Category Archives: Travel: Europe

Guests: What to Expect out of a European Hotel

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Post by Lauren

We have lived here so long, we sometimes forget some of the fascinating differences of European life.  Today, we’ll examine the European hotel room.

In Switzerland, most hotels that we stay in are owned by families instead of corporations.  It makes for an endearing special stay and you know you are supporting local business.

Some of the differences:

Check in and Check out times – they are usually posted and you need to arrive and depart in these parameters or otherwise, the desk might not be staffed.

Payment – usually always after your stay.  They don’t usually ask for any credit card or ID up front. The Swiss are very trusting.

Language – don’t be surprised if they don’t speak English.  But they are friendly and always willing to help.  Usually its straightforward.  Get key. Return key. Pay.

However, our biggest challenge was in Verbier where we had to understand door codes, access times, etc and I was glad for my French lessons then.  Especially when we couldn’t figure it out and had to ask the reception lady to come give us a demonstration.

Beds – usually a double room has two twin beds pushed together with their own comforter.  Gabe likes this as I am a cover-hog so he is ensured a comfortable sleep in a Swiss hotel.

Image courtesy of booked.net

Bathroom – don’t expect soap or shampoo.  Be surprised to find both.  Sometimes they combine hair/body getl in in a dispenser in the shower.  So, look there before panicking.

One time, we stayed in a place that had no soap, shampoo or towels.  I quickly learned to bring extra in the future, just in case.

I have not found conditioner yet.  Bring your own if you have long hair!

Hairdryers are rare in Swiss hotel rooms.  Check ahead if you require one.

Bath linens – you won’t get a washcloth.  Europeans simply don’t use them.   One of our friends who lives here says “if they want to play that game, I’m just going to wet the entire hand towel”.  And so do we…..

Breakfast – most of the time included in the room rate, but not guaranteed.  It is more likely that it is included in Switzerland than other areas of Europe.

Many small hotels will put your group name or room numbers on your reserved breakfast table.  So, be sure to look for that when entering the breakfast area.  It is their way of ensuring that the tables are used efficiently as they have limited space.

Typically they serve a buffet of cereals, yogurts, breads, cheeses and meats.  Sometimes there are hard boiled eggs. And sometimes they have raw eggs and you have to boil them yourself.

One of my favorite discoveries is Birchermüesli.  Its yogurt with granola and small fresh and dried fruits.  It looks a little gross but it is one of my new preferred Swiss breakfast items.

Image courtesy of lookcook.net

They usually bring carafes of coffee and milk to your table.  Also something to look forward to – they usually heat the milk that they serve.  It is a nice perk.

Typically, you’ll find a small plastic bin on the table.  It’s for trash – for your tiny scraps / papers.  This has been interesting to our guests.  Speaking of waste, it is more proper in Europe to take small portions of food at a time in a buffet type setting.  It isn’t looked upon kindly if you leave tons of food on your plate like is common in the US.

Also, most breakfast rooms have signs indicating all food must be eaten in the dining area. So, it isn’t allowed to grab-and-go for later.  I have been guilty of this in the US with taking a piece of fruit for a snack later.  I feel like it isn’t as frowned upon back home as it is here.

Our most recent guests inquired why they don’t have pancakes, bacon and eggs like they do in America?  Answer:  It is just not their thing.    We haven’t seen this type of breakfast since we left the States unless its in our own kitchen.

However, although slightly different, we hope you enjoy the Swiss hotel experience!

Gratitude Friday: A Great Ski Season

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Post by Lauren

Ski season is officially over for our household.  With temperatures warming up, the local slopes are slushy by lunchtime.

However, we wanted to dedicate a post in gratitude to the Alps and the ski opportunities that we have had this winter.

Last winter, it was unusually warm.  We heard people say that it only produced about 2 decent snow days and even still, the slopes weren’t ideal.

This season is a stark contrast – there was wonderful skiing to be had pretty much every weekend from the beginning of January until now.  Over the last 3 months, we have visited:

  • La Clusaz, France
  • Les Contamines, France
  • Megève, France
  • Chamonix, France
  • Verbier, Switzerland
  • Saas Fee, Switzerland

We feel lucky that we have had the chance.

Our friend A has major talents with the camera while skiing.  I don’t possess such talents as I always have to concentrate on not falling.  However, since I have a lot of time in the chair lately, I mixed her video footage with my own to create a recap video of our ski exploits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trPb_eHtZsw

Au Revoir Ski Season – until next year!

And bon-weekend to all.

 

 

 

 

 

Just another day at the office

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Post by Lauren

Last week, Gabe had a company outing to La Clusaz, France.  The group skied as a team building activity.

As the weather warms up, we aren’t sure there will be many more opportunities for skiing.

We hear that Zermatt and Chamonix have year-round skiing so perhaps this could be an option.

Magnificent Megève

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Post by Lauren

Gabe went skiing in Mègeve a few weeks ago when we were having our Arctic temps.    Luckily, two fellows from Geneva accompanied him as I was worried he would freeze to death in the -20 C temps.

However, I am happy to say that they survived.  Below are two photos from his blackberry he captured while out on the frigid French slopes:

Skiing at Megève

Mt. Blanc

While they went for just the day (only about an hour’s drive from Geneva), we have heard good things about the town of Megève  from friends.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to return and perhaps stay in the town next year.

Gratitude Friday: Ski School

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Post by Lauren

This week, class was in session for A, S & moi. Ski school that is.

While I was by far the the worst of the three, I convinced them to take ski lessons with me for the day. The womens’ club has a ski group and the leader takes beginners in the month of January for an introduction and a lesson. And January is running out fast!

I obviously needed some skills based on the last adventure, so we set off for Les Contamines, France for some education on how one skis the Alps properly.

Luckily, the place was a ghost town on a Tuesday. The lack of crowds immediately made me more comfortable. Part of the fear is lack of control. Mainly, hitting a small child.

We started on a blue and Ski Angel (our name for the nice lady from AIWC) led the way, and like little baby ducklings, we followed.

We went slowly, and after a few runs, our confidence built. We were ready for ski school!

 

Ski School

 

Our instructor, Odile, taught us the basics in a combination of French and English. It ended up being more than skiing…it was also a good French lesson. We learned that to snow plow is “chasse-neige” and that the technique of side slipping down a mountain is “descendu en escalier” . She had us (me in particular, being the worst) follow in her tracks so she could teach us how to S curve back and forth properly. I learned that when transversing, the skis should always be parallel, you should stand up straight, and put your weight into the front of the boots.

We also took lots of types of lifts.

There is the bubble lift, the “Télécabine”

There is chair lift, the “Télésiège”. A took this of me & Odile.

 

There is also the butt lift, or the “Téléski”, captured by A.

 

We went on a few runs on green and then Odile took us to a blue. After completing that, we took a lift to the tippy top and then we saw…..

Black Olympic sign - yikes! Photo courtesy of A.

 

Yup, that is a black. Covered in snow. Named Olympique. Okay, so we didn’t do all of Olympique but we had to take it to connect to another area of the resort.

After our two hour lesson, we met back up with Ski Angel for another run.

When we got to the car, I realized that while we had done at least 10 runs, I didn’t fall down once the whole day. Quite a contrast to falling about thirty times in one run on our previous trips. My husband was on a business trip and didn’t believe it when I emailed him to tell him I was safely back in Geneva. In fact, I am not sure he still believes it!

A great ski day at Les Contamines

 

 

So, gratitude for more confidence and a great experience!!!

Bon weekend, everyone!

In Winter Wonder with Pascal and Giselle

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Post by Lauren

It’s an exciting week in our Swiss household! We have guests Pascal and Giselle, in from Richmond, VA. Geneva has been really behaving, showing its pretty blue sky. We didn’t even know that was possible in the winter here.

So, we feel very grateful that while they are here, they can actually see the mountains instead of the perma-cloud layer that hovers above us usually.

When they arrived, we forced them to stay up and took them around to Carouge Saturday market day and then to Annecy, France so that they could be out in the daylight to help with the effects of jetlag*.

Market day was a little quiet in the winter vs. summer, but still very enjoyable as Carouge always is with its simple Italian architecture and colorful artisans:

 

A quiet day at the Carouge market

 

Next, we went to Annecy, France for lunch. Pascal and Giselle had their first savory crepes. Did you know that a crepe can be a dessert and a meal? Kind of like a wrap…with a pancake. They ordered hamburger ones….check them out below. Even though it was about 20 degrees, there were still a ton of people enjoying the Saturday blue skies and even a crew team practicing in frigid Lake Annecy below snow capped mountains.

The next day, we ventured to Chamonix & Mt. Blanc. We took the Auguille du Midi to the top, the world’s highest vertical ascent cable car. Gabe and I had done this back with Henry Birmingham on July 4th weekend, but boy, what a difference winter makes.

Everything was snow covered and beautiful. We were in awe of the off-piste skiiers.

After the dizzying adventure up Mt. Blanc, we had a nice warm raclette meal in Chamonix, the base village. Very soon, there will be a cheese tutorial on The Swiss Watch Blog so you can learn more about this fabulous Swiss dish. It’s soooo good.

The famous French ski town was bumping at dusk and into the evening, full of skiers and snowboarders returning from the mountain.

You are probably wondering why we keep taking Pascal and Giselle all over France when we live in Switzerland. Actually, because Geneva is surrounded by France, the alpine areas of France are much more accessible to Geneva because of the topography. See my ski map, complete with flags, to check this out.

Don’t worry, we’ll take them around in Switzerland soon. Stay tuned….

*When you visit us, we will also do such mean things as to not allow you to sleep and force you to be in the daylight to reduce your chance of jet lag.

Our first Alpine skiing

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Post by Lauren We just so happen to live in the epicenter of the best skiing in the world. Most of these places are less than an hour and a half away from our house.     If you live in the Alps, you are supposed to be able to ski. And well. I have historically not been a good skier, but bought equipment in the US in August so that I could try it out again. I mean, we live in the Alps. How can I not give it another whirl? And, I ended up getting everything used for about 180 USD; not too bad, considering new equipment here is 2000 CHF. So, armed with my new gear and a pack of 8 friends, we set off to La Clusaz in the French Alps for the day to explore the alpine ski action. It was only about a 45 minute drive.

Getting geared up. Thanks to A for getting the group shot prior to lift off. The little specks in the distance are little chalets. So cute.

And….I fell about five times trying to get from where we were to the first lift. I was a bad skier in the US, but a bad skier in the US makes for a miserable skier in the Alps.

My husband is the type of person who says he’s not a great skier but he is. He has gone multiple times with Henry Birmingham at his place in Jackson Hole. He did not marry his match in this department.

We rode an extremely long lift to the top. They don’t have lifts that long in Virginia and West Virginia – the two States where I have skied prior. Everyone said it was a normal hill but it was crazy scary to me. Fear set in. As the group set off, we set a meeting place for lunch. I made it my goal to survive getting halfway down the mountain to this chalet. It had red lounge sofas outside. I just kept visualizing them and basically snow plowed the entire way, 1000 metres. Even with snowplowing, I still managed to fall a dozen more times. One time I lost control and zipped headfirst into the powder. if it was golf, I would have been in the rough.

Taking a break after falling a ton! Did I mention my husband was good at skiing? I must mention that he is also patient. His first Alps run in his life, he had to babysit me as I teetered down the mountain.

And….we finally made it to the chalet.    As the group was starting their next run.

Reporting back to the group over lunch, A commented… “Oh yea…we saw you from the lift. We saw like one leg in the air, face in the snow, skis everywhere. Couldn’t get my camera out in time, though.” So blame her that you don’t have any eye candy. After a delicious French lunch and a glass of Bordeaux (no hot-dogs & chicken sandwiches on this mountain, ladies and gents), I got back on the skis and we headed to the bottom. Still continuing to snow plow. And fall. The group gathered at the bottom to take an enclosed gondola to ascent back up to the tippy top. Even further up than where we were last time. No way in hell I was getting on that thing. I chose to stay at the base on the green we’d found on the map. I ended up being the only one over five years of age who wasn’t an instructor on that particular run. I didn’t care. I was way more comfortable there.

Notice the tiny skiers. This was my happy place.

When A & S tired of the slopes, they joined me and we ice skated. J kept going with her mad snow-boarding skills!

I had a lot more fun on the ice. Don't judge the face we were still wearing our helmets.


It was a great new adventure. However, I will not be getting on a blue hill anytime soon in this region of the world. Going to be sticking to my greens. And perhaps taking lessons soon…. We both slept really hard Saturday night. I woke up a bit earlier than Gabe so made this visual treat about our Ice-capades in my time waiting for him to awake. Enjoy.

Heineken redeems itself

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Post by Lauren

Prior to going to Amsterdam, all I knew about Heineken was from Gabe. I noticed at Montreux Jazz Fest that he had a certain scale on whether or not he would buy a Heineken or not. For instance, if it was 10 minutes to the next beer stand, either in distance or with time spent in line, he would go for the Heineken stand (as a sponsor, they were all over the place) versus what he really wanted. Then and only then. So, I supposed I had a slightly negative vibe.

We heard from friends that the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam was pretty cool. These friends know a lot about beer tours, so we figured a nod from them was a good reason to check it out.

Here is what I learned:

Heineken started as a family owned business. Leadership was passed from father to son, through the generations, and now a daughter runs the massive International company. Because it is a family name, they are very protective of the quality and have a laboratory to make sure that the beer tastes the same no matter where it is sold in the world, to protect the brand and their name. Pretty cool.

No matter how hard the Great Depression was, Heineken didn’t lay off a single employee. In fact, they were the only such company who gave pensions during that time. They really believed in their people and their propensity to make it a great company. Very admirable.

 

During the “experience”, they like to have fun. They let you touch the ingredients and do each step as it was done in “the old days”.

They have animals. Who doesn’t like animals on a tour? Kidding aside, we thought they ripped this off from Budweiser but learned that horse & carriage were the way that all beer was delivered in the olden day. They still keep these chaps around for parading the beer trucks through Amsterdam.

They give you lots of free tastes along the way. We learned how to do a proper beer tasting as well, similar to how you taste wine. The star shaped bar was pretty sweet. We were starting to grow in fan-ship at this point.

They also had tons of other interactive parts of the experience. We went into a 4-D room where we were a piece of barley made into beer. Gabe made fun of me when I put my camera away due to the sign warning it could get wet. But no joke, the floor dropped when we were “dropped” into the tank and the ceiling sprayed as well. We also experienced lots of breeze when we were “bottled”.

Other activities included games to fill a pint glass perfectly with the tap, a spot where you could make your own bottle with your name on it, and a place to do your own Heineken music video.

Another room contained screens playing movie clips for which Heineken had gotten product placement so you got to see James Bond, Brad Pitt, and John Travolta popping open a cold Heineken. It makes me wonder how much they paid for these

Next was a lounge area where you could lay in leather chaises and view all the old TV spots from the 50’s and 60’s. I like this one:

 

Finally, they gave you two free beers in the really animated World Bar, showing all over the world where Heineken was sold.

Gabe was reluctant to say whether he likes Heineken any better, but agreed that a Heineken in Amsterdam tasted better than any Heineken he had previously. However, I am now a super fan, mainly because I thought they did a brilliant branding job in the experience. It was definitely the best company tour I have ever done.

 

 

I want to live in Amsterdam

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Post by Lauren

You know how there are some cities where ten minutes after arriving, you exclaim, “I could live here!”. I said this in Amsterdam even before our cab arrived to the hotel. And after spending a great weekend there, I decided I must live there…someday!

Here’s are just ten reasons why:

One: Bike-friendly, not lots of cars. Not that I am good at biking (I had a near death experience with a tram in Amsterdam) but I do appreciate how everyone bikes everywhere. There are 700,000 residents in Amsterdam and 700,000 bikes!

Two: Romantic canals, perfect for strolling or biking leisurely. The canals in Amsterdam were just as beautiful as Venice, just in a different way. It feels magical when you are there.

Three: Cozy bakeries & cafes. Quaint adorable restaurants. A highlight for us was an Indonesian rice table on our first night, captured in the second photo, taken by A. Note that our “good food” measuring stick is off since everything in Geneva is so bad. But the cuisine of this city would have wowed us pre-Geneva as well.

Four: Plentiful open-air markets, including gorgeous flower markets. They are known for their flowers. 40% of the world’s flowers come from The Netherlands. I bought a hand-painted coffee mug of a street scene as my souvenir from a local artisan.

 

Five: Peaceful parks. Wide bike paths, spaces for BBQing, music, and tons of people enjoying the weather.

Six: Intriguing museums, history & culture. We hit the Anne Frank House & Van Gogh museum. Note, I am on a Van Gogh pilgrimage and have now hit 2 of his main residences 🙂 There are also 45 other museums in Amsterdam.

Seven: Sweet “brown bars” and windmill bars. The ones we visited were Van Zuylen and Bouwerij ‘tiJ. Sepia photo by A.

Eight: A unique architecture. I love skinny buildings. I would even be okay with uneven floors as I am sure all these buildings have. Note Gabe standing straight up next to one of the older buildings to show the angle of curvature.

Nine: Delicious beer all over the city and at Heineken. Again, not used to good beer in Geneva.

Ten: The presence of Life. Sometimes I am not sure Geneva has a pulse, so the lively feel of Amsterdam on a weekend was a really much-needed change of pace. Day or night, people are walking, biking, conversing, and enjoying life. They seemed to be all smiling and friendly.

Since A & A, our travel buddies, were staying with a local, we had the added benefit of attending a real Amsterdam party Saturday night for, on a rooftop along one of the canals. It was organized to gather prior to “Museum Night” which we all attended. The great folks we met verified how fun-loving the residents are and we were a little sad when we thought of what Geneva lacks on the fun-scale.

A bonus #11 is that while it is not the national language (Dutch is), everyone spoke beautiful English. It was a great relief to step into English-speaking territory for a weekend. Sometimes it just feels good for one’s self esteem to not sound like a four year old.

The only downside to amazing Amsterdam for me was the RLD. It totally wasn’t what I had envisioned but still seedy and couldn’t wait to get back to the other parts of Amsterdam I had become enamored with.

 

Adoring French Villages

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Post by Lauren

I have really grown an appreciation for small French villages. The handful of little towns we have visited within driving distance of Geneva are really adorable. We had another lovely experience during our time in Burgundy, checking out a few of the villages in the region.

Beaune & Nuits-St-Georges:

Chalon-sur-Saône, where we stopped an hour or two on the way back to Geneva for market day & exploring the town: