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| Chilling by the lake thinking "will own boat one day" (top-left); Zurich Street Parade (bottom-right); Jumping off Quaibruecke (right) |
The Swiss clearly know how to pack as much fun as possible in that tiny window of 3 months where the mercury constantly nudges the mid 20's. In Zurich, it's all about spending every single afternoon possible by the lake (fighting the 'crowd' to get patches of grass to sit on, never mind it feels so weird that it's not a sandy beach!), outdoor bars and barbecues (grills), music festivals on weekends, people packing up their Winnebagos and going on leave for 2-3 months at a time. For some reason, the Swiss are also obsessed with throwing the biggest parties during summer... The Zurich Street Parade in mid August which is supposed to be the biggest in Europe, the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival, and the open air festivals across the country (Paleo, Frauenfeld, St Gallen, Locarno)... I swear I almost went broke by the end of August...
On weekends when you feel the need to detox from all the drinking and barbecuing, the mountains are so close by (Uetliberg just 20 mins from town is pretty popular for Zurichers) and the hiking is awesome (and free... which is something you don't get that often in Switzerland).
Anyway, one of my favourite summer drinks is the Spritz Aperol. Aperol on its own tastes very much like Campari (made by the same company actually), and contains bitter orange, gentian, rhubarb and cinchona. The Spritz Aperol is really light, tastes like a mix of lemon lime bitter and an alcoholic lemonade, and super yum.
Swiss Summer Spritz
1 part Aperol
1 part sparkling wine or presecco
a splash of sparkling water
a slice of orange
Mix all ingredient liquid ingredient over ice in a chilled wine glass, top with the slice of orange.
Happy days! :)
