In Zurich Switzerland

Hey all. A little catch up post with pictures because I’m back to my laptop in a hotel room. Today I took three trains to get from Courtepin (Jeremie’s village) to Zurich.

• Courtepin -> Fribourg: uneventful train ride.

• Fribourg -> Bern: Stopped in Bern and saw the Parliment building. Remember: Bern is the capital of Switzerland.

• Bern -> Zurich: Cool two level train with a first class section. so quiet and goes super fast.

The funny part to me is taking three trains between a tiny village to a major center is WAY less complicated then taking the C-train from my house to downtown in Calgary….hmmmm.

Anyway, Zurich is pretty massive and pretty cool. Haven’t really seen all that much but walked along the river (basically the Ottawa Canal equivalent…which, doesn’t help you at all if you haven’t been to Ottawa). It looks like a really really cool place to visit during the summer. Here’s a picture of Zurich. Tomorrow I’m hoping to grab a picture or two of the lake (too hazy today).

—- Rewind (only for relevant or funny information) —-

Day 1 – Switzerland. We went to this Engineering open house thing at Jeremie’s school. It’s basically an open house till 10-11 and then a party afterwards. Anyway, there were some people serving Raclette. Raclette is a super famous Swiss thing. Basically, Raclette (that’s the type of cheese and the name of the dish) is grilled cheese scrapped onto a plate served with boiled potatoes. Anyway, I’m in the line and notice that every is talking French. So I decided to try and talk to these guys.

Jeff: “so this is my first Raclette ever!”

I get looks of complete and utter horror.

One guy: “Well, how long have you been in Switzerland for?”

I respond

“About 4 hours”

Apparently that was ok. So here’s a picture of Raclette cheese and a Raclette machine.

Second funny story. So, Terri mentioned that I’d eat lots of bread while I was in Switzerland. She was right… lots of bread. Anyway, we were in this restaurant and a guy came into the restaurant and was speaking French to the waiter. And I heard “Machine au Pain au droit” which translates to “Bread Machine to your right”. I’m wondering. What is this guy talking about? So the next day as we’re driving by the same location I spot this bread machine. It’s a bread vending machine! How awesome is that? Too bad they were sold out though.

Finally. The Matterhorn is simply breathtaking. WoW! The pictures just don’t do it justice!

ps. Keep the comments coming. I love reading them.