Zürich, oh Zürich

A weekend away in one of my favorite countries, instead of lovely Lausanne, this time it was a quick trip down to Zurich for a little sightseeing and relaxation. I have only passed through Zurich twice before this trip and having only walked through the city for a few hours the first time I didn't really know what there was to see in the city itself. So it was a great chance to explore a (relatively) new place with Nick. And it was his first visit to Switzerland ever, something I actually find hard to believe given that Austria is so close, but hey, I guess there are a lot of states I haven't seen in America.

We arrived on Friday night to a lovely drizzly sky and grabbed a quick bite to eat down the street from our hotel. Saturday was kind of cold and drizzly, but we still spent the morning and afternoon wandering around the city, down the Bahnhofstrasse (one of the more famous shopping streets in Europe, very expensive) and through some of the smaller streets. There are some beautiful antique shops in Zurich. I wish we had the same kind of thing in Frankfurt. I could spend hours poking through them. Probably the shopping highlight for Nick was this tiny little scotch shop we found on one of the side streets. They had everything in there that had to do with scotch, whiskey and bourbon. Dinner, I am slightly ashamed to report, was fondue and raclette (my choice because somehow there's nothing better than melted cheese on a cold, rainy day. Totally touristy and not at all local to Zurich, but still good.

On our walk back to the hotel, and actually through much of the day, we saw scores of riot police wandering through the city in full riot gear. And across the river we heard an enormous amount of chanting and drumming. Given that Switzerland just had a rather contentious and somewhat violent election, I asked Nick if he thought it was a political rally. He figured either political rally or soccer match. Little did we know.

Sunday it was another drizzly day, not so great for sightseeing and this being Switzerland, everything was closed anyway except for the coffee shops. So after checking out of the hotel we went to find a place to camp out for a few hours and have a coffee. On our search for warmth we ran smack into the source of the drumming during the weekend, a Carnival marching band in full costume. And they were joined shortly after that by another band that played with them. When we decided to head to Zurich for the weekend, little did we know that it was the start of Carnival and all over the city there were bands wandering the streets in full on Mardi Gras style costumes playing for whomever they stumbled across.

It was unbelievable. So fantastic to see these people young, old and everything in between. I had no idea that Carnival marching bands were so big in Switzerland. Check out a little clip of our experience:



So some tips for Zurich if you so desire a visit there:

Hotels:
Hotel Rössli
Rössligasse 7
8001 Zürich
Tel: +41 44 256 70 50
Fax: +41 44 256 70 51
*Where we stayed, a very nice hotel, really central and convenient. I would definitely stay here again.

Hotel Otter
Oberdorfstrasse 7
8001 Zürich
Tel: +41 44 251 22 07
Fax: +41 44 251 22 75
*A cool looking boutique type hotel, it definitely looked like an interesting place to stay. Very funky room designs and a cool bar downstairs.

Shops and Restaurants:
Scot & Scotch
An amazing little shop that specializes in scotch and whiskeys from all over the world. I actually found small batch Kentucky bourbons here!

Sprüngli
A subsidiary of Lindt chocolates, Sprüngli has both a shop where you can purchase some really lovely chocolates and pastries as well as a cafe upstairs. The hot chocolate is fantastic as is the Gesztenye püré which is a Hungarian chestnut puree served in a small pastry with whipped cream. Very tasty.

Hiltl
The oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe (from 1890).

Zeughauskeller
Totally touristy, but not bad food. It was a huge space, which was great when the marching bands started to pour in for dinner because they all played a set before eating.

Things to See:
Bahnhofstrasse
One of the busiest and best known shopping streets in the world, it runs from the Zürich Train Main station down to the lake. It's great for window shopping if your bank account doesn't agree to shopping on one of the most exclusive and expensive shopping streets in the world.

Also check out the Wikitravel guide to Zurich. Very helpful.

Life at the Castello

Well, it truly is Andrea's last weekend in Lausanne, it's hard to believe that she heads out to the States next Saturday. But it wouldn't be life with Andrea if we didn't have some spectacular final weekend in Lausanne. And what a weekend it was. . . .

We kicked it off in Geneva for the afternoon wandering around the city. I know it's hard to believe given how often I fly in and out of that city, but I had never actually seen it before . . . and then thanks to her lovely friend Marco (he of the Mexican party, who unfortunately was absent for the weekend) we had a gorgeous house to relax and drink many bottles of rose at right on the lake.

It was a gorgeous weekend, bright blue skies, lots and lots of sun and of course the best company, the best conversation and such good friends. Ilham was almost recovered from her emergency appendectomy, Vanessa was back from the States after her 3-week, cross-country vacation and of course there was Andrea.

We hung out with the girls, walked to Pully and Lutry along the lake shore, drank wine with our newest friends Nikolas and Paulo who just moved to Lausanne from Argentina, and even managed to catch up with an old friend Santi who was back visiting for a few weeks.

Gorgeous and hard to leave, but pretty perfect. I can't wait until Andrea comes back to visit. . . .

A Tribute to Ilham . . . who lost part of herself this weekend.

This posting is dedicated to Ilham who literally lost a part of herself this past weekend when she had her appendix taken on. On her birthday no less! And at the sacrafice of her holiday in St Tropez with Pascual. Poor thing! So here is a big round of good wishes for a swift recovery!

Happily she is recovering well and should be going home from the hospital early this week. That's what we're all hoping anyhow, a swift and full recovery so we can go play in France together in a few weeks.

Honestly, this may have been one of the most low-key weekends I've spent in Lausanne yet. Saturday Andrea and I just kind of took it easy (in between hospital visits that is) and wandered around Lausanne. We found this fantastic little boutique that just opened run by a kind crazy, way out there, gay Frenchman who is opening a restaurant upstairs. He dressed me in the most outrageous clothes, fabulous, but I truly think I'll need another year in Europe at least before I would ever be comfortable in anything so fashion forward. I walked out the dressing room at one point in baggy, low-slung shorts that hit below my knee, a sheer beige tank layered with another longer black top, then the guy slung some belt around my waist that looked like a sliver version of Wonder Woman's belt, some arm cuffs and a funky pair of sandals later and Andrea took one look at me with her mouth open and said "You look like you just walked off the pages of Vogue." Yup, a little too much for this ungirly girl. But fun to play dress-up for a little while.

After that we chilled with Mehdi and his friend Rami for drinks, went out to a Latin club and ended up just lounging at Andrea's hotel room in the Lausanne Palace for the rest of the night.

Sunday we had a visit with Ilham to wish her a happy birthday and then went down to the lake, and walked through some massive clouds of bugs before settling ourselves down at the Beau Rivage for lunch and afternoon sun.

Low-key and relaxing, definitely a change from most of our weekends together, but absolutely fantastic nonetheless. Hard to believe that Andrea will be gone in just three more weeks.

Oh! Last thought and image from this trip. On the way home I saw the most fantastic sunset over the clouds. Absolutely beautiful.

Parties, Inventories and Debra Winger

So this past weekend I was down doing my usual weekend in Lausanne with Andrea (I swear between Andrea and work Lausanne is like my summer home . . . ), although this time it was for the bittersweet purpose of helping Andrea pack up and inventory her apartment. Of course that didn't mean we weren't out having fun. Including a late night at the club, and a rather entertaining Mexican party at her friend Marcos's castello on the lake. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Friday night I arrived, met up with Mehdi, Ilham, Andrea, Ben and Vanessa (we've got quite a little crew going on these days). And I finally got to meet Andrea's friend Rania from Cairo. And (it's such a small world), it turns out that Rania is friends with the older brother of my college friend Saadia. Amazing. . . and random.

A crazy long night out at the club dancing led well into morning and a full day of Andrea going through her house while Ilham, Rania and I went out for a quick coffee. And no we were not abandoning Andrea! She had people coming by all day to pick up things that she had either sold or given away. It was a fun morning, a little shopping, a little coffee, lots of good conversation about Ilham's new business venture, The Wedding Architect. Very fun.

And that night we did the Mexican party that I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately it was pouring rain when we left to head there (and Andrea had decorated the yard so nicely!), but we arrived to a sea (ok maybe 40 people) of white. . . everyone looked amazing. And what a party. Marcos's friend from Mexico had cooked up the most amazing food (where they found Mexican ingredients in Switzerland I have no idea), the music was going, people were dancing. . . it was great. In fact I stepped away to take a quick phone call and by the time I got back Rania and Ilham were in the middle of a circle belly dancing! Not sure how that happened . . . and let me tell you they both were highly sought after for the rest of the night. . . :)

Now you may be wondering where Debra Winger comes into this weekend. . . well, as we're about to leave the party, this very random, quite intoxicated Spanish man came up to me. This is how our conversation went:

Random Spanish Man: "I'd like to tell you something in Spanish."

Me: "Um, ok." At which point he starts babbling in Spanish, and I'm standing there nodding my head with no idea what he's saying.

He finishes and I say: "I have no idea what you just said."

Random Spanish Man: "Let me translate in French."

Me: "Well, that won't do much good, I don't speak French."

Random Spanish Man: "OK, let me try English."

At this point, he's babbling at me in English and I can barely understand him because of his accent, so he finishes. I say thank you, he gives me a kiss on the cheek and I turn to Andrea and say, "I think it's time to go."

Before I can even get to the door Random Spanish Man is back with one last parting statement, "You look like a young Debra Winger from 'An Officer and a Gentleman'." And then, another kiss on the cheek and he turned and walked back to his friends.

OK. Right. I don't see it, but it's a random yet flattering comparison so I'll take it.

We finished the night off at Ilham's with amazing food (especially since it was 4am!). Moroccan sardines with tomatoes and spices, omelettes with Moroccon dried meat and of course cheese and crackers. . . by far the best late night snack I've had in ages! And then home by 5 am only to be up 5 hours later to start the valued inventory of Andrea's house.

All in all a pretty fantastic final weekend in Chez Fleitas! Although of course I'm headed down at least one or two more times before Andrea finally makes it off the continent. . . .

A toast to Toast!

Vanessa, Andrea and I

This past weekend I headed down to Lausanne, my home away from home in Europe, to spend a weekend celebrating with my lovely Andrea before she heads back home to the States in August to become a brand new entrepreneur!

In keeping with the spirit of Andrea's new Wine Bar venture that she will be starting when she moves to Florida, it was an amazing weekend full of fantastic company and incredible Italian wines. The wines were provided courtesy of wine lover extraordinaire Stuart Prichard who also regaled us with details on the wine which came from his personal collection (Stuart, I'm sorry to say it, but I think we stopped listening to your explanations by the third bottle we tasted). Superb eggplant napoleon's followed the wine tasting served up with panache by Ilham in practice for her newest venture (for those getting married in Europe I highly recommend you check her out at: TheWeddingArchitect and yes I know this is a shameless plug for my friend, but she really is pretty fantastic at this).

After drinking and eating and talking for well over 5 hours, the dancing began at the house and it was pretty much madness after that. . . . yet another unforgettable weekend at Chez Fleitas! In the company of new friends (for me) and old friends, it was a bittersweet conclusion to Andrea's seven years in Lausanne, and I have to say that even though I'm incredibly sad that she's leaving now that I've finally arrived in Europe, I am so excited for her new adventure as an entrepreneur and owner of a fabulous new wine bar in Florida! I can't wait to be there for the opening!

Love the Lausanne Weekends. . . .

Headed out of Frankfurt for a last minute trip to visit friends in Lausanne this weekend. And what a weekend it was, full of fabulous food, incredible wines (many, many bottles ) and unbelievably wonderful company. I do love any chance I have to get together with the Girls (Andrea and Vanessa).

It's hard not to enjoy a weekend when you've got great people cooking for you. With Bally's amazing french toast, several delicious bottles of champagne stretched breakfast far into the day after a full night out at the clubs on Friday.

And as if that wasn't enough, I met Andrea's good friend Stuart, a totally eclectic food lover whose mom owned a restaurant and has cooked for the Australian embassy with a friend of his. He had promised Andrea a famous roast chicken dinner for the girls, and he definitely didn't disappoint. I think when he said he didn't have enough time to bake something I may have actually asked the poor guy to marry me! :)

No worries though, Stuart joined us on top of the mountainside for a glass of wine and more culinary discussion before working his magic in the kitchen. And what magic it was! Gorgeous roasted chicken with lemon and butter, pan roasted asparagus, many beautiful roasted vegetables. Gorgeous bottles of Spanish red wine from Stuart's private collection (which he's probably about to auction off if anyone of you is interested). And then for dessert, balsamic macerated strawberries and raspberries over a really incredible, dense chocolate cake. God I think I might be hungry again for his cooking! Anyway, it was a great night, with great company and amazing food.
I do love these weekends with Andrea and her friends. It's almost as if we've found ourselves in some French country home and everyone just drops by and stays for a while to talk and catch up and just relax. So fabulous.

So to finish the weekend of food and fun off I returned home for dinner cooked by another lovely friend of mine, Jon who made me delicious pasta and then capped the weekend off with fireworks! Oh how lucky am I to have friends like this! Truly, truly lucky.

St. Moritz

Weekend 2:
March 30 thru April 1

Another weekend away, this time in lovely, glorious St. Moritz for a little skiing and R&R with dear friends, Al and Julie.

So first off, for those who've never had a chance to ski Switzerland, you must. And for those who have, why didn't you tell me how incredible it is to ski out here?? The runs seem like they're miles long!

Anyway, an interesting trip. I arrived in Zurich to find out that my bag had somehow not made the one hour flight from Frankfurt to Zurich. Apparently they just forgot to put it on the plane. So the helpful baggage people promised to put my suitcase on a train to St. Moritz and then deliver it to the apartment on Saturday morning. Not ideal, but not that bad right?

So I hop the train up to St. Moritz and my bag flies in a few hours later. The train ride was absolutely spectacular! It seems like the mountains just arrive out of no where somehow. You're just going along on this flat ground, chugging past Lake Zurich and into the countryside, and then there they! The Alps just appear out of no where. Absoultely breathtaking. It's different than it is in the States, when you head up to the Rockies, the foothills kind of soften the visual extreme, here it just goes from flat valley land to soaring mountains in the space of a heartbeat.

It's interesting, the lack of snow fall this season is incredibly apparent. Most years, you wouldn't see nearly this much ground coming through the snow, but the winter has been so warm and the snowfall so little that spring is arriving early this year.

The train itself on the last leg up to St. Moritz is actually part of a train route called the Glacier Express. So pretty, it winds its way through the mountains and at some points it looks like it's going to run smack into the side of the mountain.






The view from Al and Julie's balcony is beautiful:

It looks right out over the lake and onto the mountain range. So my first night with them, Al and Julie broke the big news, they are off to Hong Kong where Al will be taking a pretty incredible position with Morgan Stanley as one of the three managing directors for the office It's an amazing opportunity, but I can't even imagine how much they will miss being able to come up here for the weekends.

So, Saturday was a day for skiing. Julie stayed behind to wait for my bag, while Al and I hit the mountain. Amazingly, the entire mountain was shrouded in a cloud that just refused to move all day long. So Al and I skied in a cloud for about six hours. I don't think I've ever been so tired skiing before in my life, not because the runs were so hard, but because as soon as you skied into the cloud it was a complete white out. It was eerie, you couldn't hear much, you couldn't see anything at all. People would pop out of the mist for a minute as they passed you by and then disappear again just as fast. Definitely an experience to be had.

A full day of skiing ended with an ever so Swiss meal of fondue (unbelievably delicious) and a sound night's sleep.

So my bag (Remember my bag?), did not make it to the mountain. Sadly, my bag actually didn't arrive until Sunday morning, just in time for me to head back to Zurich and to Frankfurt. I guess my bag and I both had a good weekend. It galavanted around the Swiss country side on the train and I spent a spectacular weekend, in a glorious environment, with two fantastic friends. Plus you can't beat skiing in St. Moritz for the weekend.

Aren't I just so cosmopolitan ;)

So finally, a few more pretty pictures: