Am not exaggerating, the effort involved made it seems like a major outing for me, and S was also exhausted after and slept till 6:30 pm! The first thing is the timing. We have to wait till A finishes her nap and then time it so that we are back for the kids lunch. Lunch has got stretched till 2:30 pm these days, since all outings end up happening only around 12 pm after A's nap. I put A down for an early nap in the morning, quickly prepared the kids lunch and got S and myself ready by the time A woke up, and we were out of the house by 11:30.
Its a ten minutes walk to the nearest tram station- Klusplatz. There's a bus stop just outside the flat connecting to Klusplatz but the bus is not stroller friendly- you have to climb steps to enter the bus, so someone usually has to help you to get the stroller in. And combine that with a 3 year old whom you're trying to ensure also climbs into the bus safely, and its going to be somewhat of a struggle if you're alone. So we decided to just walk it down to the tram station.
The tram is also not stroller friendly (some of the newer ones are, but this one was not) but people are quite helpful and even without me asking, a guy got up from his seat and helped me lift the stroller into the tram. The Bahnoffstrasse is like the main shopping street in Zurich, comparable to say Connaught Place in Delhi or Oxford Street in London. Distance wise it must be about 2-3 kms from Klusplatz, but all the trams and buses stop every 1 -2 mins (the stops are very close by) and it took about 15 mins to reach the Bahnoff stop. A was happy in her pram, and S was standing next to her and holding the pram so that it does not roll off.
We managed to do quite a bit of shopping in the Bahnoffstrasse- slippers for me, clothes for the kids and some sundry stuff. A was on best behaviour throughout, happy in her pram ,but S started getting bored by the time we reached the clothes shop and ran all over the shop while I was looking at the kids clothes. Half the time I did not understand what was written and had to ask someone for help and that took even longer. Finally after a shouting from me- she'd run out of sight , we left the shop and I promised her fries from MCDonalds if she would behave herself. We ate the fries in the park on the Bahnoff and A was let out of her pram and ran all around the park while S stuffed herself with fries. The weather was nice and it was better than sitting in the stuffy restaurant.
Fortified, we set out for grocery shopping in the shop in the Bahnoff railway station (which is the main railway station in the city). There's a very big grocery shop- Migros two flights below in the railway station which is also the only grocery shop open on Sundays in Zurich, but I didn't have the energy to find the lift and drag the children there so we went to the smaller pronto one on the ground floor. The effect of the fries wore off and S was quite restless to go home. She started running around the shop and at one point, while i was looking for something a lady pointed out that she'd taken a rope hanging from the shelf and was putting it around her neck! I quickly paid up and we went back to the tram station for the journey home.
There was a market inside the railway station- they have these once in a while where people come to sell fresh vegetables, bread, cheeses, sauces and many varied things but S was really restless and would not allow me to browse. Some other time I guess. But good we left then, on the way back S started troubling A in the tram by poking her and A got really irritable and wanted to get out of the pram. A couple more minutes and I would have had two wailing children on the tram. I somehow managed to make S walk back home from the tram station (sometimes she insists on sitting in the stroller but today she somehow realised that I would not have been able to manage carrying A and pushing her).
After we reached home, it took another hour to prepare lunch, feed A, urge S to eat and finally gobble down my lunch.
Quite a contrast to Bombay, where I would typically have left A with the maid, either gone when S was in school or taken her along with me, got driven in a car to the shop doorstep, driven back home and had lunch waiting on the table for me, and maids to feed the children!
That was more convenient for me, but I guess this way is more fun for the children.
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