T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
If there’s one thing the German-speaking world does right, it’s Christmas time. Christmas markets pop up everywhere selling lots of things you don’t need. Glühwein (hot, spiced wine) becomes available on every street corner, as do roasted chestnuts, to warm you on cold days. Twinkling little lights hang above all the shopping streets (OK, the … Read more
8. The smell of the air – seriously, doesn’t fall smell good? 7. Glühwein has started to show up everywhere (you will be hearing a lot about this stuff in the coming months). 6. Beautiful leaves 5. Break out your fondue pot and raclette grill – it’s open season on melted cheese! 4. Roasted chestnuts … Read more
Fellow blogger Ali and I (and our husbands) spent the afternoon checking out Expovina (see here for a little info in English). In case you missed my post about the spring edition of Expovina, here’s a brief overview of the idea: you pay CHF 15 apiece to get into a giant wine expo, where you … Read more
How is it possible that I’ve gone this long without ever writing a post about Swiss chocolate? As we all know, Switzerland is The Land of Chocolate. Its claim to fame amongst the other Lands of Chocolate (Belgium, Germany, Holland, etc.) is that milk chocolate was invented here. Makes sense, given all the milk-producing they … Read more
Without Halloween and Thanksgiving to hold it back, Christmas merchandise apparently starts running wild as soon as the leaves on the trees start to turn. Are there really people out there who stock up on chocolate santas two and a half months in advance? While completely immune to the charm of chocolate santas (especially milk … Read more
If you’ve ever been to Interlaken, you have probably noticed the bizarre-looking complex of buildings that you pass on the train on your way out of the city that houses Mystery Park. Founded by an eccentric Swiss millionaire, the park consists of seven pavilions which explore great mysteries of the world such as Stonehenge and … Read more
This past weekend we enjoyed that quintessential Swiss experience, the cow festival. These are celebrated in small farming towns all over Switzerland at the end of summer, when the cows are brought down from their summer grazing spots in the mountains. This particular fête désalpe (which as far as I can tell is French for … Read more
For best effect, turn speakers up as loud as possible. Read all about our adventure at the Swiss cow parade.
Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed north to the Rhine Falls (Rheinfall in German). It’s one of those places that has been on our we-should-get-around-to-going-there-someday list for quite a while, so the trip gave us a nice sense of accomplishment, too. We took the train to Schaffhausen and wandered around … Read more
How do I know fall is here? The Wild [German for ‘game’ – the kind you eat, not the kind you play] menus posted outside almost every single restaurant in Zurich told me so. Despite the title, even vegetarians like me can rejoice in these seasonal culinary offerings. Good restaurants offer at least one fall … Read more