Passport renewal

Today it was off to the US Consulate in Zürich. It was time to renew my passport. The directions on the website are good and made it via train and tram in under an hour. Once I got there with all my paperwork, I was informed that the one person who does this was sick. Well, fortunately you can do everything but pay. So I had to pay my 97 francs via the postoffice bank. It takes about 3 weeks to process everything.

It took me a while to understand all of the application processes. Their are two possible forms DS-82 and DS-11. If it is your first time then you must do the DS-11. If not then you can use the DS-82 and do everything by mail. But that means you are without a passport while you wait. No travel, arggh! The website is a bit ambiguous about which form to use if you are overseas and don't want to do it by mail but in person. Well, the answer is you still use the DS-82 form but have to present yourself again at the Consulate to get the new passport when it is ready. This is so they can cancel the old one.


Here is the contact info:
Dufourstrasse 101
3rd floor, Zurich, Switzerland
Mailing Address: Dufourstrasse 101
CH-8008 Zurich, Switzerland
Direction: Take the Number 4 Tram in the direction of Tiefenbrunnen to the stop Feldeggstrasse".
Tel: 043 499 29 60
Fax: 043 499 29 61
10:00 until 13:00, Monday through Friday.
E-mail: Zurich-CA@state.gov closed on American and Swiss holidays

Verkehrshaus Luzern / Transportation Museum

We went to the museum on Saturday. The city of Lucern is about 20 minutes from our house. They have a great museum that has to do with anything that moves, ships, planes, cars and trains. The kids just loved it. There was plenty to touch and press.

Samuel and Marlene just loved the exhibits and we had a great day inside in spite of the retched weather outside. We even got to board an old Coronado which is on permanent display. Take a look at the pictures of Marlene in the 1st class cabin. She just loved pretending that we were flying to see Grandma. Well, now it is Beate's turn

Also jetzt bin ich, Beate dran...am Samstag beschlossen wir zum Verkehrshaus Luzern (ca.20min von unserm Wohnort) zu fahren. Das ist ein Museum ueber saemtliche Fortbewegungsmittel Eisenbahnen, Autos, Flugzeuge, Seilbahnen, Schiffe,....früher und heute. Viele Knöpfe, Schalter wurden nicht nur von unseren Kindern mit Leidenschaft gedrückt.

Ein Flugzeug (hier eine ausrangierte Convair Coronado) von innen zu betrachten und so tun als ob man zur Grandma nach Amerika fliegt, machte besonders Marlene Spass.

Noch ein Knueller war einmal so tun als ob man Nachrichtensprecher im Fernseher waere. Das war lustig - leider haben wir da keine Photos oder einen Film.

So ein Ausflug macht sooooooo müde!!!!!!!!

Our day out/Unser Tag in den Alpen

We wanted to share some great photos. Now that Beate has cleared away the last of the boxes we decided to celebrate and see a bit of the country which is our new home. We all piled into the car and rode out. The Alps we must see was the cry and we drove until we were lost in the Alps. Fortunately, Switzerland is a small country and we found to our surprise that we were near the Sattel (http://www.ski-mythen.ch/anzeigetafel.php?Region=1). We went up to the Mostelberg and tried out our sleding skills.

Wir hatten ja sooooooooo viel Spass im Schnee. Heute mittag haben wir uns auf den Weg gemacht, um die Schweizer Berge und vor allem den Schnee zu erkunden. Eigentlich wollten wir auf en Zugerberg - aber wir sind dann im Kanton Schwyz gelandet. Dort gibt es Berge ueber Berge. Es dauerte auch nicht lange, da sahen wir Leute mit dem Schlitten den Berg hinuntersausen. Hier nennt man das Schlitteln...Also ab ging es auf den Mostelberg (kennt ja jeder :-) Schnee, Sonne, Schlittenfahren, gutgelaunte Kinder,....was will man mehr. Eigentlich haben nur noch die Skis gefehlt!!!

I hate gloves - Ich mag keine Handschuhe

Lustige Ideen / Crazy Ideas

Hallo Ihr

Jetzt schreibe ich - also Beate auch mal etwas in unseren Blog. Und ich habe selber herausgefunden, wie das geht. Bin ja so stolz!!!!

-Beate has figured out how to blog and she is very excited।

Das sind unsere zwei Mäuse. Beide Kinder haben meine Ofenhandschuhe an. Das musste natürlich gleich festgehalten werden. Was für Ideen doch Kinder haben. So ist es uns und mir fast nie langweilig.

-The kids decided to try the oven gloves on for shoe size। Naturally once Marlene tried Sam had to try as well. There is never a dull moment with kids around.

Wiring funds from Switzerland

Trying to get funds from my swiss bank to a friend in Germany I stumbled across this tool.
http://www.iban-rechner.de/bic_und_iban.html?&L=0

This tells you all the EU info needed to do a Swiss to EU bank international transfer. Now I need to find it for a US bank.

New Year's Day Spaghetti

Our New Year's brunch consisted of large portions of spaghetti which the kids ate with real bravado. Sam decided that the spoon was not sufficient so he added his ten fingers to the task. He finished filled and quite a mess.