Switzerland 9-13-09

Switzerland 9-13-09

I’m on a train leaving Switzerland after spending 12 days with my family, eating great food, croissants, lots of chocolate, and cheese fondue. It was so nice to see my parents and sister after being away for a couple months. I felt like I was back home in Florida with them all, expect for the gorgeous mountains, huge lake, beautiful flowers, vineyards, fields, and cows that were all over the place.

We spent the first day walking around the city of Vevey (where my sister and her boyfriend, Ben, live). We stopped at a little gourmet sandwich shop and ate our sandwiches while looking over Lake Geneva (one of the largest lakes in Europe). We walked into a few shops and boutiques afterwards and eventually made our way to the grocery store where we picked up some food for the next few days. We all went back to my sister and Ben’s apartment and made some Japanese styled stir fry and a nice salad. We all ate some Swiss chocolate for dessert and watched a couple movies before going to sleep.

On Wednesday we woke up early and drove about 40 minutes away to a hike in the mountains. The view was incredible and we were almost as high as the clouds (you’ll see in the pictures). Cows were grazing and the only noise we heard was the chiming ring of their bells placed on their necklaces. It was very peaceful. After walking for a couple hours we turned around and had our lunch (sandwiches and apples) while looking over the pastures, small cottage houses, and mountains. We went home and made some fruit smoothies, ate the best homemade (from Ben’s sister) peach/plum/apricot pie, relaxed for a bit, and then made a great American style dinner- grilled hamburgers (well, veggie burgers), mashed potatoes with onions and garlic, and a really good pasta salad. Luckily, my mom, sister, and I love to cook. We grew up cooking dinners together almost every night. So, it’s really nice to spend this vacation time together because we all cook together each night and help out with each other’s dishes. After dinner we had some more pie and then watch a movie before going to bed.

Thursday was the best! It was my dad’s birthday and we started the day off with a lazy morning. In the afternoon we drove about 30 minutes away to a thermal bath in Lavay. If you read my blog about the baths in Turkey, this was a gazillion times better than that! Switzerland has natural hot spring water and this bath used it all! When we walked in there were changing dressing rooms and lockers and then you shower before entering. The first pool was indoors and had fierce pressure jets all around the border of the pool. Each was at a different height (from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head) and it was great to get a fully body massage from them. Every hour the employees pass out floating pads in this pool and for 15 minutes you can lay on them and put your ears underwater to listen to classical music and ocean noises, which alternate back and forth. They played the sound of whales singing and after a few minutes of listening to that my sister and I starting imitating them above water. We were screeching- “eeeeeeeeeee”. Until we got a few dirty looks.

When the novelty of this pool wore off we walked outside to the other pools. This place was like a Disney land for adults. Fountains and spouts everywhere, a “lazy river” (that moved at warp speed) in the center, lounge chairs all around the area, recliners in the water to lay in that had a constant stream of bubbles coming up, there were spa rooms with saunas (with a strong eucalyptus scent), steam rooms, a freezer room that had crushed ice that would fall and it played sounds of penguins honking(?), and my favorite were these rooms called color rooms. The first was a room that was pretty much pitch black expect for these dark indigo, almost black-light colored lights. The room was full of recliners that laid all the way day and it was very relaxing to lie down and rest in there. The next room was one that changed from Blue to Red to Yellow to Green every 15 minutes. Each color represented a different feeling, blue was relaxing, yellow invigorating… and the music in the room changed with the colors every 15 minutes. When the yellow light was on and the room smelt of fresh watermelon, we were all wide awake. We were listening to sounds of flutes and classical music and it was an upbeat atmosphere. 15 minutes later the room turned deep blue and the music changed to ocean waves crashing, soft piano music playing, and birds chirping. In less than 5 minutes all 5 of us had completely crashed and were fast asleep. So incredible what colors in a room and music can do to you.

Three hours later, after feeling completely relaxed, we drove home, stopped at a grocery store to pick up some more groceries, and went home to make the best dinner. We made a pizza with fresh organic ingredients- mushrooms, black olives, red peppers, onions, tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano, and then drizzled some olive oil infused with roasted garlic on top. Amazing. We also had some pasta with a red wine tomato sauce and a nice salad. I love eating with my family. These are the best meals I’ve had in months! After dinner we had some chocolate of course and made it half way through a Woody Allen before we all fell asleep.

On Friday we walked downstairs to Lake Geneva (my sister and Ben live right on the gorgeous lake), and walked around the local markets. Each Swiss booth was selling antique pictures, furniture, kitchen appliances, dishes, silverware, 1950’s jewelry, and other unique items. After a couple hours we left and went to Ben’s sister’s apartment (Alene, who lives next door) and we spent some time with her and her husband, Olivea, and children playing games, eating, and talking as much as we could... they know a little English, my parents know a few words in French... but mostly Ben and my sister would translate back and forth). I played with the little kids, Victor and April, and mostly just said “bonjour” the whole time and made funny faces at them. Basically, we spoke the same language.

Olivea’ is a radio host in Geneva and is pretty well known, he is a music and movie guru so he gave us a few movies to watch and even had a CD made to give to the “American family”. We went back to our apartment watched a movie and called it a night.

Saturday we went to the Vevey market, which they have every week, and walked through the dozens of fresh fruit and vegetable booths. Every one was selling organic food they grew at home. Also at the market were people selling freshly baked bread, cheese, olives, chocolate… everything that’s good. I stopped at a precious stone/gem booth and got a stone from Peru called chrydocolle. I’d never seen anything like it before; it looks sort of like a turquoise stone except it has brown and gold colors in it too. After the market we had dessert bread by the lake and then went home to cook fajitas for dinner. We had freshly made guacamole, seasoned rice with corn, fresh tomato salsa, refried black beans, and delicious stir-fried veggies. I could eat like this every day.

On Sunday we went on a walk through the vineyards with Ben’s parents, René and Andrée. The view from up there of the lake and mountains was incredible and it was so much fun to stop and eat the green and purple grapes all along the way. I took a million pictures, but it was pretty hard to resist… every view was postcard worthy. After walking through the vineyards and a small town, we all stopped for coffee, cappuccinos, and hot chocolates at a nice restaurant/café. We were sitting outside looking at the lake when I heard saw my dad swat his hand at my mom’s arm and heard my mom screech. She got stung by a bee, for the first time, and didn’t know what to do. My dad got the stinger out and Ben’s mom told my dad he had to suck the poison out. It was so great... all 7 of us were sitting around watching my dad try to suck poison out of my mom’s arm. Glad I got a picture. My mom was okay, she kept some ice on the sting and we left the restaurant to head to Ben’s parents’ house.

They have apple trees, plum trees, fresh raspberries... their backyard is paradise. We snacked on some fruit while Ben’s mom, Andrée, prepared the raclette, a traditional Swiss style of making cheese fondue. We dipped potatoes, tomatoes, and olive bread in the cheese. It was delicious. Andrée also made a huge green salad and a beet salad and we ate that with our aged red wine. We were so full and satisfied afterwards; it was difficult to get up. After dinner we watched the Swiss soccer team beat Greece, which qualified them for the finals (can’t wait to be in South Africa for the World Cup!) and then Ben’s father, René, bought out a birthday gift to my father of a few very nice bottles of wine. I helped Ben’s mom make pear preserves on the stove and soon after we left to head back to our apartment.

In the morning we went on a hike with René through the Swiss forest and mountains. We were so high up and could see for miles. After the hike we went back to Ben’s parents’ house and had a great dinner with an even better dessert! Fresh fruit salad, (from Andrée’s garden), Swiss mint chocolate chip ice cream, and Swiss vanilla with soft caramel ice cream were just a few desserts on the table. Mmmmmm, so good! We also had a plum pie that Andrée made from scratch with the plums from her backyard and tons of chocolate and cookies. I think I should move here, right here to Ben’s parents’ house. After all the food we walked back to our apartment, watched a movie and went to sleep.

Tuesday we took 5 road bikes on a train to a city a few stops away. We road through the little town, through a small forest, and then to a huge open field which was abundant with crops and completely surrounded by immense mountains. A few hours later we were home and exhausted. We cooked up a large meal, ate some dessert, watched a movie, and called it a night.

On Wednesday we went into Geneva so Danielle could register for her Swiss Law classes. We did that and walked around the city for half the day. On Thursday (my parents last full day in Switzerland), we went back to the thermal baths and this time knew exactly what to do. Jet pool/whale singing pool first, steam room, large hot pool, lazy river, cool pool, laid out, sauna, ice/penguin room, and then the color rooms. We all left feeling so relaxed, it was incredible! We made a vow for the future to always visit these baths on the first and last days when we visit Switzerland!

My parents left on Thursday and I had a lazy day at the apartment figuring out some of my traveling plans... I had to decide where I should go after Switzerland. I decided on Paris and worked out the train schedule and started asking around to see if I would know anyone there. Turns out, a friend of mine from UF, Logan, just moved to Paris about a week ago to study abroad and he invited me to stay at his and his roommates’ apartment, which is in the center of the city, a 10 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower. Perfect!

On Friday, Danielle, Ben, his friend Yann, and I went into Lausanne to have a couple drinks at a beer bar and then we ate at a restaurant with a “messaging” theme. During the whole meal everyone in the restaurant writes notes to other people in the restaurant. The waitress comes around and delivers the messages for you, anonymously. It was so much fun because you can pretty much write whatever you want on a little note, and then it’s great to see the recipient’s face when they read it… having no idea who sent it to them. We had a really good time passing notes and even sent notes to each other at the table anonymously. Great food, great restaurant, great company, great success! After dinner we went to an underground bar that was once a wine cellar (built in the 1300’s) called Le XIII siecle. We had a nice table there for a while and when the bar was closing we took our train back to Vevey and fell asleep at our apartment instantly.

My last day in Switzerland, Ben, Danielle, Yann, and I went to the Lausanne University and played sand volleyball for a couple of hours. It was a really nice way to spend my last day there. After the games we headed back to Vevey, made dinner and I packed up my bag for my early train in the morning.

Left the house at 8:00am, waited at the bus stop for my 8:15am bus (which would take me to the train station to catch my 8:26am train)… at 8:20am my sister came running towards me yelling that, oops!- the busses don’t run on Sundays!! And I would miss my train if I tried to walk to the station. So, she flagged down a car and I had a couple Swiss girls drop me off at the train station just as the train was pulling into the station. Could not have been a closer exit! The train ride to Lausanne was smooth and then I switched onto my 4 hour train ride which took me directly to Paris. Another smooth train ride and here I am! I’m excited to spend a week here, explore, and see all the city has to offer. Time to drink some good wine, walk through historical sites, and l'explorez Paris.