We’d planned our entire Europe trip around a week in Zurich because James had a bunch of meetings at the Google office.
As soon as we checked into our hotel we walked a couple of minutes to Google to do our laundry – it was a lifesaver being able to wash our clothes midway during the trip. While we were waiting we explored the campus.
There was a slide in the cafeteria.
And a fireman’s pole in one of the lounges.
And a reminder that everyone in Switzerland speaks like, 5 languages.
There were also work pods made out of old ski gondolas. I guess the one on the left was garden themed and the one on the right was fruit themed.
Inclusive toilets! Mermaids, superheroes and aliens welcome.
More cool work pods and a very stylish alligator: 
One of the cafeterias:
There were also a ton of lounges. James said the pods and lounges aren’t really that heavily used in the offices he’s worked in, but the Zurich office was really overcrowded (until the new offices are finished I guess) so they were always packed.
I think this was called the Sky Lounge or something like that:
The James Bond lounge (don’t get too excited – the bottles were empty):
Though it did have a secret door.
We didn’t find it ourselves – someone showed James later.
Me: Ooh, what was behind the secret door?
James: More lounge.
=/
There was also a Star Wars room:
And a Western themed one:
With swinging saloon doors. This lounge ain’t big enough for the two of us …
I don’t remember the theme of this one, but it had a micro kitchen, slack line, climbing rope, basketball hoop and work pods. 
A Google office isn’t complete without the lego room and pool table. It’s hard to see but along the bottom of the display wall in the back there ws a trough spanning the length of the room with lego pieces you could use for your masterpiece.
A water lounge – intriguing! And vacant!
Ooooooh.
Oh, this was really cool. You could order groceries by scanning the QR codes on the wall and get them sent to the office.
I think the shopping trolleys are normally filled with snacks and fruits. In the back right you can also see one of the many Movenpick ice cream fridges scattered around the office. I always like looking through the snacks because they seem like a window into the local culture – in the Zurich office the snacks seemed to mainly be chocolate (usually Swiss, but some American brands too) or healthy things like dried fruit and nuts.
Drawers full of chocolate:
Oh yeah, and the bread! James had been told by one of his colleagues that one of the most memorable things about the Zurich office was how much bread there was. She said there were always bread knives and random loaves of bread lying around which, even on the weekend, was true.
This is the picture James took to send her lol:
But yeah, Zurich was one of the nicer Google offices I’ve seen. I’m glad we visited it on a Sunday afternoon when nobody was there so we got to explore it properly. And how convenient that we were able to do our laundry at the same time. =)
Diary of a Pampered Housewife 
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