Switzerland

I married into a family who thinks traveling is like breathing:  It's just done.  I, the ever-easy-going person that I am, play along for the sake of family harmony.  So when it was decided a girls trip to Switzerland was happening in October, and I was asked to go along, I did my sister-in-law duty and went along.  You know, for family harmony and all.

Leeda's friend, Gunilla, lives in France, just outside of Geneva.  We all flew in at different times (Leeda went a day early, Kajja was flying in from a work trip in Nepal) and once we were together, Gunilla drove us to Montreux.  Montreux is a resort town on Lake Geneva (Lac Lemans to locals), about an hour and a half from Geneva.  We stayed at a great B&B there and wore ourselves out with the walking, eating and shopping.  We also took a train up to the peak of Rochers de Naye, one of the mountains above Montreux.

Rochers de Naye is a lovely place with lovely views and the plan is to go back for my 40th birthday (if not sooner so my knees can handle the hiking) to stay in a yurt.  We walked around a bit on the trails and met a man who had hiked to the top of the mountain.  He was also very lovely (*wink*) and we invited him to partake of some eau-de-vie (fruit brandy) we had gotten at the train station gift shop.  One of the things I love about Europe is that you can buy individual shot glasses of brandy at 6700 feet and no one blinks an eye when you pull them out.

So, there we are, on top of a mountain, doing shots with a foreign hiker and taking pictures.  After the hiker went on his way, literally running down the mountain, we decided to do yoga poses.  This decision had nothing at all to do with the fact the brandy we had was 80 proof.  But it was a gorgeous place to do yoga all the same.

We 3 Americans hung around Montreux an extra day and we wanted to try the ultimate Swiss experience:  fondue.  Except fondue isn't as mainstream Swiss as the Americans think it is and there was really only one fondue restaurant close to where we were.  Melting Pot it's not.  The restaurant was very much a tourist trap with a painted cow at the entrance and gnomes all over the place.  Also, it smelled awful.  Leeda said it was a particular kind of sausage so while I was wary, I was going to get over it.  Then we got the menus.  Their house specialty is horse.  I immediately associated the awful smell with cooked horse and got all woozy headed and faint.  I seriously thought I was about to pass out and kind of relayed that to the sisters.  After a little discussion, where it was discussed I'm an overreacting wus, we left.  Kajja was a bit interested in my reaction because she's vegetarian and has somewhat the same reaction to ALL meat.  The only thing I could come up with is this: in the States, we use horses as work companions and most other animals we eat are raised as meat.  Yes, it's a weak argument.  Yes, I eat cow, pig, chicken, fish, etc.  I just couldn't fathom being in a restaurant where the smiling man next to me was happily eating Black Beauty.  I am a hypocrite.

Aside from the horse eating people, I LOVED Switzerland.  It's quaint in a huge European kind of way, everyone speaks English (as does everyone in Europe but the Swiss are nice about speaking it with you) and US dollars are accepted in Geneva.  USD being accepted in Geneva is important when you've run out of Swiss Francs but would like to purchase chocolate and a watch.  

If this were 1978, I would invite you over for drinks and show you a slide show.  As it is, you can pour yourself a glass of wine before viewing:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/21041037@N07/sets/72157625551654656/