so much swiss cuteness!

we have just returned from a 3 day adventure into the wintry wonderland of the Swiss Alps. we went straight for la creme de la creme: the Matterhorn! we hauled our snowboard and ski boots up the hill to the Lausanne train station, and when the stop announcements changed order of languages (from 1-french 2-german 3-english to 1-german 2-french 3-english) we knew we were getting close. in Visp we changed trains and headed up into the mountains. i am beginning to appreciate the promptness of Swiss trains- we literally waited 10 minutes between trains and they arrive exactly to the minute!

waiting for the train in Visp

the ride up was beautiful, passing through many small towns. we started to see lots of snow covered mountains and cute chalets everywhere. the highlight was passing through the town of St. Niklaus, mainly hearing the German announcer say "St. Niklaus" and imagining how this became "Santa Claus" somewhere in translation. lets not forget this giant statue of St. Niklaus himself.

Zermatt is quite an adorable town. cars are not allowed, although somehow we always managed to be in the way of the electric taxis that shuttle the richies to their hotels and such. our hotel was right near the main shopping street and we enjoyed window shopping, especially in the chocolate shops. we entered one of the ski shops only to overhear a transaction for a CHF 850 ski jacket. ouch!

the matterhorn from our hotel window

it has been at least 3 years since either of us has been skiing/snowboarding. (school didn't leave much time for it!) lets just say that day 1 of skiing was pretty miserable. i'd love to blame it all on the icy conditions and lots of narrow runs traversing the mountains, but i'd be lying if i didn't blame it also on my shaky legs and lack of practice. but really, the conditions were awful. on the gondola ride (sardines) up to our lunch spot i told howie that this was going to be my last ski trip. ever. i was ready to give up for life. the mountain had won. the worst part was the endless path back to town- Howie had to walk and I was going so slow that people on sleds were passing me.

this is the before shot- there is no "after"

as we were too crabby to take photos

but, as you probably imagined, day two was an entirely different story. we were SO sore from the first day and decided to take it easy, left the hotel a bit late, and took a 2 hour(!) trip up the mountain. (its a long way up.) we were so nervous about the snow conditions- my legs could not handle another day of scraping ice- but when we emerged from another sardine gondola ride to the tippy top we melted with this gorgeous view.

matterhorn glacier paradise- looking at the italian alps

and we proceeded to have the best ski day of our lives. the snow on the glacier was so perfect, the runs were wide and the Matterhorn peak was constantly in view. i skied fast and enjoyed making long s-curves down the runs. eventually our energy ran out and we headed back to town for some eats.

howie racing past me on the perfect snow

i didn't mention that the first night we ate at a magnificent restaurant called The Pipe, a fusion restaurant run by a South African guy with a great sense of humor. we had excellent spicy massaman prawn curry and springbok biryani, flavors that we have been craving! if you ever go to Zermatt, you must eat here. i loved the African decor as well as a wall of Indian/SE Asian spices and curry pastes for sale.

the next night our dinner at a pizzeria (Lonely Planet recommended) was SO bad that we decided to forget German food altogether and went back to the Pipe for our third night (with some laughs from the owner). while we do plan to cook our own Asian dishes here in Lausanne, we couldn't pass up more of the amazing fusion dishes, especially after some long days of skiing.

a horribly foamy beer followed by an equally horrible meal :(

we left Zermatt with our bellies full, muscles aching, and pockets empty. what a great trip! see more photos from Zermatt at our website.

who's counting? happy new year!

no more counting, and no more expecting myself to blog every day. its just not going to happen.

happy new year, everyone! howie and i celebrated with some of our new IMD friends at Le Bleu Lezard, a "low-key" bar in Lausanne. we had a 6ish course meal- we skipped a couple of courses and went ahead to dessert when we hit midnight and everyone started getting crazy. we just couldn't sit still any longer!

the last few days we have spent exploring Lausanne and Geneva. we have posted many of the photos at our website from our recent explorations. (in case you were worried, howie's macbook has recovered from motherboard transplant surgery and is doing well!)

Lausanne:

one of the great things about this city is the mild weather. although its been very grey and gloomy, it is not nearly as cold as MN and there's rarely snow on the ground. therefore outdoor produce markets continue straight through the winter and there are always people in the streets (walking, not driving.) on our way to the cathedral we found this great market with these mobile bucheries (butcher shops) and many cheese shops as well.

we were a bit chilly so we ducked into a museum nearby- turned out to be about 6 or 7 museums in one big building. so far we haven't had much time to explore our Swiss Scavenger Hunt (courtesy of the Crosswoods) but we think the four legged chick could get us some bonus points, no?

finally we made it to the top of the hill to the 12/13th century Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Lausanne. apparently the best preserved cathedral in Switzerland, it is quite beautiful and also quite large! i was trying to analyze the architecture based on my gothic architecture class from ~2 years ago. lets just say that i need to review a bit, but was able to note the three story elevation, ribbed columns, flying buttresses and ambulatory. and no, i did not just look up "ambulatory"... well...

there is still some paint to remind us of the days when these

great cathedrals were very colorful inside.

the nave- lots of light from the clerestory windows.

here is some evidence of ongoing restoration:

i have a renewed faith in duct tape!

this cathedral originally used a side entrance for the main entry which is unusual. the carvings at that entry are still painted- preserved with a lovely modern steel and glass vestibule.

definitely a beautiful space with some unique features- if you come visit me this will be one of our tour stops. i'd love to attend one of the organ concerts there!

day six/seven. adventures in bureaucracy.

moving has had its ups and downs. most of you have already heard about the 5 month visa process that ended with me overnight mailing my passport to chicago and receiving it with the visa stamp just 3 days before we left. luckily we took care of all that before we left because it allowed me to apply immediately for residency which is necessary for opening a bank account and having a phone. actually, the residency card (which cost us 220 CHF) takes ~4 weeks to come in the mail. in the meantime, we had to purchase a 12 CHF piece of paper that states that we applied for the residency card, which then allowed us to open a bank account and to get phones.

difficult? no. complicated? yes. time consuming? yes. expensive? yes. but... we did learn our way around town pretty quickly. this is also why we came so early- all of the govt offices are closed from 24 Dec-3 Jan!

luckily most of the b.s. is done and we can spend money, talk on the phone, and surf the net! doesn't make for exciting blogging, but gives you an idea of what we have to go through to be here. :)

on a lighter note, we also accomplished a major ikea trip! major because we had to bring all of our purchases back on the train and metro. still a bit more to do, but the apartment is feeling more like home.

a glimpse of the alps and some sweet industrial architecture from the train ride to ikea.

day five. getting out: a tour of ouchy.

fact: we live above a japanese restaurant that charges $9 for 2pc. nigiri sushi. (see apt door w/yellow mailboxes)

we also live down the street from a bakery. yum!

i love the trees on our street. i'm not a tree buff, although the bark resembles sycamore. anyone know?

Ouchy waterfront. Can't wait to watch the ecole bateaux in the summer!

sleepy ouchy with the shutters closed.

Ouchy (pronounced: oo-she)

morning ritual

Les Bateaux, patiently waiting.

howie.

ali. (& mountains! better pics to come- too sunny!)

days three/four. the couch.

days three and most of four were, literally, spent on the couch. my illness took a bad turn and i could barely move. thankfully howie was feeling better and made two trips to the pharmacy for me! he also managed to take these pics of our ouchy apartment view during the snow. believe it or not, there may be some alps behind those clouds- we have yet to see!

i think we have a pretty decent view- we look directly out to the white building with turrets from the top photo, and the grey building with shutters from the second photo. our apartment is a pink version of the dirty one to the right of the gray building, so its a good thing that we have something a little more charming to stare at! there is also a pedestrian/bike path you can see in the photos, so we have lots of green space to look out to. and somehow there are millions of little birds that live here- maybe there are just lots of birds in switzerland?

we did make some progress on unpacking our apartment today, but we'll wait to post some photos until after our ikea trip. hopefully we'll also be able to find the mysterious cellar to find the remaining furniture we "purchased" from the previous tenant... to be continued...

day two. apple store geneva.

at the geneva gare.

Howie and I went on an adventure to Geneva. Unfortunately (but somewhat fortunately) Howie's laptop died about 2 days before we left the US. The Apple store in Roseville would have fixed it for free, but we didn't have enough time before we left. The "Genius" in Roseville told us that we could take the computer to any Apple store worldwide to have it fixed, and should be free.

So, sick and all, we bought our ridiculously expensive train tickets and headed out with fingers crossed. I imagined all horrible things- it could take a month to fix or maybe couldn't be fixed and we would have to buy a new computer. Luckily, just as our Roseville Genius said, the new motherboard is totally free to replace and should be done in 1 week max. Whew! Lucky us- especially as we've been learning the crazy prices of everything in this country. We didn't last long on the chilly streets of Geneva, but it was a worthwhile trip for the peace of mind that Howie won't be using my computer for school :)

French moment of the day: (Buying train tickets) "Bonjour!" "Bonjour!" (me) "Je veux acheter... um... the half-fare card?" ...and the conversation immediately changes to English. I am motivated to be good enough so that I can have at least one or two exchanges with somebody without English. Going to be tough!

A demain.

p.s. what is the deal with Blogger and not letting me change fonts?!

day one. the move.

I'm not sure when December 21st ended and the 22nd began, but we definitely turned the shortest day of the year into a long one. After cramming one last bag of christmas cookies into my backpack, we set out for the MSP airport. We were worried about our luggage- we ended up with two overweight bags and one extra bag. Luckily there was an angel at check-in who gave us a break on the fees for all of our bags. (Since when did they change it from 2 to 1?!) Besides getting it all on the plane, we also weren't sure how we would actually make it on the train from Geneva to Lausanne and to our apartment on Ave. d'Ouchy.

Luckily there was a nice, empty train and plenty of time to load all of our giant bags. Poor Howie was already feeling pretty sick at the time, but he was a champ at hauling the 70+ lb suitcases off the train into a crowd of frenchies, who patiently waited for us to move our 9 bags onto the platform.

French moment of the day: I knew I would do this, but the first time I tried to speak french (to our taxi driver) I definitely said "dos taxis". Oops! I blame it on the lack of sleep.