Switzerland: Did You Know?

Random tidbits: Currency, key boards and wall outlets.

The currency in Switzerland is the Swiss Franc. This is also the currency in Liechtenstein. But nowhere else in the world. So my random change bucket just got heavier. One of the benefits of Europe over Asia is that while cash is king in the East, the West is happy to accept Visa and Mastercard. Unless you need to pay for parking or potties, of course.

So, imagine this sort of scenario. We arrive in our mountain paradise and decide to go hiking. Whereupon it is revealed that one member of our party does not possess footwear any more stable than Crocs. Now, I am a firm believer in the motto: The Family that Crocs Together Rocks Together.

But as Jeff pointed out, Crocs are not the most stable shoes on the planet for hiking. "And," he chided, "how is she going to play basketball or tennis without a pair of sneakers?" To which I thought, "Basketball? Tennis? And why on earth would our child spontaneous begin playing sports she as barely seen in her life?" But, given, as Monica has pointed out, Jeff is usually right, I acquiesced, and agreed to take the child into town to buy her a suitable pair of supportive shoes for active sporting whatever.

So, when we got up on Saturday morning, we split up. Jeff took Tom hiking (and I have some awesome "majestic scenery" photos that I might post if I can get past the small details that seem to capture my attention) and Hope and I drove into town. We could have taken the gondola (see photo below), that is right next to our hotel, but, the cost for a round trip ticket was 40 Euro for grownups, half price for kinder.

I can explain this, by the way. Grindelwald is a ski town in the winter, and a hiking sportif town in the summer. People come from all over the world, stay in town and take the gondolas (that are used in winter to transport skiers to the top) up to various hotels and restaurants perched at various peaks, eat, hike, drink a beer or two, and head back to town for the night. So the gondolas are cash cows for the town. You can buy a weekly pass if you are here for more than a few days that makes it all more economical, but given our short stay and the fact that I was in possession of my vehicle, it made more sense to drive.

Unfortunately, our short trip into town turned into a Wallace and Gromit episode (The Wrong Trousers), in that I put on the wrong trousers. Imagine, if you will, that my car cup holder is full to the brim with change. Euros, crowns (Czech, Danish), forints and a few random American coins. But no Swiss francs. Imagine also, if you will, that I have a pair of trouser that have a goodly handful of francs sitting snug-ly in the right hand pocket. But that those trousers are up at the top of the mountain, not on me down in town. So, Hope and I arrived in town, parked the car and realized we had to pay, in coinage, for parking. 

We'll cut this crisis short by getting to the point. Check this out!:

A Universal Change Machine! Holy guacamole, my first reaction was, "I am not alone!" Clearly, if there is a machine that will solve my little change problem, others, may others, have been here first. This machine will give Swiss francs in exchange for American and Canadian dollars, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish crown, Japanese yen and the British pound. Oh, and the Euro, which is what I happened to be clutching in my parking outlaw paw.

I will say the "exchange rate" should have been illegal. But let's face it, if you are stupid enough to be wandering around town trying to change money for a parking meter, it's better to lose in the exchange rate game than be chased across Europe by the Swiss police looking for you to pay your parking fine. And, hello, since I am driving my own car, it would be fairly easy to find me.

Hope and I purchased some awesome trainer/hiker shoes and headed back up to the hotel. And now I will introduce you to awesome technological innovation #2:

Keyboard for the hotel. Wow. This is really, really nifty. Let me explain. In many European pension type hotels, you drop your key at the desk when you leave. Generally, the hotel provides you with a hugely cumbersome key holder so that you are reminded to drop the key and not take it with you. In this case, the hotel had this funky board; you unlock your numbered slot (coordinated to your room number, natch), remove tiny key, alarm rings, insert monstrous, unwieldy room key, turn, alarm turns off, and you walk away with your wee key tucked safely away.

In our case, we had two rooms (one for children, one for grown ups), so two keys. When we split up in the morning, Jeff took our wee key and I took the children's. We did debate this a bit, realizing that whoever got back first would be a disadvantage and be able to get into only one room.

Hope and I got back first. So I only had access to her room, which did not contain such things as my phone charger and sunscreen. Hope wanted to play on the awesome playground. But sunscreen really is a good idea when you are at 1500 meters and the sun is shining. And it is almost noon.

The way the key board works is that anyone can remove any key. But that sounds an alarm. That only goes off when you insert the wee key. I did ask the staff if they had any spare keys. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Do you have a spare key for my room."

Staff: "No! Your key is on the board, see?" gestures to board

Me: "Yes, but my husband has the wee key."

Staff: puzzled "But you are here! That is silly. Why does he have the key??"

Me: "But, we both left. I came back first."

Staff: more puzzled "Sorry. There is not another key."

Right, I thought. And how do you clean the rooms? But, I wasn't going to argue. I just set off the alarm. Lesson learned. 

And finally, this is what the Swiss wall outlets look like.

I would have thought we carried with us converters for every possible electric outlet on the planet. And I am not kidding:  Jeff picked up this awesome power strip in Mongolia that does Asia and Europe. We have been trying to duplicate for ages because it is to handy, and we take it with us wherever we go.  But we were foiled by the Swiss. We had to borrow a charger from the hotel.

And with that, we are off to France. Perhaps tomorrow, some majestic mountain photos.

 

Comments

[Monica]

Yippee to the trainer/hiker shoes! You rock!