Dear Mom,

Since I decided to make Switzerland my home nearly two decades ago, you and I have unfortunately not been able to spend a whole lot of quality time together.

We are victims of geography, so to speak.

So this week, when you told me that you will be coming all the way from California to spend a couple of weeks with me this summer, you can bet that I was pretty happy to hear the news.

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A blue and white “Cobra” tram slowly goes by my window, causing the ground to shake ever so slightly.

At least five passengers have their iPhones out in the hopes of catching up on the latest gossip posted on their friends’ facebook pages. (more…)

If you happened to be in Oerlikon last week, you could have witnessed an entire three-story building weighing 6,200 metric tons moving down the street.

That’s right; a small army of engineers and technicians picked up a house, put it on rollers and very slowly pushed it - at the snail’s pace of three metres and 20 centimetres per hour - sixty metres down the street. (more…)

The stairwell of the Polizeiposten Hauptbahnhof is stoic, barren, and scary.

Every step up the two flights, I thought that I should turn around and head straight to my train. (more…)

When an elderly woman hailed me down off my bike in Freiestrasse the other day, I was sure that I was in for it.

Freiestrasse is the main shopping street in Basel and passage is reserved for pedestrians only. I know. I’m bad. But, I was cycling so slowly and my turn was so close.

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“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it it.”

Cowboy wisdom that those who run Geneva’s transportation authority, the TPG, might have heeded before spending much time and money entirely redesigning the city’s public transportation system. (more…)