House Hunting in Switzerland

Looking for a home in Switzerland we had only two days. John and I saw quite a few homes and found them to be either….. too small, too large, too smelly, not enough cupboards, or too remote. On the first day we were chaperoned by a lovely young lady Alison Cook, who works for the Swiss relocation group. She drove us to many homes and apartments and we only liked one property, an apartment in Morges. Central to everything, the problem with this place was, that the tenants will not be out by the time we arrive. We would have to find alternate living arrangements until it became available.

Alison left us in the afternoon to our own devices, our opportunity to soak in the sun and pretty cobbled streets of Morges. Walking down the main street closed to vehicles we heard polka music. Two men playing music and singing in the town square, it was drawing me closer with a reluctant John dragging behind. John thought the music rather ordinary and perhaps it was. It was something else that drew me there, a childhood memory, the feeling of really wanting to share this with my mum. German music was never my cup of tea but I insisted that John sit with me and listen because on that day I loved it, he set off to buy us a wine and on his return found a woman crying uncontrollably. My cry was happy and sad at the same time, my hanky was no longer useful and the tissues finished, I had to get reinforcements from John. The surrounding tables cast curious glances our way wondering what was wrong with me, laughing and crying at the same time. Not sure if I ran out of tears or I finally heard the real music, and to John’s relief I stopped.

We found a restaurant overlooking the lake and sat down to a scrumptious dinner, with poor John having to look and my huge red and puffy eyes from all the crying.

On our second day I awoke with swollen eyes John had found a suitable place in the country, however it ended up being a little too expensive for us. After getting back to England we found that we did get the apartment in Morges and Cardinal Health will provide short term accommodation until the tenants vacate. This was a big relief for both of us, because Morges is just beautiful however I may have to avoid the oompa pa music. Three minute walk to the lake, five minutes to the train station and shopping. The only draw back is that the large balcony overlooks the road. However it is not a terribly busy road. With a few well selected plants we could easily screen out the offending road. We are one storey up with double glazed windows, the bedrooms are on the far side, so it should not be a problem. Little did we know......