Switzerland begins!

Switzerland was a much more relaxing pace than Italy had been. I alternated days of adventure-filled trips to different cities and days of lazing around Bern with my friend, Etel. Etel is my Argentine friend who was the first person I worked with at my last job and the person who introduced me to tango. Last summer she married her Swiss fiance, Adrian, in Las Vegas and they moved to a village just outside of Bern, Switzerland shortly after. She began intensive study of the German language, started working at a bilingual daycare, and then became pregnant with complications and had to stop all of her activities. I think having a visitor was a real treat for her, especially since her activities were so restricted, and just to have an old friend to share all of her excitement about her pregnancy. We had a wonderful time!

When we spent lazy days in Bern, we woke up when we felt like it (and when the church bells from across the street wouldn't let us sleep anymore--they chimed every 15 minutes all day and all night), had breakfast of fresh bread, honey, jam, espresso, juice, etc for hours as we chatted away. We took the bus and train into Bern (about 15 minutes), strolled along the streets from the new town to the old town, passed under legendary clocktowers, peered into the greener than green Aare River which loops around the town, stopped and had lunch somewhere, strolled some more, stopped and had a piece of chocolate or a coffee somewhere, went home, rested, cooked dinner, ate with Adrian, watched TV, went to bed. Ahh the life of luxury.

Switzerland is such an interesting country. After spending time in Italy I welcomed all the little signs everywhere telling you exactly how long it would take to walk from that point to another. There were trekking paths and bike paths everywhere, and regardless of where you were in the country--even right smack in the middle of Bern, the capitol city, you could see green space in the distance. The Alps were never too far off, though you couldn't see them if the air was hazy. Seeing so much green and open space is really refreshing. Somehow it made me feel like my lungs expanded further, and I could breathe all the way down into my toenails. Switzerland charges residents for trash pick up, but not for recycling. There are recycling drop-offs everywhere, and you can imagine how much more conscientious the people are there. They have all kinds of gadgets and gizmos in public places to ensure hygiene.

It is illegal to let your vehicle idle at red lights or anywhere else. You have to turn it off to reduce air pollution. They only raise happy cows and chickens (the kind that have space to roam, live on small farms, etc) for meat, eggs, milk, etc rather than the mass production we employ in the US that often means a poorer quality for us since the animals are kept in poor conditions. Etc, etc. Interesting country.

Adrian's parents live about 3 blocks away from Etel and Adrian and are just as doting as Swiss parents-in-law could be. They don't speak a word of English, and German is a MUCH bigger stretch for me than Italian was, but that didn't stop them from making sure I had the best possible time in their country. My first trip out of Bern, Adrian's dad Fritz, drove Etel and me to the town of Emmental. Yes, that is the town where Emmentaler Swiss cheese comes from! The whole drive was nothing but green rolling hills, the occasional village perched in the distance, and happily grazing sheep and cows. We toured the cheese plant, which was just one room with a few things of cheese-making equipment inside. We toured the old house where they still make one kind of cheese in a huge kettle over an open fire. Then we sat down to brunch--coffee, croissants, a plate full of all kinds of cheeses to try, and rosti--the Swiss version of hash browns. We ate and ate and ate. All the cheeses were good except the goat cheese, but I didn't eat that one.

When we'd had our fill, and I mean our FILL--we could hardly breathe for how full our stomachs were, we got in the car to drive back. Fritz chose the scenic route as I snapped scenery pictures from the back seat. Fritz found this amusing. He decided to make a detour to the Kambly factory, home of a brand of well-known Swiss cookies and chocolates. When we got inside there was aisle after aisle of half-kilo bags of different shapes and sizes and flavors of cookie. Every single variety had a basket filled with samples sitting next to it. How could you not go row by row sampling them all? We had no choice, but we really thought we were going to be sick. They were all good, despite the fact that we had vowed only 30 minutes before to never eat again.

We drove a little further and came to a beautiful, tiny, old wooden church from the 1500s. Everything inside was carved out of a light-colored wood, and someone had taken care to decorate it with fresh sunflowers. The organ was beautiful, too, and Fritz said that people come from all over Switzerland to be married there.

Last stop of the afternoon was back in Bolligen at Fritz and Maria's garden plot. They had sunflowers, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, raspberries, carrots, herbs--all kinds of overflowing from their little garden plot. Each plot also had a little shed and a cement patch outside of the shed. Fritz and Maria had a table and chairs set up on their cement patch and inside the shed, in addition to gardening tools, was a portable cook stove and utensils. It felt like we had just joined Peter Rabbit in one of Beatrix Potter's books as we pulled out the utensils and set the table for afternoon tea. Grossly exaggerated facial expressions, gestures, and lots of laughter made communication with Fritz and Maria no problem. By this time some of our appetites had returned, so we took advantange and snacked on fresh raspberries and cherry tomatoes.