Glarus, Switzerland

On the train to Switzerland

In Switzerland we stayed with the most wonderful family.  Theres is right around our age and had been the exchange student of my second cousins in Ohio a few years ago.  When Stephen and I were in Ohio in January and talking about our trip to Europe, they offered to get us in touch with Theres (yay Facebook) to see if we could meet up with her.  Theres and her family welcomed us with open arms to their little town called Glarus.  It is in a beautiful valley amongst the Alps.  

This is from the back porch

When we got there, Theres’ mom made a homemade traditional Swiss meal.  There was salad fresh from her garden, a potato dish that was similar to hash browns, sausages, and wine.  It’s the first red wine I have ever liked.  For dessert she had fresh strawberries with whipped cream and ice cream drizzled with melted Swiss chocolate.  It was so good.

*Sidenote to my dad: “Thank you” in German is “danke schan” (probably spelled that wrong).  I could not hear or say it to anyone without thinking of you saying “Donkey shins.”  And the Swiss people I tried to explain that to did not really understand what I was talking about...*

After dinner two of Theres’ cousins and several friends came over to meet the Americans, and to practice their English.  They are quite proficient, especially when talking sports with Stephen.  Theres’ mom gave me a tour of her garden and picked some herbs that smelled like lemon, tossed them into a tea press, and made tea.  She also added some syrup that had come from the alder tree not far from their porch.  It was very good.

Theres’ mom even insisted on doing our laundry while we were there.  They have a washing machine, but hang all their clothes on clotheslines outside to dry.  So this was a very big thing to insist upon.  She tried to iron one of Stephen’s shirts that is the quick dry material (and melts when ironed).  She didn’t say anything to us, but went into town bought a new shirt that was similar and would not take no for an answer.

We slept in for the first time since we’ve been in Europe and woke up to a much clearer sky.  The view had been great the night before and in the sun it was even better.

Theres’ mom had set out a breakfast of fresh bread, homemade jam and honey, several types of cheese, meat, eggs with fresh herbs from the garden, and a bread specialty from Glarus that was similar to a Fig Newton.  It was quite an impressive spread.  Oh, and then she made me chocolate milk from fresh cow's milk!  (The cows belong to Theres' uncle, who lives a stone's throw away.  Literally.  Like, I could throw a stone and hit his house, and I throw like a girl)

Theres took us through Glarus and up to a great view of all the town.  

A park in Glarus

Mountain covered by clouds.  Boo.

That is the Lindt River, which runs to the town of Lindt,

where Lindt chocolate was founded (and still has a factory)

Theres, me, and Stephen

Then we met her friend John, and drove up to a beautiful lake.  The clouds had come in and blocked our view of the biggest mountains, but it was still a pretty lake.  We drove up to a little cafe with a view of the lake and the mountains.  We had cinnamon ice cream, which was very good.  It was light and had little pieces of cinnamon sugar in it.  John is coming to San Francisco in August to work, so hopefully he will come visit us in Sacramento.

Stephen, me, Theres, and John

Waterfall

View from the cafe

On the way home we had a slight bovine problem.  As in a herd of cows that decided they preferred to walk on the road as opposed to the grass.  It was hilarious.  John had to inch little by little forward and then a cow would stare him down.  They had no fear of the car whatsoever.

You can see Theres is laughing.

Out the side window

After relaxing at home (and watching the beginning of the Roger Federer match as he is from Switzerland and everyone is big fans), then went to dinner at the restaurant where Theres works.  We had a very good pizza with lots of types of cheese, olives, and prosciutto, and a schnitzel with french fries.

A rainbow on the way to dinner.

We went to a bar run by some very nice people from the Dominican Republic.  Theres easily went from English, Swiss German, and Spanish throughout the night.  Very impressive.  We at least could understand the Spanish, which was nice.  Three more of Theres’ friends came and met us for drinks, and we got home very late.

This morning we got up and headed for the train station.  We are now on the train from Glarus (through Zurich) on our way to Paris.  Currently we are at the Strasbourg station.  I’m not sure when I will be able to post this, but hopefully it will be soon.  

Cool windows on this train

We had to pay for reservations for this train (even though we have a railpass...seems annoying, doesn’t it?), and the guy who reserved them for us put us in second class.  Which isn’t too bad, except that we are riding backwards (and anyone who gets carsick understands why this is not a good thing).

Hopefully we’ll be able to move up to first class soon!

*insert time elapse here*

Yay there was space in first class available!  Overall second class is not bad (it’s not like 1st class to coach in an airline).  The seats are a little bigger, it’s less crowded, and most importantly these particular seats are facing the direction the train is moving.

We had an hour in Zurich so we walked up one of the streets to find something to eat.  

This locomotive was in the train station.  There were lots of

people taking pictures, but the flier was in Swiss German, so we

aren't sure what was going on.  It was still cool, though.

Switzerland is not part of the European Union, so they are still using Swiss Francs, not euros (which is all we had).  Many places do accept euros though, but they give change in Francs.  We bought a large braided loaf of sweet bread (really really good), got a soda from McDonald’s (cheaper), and some chips from the train station.  Voila, lunch!

As I am sitting here watching the French countryside go by, I am very glad we had our little retreat from our vacation in Switzerland.  Italy was busy and we were seeing a lot everyday, so Switzerland was like a chance to catch our breath, relax our feet, and get some extra sleep.  Theres, if you are reading this, danke!