When one mall isn't enough

I got it into my head that I really wanted to buy the kids and myself ice skates for this winter.  Mostly because I know myself: I know that if I spend the money on the skates up front (rather than renting them time after time) I'll be much more likely to take the kids skating, so that I can get some value for my money.  Also, even though they're $8/rental, the skates that they rent at the rink just aren't very good: Ella had angry welts on her ankles after her time on the ice.  Honestly, I don't think I can remember a time I ice skated, ever, that my skates were comfortable.  I only had fun in spite of my aching feet.

Also, there are many mountain lakes that freeze over in the winter, and the thought of skating out in nature (and away from a rental stand) like that just delights me.

The other day I was talking with nochElla's mom, Barbara, and she told me stories of how Lake Zürich has frozen completely in the past. This Seegfrörni happens a couple of times in a century, and the last time it happened was 1963, and Barbara wasn't born yet.  But she grew up hearing stories of people ice skating across the lake, clear from Zürich to Rapperswil, a distance of about 30 kilometers, with vendors selling roasted chestnuts lining the shore all the way down.

Ice skaters dotting a frozen Lake Zürich. Awesome, right?

Barbara told me that she's been waiting her whole life for a Zürichsee Seegfrörni to happen again, although, she concedes, perhaps global warming has made it impossible.  All the same, if this is the year, I want to be ready. And, if not, there's always the Katzensee, which I hear freezes more regularly.

I've tried to avoid buying anything in Zürich: before we moved here, I stocked up on medicines and bought clothes and boots a size bigger for the kids to grow into this year, and shipped out a crate of art supplies. You've heard me complain about the prices here plenty, I'm sure.

So, since I wanted to buy something as expensive as skates, I did my research. The Migros supermarket chain, in their sporting goods specialty stores, has reasonably priced skates.  And I decided that, since we're spending a precious Saturday on this shopping expedition, we might as well make a holiday out of it.  Susannah mentioned going to a mall in Spritenbach with a drop-off child playground that is 850 square meters.  "That's eight times the size of your apartment!" she reminded me. So, yeah, we thought the kids might like that.

Dennis and I decided to cheat a little, too, checking Joey in as a three-year-old a week before his birthday. After we fortified our kids up with ice cream and then unleashed them into the playground,

Dennis, at our table for two

and then Dennis and I enjoyed the first date we'd have in months.  A pity there's no movie theater in the mall, but we did, at least, have a quiet meal together in one of the department store food halls.  A sort of pay-as-you-go buffet, these are very popular here, with chefs standing at the ready, to toss your pasta with whatever toppings you scoop into your bowl, or to sear the meat or fish that you've chosen out of the display case.

This ain't no American apple pie.

After we ate, we went off in search of the Migros sporting goods store.  We'd kept Joey's stroller with us, to hold any potential purchases, as well as our coats, but that wasn't strictly necessary.  In all malls and shopping centers here, they have a large bank of shopping carts that people use throughout the mall.  They also always have at least one grocery store in malls.  This mall was one of the largest in Switzerland, so they had three. Although it seems odd to me, it isn't unusual to see people pushing carts of food through clothing or electronic stores. And means the malls are laid out for transporting those carts from level to level: instead of escalators, they had long conveyor belts that went from one floor to the next, making it easy to get our stroller around.

Not that we needed it.  When we got to our store, we found out that they didn't carry skates there, and that only one Migros Sport in Zürich did.  To figure that out took conversations with more than one sales clerk, and a conformation phone call from us: we were in a slightly different region of Switzerland from Zürich, one with a hugely frustrating dialect.

Disappointed, we made our way back to collect the kids, who had been playing for two hours. We've gotten so accustomed to Swiss prices that Dennis, when he went to pay and was told that it would be fifteen francs for our three kids for those two hours, he just couldn't wrap his head around it. "Fifty?" he asked. "Fifteen," she answered.  If we were to use a babysitter here, they would have cost at least twenty dollars an hour.  We got off easy.

After negotiating crowds for two hours, Dennis was starting to feel misanthropic. Ella was overheated and cranky. And the boys said they'd had a great time (they had bouncy castles and tricycles and dress-up clothes and Tom and Jerry!) but they were exhausted.  And so Dennis saved me from myself, wisely keeping me from hauling the family to another sports store immediately.

But he didn't mind giving me a free evening, so after dinner I headed out again on my own.  The mall I had to go to was, conveniently enough, at the end of the tram line that runs nearest our home. (I chose a different route, though, that tram line being delayed by "Occupy Paradaplatz," Zürich's response to Wall Street.)

The trip ended up being easy: for the kids, they had skates that were adjustable to three sizes, so I didn't have to worry about them being spot-on...and they were on sale. The only hiccup happened when I checked out. The clerk tried to explain to me that the skates had to be sharpened, and that it could be done for free there at the store.  The poor, helpful old man finally managed to communicate all this by elaborate pantomime; when I got to the service desk, I didn't understand what they were saying at first, either, but finally they managed to convey that I'd have to come back on Tuesday for my skates.  Maybe they were moved by my look of dismay, or maybe they were concerned that, confused fool that I am, I wouldn't be able to make it back to the store.  Whatever it was, they changed their minds and took the skates back for me right away and had the job done in fifteen minutes.

And thank goodness: after two malls in one day, I think I could easily go without visiting one for another three to six months.