“The early bird gets the worm” is a proverb that must be dear to the heart of any good Swiss person. Zurich is a city full of morning people, and on that point, I am definitely a fish out of water with no chance of getting the worm, especially not if I continue mixing my metaphors. In any case, I was always one of those people who worked best late at night - I wrote my senior thesis in sundown-to-sunrise spurts, and much of my Bar exam prep was done without the help of sunlight.
Imagine my chagrin, then, upon discovering that it is perfectly routine to schedule deliveries and appointments as early as 7 a.m. here, and upon learning that my office’s start time of 9 a.m., which would have been early for a New York firm, is considered unusually late for Switzerland. Try to sleep in past 7 on a weekday, and lie in bed, silently (or not so silently) cursing the church bells and construction workers who take over the city, right on time, every day. Make an early morning appointment with a plumber or electrician, and he’ll come five minutes early. Take the tram before 8:30 a.m., and it’s packed.
Even on weekends, the Swiss are morning people. The church bells let you sleep in until 9 (mind you, they still chime every quarter hour, and tick off the appropriate number of BONGs every hour, I’m just counting when the first fifteen-minute-long run of bells goes off), which in my book doesn’t count as sleeping in, at all (then again, I spent much of the year between college and law school waking up just in time for dinner). Shops close particularly early on Saturday, and are closed all day Sunday, so the best bet for shopping is to flock to the stores early and en masse, which the Swiss do with great gusto. Shopping on weekends here is like taking a leisurely stroll through a cattle stampede. I’ve only witnessed it a few times, since I sleep in on Saturday to remind myself that weekends and weekdays are different.
You would think that vacation is a time to kick back and relax, but even in leisure-related matters, the Swiss are always on the lookout for ways to be early. Most flights (even international flights) out of Switzerland allow you to check in up to 24 hours in advance, which you can do online or by telephone if you’re not checking any bags, or at a train station (yes, you can check-in for your flight at the train station, and they’ll deliver your bags to the airport, and then the airline puts them on the plane) or airport if you want to check bags. It’s handy when you have big bags full of dive gear, and have to go straight to the airport from work to catch your flight and don’t want to be running to catch your train with 80 pounds of dive gear. In such cases, it’s worth the extra trip.
If you go for early check-in, though, which is done at certain counters at certain times, you can expect a much longer wait than if you check-in right before your flight. Only in Switzerland would they allow you to check in so far in advance, and only in Switzerland is the super-early check-in line twenty times longer than the normal check-in line. For weekend trips, I show up at the airport about 45 minutes before my flight, and am always surprised if there is anyone in front of me waiting to check-in. I guess it’s because everyone already checked in the night before at early check-in.
After a couple weeks of disturbingly warm weather (daytime highs over 50 F or 10 C, maybe Swiss spring decided to make an early entrance), we’ve had a sudden cold snap following the big storm that swept Europe. All of the trees and flowers that budded and bloomed must be completely confused by the snow that has been falling since last night. I’m definitely confused, so I’m going to take refuge in the warmer temperatures and winter sales in Milan this weekend.
Imagine my chagrin, then, upon discovering that it is perfectly routine to schedule deliveries and appointments as early as 7 a.m. here, and upon learning that my office’s start time of 9 a.m., which would have been early for a New York firm, is considered unusually late for Switzerland. Try to sleep in past 7 on a weekday, and lie in bed, silently (or not so silently) cursing the church bells and construction workers who take over the city, right on time, every day. Make an early morning appointment with a plumber or electrician, and he’ll come five minutes early. Take the tram before 8:30 a.m., and it’s packed.
Even on weekends, the Swiss are morning people. The church bells let you sleep in until 9 (mind you, they still chime every quarter hour, and tick off the appropriate number of BONGs every hour, I’m just counting when the first fifteen-minute-long run of bells goes off), which in my book doesn’t count as sleeping in, at all (then again, I spent much of the year between college and law school waking up just in time for dinner). Shops close particularly early on Saturday, and are closed all day Sunday, so the best bet for shopping is to flock to the stores early and en masse, which the Swiss do with great gusto. Shopping on weekends here is like taking a leisurely stroll through a cattle stampede. I’ve only witnessed it a few times, since I sleep in on Saturday to remind myself that weekends and weekdays are different.
You would think that vacation is a time to kick back and relax, but even in leisure-related matters, the Swiss are always on the lookout for ways to be early. Most flights (even international flights) out of Switzerland allow you to check in up to 24 hours in advance, which you can do online or by telephone if you’re not checking any bags, or at a train station (yes, you can check-in for your flight at the train station, and they’ll deliver your bags to the airport, and then the airline puts them on the plane) or airport if you want to check bags. It’s handy when you have big bags full of dive gear, and have to go straight to the airport from work to catch your flight and don’t want to be running to catch your train with 80 pounds of dive gear. In such cases, it’s worth the extra trip.
If you go for early check-in, though, which is done at certain counters at certain times, you can expect a much longer wait than if you check-in right before your flight. Only in Switzerland would they allow you to check in so far in advance, and only in Switzerland is the super-early check-in line twenty times longer than the normal check-in line. For weekend trips, I show up at the airport about 45 minutes before my flight, and am always surprised if there is anyone in front of me waiting to check-in. I guess it’s because everyone already checked in the night before at early check-in.
After a couple weeks of disturbingly warm weather (daytime highs over 50 F or 10 C, maybe Swiss spring decided to make an early entrance), we’ve had a sudden cold snap following the big storm that swept Europe. All of the trees and flowers that budded and bloomed must be completely confused by the snow that has been falling since last night. I’m definitely confused, so I’m going to take refuge in the warmer temperatures and winter sales in Milan this weekend.
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