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Published: September 4th 2013
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Back together again...
In Milan's exclusive shopping Mall - Rachel Steven and Me Hi everyone, greetings from Switzerland. I know it’s been well over a month since the last blog so suffice as to say it’s another long one… You know how it works by now, so much to see and do, so little time… First off a bear update – the male cub has been shipped off to Bulgaria following tensions between him and his mother in their enclosure in Bern, at first I thought it was the female cub causing trouble – that’s how good my German is after 3 summers here! Seems it was a case of boys behaving badly after all so he’s now moved east! The rest of the family seem happy enough and when I went to visit them recently it was all quiet on the western front. As I was in Bern it seemed rude not to pop in to see the Terracotta Warriors again – that exhibition is fantastic and it seems that Qin (as in the Emperor Qin whose army make up the Terracotta Warriors) is pronounced Gin so that put me straight…
I managed my first boat trip of the summer, finally, I’ve only been here 5 months
already but I guess when you’re up a mountain it’s not always practical to spend a whole day cruising Lake Thun (the H is silent). We took our supplies… Prosecco and Pringles and off we went, a very enjoyable day. When we returned to Interlaken early evening we grabbed a quick dinner and then headed to my favourite place Café Schuh to watch the fantastic Tracks Band perform a mix of covers and their own songs. There was wine, which resulted in much singing along and dancing – perfect end to a fab day! The following week we had the chance to do another boat trip this time on Lake Brienz, this is Switzerland’s deepest lake and possibly the cleanest – the minerals and cold glacial waters enhance its blue colour to a bright aqua which is so beautiful. There is no better way to while away a few hours than to sit in the sun on the top deck with the breeze off the lake keeping you cool.
We have had fantastic weather for the past few weeks marred only by a few days of torrential storms but on the 1
st August – Swiss National Day;
Abercrombie & Fitch :-)
Rachel and I are the hot looking chicks either side of that guy... there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The Swiss really do know how to throw a party to celebrate their heritage and history. Most towns have their own celebrations which include parades through the streets and stunning firework displays, not to mention the live music and dancing. The parade in Interlaken has flag throwers, my personal faves – the alphorn players and cow bell carriers, there are also the cows and cast from the Tell Speil – important and vital seeing as William Tell was a big cheese in the coming about of the Confederation Helvetica, the internationally recognised albeit abbreviated (CH) identification of Switzerland today. So most of the reps gathered in Interlaken on and off through the day, then all watched the fantastic firework display in the evening – no expense spared the display seems to go on forever. By the way the Tell Speil is performed in Matten near Interlaken as an open air theatre throughout the summer and although is in German if you know the basic story of William Tell it’s easy enough to follow and makes a good evening out.
So what else have I been up
to the past few weeks… I had a great evening out at the open air cinema in Winteregg – it’s on the opposite side of the Lauterbrunnen valley from Wengen and although I can see it from my lovely balcony it takes over an hour to get there and involves a train down my side of the valley, then a cable car up the other side and another train along the cliff top to get there – thank goodness for the Swiss Pass. We went to see Les Miserables – not the most cheerful musical I’ve ever seen, I’m more a Mamma Mia or Hairspray kinda girl – but I did enjoy it and had tears rolling down my cheeks at the end – very pleased to have seen it now but don’t think I’d be rushing out to get the dvd. And for the wow factor the setting was amazing… the moon coming up over the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains was spectacular!
Steven and I had a super duper reunion with our mate Rachael in Milan – how cool is it to say ‘just swinging down to Milan for the day…’. Il Duomo is beautiful
although it was so busy we didn’t venture in, preferring to sit about in the sun drinking coffee. Then it was time to hit the shops – we didn’t so much hit them as casually flick by – when you go in somewhere like Prada and there aren’t any prices on display, coupled with the fact that the store assistants follow you about like you’re a master criminal, you know you’re out of your league… so after Prada we hit H&M and the Disney stores… we did much better in there. Rachael and Steven also took me to Abercrombie & Fitch, a store I have never visited before but will be making a point of doing so as often as possible in the future… they have models – topless men, in the entrance and you get your picture taken with them before you start browsing round the store… I can see me suddenly becoming a fan of A&F and for all the wrong reasons!
The three of us had a yummy lunch and I opted for a Bellini to drink… well I was in la bella Italia – it had a half a ripe fresh peach in the glass – you would have thought it was Christmas! I really was that excited… It was like a mini dessert before my delicious gnocchi with tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil – mmmmmm so good – if I lived in Italy I think I would be the size of a house! We then did some more window shopping, and had some scrummy gelato (I think it’s probably illegal not to have ice cream when in Italy…) before saying our farewells at Milano Centrale Statzione and heading off – Rachael back to Lago di Como and Steven and I back to Swissyland.
It’s been another absolutely flat out busy month because in between all the jolly days out I have been working my little sox off in Wengen, not to mention trips down to Zermatt and Montreux – both of which I love visiting and my mate Hazel came up to Wengen for a quick visit – about time! There’s been birthday BBQs and time spent catching up with friends, it’s no wonder the blogs are so few and far between… It’s also been a busy few weeks whereby parents galore have been visiting the other reps… at one point it seemed as if a ‘bring your parents to work day’ was going be required!
Steven and I also had a little day trip to the Cailler chocolate factory followed by a jaunt down to Gruyere – that’s the cheese place… So after eating far too much chocolate – the tasting room is definitely the best part of the tour, we ended up having cheese fondue in Gruyere… And a quick drink in the weird Geiger Bar. The Geiger Bar inside is like the set of the movie Aliens which the Swiss artist Geiger (who obviously owns the bar) was actually responsible for. As you can see from the attached pic the village of Gruyere is like a medieval fortress so when you enter the Geiger Bar everything takes on a slightly surreal feel.
Finally, I would like to wish you all well and hope you have survived yet another epic instalment from life in Switzerland – don’t forget to pass the blog around to your friends and family. Take care and happy travels.
Love Tallulah x
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