On my last full day in Europe, Désirée was nice enough to drive me to Bern to spend the day. But before we left, we checked out Jamie’s kindergarten. It was really big and super clean with all new looking desks and whatnot. Very cool. Reminded me of being in kindergarten. Unfortunately, because of child protection laws I am not supposed to put any of the photos I took there on this blog. So I can show them in person though sometime later.
Anyway, Bern…
Looking down at Lower Bern from the Parliament Building.Me standing in front of parliament. And it says what CH stands for: Confederations Helvetica.
So Désirée and I decided to just walk around for a bit and check out the tourist attractions.
It looks like Switzerland even has its own Astronomical Clock, on the Zytglogge Clock Tower.Me in front of HeiliggeistKirche. Désirée is helping out and taking photos of me.Inside the Heiliggeist. Check out that organ.The famous fountain of the child eating man.The Bern Rathaus. Most of the canton's coat of arms hang up on the wall.Münster Cathedral, Bern's largest cathedral.Unfortunately, it was closed but check out that decoration. Hell on the right, and Heaven on the left.
Then we crossed the bridge to look at the bears Bern has in the bear pen. But they were nowhere to be found. Probably, they were inside staying warm like any sane man. It was windy in Bern and I was getting cold. Then we went back to the center and grabbed some lunch from a street vendor. And waffles afterward. I got cinnamon on mine. Delicious!
Next we went to see the Einstein Museum.
The Einstein Museum.
There was a whole exhibit on his life and about events going on at the same time and how they interacted with his life.
Cool mirror staircase room.Einstein on the cover of magazines. Times Man of the Century in 1999.
Exhausted after this museum trip, we headed back to the car to drive home.
We finally found a bear in Bern.
I got hungry again on the way home so I made a chocolate sandwich.
I'm sure this is how the guy who invented Nutella got the idea.
Then I fell asleep a couple of times on the way home in the car. Kind of unfair because I slept on the way there as well. But Désirée wouldn’t let me drive despite my offers. She dropped me off at her house before picking up Jamie and coming back. Désirée, Marcel, and I had dinner (Jamie already ate) and then we watched the very motivating movie “Remember the Titans” in German. It was still motivating. So I decided to stay up all night and finish this blog. As tomorrow, I fly home.
I didn’t get the white Christmas I had hoped for. But it was still fun and seeing the green countryside during our drive to Christmas dinner more than made up for it.
I woke early in the morning to call my parents during their Christmas Eve. As I was sitting on the stairs getting the computer ready I heard the phone ring a floor up. My dad had called Desiree to ask her where I was, as I was apparently supposed to call them 5 minutes ago…patience please, try not to wake the hosts of the house. But we all got to say hi and it was fun.
Jamie then opened her Matryoshka doll I brought her from Europe and I slipped back off to bed for a few more hours.
I woke to the sound of a remote control motorcycle, a gift from Jamie’s godfather, Mike.
Jamie kept chasing Sally around the house with the bike.
Then I ate some Muesli with yogurt and got dressed for a short run. The scenery is quite relaxing and it felt good to go jogging around town. I took roughly the same route as last time but reversed the order of the loops and extended it a little bit. The elevation change didn’t have a noticeable effect on me as my first run here. Anyway, it was a nice Christmas run and I got to practice my Swiss German greetings with others who were also enjoying the day outside.
When I got back, we hung out for a little and I did some work on the computers in the house before getting ready to drive to Desiree’s sister’s house for Christmas dinner. I told Desiree that I could spend all day in the passenger seat of a car driving around Switzerland. There was so much to see, and the roads here are much better for driving than the ones in California, especially when Marcel is driving.
The table is set for raclette, a traditional Swiss dinner where one melts cheese on a lower grill while cooking meat on the upper grill, then drenches the potatoes with the melted cheese and feasts.Nikki, Natalia’s and Wimi’s dog decided to join us for dinner from her bed in the corner. She was a fun one: kept growling at me with the tug-of-war toy in her mouth with tail wagging at full blast. That toy reminded me of Rhodee and how she used to play with one like it.
Then, we ate. And man, we ate, and ate. There was a process too. First we grilled some bacon to grease up the grill so the rest of the meat wouldn’t stick. Then it was pretty much a free-for-all.
Grilling my meat in the foreground: chicken on the right, pork on the left. Remember: Swiss chickens don’t have salmonella.Bacon, cheesy potatoes with mushrooms, and herb spread. What more could you want?
I quickly figured out there was enough space to grill more than one piece of meat at a time, unlike last night. Eager to fill my stomach, I began grilling at a faster pace than I could handle. So I went from the slowest dinner of my life, in terms of eating (which was still fun and no less rewarding) to one of the most stressful dinners of my life. I began working up a sweat managing all my meat. Cheese is already melted, take it out. Nowhere to put it? grab a potato. Oh my meat is burning, flip it. Get some veggies to put into the cheese before it cools. Replace the cheese with a new slice so it’s ready when the meat is…and so on.
And then, I was full. Again, I had eaten too much, but it was all so delicious. We took a break and we proceeded to open presents.
Natalia on the left with Jamie, Luca checking out their fun. Désirée in the middle, Lidya in front in pink, and Bea to the right.
Then back to the table for dessert.
Fresh pineapple, kiwi, mango, and grapes to put in our ice cream. Kelsey should have switched places with me at this point. She would have devoured the ice cream and fruit. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was great but she’s more of a diehard fan of pineapple.And small baked goods. The gingerbread had a little extra taste to it that I was not familiar with American gingerbread.The adults of the party. Starting from front left: Marcel & Désirée, a space for me, Mona: Désirée’s godmother and aunt, Natalia: Désirée’s sister, Wimi: Natalia’s husband, Bea: Désirée’s aunt, and her husband Willy, and Andreas: Wimi’s brother. Désirée’s parents were vacationing in Spain for Christmas and therefore could not attend.
The party was great, the food tasty, the company fun, and the drive home very relaxing. I slept most of the way. I don’t know how Marcel didn’t fall asleep. He said he was pretty full too. I needed to sleep somewhat early so I could wake and pack before leaving for Salzburg.
Customs was short. I walked up to the guy behind the window, gave him my passport, and nodded when he said, “Holidays?” Then I walked out to the exit and looked for Desiree, Jamie, and Marcel. I saw Jamie and Desiree first through the window and when I walked through the doorway saw Marcel. Desiree was my sister’s and my au pair when I was 6 and I was going to spend Christmas with her and family. On the way home we stopped at the store to grab breakfast. Once home, I devoured my yogurt, bread + nutella, jam, honey (each on a different piece), and juice. This was waiting for me downstairs on my bed:
“Welcome to Switzerland” – Look at all that chocolate! How thoughtful. I have been trying to eat a piece a day. Luckily, this is not difficult as Swiss chocolate is nothing less than the best.
And guess who helped me unpack?
Silly Sally! An 8 month old feral tiger cat with an attitude like Luci’s from home.
We hung out for a bit and when afternoon rolled around drove to Marcel’s sister’s house to go for a walk with her family. It felt good to stretch my legs.
It was just as cold as Moscow and there was still snow on the ground here too.The whole gang. From the left: Desiree, Jasmine, Fabio, Patricia, Marcel, Jamie, Rolf.Jamie didn’t do much walking but instead got pulled almost the whole way by Patricia. Lucky she has such a nice cousin.Crossing the river on a tiny bridge.There’s that great Swiss countryside I was looking forward to.
Then we went back to Jasmine and Rolf’s house to have coffee, water for me, and pudding. We stayed for dinner, which was delicious. I gotta say, Swiss food is much better than Russian food. Desiree had to keep me awake at dinner as I kept nodding off. Then we went home and I slept early. And slept for 11 hours straight. And 11 hours the next night too. But before that next night we went over to one of Marcel’s friend’s garages to check out his bikes. These are a bit heavier than the ones my dad collects.
customline.ch A one man custom motorcycle line by Roger. These are all Harley’s with completely custom design, all manual work done by Roger, the man in black.I’m not even that big of a motorcycle fan and I could tell these were beautiful. The amount of detail Roger puts into these is incredible. This one has been in use for over a year. It looked to me as if it had just been put together, cleaner than clean.He even had some oldies, along with a cool sidecar.Roger, the man behind the craft. Each motorcycle is unique. He never builds the same motorcycle twice. The orange one is his, the yellow one is a work in progress for his girlfriend. He takes after Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. There were a couple posters hanging up. I think he’s doing pretty good. And he even rocks the pompadour when he dresses in formal wear.That back wheel on the orange bike is pretty sleek.
The next day I got up and went for a run. Wow, I had no idea how bad of shape I was in. The little elevation change really shocked me. But I got to see some farmland. I kept feeling like I was in the Shire running up to Bag End. This country is beautiful. When I got back we went to an outdoor ice rink with two of Jamie’s friends and their families. Each girl started out with these ice skating helping things until another friend showed up and didn’t use one. Then suddenly each of the other girls didn’t need it either and they began to ice skate without the helping “training wheels.” It was kinda funny. It was my first time ice skating outdoors, and my first time ice skating in a decade (I really hate that I can say something like that).
Jamie ice skating.It took me about 40 seconds to figure out what I was doing. Then I remembered and I was fine.
Afterward we went to the grocery store again and drove around to places for a little. Jamie sung along to her cd so I included a short excerpt here:
we went over to Marcel’s parent’s home and hung out for a bit. I played Swiss card game with Swiss deck of cards and then we all went out to a great Italian restaurant. This is when Erwin, Marcel’s dad, gave me my nickname: Giuseppe. From then on, that’s all he would call me. I liked it, so I played along. He’s got a good sense of humor.
In the morning Desiree, Jamie, and I took a walk up to the nearby castle. And it was Christmas Eve day!
Cool tree huh?The castle on top of the hill overlooking Rorbas. It was more like a chateau but it was no less cool.Jamie took us to a part of the woods where her kindergarten class goes every other Thursday and makes soup and learns about nature. This is their couch and firepit.So much serene scenery everywhere.I even got to see a horse and carriage in the distance. It’s not in the photo though. Man, cycling here would be a blast. The hills look sweet and the scenery never ceases to amaze.Reminds me of a scene out of “The Illusionist.” The fog stayed all day and I loved it. Desiree did not though.Meat fondue with Marcel’s family. Jamie is very photogenic once she gets over her shyness.My plate somewhat toward the beginning of the meal. Everything was delicious. At first I was frustrated by how it took a long time to cook each piece of meat, and then I had to wait again to cook another piece. But later I liked it as it made me eat slower and I could eat less. That didn’t stop me from over filling myself and then consuming almost a pound of chocolate afterward.I think there were like three of these platters. It never seemed to end. After trying to keep up with Marcel I finally gave up and said no more. Oh, piece of trivia, “Swiss chickens don’t have salmonella.”Everyone was having a good time, even Telma, the French Shepherd of the house. She was delighted to receive the bone when we finished dinner.From the left: Erwin: Marcel’s dad who calls me Giuseppe, Marcel, and Rolf: Marcel’s brother in law.From the left: Jasmine (Marcel’s sister), Desiree, and Heidi (Marcel’s mother).
We all had a good time and I received many packages of chocolate from under the tree. People were way too kind to me and I was glad to enjoy such good company for Christmas Eve. Desiree and I talked for a while about when she was at our house back when I was 6. She kept re-igniting old memories. It was a great Christmas Eve. And they even let me walk home afterward in the silence of a Swiss night. It wasn’t very far. They live closer together than Dorothy lives to my house. I hope all of your Christmas Eve’s are just as fun. It might help to listen to this great song that always comes on KFOG when we drive home from the Tom’s late Christmas Eve. It’s called, “I Believe in Father Christmas” by ELP:
