. (Can you tell I was falling in love?) 

Current office -> future studio apartment  (see floor plan options below)

When I got home, I received the floor plan with dimensions and I set to work on how I could make this work for us!

Downstairs

Upstairs - "Zimmer 2" is our future master / living room --> studio apartment

Option 1- can't actually open the door...

Option 2- Matt's layout. He tried to convince me this wouldn't feel too cramped...

Needless to say, this wasn't going to work out. It would've been a once in a lifetime, special & unique experience, but alas I think that time has come and gone for the 3 of us. 

Haus #4: I want it!

Admittedly, I haven't been here yet and the # of rooms probably won't work, but that backyard!! And they already have my cow hide rug in the kitchen!

Haus #5: High Potential Modern

Well, after all that in trying to find a place not in the same neighborhood we currently live and looking for somewhere with some old charm... I'm feeling we may end up picking a place based on size. I haven't been here yet, but it's spacious, clean and upgraded. It's a block from our temporary apt and a block closer to Matt's office. That would make for approx. 5 min walking commute. (He's pretty excited)

Now I love a non- traditional floor plan as much as the next person, but these are some wacky angles? Why would you build a new apt like this? But it's so big!!  

Will keep you posted!

Rainy Weekend in Basel

This weekend was forecasted for tons of rain, which is always the worst. I much prefer rain during the week. However, we were still determined to get out & about if for nothing other than to get some rain gear for Avocado.

After watching all the other baby mommies, I quickly learned even with all my preparing, I didn't have the correct Avocado + Stroller + Tram gear. We obviously needed a rain cover & these uber cozy stroller sleeping bags to keep our little man all snuggled when we are out and about.

Stroller Rain Cover: (I know it looks like we're suffocating him, but there are big air panels)


Stroller Sleeping Bag: (future pics of our little man once we get it all installed :P )


Once we had our gear to keep Avocado prepped for the day, we were just roaming about and came across the "Basel Head." Stealing inspiration from the "Head of the Charles" (Boston) and "Head of River" (London), the Basel Head earned its name. The races are 85 boats of 8 and the winner is all based on time. The pics are of the boats entering a staggered start so that each race one at a time (simultaneously, does that even make sense?). The race is 6,4k, aka. LONG. Most interesting part to me, was that the course has a turn involved! I've never raced with a turn in an 8, but thought that's pretty impressive to speed turn.

Here's the little website

Anyways, of course I created a flipgram! :P

Basel Head Flipagram

I just always love that there's something going on in this city!

An Afternoon in France

Last weekend we went to France! Honestly, it sounds more glamorous than it turned out to be, but still fun to say.

As I mentioned, Basel is located in the border of France & Germany, therefore it only made sense to go check out the towns. Our visit trip we visited the closest city of St Louis, France. 

We took the tram from our place 2 stops north, then we literally walked across the border and passed through this intense checkpoint... It was unmanned. Even though Switzerland is not a part of the EU they have an open border policy with both France & Germany. To be fair we did see some random checks on our way back out. 

We just went to check out the little town as we were told they were a bunch of cafes and delicatessens, turns out there was just one of each, but still delicious! Here's a little video snapshot of our walk. Not super fancy and not sure if we will back, (although that raspberry tart was tasty!), but happy we went. 

EZ is becoming quite the globe-trotter. :)

"Original" Herbstmesse: Petersplatz

I know I just posted about the Herbstmesse and its wonderful spirit, tradition, history, etc... However, after I wrote that, I learned I hadn't even been to the original spot! We finally made plans to head to Petersplatz, where it all began.

Here the festival was truly more magical. Set under the trees, this part of the festival is significantly less kitschy (don't get me wrong, I LOVE the carnival spirit), and feels somehow cozier. This area is lined up with stalls selling all sorts of different crafts (potentially handmade), food items (all the cheese you can eat!) with all the rides for younger in the center of it all. The focal point is the double decker Carousel in the middle. I thought we would be able to take EZ on and hold him on our laps, but apparently we are are bad parents? He's definitely too little. Too be fair I didn't quite realize how fast a carousel spins! It seems so harmless. :)

A staple of the Petersplatz site is the pottery market. Incredibly beautiful pieces, but like all Swiss items, too expensive for my blood.

Obviously, one of my favorite parts of the Petersplatz were all the cheese treats!!!

My 1st traditional Raclette (basically, melted cheese scraped off a huge block of cheese, served with potatoes and a little Paprika)

We also had some brats & these tasty fritters with applesauce (Dad, you would love the use of applesauce here. :) )

We also met up with friends, Maraika & Sebastian. (Maraika used to live in Shanghai we met through mutual friends.) Wonderful having a welcoming, familiar face here! Most importantly they introduce us to the "Chasbangel". A roll of bread with the middle carved out and filled with spiced, ooey gooey melted cheese ... I mean seriously people, this city was MADE for me!

This was a special treat. There were even instructions on how to eat it. Those went something like this 1. Get in line, 2. Order & Pay for your Chasbangel and white wine, 3. Hold the bread at a 35degree angle, 4. Take careful bites from the top only, 5. Watch out for the cheese... (I didn't listen to this appropriately as I got delicious cheese all over my purse... well worth it!)... 6. Come back & bring a friend with you!  [adapted from what I was told as I can't read Suisse-Deutsch]

Petersplatz is also the beginning of my obsession with European wooden toys...