Au Revoir Switzerland

And yes yes we are moving to Madrid! I'm incredibly excited even though I've never been there. This is the fourth time in my life that I'm moving somewhere that I've never seen before and even though it's always a risk, it's also a thrilling sort of feeling.

We have one more week of Switzerland which means that I'm up to my eyebrows in stuff to do. In the meantime, it's suddenly occurred to us that we haven't actually seen much of Switzerland. We'd always assumed that we would stay longer so never felt much pressure to run around being tourists. To remedy this, we've embarked on a whirlwind tour starting with a visit to Gruyeres last weekend. Gruyeres is the home of Gruyeres cheese and also somewhat incongruously, the HR Giger museum which from what I could tell from the outside, is full of aliens having sex.  This means that along with all the red faced Brit tourists who are there to visit the castle and eat Swiss cheese, the streets of Gruyeres are also teeming with long-haired guys who looked like they just walked off the set of Spinal Tap. I had a coffee while Mr. D (who would visit the Museum of Bookshelves if it existed) checked out the museum. He later confirmed that it was indeed full of sexy aliens.

The village has a fairytale castle which is one of the most beautiful in Switzerland. For Nico this was a dream come true and he was especially taken with the display of knight's armor. So taken that for the rest of our castle tour, he wouldn't stop screaming "Mommy! I want to go back and see the special hats where they don't get hurt!" "Mommy! Where are the special hats where they don't get hurt??" "Special haaaaats, blubber blubber" and so on. 

Not to be outdone by Swiss supermarkets which unfairly line the entrances to check-out stands with matchbox cars, candy and other assorted child tempters, castles load up their entrances with a range of plastic dragons and princess figurines. I was fortunate to come away with only a few whines and one small plastic dragon. Despite the drama, I realized how amazing it is to live in a country where you can just hop on a train and arrive at a genuine castle less than an hour later.

Last night we ate fondue for the last time and tomorrow we head to Zurich and then on to Interlaken for a couple of days of skiing in the Swiss Alps. Afterward, it's back to Lausanne for the final move! I'll be spending March in Salt Lake City, most of April in NYC and then finally we'll head to Madrid near the beginning of May.

Comments

[FweetieB]

I seriously think I want your life.

How DO you and hubby do it??

Found you through Babble. Great article!

[Long Story Longer]

You are amazingly flexible. I can't wait to hear the new adventures! And I loved Interlaken and Lauterbrunen. Maybe Gimmelwald is my favorite place on earth. I'm very jealous of your life, but glad we get to have a peek inside!

[gleek]

sounds like loads of fun traveling! let's get together when you're in town in april. you can meet the peanut! :)