Just pop over the border

Yesterday my friend and I decided to go for a drive to France - just because we could. The border to France is only about 30 minutes away from our place so before too long we were driving past the little border control guys into a different country (something that is still a huge novelty for an Australian girl). We drove through the border town of St-Gingolph to a town called Évian-les-Bains (most of you would be familiar with the brand of water from there) where we parked the car and had a leisurely walk around the quiet town. It was around lunch time so the place was fairly quiet and a lot of the shops were shut. I'd been used to having warmish weather for the past couple of weeks and didn't arrive prepared for some chilly weather. My hands froze in the bitter, cold wind but before too long the sun showed it's big, round face and delighted us with a bit of it's lovely warmth.

After a walk around the town in search of somewhere that took Swiss Francs (we both forgot our stash of Euros) so we could find some lunch because both of our tummies were grumbling, we decided to go to a supermarket to buy some fresh bread and cheese to have a picnic by the lake. It was a rather chilly picnic but a nice one nonetheless. I was being eye-balled by the ever-so-cute Tobias (the dog) while I munched on my baguette. He's very hard to resist when he uses those magical "give me some food" eyes.

I was keen to find a warm place to defrost before we went back to the car so we carried on walking along the water front until we found a small cafe/pub/sports betting place to pop in for a quick coffee. My friend and I have this deal going where we take it in turns paying for the coffee and this time it was my turn. The small, fiery waitress came over and asked what we wanted, we asked for coffee and she returned with two identical cups of coffee (despite the fact that my friend and I asked for two different types of coffee) and plonked them on the table. It didn't smell very nice. I think I'm pretty spoilt for coffee now after sampling the goods in Italy and owning a Nespresso machine. I'm usually a less than one spoon of sugar type of coffee drinker but for me to get this one down, needed four. Possibly the worst coffee I have tasted. The only comfort that I had was after reading the price sign that said that it would cost only €1.45 - that was until I actually went up to the bar to pay for it. She handed me the bill and it was €5.20 for two coffees and since we were paying in Swiss Francs.. it was 8.67CHF. I reluctantly handed her 9CHF which she took, dumped in her draw and said "Merci, au revoir". I stood waiting for my 30 cents change which wasn't coming until I told her that I had given her 9CHF. She abruptly handed me my change and I walked out. I definitely wasn't going to tip (even if it was only 30 cents) for that overpriced, nasty, nasty coffee.

After a bit of a giggle about the coffee we headed back to the car so we could drive to a hypermarket called Cora. After hearing about the French hypermarkets from various friends I was very keen to see one for myself. I have gotten so used to doing my groceries in the little supermarket near our apartment that once I stepped foot into the monstrous shop my eyes lit up and my jaw must have dropped about 30cms. I think we spent about 2 1/2 hours walking through every single aisle of the hypermarket making sure to not miss anything. We got to a section in one of the aisles which was stocked with foreign foods and I think I just about screamed when I discovered some packets of Tim Tams. To know that a beloved Australia treat was merely 50 minutes drive away was just a little bit exciting.

Despite having the worst coffee I have tasted and forking out way too much money for said coffee, our trip to France was extremely satisfying! And returning with a large bag full of goodies was very exciting indeed.

Ovronnaz

This past Sunday the weather was a little.... meh. The clouds were low and they were dripping with water. The weather is usually pretty damn nice in our little part of Europe so we were trying to decide what to do on a dreary wet day. It was also Sunday as I said before which means that all of the shops were shut so we couldn't spend our rainy day walking around the shops and we weren't really feeling like spending the day with our butts glued to the couch. We piled ourselves into Mitch and Lu's little, red car and drove to a place called Ovronnaz which is nestled in the Alps above the Rhone river. The further up the mountain the temperature dropped rapidly (according to the dash thermometer) and the rain turned to snow. We all got pretty excited because we'd all forgotten what winter had looked like because the temperature lately has been ranging from 2 degrees to around 10 degrees. After winding and winding up through the vineyards we made it to the thermal baths of Ovronnaz. We slushed through the built up snow and mud in the car park and entered the door to the warm building housing the toasty baths. We purchased our 19 CHF tickets, smiled when the lady told us there was no time limit, went through the turn styles to the change rooms and donned our togs (swimmers).

The first bath/pool we hopped in was a little underwhelming because it was a little too cold for our liking. We noticed that there was another bath which unfortunately you have to hop out into the freezing cold air to get to. Mitch and Roy decided to check if it was warmer and Lu and I noticed that they had huge smiles on their faces which told us that it was. We ran through the chilly air and quickly hopped in and immediately felt warm... ahhhh, so nice! It was so relaxing and such a cool novelty being in a steamy pool while the snow fell on our heads.

a trip here and there

At the end of January Roy and I flew up to Flatland so we could say hi to our friends who live there but also so Roy could go to a workshop with Mitch so they could learn about how forensic traces like DNA, fingerprints, images and sounds can be used to convict or acquit suspects in criminal trials. In other words, some cool CSI stuff. The flight up there is only just over an hour but with train travel and waiting times at the airport the total travel time is about the same as if we were to drive from our place to theirs (about 7 hours). I think we need to buy a car! We went up on a Friday night so we could spend the weekend hanging out and catching up with Mitch and Lu. We drove across the border to a place in Germany called Kranenburg where we had a cheap pub meal. After having lived in Switzerland for almost six months we now really appreciate a cheap meal out. It's also a nice novelty to just pop over to another country for lunch. It takes at least 3 hours to get to a different country from Brisbane by flight and the effort to go through the airport and customs is way too much effort for the sake of having a meal in a different country, not to mention the cost!

The next day we all piled into the car and went to Amsterdam for the day. We spent hours wandering around the city admiring the buildings and canals and the obligatory stop in at Kitsch Kitchen! I could spend hours and many, many Euros in that shop. We also couldn't spend the day wandering around the city without stopping in for some poffertjes at The Pancake Bakery where I loaded up on some Brazilian Poffertjes with walnut ice-cream, amaretto and whipped cream all washed down with an espresso.

Nom nom nom!

I was extremely full and satisfied after that! Ready for more walking to help the digestion of that mammoth plate of sweet, yumminess. We ate a lot that day! No visit to the Netherlands would be complete without a cone full of frites and mayo! mmmmmm..... We also went to Wagamama for dinner. Tasty ramen! Then we said goodbye to Roy and Mitch before they set off to Delft for their workshop and Lu and I caught the train back to Nijmegen for a week of housewifeyness (I think I just invented a word).

When the guys arrived back from their CSI-fest, they came back to a tasty, home cooked dinner of potato and leek soup. YUM! The next morning was pretty crazy! Mitch and Lu had to finish packing up their lives in the Netherlands so they could move to Switzerland for two months, have a baby ultrasound (yep they're expecting their first baby - affectionately named Stroopy), Roy had to navigate his way into town to get a haircut while we were somewhere that has cheap mens haircuts and everyone speaks english (you don't realise how important that is until you live somewhere that doesn't speak english) and Mitch had to ride to work (twice.. he left his wallet there) so he could dot the I's and cross the T's before they moved away for two months. Once all that was done the boys packed the car while the girls scoured the house to make sure nothing was left behind. We all piled into the car and set off on a small road trip! YAY!!

The little red car with the big roofbox hooned along the German highways and autobahns (although not driving to full potential since driving with the roofbox prevented us from going any faster than 120km/h) until we reached a windy drive through the Black Forest to a little town called Baiersbronn. We couldn't see much of the town since it was nighttime by the time we got there. We found our quiet B&B (it was off-season so we were the only patrons), unloaded our bags, asked the owner for some advice on the best place to go for dinner and drove down the windy road into town for a big German pub meal. It was a rather quiet town so we settled for the only place we could find (besides the local kebab shop). The lady at our B&B had told us about a couple of places, one of which she said was for older folks. I'm pretty sure the place we went for dinner was the one for the old folks because it was decorated with things you would see in a retirement village. The lady serving us didn't speak a word of english but we managed to get what we wanted with out very dodgy german, a bit of dutch and even some french! I wanted a drink of Bitter Lemon and I tried asking for it in a german accent and pointing at it on the menu and the woman replied with "Bitter Lemon" in a somewhat Australian sounded accent.

The next morning we woke to beautiful views of the snowy village and forest covered mountains. It was rather beautiful!

We walked downstairs to the dining room where we were greeted hospitably by our hosts who had prepared us a really nice breakfast. It was a pretty standard type spread but it was tasty and well prepared. It rekindled my love of boiled eggs! They were the tastiest boiled googs I had ever had! Cook me a tasty breakfast and I'm your friend for life (my favourite meal of the day!). We piled into the little red car again and drove through some lovely snowy villages. Mitch and Roy were rather chuffed at the thought of driving through places that feature in their beloved "Need for Speed".

Our next destination was Italy! But before we could get there we had to cut through Switzerland and it's many tunnels. I think we went through about 40-50kms worth of tunnels on that trip. One of which was 17kms long (we did that one twice). It was nice to see parts of Switzerland that we can't see from the train tracks. There are so many beautiful lakes in Switzerland so we couldn't resist stopping to take a quick snap of this one.

We arrived at the border of Switzerland and Italy and apart from the gates which told us we had passed over the boarder, there was a distinct difference between the Swiss roads and the Italian roads. Suddenly the rigid, orderly road system turned to chaotic, narrow roads full of impatient drivers. We came up behind a bus and felt a little at ease because driving behind something so big on those tiny roads made it a little less scary. If anything was going to come screaming around the corner then the bus will handle it before it gets to us.

A nice drive around Lake Como brought us to the little lakeside town of Griante where we had a huge villa booked for the four of us. Since it was off-season, the huge place was really cheap. The misty views and cold weather didn't scare us away from having a relaxing short break in the shores of Lago di Como.

The Jacuzzi that didn't bubble

We drove around the lake to the city of Como. We were all keen for some Italian treats! We stopped into a cafe for an espresso. On my first sip I was in dreamland. It was so much better than any other coffee I had ever tasted! It was then that I realised that Nespresso isn't the be-all and end-all of coffee. Lu had an Italian hot chocolate. She had been raving about these for a long time and I didn't realise just what she meant until I saw it with my own eyes. It was like pudding! Thick and gooey, chocolatey goodness!

The next stop was a gelato shop. I had tried gelato in Australia but nothing had prepared me for the taste of this. I ordered a cup of pistachio gelato, took my little spoon, dipped it into the pale green dessert and stuck it in my gob. Oh my! It was fantastic! Just like my experience with the espresso a little earlier in the day, this gelato was unlike anything I had ever tasted. It taunted and ran circles around the gelato I had tried in Australia. It was worth every second of eating a frozen dessert outside in the single digit degrees outside. I was surprised that I actually gave up the remains in the cup for Roy to have a taste.

Lu and I are in our happy place!

After we had our moment with out gelato, we continued our wander through the town to explore the little streets of boutique shops and cafes. There was a market on but it wasn't all that exciting. It was mainly a place for selling tacky socks and underwear. There were so many cool things to look at whilst wandering through the quiet town.

On our way back to Griante, we spied a certain villa in a town called Laglio. According to various sources on the internet, the villa was up for sale for 30million Euros and was rumoured to be of interest to the Beckhams. We were pretending that George Clooney still owned it since we weren't sure whether it had been sold or not. Lu had stars in her eyes as she gazed over the side of the cliff at Villa Oleandra dreaming of drinking Nespresso with her beloved George. She doesn't drink coffee but I reckon if given the chance to just touch George Clooney, she would drink a whole jug full.

A little Paparazzi shot!

Not a bad location if you ask me.

I had been dreaming of an Italian holiday since I was about seventeen and the tiny amount we had seen in those three days had made me fall in love with it. I really want to go back again for more! Our last night in Italy we went to a really nice restaurant for some good quality Italian food! The service was fantastic, the food was excellent and the tiramisu... well..... I hadn't really been much of a fan of the stuff but after seeing others around me eating it, I was dying to try it and what better place to try it than in Italy huh? Especially when the waiter says how dangerously addictive it is. He was right! It was really, really good! I want more!!

New Years!

Our very last day of 2010 was spent looking at bones in the Catacombs underneath the city of Paris. Sounds kind of morbid but had it not been for huge lines the day before we would have seen it then. It wasn't a bad way to spend the day, it was actually quite interesting. To have a detailed read about what it's about head over to wikipedia to have a look. In short it's a series of underground tunnels filled with bones of exhumed remains from overcrowded Parisian cemeteries. We waited in the line again for a couple of hours while we took it in turns to run to the nearest cafe to get something to warm us up from the cold. We purchased our tickets and for us youngins who are under 26 got in for a discounted price and then walked down the windy steps to the underground tunnels. It took a while for us to get to where the bones actually were and it was fun trying to scare our travelling buddies around the dark, dreary corners as the anticipation built for when we got to see the bones. I think we scared other unsuspecting people more than we scared our friends which was also highly amusing.

Walking through the maze of bones was really quite interesting but towards the end I was walking quite quickly because it all looked very similar and there was water dripping from the ceiling which added to the creepy factor. The girls exited promptly leaving the boys to walk through at their intrigued leisure and we waited for them in the warmth of the gift shop. When the boys finally surfaced we headed for the nearest metro so we could go to the craziest department store I've ever been in (besides Harrod's which was just as crazy). I'm talking about Galeries Lafayette. It was giant, overcrowded and overpriced and as soon as we'd eaten lunch and bought some tasty Pierre Hermé macarons I was keen to get out of there. Just getting out of there was a mammoth effort because the escalators were poorly designed which caused huge congestion whilst trying to get back down to ground level. I don't have much patience for people in not so crowded shopping centres so I quickly lost my patience amongst this crowd. Like Harrod's, visiting Galeries Lafayette once was enough for me.

That afternoon we headed back to the hotel for a bit of a relax after a busy day before we were to head out again to join in the New Years Eve celebrations. We crowded into one of the rooms for a few drinks and a chat before we headed out for a quick dinner (I didn't intend for a pun but we actually had dinner at a fast food joint called "Quick" - HA!). We jumped on the metro (which was free for New Years) and went to the Louvre to see if we could get a decent view of the Eiffel Tower.

Our monster from Nepal and India came to visit us in Paris!

We couldn't get much of a view of the tower from the Louvre since it was so foggy so we once again jumped on the metro and went somewhere for a closer look - the Paris Military School. We were pretty happy with this spot but it was a little too cold to hang around for an hour until midnight so we ducked into the nearest cafe/bar/restaurant for a bit of warmth and a drink. We took our last sips of our last drinks of 2010 and walked out into the cold to secure a good spot to watch the tower. By this time the crowds had gotten bigger and there were more groups of rowdy, drunken people waiting for the same thing that we were waiting for. Mitch set up his camera ready to get some spectacular shots when the clock struck midnight. The anticipation was building, the people were unsettled and others were preparing their champagne bottles for the big bang. A group nearby to us started counting backwards from ten and popped their corks when they finished the count but it was a little premature. An embarrassed guy blamed his iPhone for the premature count down and the rest of us looked at our watches and saw the second hand ticking to twelve. There was no official countdown but once the majority around us had decided that it was midnight, everyone celebrated, many were kissing and a few groups of people let off some small fireworks. We waited patiently for the tower to erupt but all we saw was the usual light twinkle that it did at every hour in the night. There was no spectacular fireworks display off the tower at midnight. We watched and waited until the lights stopped twinkling and still nothing happened. We waited some more but soon we decided that perhaps there wasn't going to be anything firing off the tower. Like the rest of the crowd we started the walk towards the metro. We dodged crowds of drunken revelers, stray firecrackers and broken champagne bottles and watched the metro station fill with crowds. We weren't really feeling like standing shoulder to shoulder with smelly, drunken people to get on the train so we waited until the crowd subsided a little before we caught the train back to the hotel.

Even though we were slightly disappointed with the lack of pyrotechnics on the tower, we still had a great time in Paris. It was a fun atmosphere and quite funny that there was no fireworks like we expected. We overheard other people in the crowds talking about the lack of fireworks too. I guess we shouldn't have assumed or expected it because we set ourselves up for disappointment. Where to for next New Years?