One year in Switzerland!

That's right, we made it through week 52.  We have now been living in Switzerland for one year.  To celebrate, we went out to eat at an organic restaurant in the woods, l'Aubier, west of Neuchatel.  It was quite good.  K had an excellent lamb dish and a cauliflower soup, and M had chickpea fritters.  We had tasty Barbera wine with dinner and finished the meal with a dessert of moelleux au chocolat (chocolate lava cake) with pink peppercorn ice cream.  Delicious.

Across the Limmat in Zurich

This weekend we were planning to "go somewhere" because it is a four-day weekend due to Neuchatel Independence Day.  However, since we've been here a year, it means that it's time to renew our residence permits.  When we handed our permits to the office worker at the Controle des Habitants, we were told that the process will take longer this year.  We have to set up an appointment with some other office to get our biometric data taken.  Of course, we can't just set it up; we have to wait until we get a letter in the mail. We make the appointment, go to the appointment, and then we wait again to get another letter in the mail that says that we can go back to the Controle des Habitants to pay for our permits.  (We're not clear if we need to wait for another letter in the mail with our actual permits, but we think that's what happened last time.)  SO...long story....they kept our permits and said we can't leave the country until we get our new permits.  IF we do need to leave the country for an "emergency", we need to talk to the immigration office to buy re-entry visas (50 francs each).  Therefore, we can't "go somewhere" this weekend.  Ah, Swiss efficiency bureaucracy.

Zurich's Fraumünster

Instead of going "somewhere", we decided to visit Zurich for the first time.  Although Zurich is not the political capital of Switzerland, it is the largest city in Switzerland and is considered by some to be the country's cultural and financial capital.  We decided to take the train from Neuchâtel to avoid having to deal with traffic or parking.  Our first stop in the city was the Landesmuseum, or Swiss National Museum, located behind the Hauptbanhof train station.  The Landesmuseum is like any of the various folk art museums we've visited, but on a grander scale and with some other exhibits.  The permanent exhibits included Swiss furniture, pottery, clothing, and weapons, as well as various religious relics and works of art.  There was a large room on the history of Switzerland through many, many centuries that was quite interesting.  All in all, a good way to kill time since it was raining outside.

After the museum, it was time for lunch, so we walked south down the Limmat River, then west in search of Zurich's vegetarian restaurant Hiltl (also self-proclaimed as Europe's oldest vegetarian restaurant).  We ate in the bar, making our selections from the giant buffet.  You pay for your food by 100 grams, which is a little depressing at a buffet because 1) it's harder to sample things and then go back and eat what you want and 2) you don't want to really see the weight of the food you are about to eat (Actually, K was rather proud of the mass he consumed!).  Regardless, we ate well and were quite stuffed at the end of the meal, which included a variety of Indian dishes.

Zurich's Kunsthaus

After lunch, we walked back towards the river, visited the Fraumünster and then went in search of Zurich's fine arts museum across the Limmat.  The Kunsthaus had a decent collection of old masters and modern artists.  Favorites included works by Monet, Dali, Munch, and Van Gogh.  

Monet's "Le Bassin aux nymphéas avec iris"

After the art museum, we walked to the Grossmünster, which was supposedly founded by Charlemagne.  There is a large 15th century statue of Charlemagne in the cathedral's crypt.  From there, we ambled back to the Hauptbanhof to catch the train back to Neuchâtel.

Since we have reached our one year milestone, we would like to take the time to reflect on some accomplishments from "Switzerland, Year One":

• We, collectively, visited 8 European countries (Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Italy, and The Netherlands).  This list includes all countries that border Switzerland as well as some "bonus" countries.  Highlights included some of the most amazing museums, best beers and wines, the most velvety chocolates, and some of the oldest examples of Western architecture. 
• We can name some saints and identify an Annunciation of the Virgin at a glance
• We've visited at least 11 cities in Switzerland (Neuchâtel, Bern, Geneva, Fribourg, Grindelwald, Murten, Yverdon, Bienne, Basel, Montreux, Zurich).
• We have become functionally literate in a second language (French).  
• We've scheduled doctor's appointments and dentist visits.
• We've obtained residence permits, driver's licences, parking permit, and library cards. (But, as noted above, we've lost our residence permit...)
• We found an apartment and a car. 
• We've expanded our music collection with some French rock/pop artists.  Very dance-able!
• We survived confetti-crazy Fête des Vendanges.
• We went skiing/boarding in the Swiss Alps.
• We found most of the foods we normally cooked back home in the states (including tempeh this past weekend, almost 30 CHF/kilo!). 
• We overloaded on fondue.

Here are goals for year two:

• Visit Spain, Ireland, and Greece for the first time.  Go to Oktoberfest in Munich.
• M would like to take more cooking classes.
• K would like to take advantage of our close proximity to the lake, e.g., sailing, wind-surfing, etc.
• Increase our French vocabularies and be able to carry on a 10+ minute conversation in French.
• "Figure out" French and Italian wines.

Also, we'd like to take the opportunity to thank our readers, which include both family and friends.  We hope that you've enjoyed the blog so far.  We'll try to keep up the adventures so we have enjoyable stories to share with you.  

Weeks 50 and 51-Les macarons et le Château de Chillon

Last weekend, we continued to be mostly homebodies, but we did make our trip down to the lake to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. It seemed like all the residents of Neuchâtel had the same idea. The lake shore was full of couples and families out for a stroll.

During the week, M attended a cooking class with one of the colleagues with whom she had gone to Amsterdam, Lindsay. The subject of the class was macarons, the little brightly colored sandwich cookies you see throughout Europe. (This year, macarons are also supposed to be an upcoming trend in the US as well.) The class was taught all in French by a patissier. This guy was surrounded by nine chatty women that had signed up for the class; I'm sure it was trying for him, but he seemed to keep his cool. Macarons are made from a base of sugar, egg whites, and powdered almonds to which colorant and flavorings may be added. We made 4 flavors in the 3 hour class: chocolate, pistachio, passion fruit, and "fraise tagada", which is apparently a strawberry-shaped candy available in France; my favorites were the chocolate and the pistachio. We made the base for the cookies, which was a meringue to which the almonds and powdered sugar were added. The base was piped onto cookie sheets, allowed to dry, and then baked. Then we made the fillings, which were all butter creams except for the passion fruit, which was more of a jelly. At the end of the class we got to take a small box home with the macarons we had made during the class.

This weekend we knew rain was forecast on Sunday so decided we better get out on Saturday. We decided to go to the town of Montreux on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva. This is the same Montreux known throughout the world for its jazz festival which takes place in the summer.

We started the day with a stop at the Château de Chillon, made famous by Lord Byron's poem "The Prisoner of Chillon". Some form of the castle has existed for almost 1000 years, and the castle has changed over time from being a residence of the counts of Savoy, to a fortress and arsenal of the Bernese bailiff to a Vaudois government building and prison. Today, the castle is a historical monument and museum. The castle is quite large, full of stair cases and "secret" passages. It took us over 2 hours to walk through the whole thing. It was impressive. The only complaint is that unlike in the "old days", there were no fires going in any of the fireplaces, so it was really cold. A visit to the castle is probably better suited to a warmer spring or fall day. Or if we come again in the winter, we know thick socks and gloves are a necessity.

After the castle, we ate lunch at a bistro in Montreux. Then we walked through the town, primarily down by the lake. The surroundings of Montreux are gorgeous, similar to Neuchatel, but a little more dramatic. The mountains on the other side of the lake are much closer, and there are also snow-kissed mountains to the east of the city. The lake was beautiful, and there were flowers planted along the wall next to the lake. The presence of palm trees along the lake was kind of funny, given how cold it was, but they're what lend credence to the area being known as the Swiss Riviera.

To end the day in the Swiss Riviera, we headed to the wine-growing region of Lavaux. We went to the Lavaux Vinorama where we tried some local wines.

Lessons learned:
1) 1,000 year old castles are drafty and don't have central heating. It seems that the castle-residents of yore felt the same way; one room was called "the old stove room" and another was "the new room next to the large stove".
2) The dough for macarons is called maccarone. All macarons, regardless of flavor, are made with almond powder. Macaroons, by the way, are completely different; they are the cookies made with coconut.

3) Besides palm trees, the Montreux Riviera has numerous topiaries. The communal gardeners have formed camels, ostriches, bears, monkeys, a vulture, an owl, etc along the lakeshore.

Weeks 45 to 49- Work, work and more work (and trips to the US)

Sorry to anyone sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for the next installment. The last month has been quite busy with work. The big excitement for January was overlapping business trips to the US. M had a multi-state (GA and NJ), week and a half long trip, and K had 5 days in Texas.

While scheduling supplier visits in Georgia, M was able to take advantage of the opportunity to also visit family and friends (as well as to do some shopping). She spent most of the time with her parents (who were nice enough to lend her the use of their car for the trip), and also got a chance to see some extended family, which included her grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousin. She enjoyed getting to see them and talk about her time abroad. She was also fortunate to be able to spend an evening with friends, Charlotte and Buck. (Although due to the wintry weather conditions, she had a bit of an adventure navigating through their neighborhood.) After a week in Georgia, she flew to Newark, which was also in the grips of a winter storm, for additional work.

In Newark, she had a delicious dinner and captivating conversation one night with Flannel/Eric and his family. The next night was dinner with an old highschool/college friend, Cindy, who had just had a baby. M was lucky to be one of the first people to get to visit with the new little one.

During her US trip, M really tried to take advantage of being home, which included trying to fill up on good Mexican and Thai food, as well as shopping for some clothes, where the prices are not only lower than Switzerland, but the sales staff speaks English making for a significantly less stressful shopping experience.

The first weekend that M spent in the US, K tried to take advantage of some unseasonably warm CH weather by going biking near Lake Neuchatel. Unfortunately, it turned out to be foggy by the lake so most of the ride was chilly and damp. And, of course, after being out of bike-seat-riding shape, he was a bit sore when he had to sit on the plane the next morning.

Compared to M's US experience, K, unfortunately, was not able to profit as much from being stateside. The extent of his movements were really between the airport, hotel, manufacturing plant, and a restaurant. When he did try to get dinner on his own without a car, he was thwarted due to the fact that Irving, Texas (or at least the area around his hotel) was not designed with pedestrians in mind (a huge change from Neuchatel).

Since the US trips, we've both been buried in work, though we do get out for some weekend walks.

Just this past weekend, K went on the company ski day. M decided to stay home to prevent from "making a fool of herself in front of coworkers". (She got to teach this phrase to one of her co-workers as well as the complementary "to make a fool of someone else".) All week at work, people were forecasting a ski day without any snow, but it wasn't the case. While there were a few spots where the snow was thin, and other spots where it was just ice, there was plenty of white-stuff on the mountain. Being in the Alps, the views were tremendous. The slopes were, in general, better groomed than what we experienced last year in Grindelwald, but still much rougher than what we were used to in Tahoe.

After a full day on the slopes (including the obligatory wipe-out or three), K headed to the thermal baths. Two outdoor, in-ground, 4ft deep, medium-sized swimming pools, heated to bath-water temperature and crammed full of people. The air was near-freezing, so the goal was to expose as little skin as possible out of the water. After an hour in the baths, some of the kinks from the aforementioned snowboarding-crashes were soaked away.

We were then treated to a Raclette dinner, with a variety of local cheeses being melted and scraped onto our plates paired with potatoes, onions and pickles.

Below is picture of the Alps from across Lake Neuchatel this weekend.


Lessons learned:

1. There is a Swiss Cannabis energy drink available in the local supermarket. (This doesn't seem very Swiss-like. It is something I'd expect to see in Amsterdam, however.)
2. Practically nothing we signed up for last year renews itself automatically (e.g. the parking permit for our street), so we keep finding things have expired. I'll ask again...how are the Swiss known for being efficient?
3. Demi-sang oranges are a hybrid between blonde oranges (i.e. good old orange-colored oranges) and blood oranges. They are apparently in season now, and have been enthusiastically welcomed into our pantry.