Four Hours in Switzerland

We left EWR at 5:40PM on Thursday, flew to Philly, then to Frankfurt, then to Geneva, arriving at 1:00PM on Friday. The plan was to then take a 4PM train from Geneva to Milan, staying in Italy for two days before Jim's conference began.

Due to my careful planning and pre-purchasing of the train tickets, we had plenty of time to kill before our train. Luckily, we found this amazing park (Parc des Cropettes). We laughed as we tried to find a bench that wasn't positioned beneath a massive tree (thus exposing us to frequent guano downpours), watched as children played on different-looking equipment, and kept the suitcases close by as we witnessed some hard-core boccie ball being played. (Seriously, these guys had magnetic chains and/or sticks that they used to retrieve their balls from the dirt at the end of the round!)


It was hot, but we were used to hot... New Jersey was experiencing a heat wave when we left, complete with humidity and sunshine every day for weeks... Geneva seemed about the same. Thus our first purchase with Swiss Francs-- a frozen, hollowed out orange with sweet ice cream inside.

Our train had one stop over, in Brig. Holy cow were we blown away by this quaint, mountainous city. We had seen many apricot trees in the fields through the window of our train. Therefore, I got a slice of apricot pie for dessert that day. Looks pretty, no?

Jim got his first European beer in Europe.

Below is a picture that illustrates one of the most popular dishes in Switzerland (can't remember the name of it...) Essentially, they use a half-circle of cheese and warm it under a heated light... the bubbling ooze is then scraped off onto a plate, and the diner is given potatoes, salted dried meats, pickles, and onions to dip into the cheese. We didn't get it on this occasion, but it was my final meal in Switzerland. Very, very good!



As is often the case, people dined outside as they watched local entertainers out in the town square.
After taking the picture below, Jim said, "I could totally see myself living here".