Monday, May 9, 2011

Schiers - Switzerland

Hi everyone! So as many a food blogger, I am terribly behind in updating but I'm going to do my best to ignore all of my pending posts in Manila and Melbourne and skip forward to something more recent.

My current trip in Europe.

It all started basically because, this year it is my parents 25th wedding anniversary.

So my dad told my mum, they could either take A380 suites to Paris on Singapore airlines and celebrate their anniversary that way, or take a driving holiday around Europe with us kids.

Obviously, the latter was chosen.

We decided over three weeks we would drive from Switzerland (where we flew into), to the south of France, to Barcelona, back to the south of France, to Tuscany, up towards Venice and then back across to Switzerland.

So 2 and a half weeks later, 40 hours on the road, 4400km driven, 14 cities visited (15 tomorrow when we get into Zurich), I have many a tale to share!

Of course, our tale starts in Melbourne airport, where naturally, we visited Cafe Vue for breakfast since we had a 9am flight.

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Whilst on my previous visit to Cafe Vue at the airport, the service had been great and the food so so, this time it was the other way around. My scrambled eggs with mushrooms was delightful and creamy, but the service we got was absolutely appaulling. When a mistake with our order was made, we were made to feel like it was our fault and just ended up accepting it, it took ages to wave anyone down to take our order and overall service was just quite cold. I didn't feel liked at all.

I honestly doubt I will bother with Cafe Vue again, other than to pick up a macaron or two before I get on the plane.

Our flight from Melbourne to Singapore and then from Singapore to Zurich went smoothly, I managed to sleep like a baby and entertained myself with movies, documentaries and tv shows. As you do.

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In Zurich, we were picked up by a family friend, who was to drive us out to pick up our rental car (it's cheaper to rent the further away from the airport you are, airport is premium rental prices!) and then to his farmhouse up in the mountains.

We only just managed to fit our gear and his gear in the back of his car!

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We stopped for pretzels and croissants along the way, which were amazing. The croissant was so flaky and light and crunchy....good Swiss butter makes all the difference...

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Also picked up important provisions...

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And visited the Lindt factory outlet. Yes. A factory outlet for chocolate. Does life get much better?!

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This is how much chocolate I managed to buy within 6 hours of being in Switzerland....oh dear...

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Our friend's farmhouse, is over 300 years old and is just a tiny bit out of the village Schiers, a little bit further up the hill, about one and a half hours out of Zurich.

It is absolutely gorgeous. Charming, wooden, wood fire heaters (which keep the house warm ALL DAY) and just so many quaint things to love, with the benefits of wifi.

We all hit the sack at 7pm that night (having landed at 6am) and slept soundly.

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The next morning, my brother woke up hungry. So my mum and dad made him scrambled eggs with bratwurst (which actually, apparently, originated from Switzerland, not Germany!)

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Our friend was so surprised that we could eat bratwurst first thing in the morning and thought that it was much too heavy. His typical breakfast in the morning (which I shared in) was a loaf of hearty bread, bunderfleish (it's like a cured beef I think?) and a variety of cheeses. Not really sure if it's that much lighter, but it is nice.

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After breakfast, we strolled around the hills and just drank in the views. There's just something about rolling green hills, littered with yellow flowers and dandelions, with snow capped mountains off in the distance that is just so humbling and beautiful. A little Sound of Music-esque.

A good start to a good trip...