Zug (again) - Questions
Discussion
Have the opportunity to up sticks from the UK and move family to Switzerland (Zug) for a job and would like to hear from others who have done the same recently.
I have spoken with their HR consultant about general relocation things but would like an independent opinion/comment on generalaties e.g. general cost of living (fuel, food, lap dancers and all other essentials), local and federal taxation, healthcare (private coverage needed?), schooling (what are international schools like?), cost of rental and where to rent (would prefer house not apartment), tax benefits of buying (?), any bizarre laws on noise limits for a Chimaera with baffles removed
.
The schooling is quite important. Kids are 7, 4 and 2. Would prefer to avoid an international school but the elder would struggle until German up to scratch nein?
cheers
Ross
I have spoken with their HR consultant about general relocation things but would like an independent opinion/comment on generalaties e.g. general cost of living (fuel, food, lap dancers and all other essentials), local and federal taxation, healthcare (private coverage needed?), schooling (what are international schools like?), cost of rental and where to rent (would prefer house not apartment), tax benefits of buying (?), any bizarre laws on noise limits for a Chimaera with baffles removed
.The schooling is quite important. Kids are 7, 4 and 2. Would prefer to avoid an international school but the elder would struggle until German up to scratch nein?
cheers
Ross
Hallo,
Have a look here
http://www.ch.ch/private/index.html?lang=en
Zug is rather expensive due t low taxes ;-), but if you are working for an
international company, they should have the experience with so-called ex-pats and I gather I would rely on their infos,as a reference to their H.R.quality.
Rental and House Prices: very expensive (check your company's package)
Quality of life: high
Health System: excellent as are generally hospitals
Petrol: rather cheap compared to the UK :-)))
Roads: attractive
Traffic: sometimes horrible as anywhere depending on time
Speed-fines: depending on day-time and speed of course ;-))
careful within build-up areas,they do not like fast speeds
I would avoid too loud double de-clutching, explore that
on sinous mountain roads like the bikers do
Supermarkets: Migros,Coop,etc.good choice, some specialized shops,clean
Weather: rather grey in winter due to lake,
Schools might be a family problem. I would get some German lessons beforehand,
especially for your children, they might have some problems at first.Un-
fortunately I am not able to inform you about schools or international
schooling establishments, the only ones I know are here:
http://www.montana-zug.ch/en/the-institutbrmontana...
and
http://www.isoz.ch/index.php?nav=1
I had customers who had their children there, but I don't remember their
impressions.
Enjoy your stay overhere and welcome.
Rainer-CH (Graubuenden/Grisons)
Have a look here
http://www.ch.ch/private/index.html?lang=en
Zug is rather expensive due t low taxes ;-), but if you are working for an
international company, they should have the experience with so-called ex-pats and I gather I would rely on their infos,as a reference to their H.R.quality.
Rental and House Prices: very expensive (check your company's package)
Quality of life: high
Health System: excellent as are generally hospitals
Petrol: rather cheap compared to the UK :-)))
Roads: attractive
Traffic: sometimes horrible as anywhere depending on time
Speed-fines: depending on day-time and speed of course ;-))
careful within build-up areas,they do not like fast speeds
I would avoid too loud double de-clutching, explore that
on sinous mountain roads like the bikers do
Supermarkets: Migros,Coop,etc.good choice, some specialized shops,clean
Weather: rather grey in winter due to lake,
Schools might be a family problem. I would get some German lessons beforehand,
especially for your children, they might have some problems at first.Un-
fortunately I am not able to inform you about schools or international
schooling establishments, the only ones I know are here:
http://www.montana-zug.ch/en/the-institutbrmontana...
and
http://www.isoz.ch/index.php?nav=1
I had customers who had their children there, but I don't remember their
impressions.
Enjoy your stay overhere and welcome.
Rainer-CH (Graubuenden/Grisons)
Ross
Living and Working in Switzerland is well worth reading
Chiltern private client advice has been recommended to me before, because I am too poor for UBS Private Bank
Homegate for buying or renting property
Good look with the move to Switzerland, which I am also trying to make
Regards
Living and Working in Switzerland is well worth reading
Chiltern private client advice has been recommended to me before, because I am too poor for UBS Private Bank
Homegate for buying or renting property
Good look with the move to Switzerland, which I am also trying to make
Regards
Edited by madou on Friday 29th February 11:32
SWMBO and I moved to Switzerland last year, although as a result of a lifestyle choice and not job-related. We live in Vaud where the cost of living is definitely higher, but with a higgher salary, this is offset. I would hazard a guess that I have roughly thesame spending power as I did in the UK. As for the tcost of things you mentioned and a few others:
Fuel - Less expensive. 95 Unleaded is around 87p a litre
Food - Generally more expensive. £1 for a decent baguette. £4 for a couple of chicken breasts. £5 for a McMeal.
Lap Dancers - Forget it, prostitution is legal, so why bother with the intermediate fluff...?
Income tax - I pay approx 23% income tax here as opposed to being in the 40% bracket back in the UK.
VAT - 7.6% on most things, some cheaper.
Healthcare - £££'s but factor in you aren't paying 1% NI and it's OK.
Schooling - Pass. Lots of int'l kids though. They will be fine. Geared up for extra lessons etc.
Rental - We live in a brand new, high specification 100sq.m 3-bed apartment, two private garages, view of the lake etc. Approx £1700pcm incl heating and hot water. Zug is more expensive du to it getting a bit busy there as companies take advantage of favourable corporate tax rates.
As for noise limits. If the cops / immatriculation guys think your car is too loud, they have the power to jail you and/or throw you out of the country. You will get a warning unless you are really taking the pi$$. CH is actually very car friendly so long as you follow the rules. Be aware though that the vast majority of people here don't give a $hit about their cars or other people's. My Focus was dead straight when I bought it 3 months ago. It's now literally covered in dings and scrapes. Furthermore, driving standards here are very poor. You will see what I mean once you have been here a while and will never complain about the standards in the UK again (OK, maybe Bristol is an exception
).
Previously mentioned book excellent, as is "Xenophobes Guide to the Swiss" for light-hearted bog-reading.
PM me if I can help.
Cheers,
Roop
Fuel - Less expensive. 95 Unleaded is around 87p a litre
Food - Generally more expensive. £1 for a decent baguette. £4 for a couple of chicken breasts. £5 for a McMeal.
Lap Dancers - Forget it, prostitution is legal, so why bother with the intermediate fluff...?
Income tax - I pay approx 23% income tax here as opposed to being in the 40% bracket back in the UK.
VAT - 7.6% on most things, some cheaper.
Healthcare - £££'s but factor in you aren't paying 1% NI and it's OK.
Schooling - Pass. Lots of int'l kids though. They will be fine. Geared up for extra lessons etc.
Rental - We live in a brand new, high specification 100sq.m 3-bed apartment, two private garages, view of the lake etc. Approx £1700pcm incl heating and hot water. Zug is more expensive du to it getting a bit busy there as companies take advantage of favourable corporate tax rates.
As for noise limits. If the cops / immatriculation guys think your car is too loud, they have the power to jail you and/or throw you out of the country. You will get a warning unless you are really taking the pi$$. CH is actually very car friendly so long as you follow the rules. Be aware though that the vast majority of people here don't give a $hit about their cars or other people's. My Focus was dead straight when I bought it 3 months ago. It's now literally covered in dings and scrapes. Furthermore, driving standards here are very poor. You will see what I mean once you have been here a while and will never complain about the standards in the UK again (OK, maybe Bristol is an exception
).Previously mentioned book excellent, as is "Xenophobes Guide to the Swiss" for light-hearted bog-reading.
PM me if I can help.
Cheers,
Roop
RossMac said:
Have the opportunity to up sticks from the UK and move family to Switzerland (Zug) for a job and would like to hear from others who have done the same recently.
I have spoken with their HR consultant about general relocation things but would like an independent opinion/comment on generalaties e.g. general cost of living (fuel, food, lap dancers and all other essentials), local and federal taxation, healthcare (private coverage needed?), schooling (what are international schools like?), cost of rental and where to rent (would prefer house not apartment), tax benefits of buying (?), any bizarre laws on noise limits for a Chimaera with baffles removed.
The schooling is quite important. Kids are 7, 4 and 2. Would prefer to avoid an international school but the elder would struggle until German up to scratch nein?
cheers
Ross
I have spoken with their HR consultant about general relocation things but would like an independent opinion/comment on generalaties e.g. general cost of living (fuel, food, lap dancers and all other essentials), local and federal taxation, healthcare (private coverage needed?), schooling (what are international schools like?), cost of rental and where to rent (would prefer house not apartment), tax benefits of buying (?), any bizarre laws on noise limits for a Chimaera with baffles removed
.The schooling is quite important. Kids are 7, 4 and 2. Would prefer to avoid an international school but the elder would struggle until German up to scratch nein?
cheers
Ross
Hi Ross, just do it! We moved to Zug last September and absolutely love it. It would perhaps be a bit boring for single people but for those with families it is ideal. Drop me a line through my profile if you'd like to chat more. There is also another English Zug-ite on PH who has been here donkey's years and I can put you in touch. Another forum that can be helpful (but they seem a bit anti-car) is http://www.englishforum.ch
Housing is on the pricey side compared to England even, and apartments are much more common than houses. You've already been given the homegate web site, another is comparis.ch which aggregates from a number of the buying/renting sites. We'll be buying here but from what I've heard from local Swissies, the best stuff doesn't get advertised.
With a family I personally would look at one of the smaller towns/villages outside Zug (we are in Oberaegeri) - just that little bit more of a friendly helpful local community spirit.
Best of luck
Andrew
Housing is on the pricey side compared to England even, and apartments are much more common than houses. You've already been given the homegate web site, another is comparis.ch which aggregates from a number of the buying/renting sites. We'll be buying here but from what I've heard from local Swissies, the best stuff doesn't get advertised.
With a family I personally would look at one of the smaller towns/villages outside Zug (we are in Oberaegeri) - just that little bit more of a friendly helpful local community spirit.
Best of luck
Andrew
Hi Ross, We've been in Kanton Zug for about 6 years now. We spent the first few years in Zug itself and then moved to a smaller community about 15 minutes away a couple of years ago.
Some of this is repetition so I'll go in more detail on other topics. My answers reflect our experience of living in Central Switzerland which is quite different from the French and Italian parts. FYI prices quoted are in GBP.
Cost of living: More than the UK but the quality of life is significantly better in my opinion. You can walk freely around the city of Zug (About 25K people!) at anytime of the day or night and it's very safe. Kids travel to kindergarten on their own in small groups and you can happily leave the top down on the sports without any fear of damage. With the exception of the big cities this has been my overall experience in Switzerland.
Fuel: Cheaper.
Cars: A little cheaper on list but with fewer options as standard so about the same in the final analysis. The bigger insurance companies normally accept a UK no claims discount provided they have something in writing. Some companies will charge you more as a foreigner. Winterthur do not.
Food: More expensive, shops are smaller but the quality is very good. Germans always complain about the price of meat! As well as normal and organic you also have the choice of a locally/regionally produced foods. The Swiss are one step ahead of the UK on things like food miles and prefer to buy local, regional, national in that order.
Schools: Montana is to be avoided, reputation as a party school. Incidentally former US presidential candidate John Kerry attended Montana. The ISOZ has a better reputation, Riverside also has a good reputation. From memory, a colleague who sent his kids to Riverside and was paying between 12-15K per child depending on age. You'll need to check this as it was about 2 years ago. We don't have kids yet.
Many regular schools run catch-up classes for kids. Switzerland has high levels of immigration and not all kids are able to speak German or Swiss German to start with. I travelled the world young, and your kids are at just the right age to learn a new language and culture.
Healthcare: Your company are required by law to pay the basics which cover accidents at work and in your own time. As a foreigner you are required to pay for additional coverage for you and your family, they will chase you up to prove you have it. It works quite nicely because you can decide on how much risk you want to take. There is an excess system like car insurance in the UK. The more you pay before you claim the lower the cost. comparis.ch will give you a quote. In UK terms it's private in the sense that you pay for it directly. In local terms, loosely speaking, private and half private refer to whether or not you share a room in hospital. The system is very good in our experience and that of our friends. Excellent in fact.
Fun: A days skiing for a family of 4 would set you back around 200 quid plus equipment rental if you don't have your own.
Taxes. Every one is different as taxes also take in to consideration your personal wealth including assets like cars, art, jewelry, cash, stocks etc but you can make quite a few deductions like home maintenance and healthcare costs. If you get paid decent bonuses it's well worth trying to get an agreement. I managed this and basically if you pay in advance you can cap the total amount you pay. If you can't get an agreement you can still pay in advance and get a discount. As I said it's really difficult to give a precise figure, I also work in an unrepresentative industry. My wife works in the Pharma industry and hires quite a few UK expats so if you PM me I'll try and be more specific.
Housing: There is a general housing shortage in Zug and space is tight. Zug is pretty much the smallest full Konton in Switzerland so prices are high. As has already been said Apartments are far more common than houses. Building standards are much higher and people are more considerate of their neighbors so apartment living can work well and are often a good source of new friends for kids etc.
Buying is much better than renting - you can use the cost of your mortgage to offset your takes - but as AndrewD said you'll need contacts if you want anything desirable, it's never advertised. You do need to consider how much time you will spend here. The housing market is very different to the UK. You get solid and steady growth in general so if you only staying for a couple of years it might not be worth it. Zug has been quite good but the government has talked about intervening. There is no desire to see the kind of swings the UK market is used to.
We plan to hang around for quite some time so decided to buy. We got lucky after 2 years and moved in 2 years ago once it was built. Converse to the UK there is always a premium for new here. In a nice area with lake view within about 10-15 minutes of Zug a good sized family apartment will cost from about 800K and go up to about 2.5m depending on how many families share the house/building. Houses are more. If you are an EU citizen buying a house is quite simple, it used to be harder. We have second home in the Engadin and that was much harder and much more complex because in some places there are quotas.
For rents expect to pay upwards of 2K a month for something nice.
Working: You wife/partner will need to get her own permit if she plans to work. Childcare is expensive and hard to find. One of the advantages of the international schools is that they keep regular hours. Despite changes, kids often go to and return from school at different times depending on the day of the week.
I don't think I'm being controversial in saying that Switzerland is not really set up for a working couple with kids and is rather geared to a more traditional model.
TVR: You'll need to properly register the TVR after 12 months. You'll need to prep the car for CH and it may be best to do that in the UK. Cars that are not produced by mainstream manufacturers can be hard to import and certify.
I'm no expert on Blackpool's finest so a call to the importer would be best. http://www.tgeauto.ch/
Here is the webpage for the Strassenverkehrsamt http://www.zug.ch/behoerden/sicherheitsdirektion/s... who will let you know what needs to be done and how easy or complex it might be.
As for noise. You'll get pulled for the exhaust sooner or latter and it could be expensive. BMW have had a terrible time trying to homologate a couple of high performance models because their OEM exhausts were too noisy! The Swiss are in general very friendly towards nice and interesting cars but anything disrespectful or antisocial is clamped down on hard. Number plates belong to the person and not the car. That's important because unless your cars are registered to a company your name and address is printed in a book and available on the internet to anyone who cares to look. Nice for the pretty girl in front of you at the traffic lights but not if you just cut someone up!
Driving standards: I think Roop on is both right and wrong about driving standards. In big cities people will care less and take less care but driving standards in the German speaking part of Switzerland are much better than the UK in my experience. If you live in and around Zug you won't be driving to places like Zurich as the public transport system is just too good. Where I think he is right is in the French part and Ticino where people not only drive faster but less well.
General comments: We absolutely love Switzerland. We love sports and the outdoors; there are just so many great things you can do in your spare time. If your kids have an ounce of imagination they will love it once they settle down. The standard of living in most aspects is in our opinion much better than the UK. Yes there are more rules but most of them originate from having respect for your fellow citizens and although a little odd to Brits at first this makes a lot of sense once you have been here a little while.
This is very personal. Our only real gripe is that despite the Swiss taking more exercise and generally being healthier they do smoke a lot which can make going out a little unpleasant when there isn't a non smoking section. Things are changing but like most things here nothing changes for the good very quickly just as nothing changes for the bad quickly. Stability is key.
Zug is a great place to live. It's got a lot of beautiful spots, but isn't on the tourist trail like Luzern so it doesn't get too busy. Summers are warmer than the UK, and the seasons more defined. As Rainer said it can be a little grey in winter due to the lake. Zug is also a great location in so much as you can get to the National Park in the Engadin, Ticino, Italy and large parts of central Europe very quickly and have some beautiful roads to get you there. Zug also has excellent public transport and has very good incentives for you to use it.
It a very soft landing for individuals and families because the international companies bring a lot of international people and society is geared up to handle that. If you make an effort with the language then people will respond very positively indeed. There is a lot of wealth in Zug but unlike Zurich people seem much more cool about it and in my experience less arrogant. I think there is still some of the friendly farming culture still left in the people of Zug.
Sometimes people can feel a little overwhelmed with all of the 'extra' costs and the differences to the UK. Here the costs are more explicit, in the UK they are hidden in general income tax and NI. If you work for a good international company I'd be pretty confident in saying that you'll have a better quality of life and will be either neutral or better off financially. I've yet to meet an expat who is worse off and almost none of them want to back home.
This has turned out to be a little longer than planned. Fortunately I'm on vacation! If you have any questions just shout.
Greg.
Some of this is repetition so I'll go in more detail on other topics. My answers reflect our experience of living in Central Switzerland which is quite different from the French and Italian parts. FYI prices quoted are in GBP.
Cost of living: More than the UK but the quality of life is significantly better in my opinion. You can walk freely around the city of Zug (About 25K people!) at anytime of the day or night and it's very safe. Kids travel to kindergarten on their own in small groups and you can happily leave the top down on the sports without any fear of damage. With the exception of the big cities this has been my overall experience in Switzerland.
Fuel: Cheaper.
Cars: A little cheaper on list but with fewer options as standard so about the same in the final analysis. The bigger insurance companies normally accept a UK no claims discount provided they have something in writing. Some companies will charge you more as a foreigner. Winterthur do not.
Food: More expensive, shops are smaller but the quality is very good. Germans always complain about the price of meat! As well as normal and organic you also have the choice of a locally/regionally produced foods. The Swiss are one step ahead of the UK on things like food miles and prefer to buy local, regional, national in that order.
Schools: Montana is to be avoided, reputation as a party school. Incidentally former US presidential candidate John Kerry attended Montana. The ISOZ has a better reputation, Riverside also has a good reputation. From memory, a colleague who sent his kids to Riverside and was paying between 12-15K per child depending on age. You'll need to check this as it was about 2 years ago. We don't have kids yet.
Many regular schools run catch-up classes for kids. Switzerland has high levels of immigration and not all kids are able to speak German or Swiss German to start with. I travelled the world young, and your kids are at just the right age to learn a new language and culture.
Healthcare: Your company are required by law to pay the basics which cover accidents at work and in your own time. As a foreigner you are required to pay for additional coverage for you and your family, they will chase you up to prove you have it. It works quite nicely because you can decide on how much risk you want to take. There is an excess system like car insurance in the UK. The more you pay before you claim the lower the cost. comparis.ch will give you a quote. In UK terms it's private in the sense that you pay for it directly. In local terms, loosely speaking, private and half private refer to whether or not you share a room in hospital. The system is very good in our experience and that of our friends. Excellent in fact.
Fun: A days skiing for a family of 4 would set you back around 200 quid plus equipment rental if you don't have your own.
Taxes. Every one is different as taxes also take in to consideration your personal wealth including assets like cars, art, jewelry, cash, stocks etc but you can make quite a few deductions like home maintenance and healthcare costs. If you get paid decent bonuses it's well worth trying to get an agreement. I managed this and basically if you pay in advance you can cap the total amount you pay. If you can't get an agreement you can still pay in advance and get a discount. As I said it's really difficult to give a precise figure, I also work in an unrepresentative industry. My wife works in the Pharma industry and hires quite a few UK expats so if you PM me I'll try and be more specific.
Housing: There is a general housing shortage in Zug and space is tight. Zug is pretty much the smallest full Konton in Switzerland so prices are high. As has already been said Apartments are far more common than houses. Building standards are much higher and people are more considerate of their neighbors so apartment living can work well and are often a good source of new friends for kids etc.
Buying is much better than renting - you can use the cost of your mortgage to offset your takes - but as AndrewD said you'll need contacts if you want anything desirable, it's never advertised. You do need to consider how much time you will spend here. The housing market is very different to the UK. You get solid and steady growth in general so if you only staying for a couple of years it might not be worth it. Zug has been quite good but the government has talked about intervening. There is no desire to see the kind of swings the UK market is used to.
We plan to hang around for quite some time so decided to buy. We got lucky after 2 years and moved in 2 years ago once it was built. Converse to the UK there is always a premium for new here. In a nice area with lake view within about 10-15 minutes of Zug a good sized family apartment will cost from about 800K and go up to about 2.5m depending on how many families share the house/building. Houses are more. If you are an EU citizen buying a house is quite simple, it used to be harder. We have second home in the Engadin and that was much harder and much more complex because in some places there are quotas.
For rents expect to pay upwards of 2K a month for something nice.
Working: You wife/partner will need to get her own permit if she plans to work. Childcare is expensive and hard to find. One of the advantages of the international schools is that they keep regular hours. Despite changes, kids often go to and return from school at different times depending on the day of the week.
I don't think I'm being controversial in saying that Switzerland is not really set up for a working couple with kids and is rather geared to a more traditional model.
TVR: You'll need to properly register the TVR after 12 months. You'll need to prep the car for CH and it may be best to do that in the UK. Cars that are not produced by mainstream manufacturers can be hard to import and certify.
I'm no expert on Blackpool's finest so a call to the importer would be best. http://www.tgeauto.ch/
Here is the webpage for the Strassenverkehrsamt http://www.zug.ch/behoerden/sicherheitsdirektion/s... who will let you know what needs to be done and how easy or complex it might be.
As for noise. You'll get pulled for the exhaust sooner or latter and it could be expensive. BMW have had a terrible time trying to homologate a couple of high performance models because their OEM exhausts were too noisy! The Swiss are in general very friendly towards nice and interesting cars but anything disrespectful or antisocial is clamped down on hard. Number plates belong to the person and not the car. That's important because unless your cars are registered to a company your name and address is printed in a book and available on the internet to anyone who cares to look. Nice for the pretty girl in front of you at the traffic lights but not if you just cut someone up!
Driving standards: I think Roop on is both right and wrong about driving standards. In big cities people will care less and take less care but driving standards in the German speaking part of Switzerland are much better than the UK in my experience. If you live in and around Zug you won't be driving to places like Zurich as the public transport system is just too good. Where I think he is right is in the French part and Ticino where people not only drive faster but less well.
General comments: We absolutely love Switzerland. We love sports and the outdoors; there are just so many great things you can do in your spare time. If your kids have an ounce of imagination they will love it once they settle down. The standard of living in most aspects is in our opinion much better than the UK. Yes there are more rules but most of them originate from having respect for your fellow citizens and although a little odd to Brits at first this makes a lot of sense once you have been here a little while.
This is very personal. Our only real gripe is that despite the Swiss taking more exercise and generally being healthier they do smoke a lot which can make going out a little unpleasant when there isn't a non smoking section. Things are changing but like most things here nothing changes for the good very quickly just as nothing changes for the bad quickly. Stability is key.
Zug is a great place to live. It's got a lot of beautiful spots, but isn't on the tourist trail like Luzern so it doesn't get too busy. Summers are warmer than the UK, and the seasons more defined. As Rainer said it can be a little grey in winter due to the lake. Zug is also a great location in so much as you can get to the National Park in the Engadin, Ticino, Italy and large parts of central Europe very quickly and have some beautiful roads to get you there. Zug also has excellent public transport and has very good incentives for you to use it.
It a very soft landing for individuals and families because the international companies bring a lot of international people and society is geared up to handle that. If you make an effort with the language then people will respond very positively indeed. There is a lot of wealth in Zug but unlike Zurich people seem much more cool about it and in my experience less arrogant. I think there is still some of the friendly farming culture still left in the people of Zug.
Sometimes people can feel a little overwhelmed with all of the 'extra' costs and the differences to the UK. Here the costs are more explicit, in the UK they are hidden in general income tax and NI. If you work for a good international company I'd be pretty confident in saying that you'll have a better quality of life and will be either neutral or better off financially. I've yet to meet an expat who is worse off and almost none of them want to back home.
This has turned out to be a little longer than planned. Fortunately I'm on vacation! If you have any questions just shout.
Greg.
Edited by GregW on Monday 3rd March 03:37
GregW said:
PM me I'll try and be more specific.
GregTried to PM you but your profile isn't accepting emails.
If you catch this can you drop me a line on RJMconsult@gmail.com
cheers
Ross
sorry missed this threadre school
We moved to Zurich a couple of years ago, my son spoke no german but the local school still took him and gave him (and the other non german speakers) german lessons, he was fluent within 6 month (he was just 7 at the time). They made no allowances for his lack of german so he got school reports and marks as if he was a local child.
I can safely say its the best thing we have ever done, leaving the uk and moving here.
The pound is so weak at the moment as well which is a real bonus
I have to echo everything that has been said by others- moving to Switzerland has been the best thing I could have done! And it's nice to see the Swiss PistonHead contingent growing ;o)
A TVR in Switzerland would be interesting- there have been 2 or 3 LHD Chimeras for sale over here (a company in Zurich has converted a few) so obviously it's possible to get away with a nice loud V8.
I'm sure a TVR would be no louder than the Bugatti Veyron that drove down my road recently. Switzerland can be a supercar spotters paradise sometimes
A TVR in Switzerland would be interesting- there have been 2 or 3 LHD Chimeras for sale over here (a company in Zurich has converted a few) so obviously it's possible to get away with a nice loud V8.
I'm sure a TVR would be no louder than the Bugatti Veyron that drove down my road recently. Switzerland can be a supercar spotters paradise sometimes
Another quick warning re international schools, we looked at putting little smilerbaker in one, then got the list of fees,
Along with the actual yearly fee there was the registration fee, the application fee (non returnable, so if they dont accept you child you lose it), the trips fees, etc etc this list was huge and pretty much DOUBLED the yearly fee (this is in zurich), all the schools round this way where pretty much the same. You also had to pay all the fees upfront and they where non returnable, so make sure you are definatly staying before you fork out!! one school wanted 2 years up front.
It may be different here as there are lots of people here on short term secondments so the schools are cashing in.
Saying that the local school is so much better then schools in the uk.
Along with the actual yearly fee there was the registration fee, the application fee (non returnable, so if they dont accept you child you lose it), the trips fees, etc etc this list was huge and pretty much DOUBLED the yearly fee (this is in zurich), all the schools round this way where pretty much the same. You also had to pay all the fees upfront and they where non returnable, so make sure you are definatly staying before you fork out!! one school wanted 2 years up front.
It may be different here as there are lots of people here on short term secondments so the schools are cashing in.
Saying that the local school is so much better then schools in the uk.
As for the weather it is crap in Zug today (as from the window of the park hotel) I am not based in Zug but technically I shoul be. I think you will find will find two camps based on various people in the office comments. Either you will love it or hate it. As mentioned before it is very slow for a single person but with family and kids it is a stunning place compared to the UK.
bluesatin said:
As for the weather it is crap in Zug today (as from the window of the park hotel) I am not based in Zug but technically I shoul be. I think you will find will find two camps based on various people in the office comments. Either you will love it or hate it. As mentioned before it is very slow for a single person but with family and kids it is a stunning place compared to the UK.
Completely agreeBTW, how are you finding the 997TT? My wife wants one!
Weather is better today- looking at the station in meetings for the next couple of hours then off to Germany.
997 is a stunning car and significantly nicer and better car than the 996 x50. The price is the big issue at the moment as the 996 is nearly as good in some areas but as an everyday car I can't fault it.
GUy
997 is a stunning car and significantly nicer and better car than the 996 x50. The price is the big issue at the moment as the 996 is nearly as good in some areas but as an everyday car I can't fault it.
GUy
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