Switzerland pt 5 (More work, Hunter's Dinner, Halloween, and a Goodbye)

Our first day back from Venice, after such a long weekend and such a late night, involved a lot of rest and relaxation. That evening we had Raclette again (let's call it a post-race recovery meal, so the calories don't count), and the following days we were back to work. On Tuesday that week we went to Larina's apartment (Regulas daughter) to help her pack for her upcoming move to Interlaken. We spent most of the day, and well into the night, helping her pack boxes and bags. But like all good moving days, it ended with pizza and drinks around the table, surveying our accomplishments. The following day was another productive one. Nicole painted the shutters to the garden house, while Kyle took off all of the grape vines (we both harvested the grapes first!) and power-washed the entire shed, including the roof.

The weather was extremely nice that day, and we recognized that this may be our last good chance to actually explore the nice sights to see in Thun (while we had grown comfortable with all of the day-to-day things in Thun, like grocery stores and similar, we actually had yet to see any of the "touristy" things). Regula gave us some money for ice cream, which we subsequently spent on beer at a riverside café. From there, we explored the Thun old town and castle area, and then wandered back down to the water (with a pit stop for soft pretzels as a snack, of course). We went to "Fred's" - an awesome open-air venue with amazing views of the surrounding mountains - for a drink (Nicole got a hot tea and gin drink which was prefect for the chilly weather). When we arrived back home that evening, Regula had her next batch of WyWarm (her mulled wine brand) ready, so we got to practice bottling and corking the wine, which would come in handy later on.

The next morning we went to Bern with Regula, who had to run some errands. We had definitely wanted to revisit the city after we had so much fun on our first trip. Similar to the first go around, we immediately just started wandering around with no real location in mind. We ended up by the bear pits again, where the male bear was out early on the cold morning eating some plants in the ground. One of the volunteers, and older retiree gentleman who volunteers there for his language practice with foreigners, stopped to talk to us. He spent about an hour telling us stories about the bears, about crazy tourists, and about his hometown (Emmental, home of the "big holes with the little cheese around it"). He was great, but at that point we were extremely cold, so we hustled down to grab a hot cup of coffee before we were picked up by Regula. As an aside: the first coffee shop we went in to did NOT accept our US vaccination cards as proper proof of vaccination, so we were not able to dine in there. This was our first instance of our cards not working, but c'mon USA, its time to get on board with the QR code/digital system like the rest of the world. After that we stopped at a few places on the way back, and had one mishap where Regula locked her keys in the car, which caused about a 2-hour delay and a random Malaysian lunch at a train station...but at least it was sunny that afternoon! Our final stop on the way home was to find pumpkins for carving that evening. Although it was only the 29th, all of the farmstands that we stopped at were already COMPLETELY out of pumpkins. We finally found a couple of small ones, just large enough for carving, in a display window of one farm store. We spent the rest of the evening carving pumpkins and drinking beer. Guess, from the pictures below, which pumpkin was Kyle's, and which one was Nicole's?!

The following morning was we ran more errands with Regula. And our first stop.....was Bern again, due to a little miscommunication. That morning was cold and raining, so we went for a coffee and waited to return back to Thun. That evening was the long anticipated Hunter's Dinner, which was a once-per-year several course, fancy dinner that Regula cooks for her family (a tradition passed down for generations). Our pumpkins were on prime display on a table that included multi-colored leaves, pinecones, and chesnuts for decoration. The evening started with the arrival of all of Regula's kids, and some wine in the sitting room (the fancy dinners in their family are a marathon event). The courses included a wilted greens and sautéed mushroom salad, elk with dumplings and gravy and a side of Brussel sprouts, and candied apples and wine-soaked pears with chestnut filling. There was supposed to be an additional course of deer meat, but everyone was too stuffed to attempt it. In between each course, drinks were served, and people would get up, walk around, and tell stories for a bit before returning to the table for the next portion. For dessert, Nicole and I made pumpkin pie, which nobody but us two at the table had ever tried before. It was fun to serve...but also difficult to prepare the guests for. While we don't think of it often, pumpkin pie is a difficult texture to explain... After capping the night with some Rotelli, everyone left for the evening and we slept with warm, full stomachs.

The next day was Halloween! We had already knocked out pumpkin carving and pumpkin pie, so our remaining traditional item was to hand out candy, which we were able to do that evening. Prior to that, we spent the day split up for the first time in the trip (kind of weird to say). While Nicole stayed home and helped with the garden, Kyle went with Regula and Larina to help move the boxes that we had packed earlier in the week (along with some furniture), from Larina's old apartment to her new one in Interlaken. After an absolutely jam-packed week, we packed our bags and prepared ourselves for our trip to the UK/Ireland! (see previous blog post for our adventure there).

After returning from our wonderful vacation-within-vacation, we were down to our final week in Switzerland. It was bittersweet, because while we had had such a wonderful experience with Regula, we were ready to be on the road again to see new and exciting things. What made it even tougher was that Regula had a goodbye gift waiting for us when we returned. The gift included a Swiss cookbook (one that we had already been searching high and low for at book stores and online!), a bag for Raclette potatoes, socks for Nicole (she had holes in most of hers at this point, and Regula must have noticed), a swiss knife, and - best of all - a tin Rotelli sign for our deck back home! We helped Regula with preparing WyWarm labels and goodie bags (she serves each glass with golden raisins and almond slivers in a nice, bow-tied bag) that evening.

The next day was Ursin's last day in the military. While Regula went to pick him up from the train station, we put together a gift basket and made a congratulations sign. When he made it home, we all took pictures together and celebrated! Ursin cooked steaks that night, and we sat and listened to stories of the good and bad times he had throughout his military experience. From there on, we continued to work, which included cleaning out the inside of the garden house, more pressure washing of random things (including the neighbor's driveway wall!) and more painting of furniture.

Our time in Switzerland ended with a series of quasi-celebrations. First, on our last week we had massages at the physio clinic (these were rewards for helping to prepare the clinic for the Open House). Next, we traded off cooking breakfasts with Ursin each morning (crepes, French toast, eggs, bacon, you name it). Then, we had some of the neighbors over to try out strawberry liquor that had coincidentally been soaking in during the entirety of our stay. After that, we had Werner, Regula's friend from the clinic who also let us borrow his bike during our stay, over for dinner. We cooked him a chicken and rice bowl (with all kinds of veggies too). The following night, we had the other neighbors over (those whose car we borrowed for green bags). They gave us a picture of their dog as a gift (we had always taken time to play with this dog whenever she was out and about), and we talked to their grand-nephew, a 20 year old guy who was about to embark on his own 6-month long travel adventure. Finally, it was our last day in Switzerland. We put together a couple of packages to ship home (as of this writing, they're probably still 3 months from making it to Nebraska), and spent the rest of the day packing, putting together a gift for Regula (we painted a Nebraska-shaped wooden cutting board with some of our favorite things from the trip), and signing the guest book.

We woke up early on our last morning to have one last breakfast with Regula. She dropped us off at the train station to say our tearful goodbyes, and left us with some chocolate for our journey. It was a difficult goodbye, but we always know we now have "family" in Switzerland!

Some other quick notes about our time in Switzerland:

- There are no sounds allowed between noon and 1pm each day (and they are strongly discouraged at any time on Sundays as well). This should not have been a big deal, but really gave us trouble when we were on a roll with the chainsaw, power tools, and pressure washer!

- Regula said that the first English movie she understood was Forrest Gump...because he talked so slow haha

- A Burger King burger in Thun, Switzerland costs ~$15....just the burger, not even including the meal

- Despite how expensive Switzerland is, wine is still cheaper both at restaurants and at the grocery store than back home

- The name "Kyle" is very close to soundling like the German word "Geil." Kyle had to be careful to pronounce his name clearly, because that other word is not exactly appropriate for an introduction.

- Speaking of pronunciation: the most funny pronunciation we heard was the Swiss German word for kitchen cabinet: Chuchichästli. We regularly had people ask us to say it - solely for their entertainment.

- Regula's favorite phrase that we taught her “Work Smarter, not Harder”.

- We had to guess the weights of the packages that we shipped home in kilograms. After 4 months of living in Europe, we still weren't even close.

- This also applied to measurements. When making cornbread and pumpkin pies, or even pancakes, there was a lot of conversion between cups/tablespoons, etc to milliliters, grams, etc.

- If you're looking for a good classic soft rock station, check out vintageradio.ch

Levi's Shirt count update: With the cold weather, the shirt count did not increase much. When we left Switzerland, we were at 204.