I spent Easter with my parents, my brother-in-law, sister and two nieces. It was amazing that there enough of us in Europe at once to have an actual family holiday. Zürich is a beautiful but expensive city, and there is a bit of an attitude among the people especially if you are dragging two girls under 4 into cafes.
The weather was superb and one of our best moments was sitting next to Lake Zürich eating lunch with everybody and just enjoying the moment.
An important tip for anybody in German speaking Europe during Easter is that everything shuts down for like a week. They are very particular about these holidays and Holy Thursday all the way to the Monday following Easter is a huge shut down with only a few restaurants and stores open on Saturday and Friday. So Thomas, my brother in law, and I were lucky to catch an open grocery store on Saturday and stock up for the next few days.
Sunday morning mass was in a seemingly unassuming church in suburban Zürich. I was surprised to see so many people. There is almost nobody in my parish in Berlin and even on Easter 2 years ago in Konstanz, I don’t remember too many folks being there.
We soon discovered that this was no ordinary service as a full choir and chamber orchestra launched into one of Mozart’s masses. I could find no fault with the performance as tears came visibly to peoples’ eyes. The recessional hymn was Handel’s Messiah which was amazing. Link to a video of the actual church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw6H3crLzpg&feature=related
Two of Zürich's most loyal Phils Phans
After mass we had a nice brunch with my sister’s neighbors who are nice people and have a son my niece Maya’s age. They are really good buddies and had fun hunting eggs together. You always have to watch out in situations when the two kids come in direct competition with each other. Thankfully it didn’t turn too sour.
Then it was off to Essen, Germany to meet Dan for our flight to Croatia.
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