“Not All Wanderers Are Lost”.
Living in a new country is as difficult as it is exciting and it is not always easy to feel like you’re acclimatising; especially in Switzerland, which, in a recent survey came in the bottom ten for ease of settling in.
When I first left London for Switzerland, I lived in the picturesque little village of Stein Am Rhein, an intensely quiet place, steeped in history.
I imagined my absence would cause a London-wide decimation the likes of which had never been seen before, with open and public weeping. It did not. I imagined the stillness of my new Swiss village inspiring me to dizzying creative heights. It did not.
When you’ve grown up in a bustling city like London, where the pulse and smell can hit you in the back of the throat and linger there, whether you like it or not, the slightest slowing-down of that pace can seem like heaven – until it isn’t.
The quietude of Stein Am Rhein on a Sunday seemed indecently unbearable for my big-city psyche and I went running to the nearest, larger town of Schaffhausen.
Fortunately, this move and a throwaway conversation, led me to that riverside life I’d always dreamt of, having always fancied myself – erroneously – as a Riverside Goddess.
Summer mornings are the best, when you can hear the flow of the river lapping up against the creaking, moored wooden boats, the churning of trucks across the Schaffhausen/Feuerthalen bridge and the escalating sounds of the beginning of the work day.
It’s a nice mesh of city (albeit a small one) and country life – a portmanteau, if you will. Honestly, if you’re a fireworks nerd like me, sitting back on a warm, breezy August evening, watching the fireworks from your garden is, quite simply, breathtaking.
Travel In Style
