Swiss chocolate, Swiss Alps and Swiss sunshine

Apr 12/07

I was very sad to leave Salzburg, it was a beautiful town that I really enjoyed. But we were off to Switerland. The train ride was beautiful, following the Alps through western Austria and eventually arriving in Bern late in the afternoon. AND the train was beautiful, we had our own cabin, with leather seats, and really clean windows (our wants are simple).

Bridgette's friend, Corrine, lives outside of Bern, in a small town called Dotzigen. She picked us up in Lyss, and drove us the last 10 mins. Corrine was wonderful, we had a great visit with her. The first thing we got to do was laundry, and I was very glad to get clean clothes. It was late when we arrived, so we just walked around town for a bit, and streached our legs.

We were very excited to spend the evening on the sofa watching a movie. Simple pleasures.

Apr 13/07

We slept in and then got dress in fresh, clean clothes and headed out. We took a train from Dotzigen to Lyss and Lyss to Bern and Bern to Luzern. In under 2 hours, we were halfway across the entire country. We spent a few hours in Luzern. We visited the statue of a lion that was carved from the cliff face to commemorate the mercenaries in a war (for a neutral country, they had  alot of mercenaries). Wandering through town, we also bought icecream...it was the WORST icecream I've eaten in all of Europe, so bad I threw half of it out. Guess I've been spoiled.

We crossed over the famous covered bridge (I guess it's famous) and saw the Prison tower (also famous). There was artwork from the early 1700's on parts of the bridge (those parts that didn't burn down).

We hopped an afternoon train back across the country, and got home in time for dinner. We had another quiet evening with another movie. It was great.

Apr 14/07

Corrine had the day off, so she took us to Lyss and we went shopping. It was great fun, and we even bought groceries (I had a craving for brownies, so I bought a box of mix...more on this later).

Corrine is a hairdresser, and had an appoinment in the afternoon, so we went with her to visit her friend and watch the hair cuts. It was good they had a nice deck with a sunshade, since it was close to 30C again and I was melting.

After the hair cuts, we went out for icecream (and I had salad...a very good salad). Then we went home and got ready to go out for supper with another of Corrine's friends. We went to a local restaurant/bar and I had a local delicacy, rosti, which is like hashbrowns with bacon, tomatoes and cheese on it. Very good. We went into the bar area after dinner, until the creepy guys at the next table started taking photos of us with their cell phones...definately a clue that it's time to go.

Apr 15/07

Today, I got to travel alone. I went to Zurich to visit my cousin, Erica, and her family. We met at the train station, and I was happy to see she had brought her kids, as I had had a moment of panic when I realised I had no idea what she looks like (last time I saw her was when I was about 10). Her husband, Marcus, and her 3 girls (Siena, Tavyn and Raya...sp??) Since it was Sunday, almost everything was closed, but we wandered along the river bank to the lake, where we could feed the ducks (Siena is 4) and then had lunch close by.

On the way back to the train station, we got to watch a parade. Apparently, the 16th of April is a festival in Switzerland, where they burn a snowman to see when spring will arrive. Seeing as I was wearing a skirt and it was close to 30C, I think they were behind this year. But the parade was part of the festival. There were groups of kids wearing costumes from each era of history...starting in 1100. By the time 1750 walked by, we'd been watching for over an hour and the twins were getting cranky, so we called it a day.

I caught the train back into Dotzigen and met up with Bridge and Corrine who had spent the day at the lake. I decided to make up the brownies for dessert, but couldn't seem to get the conversion from 0.5dL to mL correct and ended up adding 500mL, instead of 50mL. It was a bit liquidy, so we added extra cocoa, bran flour (more healthy) and sugar to even it out. Oh, and a chocolate bar...just because you can never have too much chocolate. Then we had to find another pan to bake it all in, since there was a lot more batter than expected. After a lot of laughing, we got them baked, and they tasted just fine.

Apr 16/07

We had one last incredible day in Switzerland. Again, we took the train across the whole country, to Interlaken. It's a beautiful little town nestle at the base of a few mountains, between 2 lakes (get it, Interlaken...between lakes). We got off the train and wandered down main street towards the tourist info (the first stop in any new town). By the time we acutally got there, they had closed for lunch, so we decided to copy them. Lunch was...pizza (I know, I'm not in Rome any more, but it's still good). When we finally did get into the tourist info, we found out that we could use our rail passes on a cruise of the lakes, but the last one left in 1/2 hour. So, we quickly wandered the rest of the main street and hopped onto the boat. I would have liked more time there, but the lake cruise was beautiful. It was hot and sunny, and we were invited to sit on the top deck because of our first-class train tickets.

Back in Dotzigen, I got a really bad headache and had a nap. Corrine and Bridge made a wonderful dinner of kebabs, and salad, and we had a quiet evening, watching yet another movie.