I took this picture from our kitchen window this morning at about 7:30 a.m. The outdoor temperature was 0˚C/32˚F, the wind was howling, and the snow was blowing. Yes, that is an open window you see in the lower left of the picture. This window is open EVERY morning around this time for about five minutes, and the scene is repeated many times over around Switzerland. You might find it interesting to know that our rental contract stipulates that we are supposed to do the same thing during the cold months. Apparently, the concrete/steel/glass construction that is common in Switzerland lends itself to interior moisture build-up, and this can result in mold. Our property management company actually sent the residents a letter a few months ago which basically said that we are "required" to go around our apartment and open our windows for five minutes at a time each day in order to balance out the moisture.
Mrs. TBF and I often sleep with our bedroom window cracked open (it's rarely "Chicago" cold in Basel at night during the winter), and I consider that to be enough to allow the air to change in the apartment. I'll be damned if I'm going to go around the apartment opening the windows for five minutes at a time! And, I'm certainly not going to keep the windows open on a cold, blustery, and snowy day like to today - that's insane! Nope, not me. Today, I'm on complete lock-down!
So, other than the moisture issue, the other reason why the Swiss open their windows is that they love the frisch luft! Yup, Swissy loves him some fresh air! The colder, the better. Never mind the fact that we live in an urban area, there's a busy street right next to our building, and the "fresh" air is mixed with carbon monoxide, diesel particulants, and probably a multitude of other nasty things. I'm still not really sure how the Swiss are able to cope with the wind blowing into an open window for five minutes each day since they seem to have this strange belief that the wind is responsible for every ailment known to mankind.
Hey, what do I know? I'm sure Swissy has an explanation for that...like everything else. I guess "wind" and "fresh air" are two different things. Whatever...
The thing that really used to bother me was when I'd hear Swiss people complain about how much energy is wasted by "large American refrigerators". They'd usually complain (erroneously) about the fact that these refrigerators sit mostly empty (huh?) sucking energy day-in and day-out. Of course, the small Euro-refrigerators use so much less energy and are, therefore, so much better for the environment. Never mind that you have to go to the grocery store every single day because Euro-fridge only holds a day's worth of food, or you have to have several of them (we have three refrigerators and a chest freezer) to hold all your stuff.
Is opening your window every single day during the winter and letting all the heat escape really wasting less energy than having a big refrigerator?
What's the point of all this? Oh, I don't know...I guess I'm just saying that you do what you want to do, and I'll do what I want to do. Don't lecture me, and I won't lecture you.
I'm feeling better now having gotten that off my chest. I think I'll take a walk through our cozy (20˚C/45% relative humidity) apartment to the chest freezer and take out some kind of meat to defrost for dinner. Then, I'll go upstairs to the beer refrigerator and check the inventory to make sure that it's not mostly empty. After that, I'll come back downstairs and have me a little breakfast from the main refrigerator.
Oh...looky! A person in the building just put their bed linens on their balcony to air out. I guess that's another topic for a future post.
