After doing Zermatt and the Glacier Express and stopping in Chur on our way back from St. Moritz, I thought we might just need a bit of a rest day in between all of that Swiss highlight action. And I was right. Considering that my family loves to take photos, I decided that we would sleep in but try to make the Burkliplatz market for a bit of photography inspiration as well as to pick up some yummy Swiss cheese and other nibbles to try later in the evening.

I love the Burkliplatz market because it is like a dependable friend. It is without fail always open on Tuesdays and Fridays, always comes ready to please with stalls and stalls of vendors, and you never leave disappointed... unless of course you buy too much! And everything is always so beautifully displayed - don't believe me? Check out this slideshow!



After a stroll through the market, we wandered around my favorite parts of Zürich, then had lunch at one of my new favorites on a sunny day, the Restaurant Bauschänzli, right on the Limmat near the market. Read my write up on this biergarten on Spottedbylocal - Zürich!

Then we went home and chilled, to prepare for the next day's adventure - Stein am Rhein!

Ps. If this post looks familiar, that is because I did a similar one in May last year. Can you blame me though? The market is incredible!

• Bürkliplatz Market - May 2008

---
Tweet-tweet. I am now on Twitter. Follow me!

So instead of taking photos of all the Latin music tents and food stands (and holy bejezus was there some great food on offer - I'm talking barbecue, steak sandwiches, Thai food, Mexican and all kinds of international fare the likes of which Zurich has never seen - um... can you say tamales? Yeah, it was that good...), I have about a dozen pictures of me taking photos of... myself...

2) it was Caliente. You have to drink mojitos so it was my civic duty. Yes, MY DUTY. So much so that I think below Andrea was telling Christian that I needed another mojito. She is a good friend. She understands the law of the land when it comes to Caliente. ;)

The day was awesome (but expensive... then again, what is not when it comes to special events in Switzerland?!) and pretty low key, which was great, as around 10 pm it was as though everyone in Zurich came out to lambada all over me and you inched from bar to bar and could barely breathe. They need to do a better job of spacing the events out next time - so if you have kids, I say go in the afternoon for the food (can you say ribs?! and perhaps 1 mojito... it's ok, I won't tell..) and get out before the crowds come into town and just after you get a bit of salsa in ya - that's dance I mean, not dip, but you can do both, I said I won't tell.

Did anyone else go and get to experience more than a bit of lime, mint, rum, and summer loving?

---
Join the Swisstory Fan page on Facebook!

I got my tickets... did you?! Buy now before they are sold out and watch a movie under the stars with the Zürisee as the stunning background. I missed this last year and was not about to miss it again. Good luck and perhaps I will see you there!

• OrangeCinema Film program
• Buy tickets

---
Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

Psst. Hey... hey you.

Yes, I am talking to you. Come on over here. Yesss, over here behind the Bahnhof in Zurich. I won't hurt you. It is ok. I just have something I want to show you. Just take my hand, I promise you will like it.

(Walking along the river, behind the Bahnhof, snickering and ducking behind trees...dragging you the whole way...)


(Ducking behind a sign post...)

You see that building over there... yeah the one next to the Landesmuseum? That is THE place to get DIM SUM in Zürich. I am telling you because I know because I heard about it on the Zürich Spotted by Locals site from my fellow Spotter Roman.


Jace and I went there about two weeks ago now, and all that Jace could say while scoffing down his huge portion of dim sum was, 'Why didn't you tell me about this earlier? Why did you try and keep this from me?' Yeah, it is that good that I am punished for not taking him there before I even knew it existed.



I love the fact, too, that the dim sum are hand made daily from a family recipe passed down and improved upon over generations and that the husband and wife team continue to serve us excellent authentic Chinese dim sum along the Limmat. If you are looking for a quick and good place to grab some authentic Chinese in the middle of Zürich - try the Dim Sum hut behind the Bahnhof. You will not be disappointed! (Check out my spots on Spotted by Locals here.)

---
Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

Here is the bar from the outside. I thought that the drinks would be super expensive here due to the view, but they are really no more expensive than any other nice bar in Zurich... I had a panache for CHF 6. That is really pretty standard - and the view was thrown in for free. I really recommend you go for a drink next time someone special is in town. Great spot, Jace! Now how many gin and tonics did you have to drink here to realize that? ;)


---
Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

During our tour of the Zurich Google offices, we were lead all over from floor to floor, down two poles, over the bridge (outside connecting the two buildings with an awesome view of the Alps in the distance) and through the woods (nature floor)... and eventually we were led to the sea. By that, I mean the quiet room. There are about 3 or 4 massage chairs in this totally dark space and about 6 different fish tanks. More than one of us (Kerrin especially!) got a bit comfortable here. I was happy to plop myself into this tub. If I had had a magic marker with me, I might have been tempted to write "Jessica was here" European graffiti style on the bottom of the tub.


After checking out all the floors and meeting spaces, the gym, large conference rooms, games room and more, it was time for the big finale... and well, it's Google, so why wouldn't you expect an in house slide that leads straight into the on-site cafeteria. We all had a bit more luck with this than the pole. Nik, one of the Googlers that joined us for the tour and had all kinds of interesting stories and anecdotes on hand (love the story about the coffee machine rack!), said that from time to time the table in front of the slide is staffed with Googlers at the ready with score cards. I am sure my slide performance was a perfect 10... I so nailed that landing. I am so in. ;)

After the tour we met up again for drinks in the library, and Kannan, our host, also came in on his Sunday after a long week of traveling to meet up with the group. It was awesome to hear about his experiences at Google, and he mentioned an article coming out soon in Wired Magazine about a recent uber fascinating trip he took. I will link to that at a future date. Stay tuned.


All in all, I think we all know that Google is an amazing company to work for and that they take care of their employees almost as well as they they take care to keep their search algorithms secret... (I threatened one passerby for the secret formula but he said no and offered me some free gummy bears and a game of guitar hero and I was soon distracted... )

But what I really learned from this awesome opportunity is how generous Google is when it comes to giving back to the blogger community. The Google office was a great place to kick-off our Swiss Expat Blogger Meet-ups, and I think everyone was well impressed and invigorated by the opportunity to tour the amazing Google Zurich offices - I know I was!

Thank you again to Kannan and Marie for this awesome opportunity to get a close up view of the company that creates many of the cool online tools we use to connect with friends, family and expats while living in Switzerland. If you ever need someone to clean all those whiteboards full of Google secrets, you know who to call...

The bloggers that went on the Google tour - Juanita, Carla, me (and my hot stuff... I was taking those glasses off, I swear...), Kerrin, Kylie, Isaiah, Amanda, Jace, Rob and Tina. Thank you, Kerrin, for sending the photos through and to Marie for taking them!

---
This is an essential and the latest edition is due out in July. Pre-Order your copy today! Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook

After we got our name tags, Marie started our tour with the library. It is really posh and has hundreds of games and books that Googlers can borrow. That fireplace is a video on loop by the way! In the library was one of the many kitchens at the Google offices with free drinks and snacks on offer, too. Jace just told me that was his favorite part - the free coke. I wish I could say he was kidding, but he is probably not. He loves his diet coke. ;) We dropped our bags in the library faster than you could say "Tell me the algorithm or I will shoot" and we were on to the tour!


Each floor has a theme... there is a sports floor and a nature floor. And everywhere they have cute little meeting rooms or conference rooms - places where you can just lock yourself away and have a chat in an atmosphere that casually reminds you that you work at the coolest place on the planet. Must be nice...

Google has not one... but TWO fireman's poles. I told a coworker about this today and he said... "What! A pole? What kind of pole? What do they do with those poles?" Obviously my German needs improvement... and it turns out, so does my pole sliding! Many of us jumped right on and slid down to the next floor, having a chuckle at the note on the door leading to the pole that says "No laptops on the pole" (poor sucker that learned that the hard way!), but some of us scooted down, and others just could not overcome the fear and took the stairs...no names will be mentioned... Juanita! (But she did go down the other pole and she ROCKED IT!) ;)

As I mentioned, there are like a dozen micro-kitchens in cool designs and with cool entertainment features throughout the office (fussball, air hockey, and about 4 million bean bag chairs)... and food and drink are all free...! That means three meals a day and all the Ben and Jerry's you can eat, baby.

Some of the coolest pods around the office are the refurbished, reused Swiss gondolas or chair lifts. If I ever get an interview at Google... pipe dream... I think my first question will have to be,

'Um, so what kind of pod are you sitting in now?'... 'Oh yeah...the Swiss chalet, eh?... That's a nice one...'

'Uh, can you see the deer on the wall? ....Oh... no? How about the Matterhorn... can you see that?.... '

'Oh... ok, cool... Sorry I just had to ask. So about that job cleaning the gym...' ;)

---
This is an essential and the latest edition is due out in July. Pre-Order your copy today! Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a Lollipop Party in Zurich with some work colleagues, and it was really a lot of fun. In case you, like me, have no idea what a Lollipop Party is, I recommend you go and check it out for yourself, as it is truly something to experience, but as an introduction, let me just say that it is a party, at a club, in which the DJ plays ONLY SCHLAEGER MUSIC all night long, and that to my own shock and awe people from the age of 18 upwards are there, singing and dancing along, the whole night long, to German oldies. Oh, and there are lollipops, too.

After paying CHF 20 for the cover and about CHF 50 for a whole bunch of (read 4) drinks, I was in the right frame of mind to bob my head to a few dozen German songs that were before my time and definately not engrained into my cultural DNA. But regardless, it was an awesome night - I mean, what says more fun than a bunch of pfallic, blown up lollipops hanging from the ceiling and a half-dozen single (present blogging company excluded) girls out on the prowl amongst Zurich's oldies loving youth clubbing crowd... that's right. Nothing. ;) Thanks again to the girls for a great night out!

Almost famous: Oh and yes, that is me caught in a group shot above, taken from the top Zurich going out web portal, usgang.ch. That is not a US gang site - I promise.

Have a great Friday everyone! Let me know if you visit any clubs of interest. ;)

A few weeks ago, just around Australia Day, Jace was in the mood for a burger and he recalled seeing this place on one of his 'big night outs.' So off we went to Zic Zac for a bit of American nibbles.

Zic Zac is in the heart of it all, and it actually is probably better known for the Zic Zac Rock and Roll Hotel that is in the same building. If I didn't live here, I would be keen to try the hotel out for the kitsch.

We started with some wings - and let's just get it out now - no one makes wings "the right way" here so don't even sweat the disappointment. The closest you will get is Hooters and even then I am not a big fan. That is the #1 thing I will be scoffing down when I go back home for a visit, with a refillable glass of diet coke. Word.

The burgers on the other hand were not half bad... and huge portions. I had to remind myself that I was not indeed back in the States. I had the Caesar burger with a garlic aoli (do not eat this when on a date, the garlic was STRONG) and parmesan cheese. Yum.

I also found out ONLY TOO LATE that they also have a bottomless homemade iced tea on offer. I am going back for that alone come Spring or Summer.

Don't let the pathetic facade disuade you from going into the Zic Zac. It is huge yet intimate inside and I wouldn't doubt that they pile the tables aside sometimes and get down after hours. Give it a go sometime - and don't forget the iced tea!


View Larger Map
---
Swiss Blogger Meet-Up!!! Would you be interested in partaking in a Blogger Meetup in Zürich sometime in April 2009? Amanda of Queso Suizo and I are gathering interest now! Fill out this quick form now and let us know of your interest and availability!

Are you on Facebook? Swisstory is... become a fan!