If you don’t follow me on instagram or on my facebook page, you might have missed my big news! Recently we packed up all of our belongings, sold our cars (and house) and moved to Switzerland!
So, if you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been blogging for a lot of the summer, which I know all of you were dying to know, now you know!
If you’ve ever moved anywhere you know it can be stressful! Moving cross country is triple stressful, but moving to another country completely is off the charts! It’s basically been a months long process, which involves lots of paperwork, planning and phone calls galore! Thankfully we had support from my husband’s work to help us with all the logistics! But, basically every day this summer I have been responding to emails and phone calls about the move, providing this or that for information and scanned papers, and not to mention selling our house!
Whew!
But we’re here now and getting settled in and I promise to have lots to post about our new life in Switzerland soon, plus some of the other things we’ve been up to this summer! For now I’m going to leave you with some more pictures from our house hunting trip back in July! We came over to look for housing, and since it fell over a weekend we were able to do a little site seeing as well.
Just a cute little street in the center part of Zurich city!
Taking the cog rail train up Mount Pilatus. It is the steepest cog rail train in the world and tops out at 48% gradient!
View from the top! You can see Lake Luzern in the background. This was in July and it was definitely too cold at the top for short sleeve shirts! Needless to say, we were a little unprepared, but decided to stick it out anyways because the views were so nice!
Goats do not give a flip that they are the middle of the hiking path!
We took the gondola back down, and then a smaller one, and then a short walk and bus ride into the city of Luzern!
Quick selfie on the pedestrian bridge in Luzern before heading back to Zurich!
Fondue for two! We had some traditional Swiss fondue to celebrate our upcoming move (and my birthday)!
This is the beautiful waterfall on the Rhein, Rheinfall, which as it turns out is very close to my husband’s new office for work! We took the boat tour close the falls, but not the one that goes to the big rock in the middle because of the crowds! Hopefully we’ll go back soon and do the other boat tour.
We loved this super cute little town along the Rhein, Stein am Rhein, It was lovely to walk around the medieval streets and plenty of people were out in the water enjoying the hot summer day! I stuck my feet in and it was freezing so I don’t think we have any immediate plans for swimming in the Rhein ourselves!
I can’t wait to share more about our move and new life’s as expats in Switzerland! A lot of people asked a lot of the same questions when we told them we were moving so I’m going to answer some of them here in case you were wondering these things!
FAQs
Can you bring your dog?
Yes, he flew over and had no problems. He just needed to have a microchip that was put in before his most recent rabies vaccine, and his vaccines needed to be up to date. He was then checked out and certified by a vet at the JFK airport and good to go!
Did you bring your stuff?
Yes all our stuff is packed in a shipping container and sailing across the ocean towards Europe as I write this! Hopefully it will be here with no issues and right on time for us to move into our permanent housing from this temporary place we are in now!
Can you bring your cars?
You can, but it’s quite expensive to ship cars overseas and not worth it. We sold our cars and will be buying a new one here sometime in the next month or so.
Will you learn German?
We will try!
And the most common FAQ- Are you excited?
Yes! Of course I am excited, we wouldn’t have agreed this huge move if we weren’t both excited and looking forward to it! Nervous, too, of course, and many other emotions as well!
So, if you made it this far in the post, thanks for reading! If you have any other questions, I’d more than happy to share so ask away!
Kelly Rodriguez says
September 4, 2015 at 10:24 amLove this, Rachel! I'm so excited for you all. You're in for the adventure of a lifetime! Did I miss it…are you there indefinitely? What an amazing experience for Carter…for you all. 😀
Barb says
September 4, 2015 at 10:46 amWow! What an exciting adventure for you! I can't wait to see pictures!
Krystal // The Krystal Diaries says
September 4, 2015 at 10:51 amHow exciting!! Can't wait to hear more about your move!
Noelle says
September 4, 2015 at 10:52 amThank you for sharing a great post! So excited to see all your adventures. I love Switzerland! If you get a chance in the future, check out Interlaken. My favorite place in Switzerland.
Noelle says
September 4, 2015 at 10:52 amThank you for sharing a great post! So excited to see all your adventures. I love Switzerland! If you get a chance in the future, check out Interlaken. My favorite place in Switzerland.
Noelle says
September 4, 2015 at 10:52 amThank you for sharing a great post! So excited to see all your adventures. I love Switzerland! If you get a chance in the future, check out Interlaken. My favorite place in Switzerland.
Marci Lutsky says
September 4, 2015 at 10:59 amFabulous! I'm so excited for you and your family. I have been to Switzerland and think that it's beautiful, especially Zermatt!
Hillary Chybinski says
September 4, 2015 at 12:02 pmSO exciting!!! Best of luck and I'm looking forward to following you on your journey!! xo
Neely says
September 4, 2015 at 12:06 pmSo so so cool! What an awesome opportunity!
Jenn says
September 4, 2015 at 12:51 pmWow, such an incredible adventure! Looking forward to reading more about your new life over there!
Mollie Michel says
September 4, 2015 at 12:56 pmLove Zurich! Good luck settling in!
SMD @ lifeaccordingtosteph says
September 4, 2015 at 1:01 pmThis is crazy awesome and really exciting. I can't wait to read about adapting to a new culture. I'm glad you guys are there, hopefully your stuff will follow soon!
Donna P says
September 4, 2015 at 2:44 pmOh my goodness. This is crazy awesome! I can't wait to follow along on your journey! Best of luck!
Meg Taylor says
September 4, 2015 at 3:21 pmSO exciting for y'all!! I can't wait to keep following along with your adventures!
Aubrey says
September 4, 2015 at 3:24 pmI'm excited to see more pictures and read more about your new adventure.
Brenda Stevens says
September 4, 2015 at 3:57 pmOmg, that is so exciting! I can't wait to hear more about it all!!!
Stephanie @ Life, Unexpectedly says
September 5, 2015 at 8:08 pmWelcome in Europe! You're just one country over from me now, a very good friend of mine is in Zurich at the moment, actually. I hope you settle in well! We did a trans-Atlantic move back when Violet was first born (at the time of our actual, physical move she was about 8 weeks old), and yes, it's extremely stressful. Glad you had the logistic support and hope you enjoy your new home!!
Chrissy says
September 7, 2015 at 4:41 pmGlad you made it safely! I'd be glad to help with any questions anytime! 🙂
Jessica Holoka says
September 8, 2015 at 1:44 pmWhat an amazing new chapter of your life! Congrats and good luck with settling in permanently. It looks like a beautiful place to live! 🙂
Peggy Gilbey McMackin says
September 8, 2015 at 2:03 pmHello Rachel! What sensational photos in a place of such remarkable beauty! Do I see a budding travel writer in the midst?! Wishing you a world of happiness and many happy experiences and memories for you and all of your family on the journey along the way!
Kate @ Another Clean Slate says
September 8, 2015 at 11:34 pmGlad I checked in! I follow you on Instagram but just thought it was a long vacation!
theerlangenexpat says
September 16, 2015 at 7:41 amWelcome to Europe! Hope you are settling in and getting accustomed to the locals
Kate Orson says
September 12, 2016 at 8:13 amGreat pictures. Lovely to hear about how your journey began. We also love stein am rhein too, I was so amazed when i saw all the beautiful frescos on the buildings.
Kate Prinsloo says
September 12, 2016 at 10:16 pmYour pictures are absolutely amazing! Pilatus is just incredible isn’t it!? And I’m so in love with your goat picture! I’m so glad you are in Zurich so that we could meet over some great coffee mornings. Hope to see you soon.
Claire says
September 13, 2016 at 10:34 amLove it. Would love a two (?) years on post about what’s lived up to your expectations in Switzerland / how you feel about it all now… future plans (if that’s not to nosey!) 🙂
Liz Voss says
September 16, 2016 at 10:05 amWould you believe that we did a 10-day trip here in October 2014 and moved here in January 2015 and still haven’t eaten fondue?! Totally failing at Swiss integration 😉
Tamara says
September 18, 2016 at 6:01 pmWhoa, so it’s been a year now? How do you feel about that? Do you look at things, streets, people, differently than when you first arrived?
rachelb123 says
September 30, 2016 at 11:07 pmOh yes definitely!! Everything seems a lot more familiar now, yet still foreign in many ways.