I still have to quickly recap my last couple of days in Switzerland.  Thursday morning, we made our last grocery store trip to stock up on a few last-minute things to take home that we cannot get in the US.  Mainly:  more chocolate (believe it or not…), Wheetabix, some hazelnuts, and MARZIPAN!  All of those items are so fabulous and in my top 10 fave list… not sure why they are so hard to find in the US.  S and I wandered around the grocery store.

I loved wandering the grocery stores in Switzerland.  Partially because I am a foodie, of course, but also because they had so much different, interesting stuff.  Of course, I couldn’t read any of the packages… but sometimes that made it even more fun   My best purchase of the day?  These white chocolate kisss candies:

Yes, if you notice, almost the entire 15-candy package was gone by the time I actually took this picture.  Oops.  Anyways, these kisss were just like Krembo, which were my favorite candies in Israel when I was there.  Basically, they are a chocolate shell with creme inside, with a cookie/wafer on the bottom.  Sooo good.  And of course they are fairly delicate, so I had to eat them all.  They would not be able to survive the trip home without getting crushed!

To celebrate my last day, I also wore my new t-shirt that S’s uncle gave to me.  He works for slf, and got us these cool shirts.  I chose pink, of course.

S got a white one.

We spent the day on Thursday with the family.  There was some breakfast, some ping-pong playing, and a lot of reminiscing on the last three weeks now that the trip was coming to an end.

Also, I finally got around to taking pictures of the marathon swag we got.  My favorite was the Lausanne wine, from the vineyards that we ran through.

And here is the t-shirt and the other items.

And S’s bib too, just to prove he actually did it

In the evening, we went out to dinner in Bern.  It was the last dinner with S’s brother before we left.  He took us to this cooperative restaurant – similar to the one at Reitschule, where he lives.  On the drive there, I admired the beautiful sunset out the car window:

I was a little nervous because the menu was small, with not many options, and I couldn’t read it at all (Hello, German.)  As S read the menu to me, one of the options was fried tofu so I jumped on it.  It came with potatoes, and since I’m not the biggest fan of potatoes I asked for a salad instead.  Well, I had S ask for me, since the waitress didn’t speak English.

I am so used to the US, where you can order whatever you want.  I get dressings on the side, make substitutions, ask for special requests… all the time.  Every time I go out to eat.  But in Switzerland it’s not like that, and I keep forgetting.  S explained it to me like this:  In the US, going out to eat is a break from us having to cook.  We go out for a meal and order something exactly how we want it.  We customize it, trusting ourselves to make decisions on how the meal will taste the best to us.  Then, if we don’t like something, we often blame ourselves and the way we ordered it – we say next time we will get it done more rare, or we will get the sauce served separately… something like that.  In Switzerland, when they go out to eat they are paying to get the cook’s expertise.  They want the chef to decide how their dinner will be served, and serve it to them.  No changes, no customizations.  And if they don’t like it, they blame the chef – they decide the chef wasn’t a good one, they didn’t like the experience, and they will not go to that restaurant again.  Kind of interesting way of looking at it.  But I guess I’m American all the way… I want my food the way I want it… not the way the chef wants it.

So anyhow, I get a lot of funny looks when I ask for a salad instead of potatoes.  But thats ok.

The tofu was delicious!  The veggies and salad were great too.  Altogether, two thumbs up for the cooperative restaurant.

It was a great night.  It was tough to say goodbye to S’s brother at the end – especially for him.  I think that the last few days of the trip really made S realize how much he missed his family in the US.  I think he kind of pushed it away before, but being back at home and having to say goodbye all over again brought all the feelings to the surface.

Before I knew it, it was Friday – the last day of our trip.  In the morning, S and I went to Fit Plus for the last time.  We brought a gift of wine, chocolate and flowers to the gym’s owners, S’s former employer, to thank them for allowing us to work out there for free during our trip.  We flew home for a quick shower and lunch, and then went to play tennis with S’s sister.  It was so fun!  I forgot how much I enjoyed playing tennis, because I haven’t played for years.  It is definitely something I would like to do now that S and I are back in California.  S still hadn’t recovered from the marathon, though.  He was hobbling around the court like an old man

After tennis, S went to go meet two friends for drinks and guy talk.  I stayed home and carved pumpkins with his sister!

Her pumpkin was scary:

Mine… not so much.

S said it looked like a Pokemon.

Finally, we went out for one last dinner with the family.

We went to a nice restaurant in Murten called Hotel Schiff.  S’s parents took us there because they have really good seafood, and they know how much I love seafood.  I got the perch.  Once again, I got my funny looks for asking for a salad instead of potatoes.  Why does everything in Switzerland come with potatoes?!?!  Anyhow, funny looks aside, the dinner was absolutely delicious.

I got a LOT of perch, which made me happy.  What did not make me so happy was the fact that there was a smoker sitting at the table next to us.  I swear, I didn’t think this guy was going to live to see dessert.  He must have smoked 20 cigarettes as we ate our dinner… just kept lighting one up right after the other.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  That is one of the worst things about Switzerland… they are way behind the US, and particularly California, in banning smoke in restaurants and public places.  Most restaurants we went to didn’t even have separate non-smoking and smoking areas.

We got home from dinner pretty late, and the rest of the evening was spent packing up and discussing all that had happened on the trip with disbelief that it was over.  I learned a LOT on this trip – a lessons learned post is sure to follow.