Peanut Butter Cheetos?

There hasn't been too much about Swiss food that has surprised me, aside from the price, but this little item had me curious.  I had to try it. They are called "Flips" and they are basically peanut butter Cheetos. And yes, they do look as awful as you might imagine. Picture tiny light brown turds and you'll be close.

Despite their weird appearance, they kind of grow on you. Munch, munch....

Old School Charm

There is a certain kind of civility here in Switzerland that we have lost in the US, I think. The other day I was walking Norton and I noticed two boys; they were probably between the ages of 11-13 riding their bikes home from school. They stopped at a point were they would part ways, and I was stunned when I saw the two boys shook hands to say goodbye.

So quaint and so civil!

Burgundy Part Deux

So, what made our trip to Burgundy so successful? Festivals

This, my friends , is the way to go when tasting wine in a country where you are grasping for words from one college semester of French from almost 30 years ago (crap on a cracker, I was in college 30 years ago?). 

I managed to find 2 different wine tasting event in Burgundy that weekend. All the winemakers in these tiny towns open up their doors or vans and give you a taste of their lovely wines. For around 5 euros, you receive a glass and tasting from about 10 to 15 different winemakers.  It seemed like such a bargain and eliminated the need to learn how to say “dégustation, s'il vous plait,” followed by the international hand signal for drinking.

They weren’t too crowded, but had enough people to make it festive.  Some of the venues had bread, cheese wine and sausages for sale as well. We picked up our lunch provisions and had a hearty picnic.

I found these events by going to a regional wine website and following links until I found the actual site for the event.

Burgundy France, Part Un

For those of you who know Klaus and me well, Klaus is the family travel agent. He has been traveling abroad since he was a tiny Klaus (hard to imagine anyone named Klaus ever being tiny, right?), and has done so much travel during our years together, there were times when I thought I was a single parent. He really does a great job on our vacations, so no complaints from my end.

The tables turned this holiday weekend, when Klaus and I ventured across the border to Burgundy, France. Since Klaus is so busy at work, it was my job to plan our three-day weekend in one of France’s most famous wine areas. Boy, was a worried that Klaus wouldn’t like my choices, but and I’m going pat myself on the back and say it was a success.

In the past, we have done wine tasting in Spain and Germany, and have found that quite often reservations are needed to do a wine tasting. Since Klaus and I are such wine aficionados we pretty know how wine is made, so winery tours which always accompany a wine tasting are a snoozefest. We also hate being tied to a schedule when so many variables are out of our hands. One wrong turn or a traffic jam could leave you missing an appointment, and having a schedule can prevent you from being spontaneous. So we usually end up at a wine bar sharing glasses of wine to get a sample of the local vino. I highly recommend this in Spain, because tapas are usually involved!

So this time, I managed to stumble into a few wine events in the region during our stay.  I also concluded that a trip to the city of Beaune was a necessary stop on way to understanding Burgundy. Next, where to stay?

I plotted the events and Beaune on Google Maps, and then used Trip Advisor to narrow the search for a hotel. Pardon the use of my French, but Voila! I found a hotel in a small town in the middle of Burgundy. Did I mention it was OK to bring Norton?

Addresses plugged into the GPS , paper copy of maps in hand, all our passports and Norton’s paperwork in hand we took off bright and early on Friday towards Burgundy. We sailed past the border crossing with not so much as a casual glance at à notre chien, Norton. Whew !

So here is a bit of useful advice if you are traveling in France by car, bring plenty of change and cash. It was about 25 kilometers when we hit our first toll, and a good 10% of the people acted as if they had never seen a toll road before. Some lanes did not move for a good ten minutes before a French bureaucrat wannabe marched across the lanes to help out the poor lost soul who could not master the automated toll machine with its Brazil like design.

The Swiss couple in front of us must have popped in a 100 Euro note into the machine for a 2.50 Euro toll, only to spend the next 5 minutes fishing out the jackpot-sized coin return from the awkwardly place change basket.

Unless you enjoy the sounds of car horns, bring the change and the bills, people. The French have no patience for idiots. D’accord!

Border Hopping

I live in the city of Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It is a small city of around 35,000 people. It is the capital of the Canton of Schaffhausen as well. Wikipedia does a pretty good job of describing our city. While the article explains that it is surrounded on three sides by Germany, I don’t think you quite get the idea of how close the border actually is.  I quick stroll from our apartment requires that I bring my passport.

Most days, I take Norton to a forested area just next to the city. To get there, we walk by border markers that are cement pillars about 3 feet high.  One side is marked with “D” for Germany or GB for Grossherzogtum Baden; the other has CH for Switzerland or CS for Canton Schaffhausen. My favorite is a small, square marker which points out a tiny corner between the two countries.

There is tiny path that cuts through the forest that straddles the border.  These stone doodads were erected in 1839 to mark the border between Germany and Switzerland. I’m an International woman of mystery almost every day!

Shopping Cart Heaven

Call me part Swiss, but I return my shopping cart in parking lots, no matter what the weather.  Stray shopping carts look untidy, block parking spaces and you should generally put things that you borrow back where you found them, or at least where the owner expects them to be. Not to mention the higher prices when stores pass the cost of stolen carts along to consumers.

Well, for people like me, Swiss shopping is Nirvana.  They have a system that makes sure shopping carts are properly returned.  We could use this back home!

To borrow a cart, simply slide either a franc coin or a two franc coin into a slot near the handle.  This in turn pushes out a “key” which is attached by a chain to the cart in front of it. Commence shopping and being stunned by the prices in Switzerland. After unloading your expensive provisions, return your cart, replace the key into your shopping cart by grabbing the chain from the cart before yours.  Insert the “key” back into your cart, and your coin is unceremoniously ejected from the slot.

I have heard that some less fortunate people try to help shoppers by returning carts and collecting the franc coin in return. That’s one way to earn some cash, I guess!

And, while I don’t need reading glasses yet, the Swiss store Coop has ingeniously added a magnifying glass to some of their carts to help us old folks read the tiny print on packages.  I think it may be even smaller here since all packaging requires the directions and contents in three languages.

Happy Swiss Shopping!

Top photo courtesy of Gary Wescott
The Turtle Expedition, Unltd.
Writer, Photographer, Producer
www.TurtleExpedition.com <http://www.TurtleExpedition.com>

About My Red Shoe Adventure

  
Welcome to my blog about my life and observations in Switzerland. My name is Kathy, and my husband and I just moved to Schaffhausen, Switzerland about two months ago, and I am finding life in Die Schweiz quite interesting.

I visited Switzerland around two and a half years ago and happily posted on my Facebook page that “the Swiss Should Run the World” to which a friend posted back, quite rightly that, the Swiss would not want to run the world. Quite frankly they are too smart to want to run the world! Two months into my stay here, and I still think they should run the world.

I plan to blog about life here in Schaffhausen and the things that I love - wine, entertaining cooking, traveling, gardening and crafting. It should help all my friends and family back home in Florida and California keep up with our lives and entertain my new friends in Schaffhausen as well.

Why “My Red Shoe Adventure”? Prepping for my big move to Schaffhausen I read the book, Swiss Watching: Inside Europe’s Landlocked Island, in which the author, Diccon Bewes, noted that the Swiss wear red shoes more often than he had seen elsewhere in the world. He wasn’t sure if this was due to patriotism, since the Swiss Flag is red and white, that the Swiss are friends of Dorothy, subconsciously wanting to wear ruby slippers, or that they just have poor fashion sense, since the red shoes seldom match anything else in their ensembles. I think it’s just a quiet attempt to rebel against the Swiss need for conformity in all things, including conservative clothing. I have read a few other blogs that made the same red shoe observation. Who knows why?

I passed on this tidbit to my girlfriends before moving, and at my going away party, I was ceremoniously given my own pair of red shoes, so I too could “fit in”. I assure you that the red shoes will only be worn when red is seen elsewhere in my outfit. Not to worry, my fashion conscience friends!

So this is My Red Shoe Adventure, a place where my friends and family can keep up with my escapades in the middle of Europe and my new friends can share in the adventure.



Grüezi mitenand!