Fundsachenverkauf

Last Friday, in Joey's playgroup, one of the moms spoke about a shop run by the transportation department, which sells things that have been lost on the trams, buses, trains, and ferries and were never claimed from the ZVV lost and found.  It was wonderful, she said: they have everything there, and for cheap!  Like, an enormous bin of umbrellas for two francs each.

Susannah and I agreed that we could use some new umbrellas in our lives, so we made a plan to investigate the Fundsachenverkauf, the Lost Property Shop, this morning.  And, since there was a convenient bus to the store near Google, we made a date to have breakfast with our husbands beforehand.

We had plenty of time to get to Google, so I decided to walk the two kilometers there.  And, since I was feeling sentimental about Zürich, I took some pictures of the scenery as we walked...

The fireworks shop, just a little ways from our home.
I always regret not being in town for August 1st (the
Swiss independence day) whenever I walk by.  

The bakery to which Alex and I ride our scooters, sometimes.  It's downhill
all the way from our house, so we can fly, and then there's a bus stop
just outside that goes directly back to our house.  And the bread is delicious.

If you're ever hungry on a Sunday in Zürich,
these little take-out Kebap bistros are always
a safe bet...and the prices, sadly, are about average

And speaking of prices, this is the little Chinese
take-away and restaurant closest to our house.
19.50 CHF, or $21, for stir fry.  And that's a good deal.

The Zürich trams. This is one of the good, newer ones: there are also some older ones with staircases in each entrance, each blocked with a handrail running up the middle.  They're close to impossible to get a stroller on without help, particularly one that is carrying a sleeping Joey.  

You can take this 14, or the number 9, straight to our street. We'll leave the light on for you. 

The Swiss Target, where I spend a very good deal of time and money.

If you're lucky, you'll have an excellent
little travel companion, too.

Wall art, as is all over Zürich. Google is near
Schmiede Wiedikon.  And can you guess
what a Schmiede is?

Zürich posts these way signs all over the city, which I find
endlessly helpful.  As long as you know what district
you're going to, you can't get lost. I live in Friesenberg:
I know this much is true.

We still had a little time to spend before we were due to meet for breakfast, so Joey and I stopped on the playground nearest Google.  This playground, like so many around here, has the strange feature of having a slide that is unreachable except by excellent climbers: here, the only way up is across a long net of ropes.

But Joey loves slides, and he was determined to get up there, one way or another.  I took a little video of him and sped it up quite a bit: Joey's epic climb to the top of the slide.  I love his triumphant "I did it!" at the end.

After our brief but delicious breakfast, Susannah and I found our way over to the Fundsachenverkauf, where I stared, drop-jawed, at the vast variety of things that people lose on trains.

I have to say, despite what my friend said about the place, there are no real deals to be had at this store. I sort of suspected that when I took a peek at the online auction site for the store, where they sell jewelry for thousands of francs, and designer clothes for hundreds. (Richardo.ch is the ebay of Switzerland.)

There were no two-franc umbrellas. Rather, Susannah went home with an umbrella for six francs that, as she noted, someone else probably got for free, emblazoned as it was with a corporate advertisement.

But, all the same, I did have a good time looking through all of the things that people can lose, and giggling at some of the things that the store had the audacity to sell, and for some pretty steep prices.

Packages of diapers, probably removed from the vast array of diaper bags on offer 

Art for sale: the Warhol in the back was going for 950 CHF.
Other prints were selling for well over 10,000 francs.

Possibly lost during Street Parade?

My, those are a lot of glasses (at ten francs
each).  Joey had a wonderful time trying
them on. They also had an incredibly wide
selection of old-man hats, the sort with a
little edelweiss decal attached.

Or skis? Or a snow board? The skies were
generally about 200 francs a pair. With no
one to help me size them or judge their
stability or adjust their bindings, it would
be no deal for me.

Seriously? How do you lose a bicycle?

Some of the things in the store were just so sad: cases and cases of jewelry, cameras, ipods....you know that losing those just ruined someone's.  And some of the things on offer were just bizarre.  For example, there was a a large basket of drawing compasses.  How did so many people manage to lose a drawing compass?


And, of course, there were racks and racks of clothes and coats and purses and wallets and shoes and boots.

I came close to buying a multi-person toboggan for 65 francs, with thoughts of sledding on Ütliberg this winter high in my mind.  But I just couldn't summon the energy to lug it home.  I did get some new winter goggles for me and the kids, however, and a little day bag for Joey, so that he can carry his own toys on our weekend adventures.

He was very pleased with his new "purse" and immediately filled it with his puppets. When we got home, I suggested adding some books or cars or snacks, but nope, it was just for finger puppets.  That's all he needs in this world.

Truly, there's no need to go looking for bargains, or to spend any money at all on my lucky kids...I must remember that!

For Alex's favorite toy of the day is a tiny lump of clay embedded with golden thread. I'm not sure what the story behind this is: Alex said it was a present from the woman who put on the play that his class saw this morning.  Whoever this woman is, she must be very wise.  I never would have guessed that a tiny lump of clay would make a child so happy.

And Ella, she came home chortling about her new huge pile of paper frogs frogs: they learned origami in Handarbeit this morning. And she happily spent another a great deal of the afternoon making more little frogs for the family, when she wasn't doing her homework.

They're studying measurement in Ella's class, and tonight for homework she had to list things that were approximately 1 meter, 10 meters, 50 meters, 100 meters, 500 meters, and a kilometer.  Poor Ella attacked her assignment by measuring the apartment building with her class ruler, 30 centimeters at a time.  I wondered if I should help her, but Dennis pointed out that she seemed really happy out there, and that she was probably learning a wonderful lesson, so I let her be until she got to the 500-meter section on her page. And then I introduced her to the wonderful world of Google maps.

In other news, today I mailed off our letter to our landlord, announcing our intention to leave on December 31st.  In Switzerland, you need to give notice sometimes as early as six months in advance: we have to give notice three months before, and our deadline is this Friday.

We're coming home!