by Andrew on January 6, 2012
I am the King!
Today, January 6th, sees people across Switzerland buying their Dreikönigskuchen (three kings cake) and sharing them with friends and family.
Similar to the ha’penny in an English Christmas pudding, finding the King is considered good luck. I am pleased to say that I just picked the piece of cake with the King in it and here he is:
It was tense, of the six pieces (the centre piece never contains the King), only two were left meaning that if I chose wrongly then only the King piece would remain.
Although I have to admit that a low carb start to 2012 means I didn’t eat the cake.
Note that if you accept responsibility to get the cake, don’t let your colleagues down, it is something that is genuinely looked forward to and get the traditional fruit instead of chocolate!
by Cecily on December 19, 2011
As someone who has just arrived to Zurich I have not yet purchased a “half price” train card or a “GA” reduction card. Especially since the cost of using public transport encourages me to cycle as much as possible. This however has its drawbacks and the exorbitant costs of full price train tickets becomes painfully clear when you try to book an intercity train.
Paying anywhere in the region of 6-60 Swiss francs for a one way ticket is not the ideal situation for someone on a budget. However there is hope for people here visiting or just without a card, as the National Swiss train company the SBB are currently running a “Supersaver” ticket scheme. This scheme allows you to book tickets on line at a much cheaper price than buying them at the train station.
Supersaver Tickets can be a whopping 60% cheaper than the regular fare, making them even cheaper than what you would pay with the half price card. The supersaver tickets are also available for half price card holders, but here the reduction is only a few swiss francs.
The catch. Obviously this is not just a cheap ticket free for all, and there are only a certain amount of cheap tickets available per route. Also the tickets are not usually available for more popular travelling times. The most important point to note these tickets are only available until the 20th of February 2012.
While the scheme is limited until the 20th of February it has been popular before and this is the 4th time these types of tickets have been available, so hopefully they will relaunch the scheme again after February or even make it permanent.
A couple of quick tips on Supersaver tickets.
- the ticket is only valid for the train you booked so don’t try and change it after
- you can only book the ticket a maximum of 14 days in advance
- print your ticket at home. you can not print them at the train station and they do not accept smart phone screen shots
- be flexible as the availability of tickets can sometimes be limited
- make sure you type in Zürich correctly with the “ü”. The search wont recognise the city with out it.
However on one of my journeys the first train was delayed and as a result I missed my connection. Worried about receiving a fine I went to the ticket office and the clerk stamped and signed my original ticket making it valid for the next train. Remember though I missed the connection because the train was late, not me.
Another point to note about buying tickets at the train station is that recently they have added a 10CHF charge for this service. Kinda of like a tax for the non computer savvy. But I suppose there is a point to this concept and the SBB could only be considered to be falling in line with cost reduction policy’s that certain airlines have been pioneering for quite some time.
So if you are planning on travelling around Switzerland and need to book a train do it on line and print it at home.
Cecily
by Andrew on December 14, 2011
There was a beautiful double rainbow over Zurich this morning.
I even got to see the end of it but no crock of gold!
