Part two of the Quest for a new identity card

It was a misty morning, as usual in my part of the country. We have a river nearby, the River Aare and on Autumn mornings it shows its presence. Today was the day of going to the local council office to apply for my identity card. I went to work at seven in the morning as usual and arranged to come home at nine so that me and hubby could go to the local town hall. We don't really live in a town but a small country village, and we don't have a hall but just borrow the school house if you need a big room. We walked from our place to the local offices - just five minutes. Our council office is now at the back of the local village restaurant, sort of a larger sized living room. I was very impressed, as there was even a toilet there.

Hubby and I were greeted by name as if we were old friends. The lady in charge is naturally also from the village. She had everything ready for us and just needed photos and my signature on the document. She was very friendly and it was more like a village get together than an official act. She even told us why they had such a modern toilet. When they fitted out the office, the toilet was supposed to have been somewhere on the first floor. This meant that the person in the office (there is very rarely more than one person on duty) would have to leave the office to accompany visitors if wanting to visit the toilet, so she said it should be in the same office as she worked. That is village logistic. Otherwise everything went well, I paid my seventy francs and my hubby and I were informed that we should receive our identity cards in about a week. She was almost apologetic that they might not arrive together. I mentioned that I thought it would take longer but she said when they developed the new card (which is fifty swiss francs dearer that the last one) it did take six weeks at the beginning, but now it goes much quicker. They probably had to practice a bit to get into the routine.

I walked back home with hubby and afterwards drove back to work. Oh, and here is a photo of our council office entrance. No long corridors, just a small room inside. Looks like the postman had left something outside the "office".