Switzerland 2020

One Friday evening in September 2019, family movie night was interrupted by a "bing" from my phone courtesy of the Hopper app.  Flights from Memphis to Geneva had dropped to $500...

 From a 2020 perspective, this may seem ridiculous, but 2019 was an intense year for our family, and the idea of putting a bow on the year and jetting off to a winter wonderland sounded perfect.  It was also time for the kids to visit their heritage-land for the first time.  (Alexe's too, more on that later.) 

Flash forward to late December: the BTC was tucked in for winter break, Christmas was behind us, we started to merrily pack for our trip, and... all the farm animals started having babies.  And the closing on K's big renovation project, scheduled for mid-December, was punted yet again by one of the 31 attorneys involved in the financials of the project. Not the neat bow we had hoped to have in place before leaving.

We left anyway, with the farm in the caring hands of our good friend and neighbor, and the attorneys blissfully generating more billable hours.

A series of flights later, with our grinning Mississippi babies getting to watch endless television on the Atlantic crossing and wander the Amsterdam airport in a fog, we found ourselves in Geneva for New Year's Eve.  Where someone wanted to have cocktails at the Ritz.

There was some downtown exploring before the festivities started, with swan feeding.

Some time later the music started, three different dj venues along the waterfront, a strong international, (and internationally welcoming,) vibe.

We lasted for a little while, then the jet lagged crew turned into pumpkins and we headed back to the hotel.  Our plan was to wake up in the morning, grab our rental vehicle, and take a leisurely drive the  short distance around Lake Geneva to Begnins to visit family.  

A was the first to wake up at 1 pm the next day, an hour after check-out time, and we went from zen travelers to jet-lagged scrambling for the next few hours.

We made the short drive to Begnins, a beautiful village looking over lake Geneva from a few kilometers up into the mountains.  It had been 17 years since my last visit to Switzerland, and though my uncle and aunt have lived in this town my whole life, my memories of running through the vineyards and playing on the tank barricades in the woods weren't the most reliable navigation aids.  

This was when we learned that our phones would not play nicely with the Swiss cell networks.  

So we did the classic obnoxious-visiting-guest move; parked in the middle of town, and relying on my shaky memory, walked to my aunt and uncle's home and knocked on the door.

I can't give justice to the amazing reception we received from our family, at that moment, and throughout our visit.  So warm and welcoming!  Since returning home A and I frequently talk about "what would our Swiss family do," when presented with guests of our own.

Keep in mind, we landed on their doorstep on the 1st of January, with my cousin and his wife focused on their 2 week old daughter... Yet so welcoming!

The proud new parents.

Their beautiful daughter.



My dear uncle the architect and new grandfather, and his son the physicist and new father. 

Pumpkin soup for dinner, from my uncle's garden.  Garden's are a big thing in our family, as you'll see. 

Proud father. (It's getting tricky adhering to the no-names rule I keep for this blog...)

And his sister, the new aunt.

Mother and daughter.  (My aunt and cousin.)

After a lovely evening with the family, we went back to our hotel at the crossroads in the middle of Begnins, and spent a restless night failing to make the time adjustment, playing Bananagrams, and watching Friends episodes.

After a pleasant breakfast by ourselves in the hotel restaurant, (courtesy of my uncle, it was a quiet time of year, and I think he pulled strings to get the kitchen open for us,) we headed out to explore the area.  In all the trips I've made to Switzerland I don't feel like I've ever really seen the country.  If it wasn't within walking distance of my grandparents' house in Vevey, I don't remember seeing it.  I was very excited to do things differently this time.  

We headed down towards the lake to explore Nyon and a nearby chateau.

Interior pictures never turn out from these chateaus.  Suffice to say it was very cool, and had the same fascinating history as many of these large castle-ish structures: bankrupting a long series of folks who thought they could afford to repair and maintain them.

This one is convinced she could do it better.

Some toodling around on the lakeshore, then a drive up the mountains to try to escape the low cloud cover.  When we broke through into the sunshine we found ourselves in yet another lovely village, with this amazing tree and church.  According to my uncle this is one of the oldest trees in Europe.

Taking a moment in the church yard...

To enjoy the spectacular view. Alps and Lake Geneva in the clouds.

This working farm is in the middle of the village.

I may have taken pictures of every cow bell collection I saw.  

A lovely fondue dinner in town with uncle and aunt.

And cousins.

And we headed out of town the next morning to our next destination.  Which turned out to be Gruyere, the castle, town and cheese factory. (This was an impromptu decision, made possible because of the freedom of the vehicle, and Switzerland being so navigable!  Yes, the Swiss rail system is amazing, but I love the go-anywhere option allowed by a vehicle.)

So. Beautiful.

Gruyere Castle is huge.  It took hours at a steady pace to look through all the parts of the castle we were allowed into.

Luckily this duo, that loves to dream about variants of their life that could have been, learned about another long line of folks who had over-estimated their financial ability to maintain a castle.

In the valley below the castle, the Gruyere factory!

On our way back to the lake and the apartment we had rented for the next few days we stopped in Vevey to walk around a little. 

The waterfront is as heart-stopping beautiful as I remember.

We walked up the hill to visit Saint-Martin. I was following my nose, remembering the walk from the waterfront and train station up the hill, past the water fountains and church yard, to get to my grandparent's house. Both my grandparents are buried here.

And right around the corner from the church we visited my grandparents' house.  This house is no longer in the family, and seeing it in this condition put me in a bit of a funk.

This is how I remember it, when my grandfather was flexing his green thumb, and my grandmother was giving out warm snuggly-hugs. These two pictures were in photo albums the Vevey family brought out after dinner the next evening.

Grandpapa and Grandmaman. 

Missing here is a picture of the house A's father spent several years living in with his mother and two brothers.  Less than 2 blocks from my grandparents' house, where my mother spent her childhood. Mind-bending, eh?

A walk along the lakeshore that evening, before retiring to our apartment.  Missing from these pictures are all the grocery-store stops we made to find tasty treats since landing in Geneva.  We were in a Migros at 11 pm on New Years Eve, and continued to indulge in our favorite past time (grocery shopping!) at least once a day.

The next day the whole Swiss family congregated in Vevey at the apartment of u.D and a.R to welcome us.  My two uncles live 40 minutes apart, and their four children and 5 grandchildren all live in the same region.  Another cousin, the son of my aunt who passed away several years ago, made the trip from his home in the Swiss-Italian region, and his son came in from Zurich, freshly graduated from law school.

I can't tell you how charming these two uncles of mine are.  The life of any party, great story tellers, full of passion for life and food and adventures.  This multi-course meal included meat from one of u.D's co-op animals.  (I don't fully understand how shares of animals are purchased in Switzerland.  u.D tells stories about the dairy cow he owns on a farm nearby; I think he pays for room and board and receives the cheese produced from that cow?)

For her first time in the country and meeting my Swiss family, A fit right in.

Most of the clan, missing a few including the new parents and their daughter. Again, no names, but to a person, my cousins, uncles, aunts, and the newest generation of cousins were warm and welcoming to all of us.  

We took a digestive walk by the lake as a clan, and popped into u.D's clubhouse.  In his younger years u.D had a crew of friends that took an old mercedes to northern Africa, and who knows where else.  That same group of friends continues to meet in this smithy shop weekly for a group meal and gab fest. 

Going through the family photo albums.  

After a full day of family reunion time, we left early the next morning for a leisurely drive around the lake, and headed up into the mountains.  We arrived in Saas Almagell, one of the three ski villages clustered near the Italian border, and checked into the cute apartment Alexe had found for us.  

There were a few errands to run, including renting ski equipment, exploring the grocery options, and catching a little hockey in Saas Fee before retiring for the evening and getting ready for a big day of skiing.

How our family recharges.

Early the next morning we headed for the slopes of Saas Fee! 

A had not been skiing since her teenage years...

And these two pumpkins were strapping on skis for the first time!  We checked them into their ski school, and A and I headed up the mountain to play.

We had a shaky start.  

The trail we decided to start with near the top of the mountain, though labelled a medium trail, was a little beyond A's comfort level. (A waiter later told us that trail is notorious and everyone believes it is mislabelled.)  A was a champion, never giving up, and worked her way down the mountain through a series of terrifying episodes. 

From there on we did a better job of keeping to the appropriate trails, and had a fun morning of trying to stop ogling the amazing location and do some skiing. 

Later in the day we picked up the kiddoes, and spent the afternoon being super-impressed with how confident the kids had become after just a few hours of learning how to ski.  Their personalities came out in their skiing, and we did several family runs, and then took turns waiting at the bottom and taking the kids on independent runs where their new prowess could be individually appreciated.  The biggest challenge they had was with the rope-pull ski-lifts. The older one would fall off and trudge over to the trail, the younger one would fall off and refuse to let go, getting dragged up the mountain on his back, skis akimbo.

I'm burying the lead here. This was a's 12th birthday!  We may not be able to top learning to ski in Switzerland as a birthday present.

With the family thoroughly tuckered, they headed off for some apres-ski beverages, and I was able to run to the top of the mountain for some speedy solo runs.

Happy boy, feeling home.

Somehow we're missing pictures from the evening's birthday celebration, relaxing in the sauna and steam rooms, and watching the mountains glow as the sun set.

The next day we hit the more family-friendly slopes of Saas Almagell, and had a great time in the sun, with slopes the kids could run on their own, and a fun windy trail through the woods that took us almost all the way back to our apartment.

With very convenient spots adjacent to the slopes where the parents could relax while the kids zipped by.

The next day saw us retracing our steps back to Geneva, with a few stops.  

A comment here about the great little diesel SUV that took us all over Switzerland, getting 40+ miles to the gallon in four wheel drive luxury.  Wish we could buy one in the States. 

Castle Montreux. It was a long walk around the lake from my grandparents' house, something like 8 kilometers, with lovely things to look at for a young me the whole way.  (I particularly remember getting to walk along the top of the stone wall that bordered all the swimming spots along the lake...) Bringing A and my children into these memories was intense in all the best ways.

Photo-bombing pre-teen.

I have vivid memories of running through these dungeons with my brother.  

If you're only going to have one view, this isn't a bad one.

 

Heart exploding.

We paused in Vevey again on the way back to Geneva.  This waterfront is possibly the most beautiful place in the world I have ever been.  I remember climbing on these brass statues, and feeding the swans.  

My kids feeding the descendants of those same swans... (Who knows if that's accurate, but a fun thought.)

I won't spend too much time on all the things the Swiss do so well.  They have an amazing sense of priorities around preservation of systems that work well, national security in the literal sense, as well as food, historical, and cultural security.  There are cool farming programs that subsidize the farming of the steep and difficult lands up in the mountains to keep a strong agricultural base, even in a country that is affluent and could easily import everything. (Subsidization rates literally correspond to the gradient of the land...)

Below is my favorite example, in the center of Vevey, Switzerland, on the waterfront.  The most prime real estate in a country where even the smallest apartment in the farthest reaches of a remote village will fetch north of $700,000.  I can't fathom the monetary value of this land.  

Do you know what this is?  The public school.  

Because children and education are important.

The high school I attended in Vermont was built a couple miles outside of our town, in a swamp.  Nothing near it.  The schools my children attend in Mississippi are equally located in out of the way locations on the least valuable pieces of land around.

To drive this point home further: This is the property to the immediate right of the school. It is for sale right now for a price tag that would require a "B" in your wealth category.  Alexe has designs on it...

With a last look around, swirling memories of departed family, and a new stock of wonderful memories to carry us through the coming years, we headed back to Geneva.

We were all sad to go.  

Not all of us bouncing back as quickly as the pre-teen.

We've spent much of this catastrophic year strategizing on how we might relocate our whole life to be closer to Switzerland.