Merry Christmas to You

Photographed in Gruyères, Switzerland.

Chestnuts Roasting

Maybe this is a familiar sight on the east coast, but living on the west coast all my life I'd never seen "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" until our visit to Zurich in the winter.  There were chestnuts roasting on almost every street corner!

Review of Café-Restaurant Des Remparts in Gruyères

Café-Restaurant Des Remparts

If you're ever in the incredibly precious town of Gruyères in Switzerland and find yourself a little or a lot hungry, you have my recommendation to try Café-Restaurant Des Remparts, right on Rue du Bourg, the only street through the old town.  Gruyères is of course famous for its cheese, so you will definitely want to try Des Remparts's fondue.  Served with fresh bread and baby potatoes, it is creamy delicious.

We also tried an excellent soup - I believe it was asparagus cheese soup:

My daughter had croquettes that were very good:

The scenery out of the big picture windows of the town below and the low mountains is fabulous:

Below is the children's menu for your little ones:

Café-Restaurant Des Remparts is located at Rue du Bourg 19 in Gruyères, Switzerland.

Lovin' the Swiss fondue!

Photo Friday: Everybody Loves a Parade

For the last 12 years or so I've hosted an annual 4th of July parade for the kids in our little neighborhood.  It's probably time I passed the torch to someone else, as my kids are both teenagers now and are no longer interested in decorating their bikes with streamers and circling the tract.

Running into a local parade while on vacation, however, is one of my favorite travel accidents.  The costumes, the culture, and the audience of townfolk are all so endearing.

Portuguese cavalry parade in Lisbon.

Lisbon

Parade in Brugge, Belgium

Grainau, Germany

Grainau, Germany

Appenzell, Switzerland

Near Buckingham Palace in London

London

This is my Photo Friday link-up post to DeliciousBaby.com.

Do You Need Train Reservations?

I love the ol' hop-on hop-off days of train travel with a Eurail Pass in Europe.  Those were the days when you really only had to make a reservation on a train if you wanted a sleeper couchette.  Hop-on hop-off still exists in many European countries, but some, such as Switzerland and Spain, insist on seat reservations on all but small, regional trains.  It takes some of the spontaneity out of train travel.

What surprised me when traveling in Switzerland last winter was that seat reservations were not as necessary as I was led to believe.  We were traveling with a Swiss Pass and I had only booked seats on our two major travel days from Zurich to Adelboden and back again.  (And the cutest thing was that our Rail Europe travel agent had booked our group of 11 a whole car by having this paper sign taped to the windows!)  We took other long train rides (Frutigen to Gruyères, for example) and just simply boarded without reservations, no problem.

On a 2nd class train car in Switzerland.

In Spain this summer we didn't have rail passes so naturally got a seat assignment when we purchased our tickets, but it didn't seem to matter where we sat on the regional trains (Seville to Córdoba, for example).  In Portugal we took a few train rides out of Lisbon and didn't need seat reservations.

Certainly all high-speed trains such as TGV, ICE, Eurostar, Thalyes, AVE and others require seat reservations.  Even if you have a rail pass be sure to purchase (there's a surcharge) a seat reservation before boarding.

Another thing that's changed from "the old days" of European train travel is that there's not much difference between 1st and 2nd class cars anymore now that most seating is "bus style" as opposed to train compartments.  Sure, the seats are a little wider in 1st class, and we were shocked to be served a complimentary box of sushi, of all things, on a 1st class ride from Paris to Cologne.

And sometimes you just get lucky:  when my Girl Scout troop and I were headed to the Zurich airport for our flight home, one of our connecting trains was delayed.  A very kind Swiss train attendant knew we were nervous about catching our plane, personally led us to another train, and seated us in 1st class for the rest of our journey.  The girls felt very special!

Photo Friday: From All Over the World

This is a bulletin board at Our Chalet, one of the four international program centers for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, located in Adelboden, Switzerland.  Guests are invited to post something, usually a patch or neckerchief, from their home country or local Girl Scout troop.  Loved seeing so many countries represented there.

This is my Photo Friday link-up post to DeliciousBaby.com.

TschentenAlp in the Bernese Alps

Last year when I was searching for a potential gondola or cable car to ride up to a Swiss mountaintop, I needn't have looked much farther than our own backyard from where we were staying in Adelboden.  It doesn't offer views of the Jungfrau or Matterhorn or any other famous Alpine peak, but the ride to TschentenAlp was incredibly beautiful and very affordable (especially when compared to the ride up to Jungfrau, the "top of Europe," which costs 125 CHF - more than $125 - per person!)

Just a short walk up this village road
will get you to the TschentenAlp gondola.

The price of the TschentenAlp gondola is only 10 CHF per person under 16, and 17 CHF for adults.

Ticket booth for TschentenAlp.

Upon disembarking the gondola at the top, you can put your skis on immediately and ski to your first run (lift ticket prices are in another post), or you can rent sleds to take down the 1.3 mile toboggan run - it has a 975 foot descent.  Return quickly by chairlift and then try the 1.2 mile intermediate level toboggan run.  There's also night sledding by floodlight every Saturday.

The Tschentenalp sledding run.
Photo courtesy of www.tschentenalp.ch

Prices for sledding are:

Morning pass (9am - 12:30) 24 CHF for adults, 17 CHF for kids;
Afternoon pass (12pm - 4:30pm) 24 CHF for adults, 17 CHF for kids;
All day pass (9am - 4:30pm) 30 CHF for adults, 22 CHF for kids;
Night sledding 24 CHF for adults, 17 CHF for kids (or if you have a valid ski or sledding pass for that day, night sledding is only 10 CHF for adults and 5 CHF for kids);
25% off for groups of 10 or more and families of 3 or more!

Sled rental prices are:

All day:
30 CHF for an Airboard with helmet
15 CHF for a toboggan

The Skibock was invented
in Adelboden.

10 CHF for a Skibock

Half day:
18 CHF for an Airboard with helmet
10 CHF for a toboggan
5 CHF for a Skibock

Do you know what a Skibock is?  I had never seen one before, but it sure looked like fun to me.  It's a seat, with shock absorbers, mounted on a single ski.  I thought maybe I had never seen one because we don't live in a snowy climate, but I'm not sure many people have heard of these - they were actually invented in Adelboden!

If this is all too much activity for you and you'd rather just relax and drink in the majestic glory of the surrounding mountains on TschentenAlp, several choices are available.  There is a bar in a glass igloo a few steps from the gondola station:

Very cool igloo bar.

There is also the newly renovated Berghaus Tschenten Restaurant with a terrific panoramic terrace.  The restaurant offers daily specials, Argentinean barbeque, and a quality Swiss wine list.  Every Saturday night there's raclette and fondue.  A large children's playroom and an outdoor slide ensure fun for the whole family.  Berghaus Tschenten also offers overnight accommodations.

Cable cars to TschentenAlp in Adelboden, Switzerland.

Reunion Party

Ready to make Swiss fondue!

On New Year's Eve last weekend my daughter threw a Switzerland reunion party to celebrate our trip last year with her Girl Scout troop of eight girls to Our Chalet, the international program center for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in Adelboden, Switzerland.  Fortunately all seven girls were available to come over to our house and they spent the evening watching the handycam videos from the trip and recalling the good times.

Wanting to make the memories as authentic as possible, my daughter and I planned a full Swiss menu for the party despite having never attempted any of these dishes before.  We got lucky with the results, too, considering we pretty much just used the first recipes that popped up on Google for Swiss fondue, Glühwein, rösti, and crepes!

We used Gruyère cheese purchased from the supermarket (not readily available in every supermarket around here, I discovered!) for the fondue and dipped cubed French bread and baby potatoes.

I found a non-alcoholic recipe for Glühwein (mulled wine) that was quite tasty:

Rösti is really just hash browns with cheese.  What's interesting is that when we were served rösti in Switzerland it was more of a baked casserole, but in all the Google recipes I looked at the shredded potatoes were pressed and flipped in a frying pan with butter.  We tried it this way and it was scrumptious:

As for the crepes, I learned you don't need a crepe maker at all.  A frying pan works perfectly well.  The batter was simple and we even made it the day before and kept it in the refrigerator until we needed  it.  A little Nutella, whipped cream, and strawberries and the girls were in heaven.

Lastly, I made each of the eight girls a memory photo book as a gift.  I used Snapfish.com, but after taking a look at Shutterfly.com I think they might have more layout options and embellishments.  This being only my second attempt at creating a photo book though it's probably better that I stuck to the simpler design program.

Have you ever made a photo book on-line?  I'd be interested to know what program or service you used and if you recommend it!

Sylvester in Switzerland

Fireworks over Adelboden valley in Switzerland last year.

New Year's Eve is called Sylvester in the German speaking countries of Europe (as well as in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to Wikipedia) in honor of the saint and Pope Sylvester I whose feast day is December 31st.  

Europeans generally purchase fireworks to celebrate at midnight, and last year on New Year's Eve we were in Adelboden in the Bernese Oberland.

Fireworks for sale in Adelboden.

We went out to dinner at a Pizzeria Trattoria Alfredo that evening and then returned to Our Chalet for some festivities.

There was dancing:

And games:

 And food:

And Glühwein by a snow campfire.

Good times.

Frohe Weihnachten

Frohe good wishes to all this Weihnachten season!