As my paws type out this post to mark the end of our second month here in Geneva, I, for the first time, don’t have a significant number of activities to share with you.
Maybe it’s because it was extraordinarily hot this last week and we didn’t do a lot of exploring (I should mention it was hot for the three of us – it was in the high 80s, which, for San Franciscans is a respectable heat wave). Or, maybe it’s because we are starting to get fairly settled into a daily routine.
For Natalie, she stayed disciplined about her running routine and even put in a healthy 11 miles while hanging out in Saint Prex on one of my DDC days.
Natalie also did some more experimenting in the kitchen, this time with much better results.
Since the fourth of July was nearing and since Natalie had found some delicious apples at COOP, which is like the Swiss version of Safeway, but on steroids, she decided to make an all-American apple pie. It was a very simple pie – the crust was a recipe she had gotten out of the Tartine Bakery cookbook (a famous bakery in San Francisco) and the filling simply consisted of peeled, cored, and thinly sliced apples that were mixed with some sugar, cinnamon, flour and fresh lemon juice.
The pie turned out perfectly and Natalie and Jason both enjoyed apple pie for dinner (and breakfast!) throughout the week.
Natalie also decided lasagna with homemade meat sauce would be a nice homemade meal to have for the week. For the homemade meat sauce, Natalie essentially ‘made it up,’ but knew what she wanted to achieve – a thick, rich and tangy meat sauce that would hold up nicely in a mozzarella cheese lasagne. The lasagne turned out well and made for a couple of dinners for Natalie and Jason and samples for me.
Natalie also had her first success with cupcakes. Natalie decided to try her hand at her never-fail and always-moist chocolate cupcakes, using European ingredients - Luckily, they came out as moist as ever! Also, the Italian Buttercream frosting Natalie piped onto the cupcakes was buttery, smooth and silky!
Believe me when I say this, and I’m speaking for both me and Jason - it is crucial Natalie start having some success in the kitchen, or we’ll be hearing about it, constantly, until she does something well.
As for Jason, he had a busy week at work and was also busy keeping up with futbol! Thank goodness Jason found the TV channel at home that broadcast the matches, or Natalie and Jason would've been regulars at the Lady Godiva Pub in the Plainpalais district of Geneva all week!
Last week, the remaining eight teams competed in the World Cup – it was a week of upsets with both Brazil and Argentina losing their matches. Both of those teams were expected to make it far. By the end of week, the final four were decided: it would be Netherlands, Uruguay, Spain and Germany.
For me, this week was all about having fun at DDC and discovering a perfect little cove in Hermance for me to swim around in Lake Geneva.
(Here I am on the deck at DDC with my friend the Ridgeback!)
On Wednesday morning, Natalie brought me to this cove in Hermance and I happily swam around and chased the Frisbee in this crystal clear water for almost an hour!
Afterwards, Natalie found a peaceful café and restaurant called La Croix Federale, where she had a delicate croissant and a perfect cappuccino. While enjoying her breakfast, Natalie met a very nice person named Karin, who also has a dog. Natalie also met the owners of the restaurant, Edna and Raoul Jean-Richard.
Everyone had great conversation (I slept in the sun and dried off!) and Natalie and Karin actually made a date to meet sometime in the future to take us for a walk. I’ll never complain about walks, especially if I get to have a friend along the way!
I was able to cool off in the Hermance cove again on Friday and would need it as our home does not have air conditioning (most do not in Geneva) and I would be resting at home for the afternoon.
On Friday afternoon, Natalie, Jason and Jason’s assistant, Andre went out for lunch in downtown Geneva at Le Perron. According to Natalie and Jason, they had a lovely time chatting with Andre and also had the delicious plat du jour of salmon.
The workweek ended with what’s turning out to be Natalie’s least favorite part of the week - French lessons. This week was especially frustrating as Natalie was really struggling with trying to understand the instructor. Jason, of course, is doing pretty well – I think he has a knack for languages. For Natalie, on the other hand, it might be more of a challenge.
I keep trying to tell Natalie that learning a new language is just like digging for gophers. You work and work and feel like you’ll never get there and then someday voila! you have caught that little gopher and everything is good. Although, I haven’t actually caught a gopher yet. I needed some sort of inspirational story to cheer Natalie up, though, and of course, I am always hopeful I’ll catch one.
Due to the heat throughout the night, Saturday morning was met with Natalie sleeping in the guest room to be near the large open window. Jason and I were lounging on the bed and when Jason had found out about Natalie’s great idea for getting the cool breeze, Jason then moved himself to the guest room and I was left all alone in the bed! I was not happy about this – I made sure to climb up onto that guest room bed and turn my 65 lbs into 500 lbs of dead weight as I literally slept on top of them both.
We all finally got out of bed on Saturday, packed and got in the car for our short weekend destination, which would be Wengen, Switzerland.
Wengen is a small town in the Jungfrau region of the Swiss Alps that can only be reached by cog train (i.e., essentially no vehicles are allowed in this town!) The reason we chose Wengen for this weekend’s travel adventures was because it was supposed to be significantly cooler. According to the weather forecast on Natalie and Jason’s iPhones, Wengen was around 40F, which was perfect. Out of this 85+ degree weather and into some nice wintry conditions!
We made it to Lauterbrunnen in the early afternoon to take the cog train up the mountain to Wengen. Oddly enough, the weather hadn’t cooled off; however, we all hoped we would get the chill we were searching for once we got up into the Alps.
Well, although the cog train ride was fun and exhilarating (and a little bumpy!), unfortunately, the weather forecast on Natalie and Jason’s trusty iPhones was wrong. The weather was actually around 75 degrees once we got into Wengen and a little rainy, but at least it was cooler than Geneva.
(The view from the Cog Train)
After we all settled into the hotel Alpenrose, which had a peaceful deck and an absolutely beautiful view of the Alps, we walked around town a bit and had a nice lunch of ham and cheese Rosti. Rosti is a traditional Swiss dish of shredded, pan-fried potatoes (think hash browns), usually with some sort of topping, such as ham, cheese or eggs.
(The view from the private deck of our hotel room.)
We then embarked on our running/hiking journey into the Alps for the day.
Since Natalie is training for the highest half-marathon marathon in Switzerland, which will be at the end of July, she decided to run up the hill we all were hiking. Jason and I followed closely behind and soon enough, we all met up in a beautiful, remote part of the Alps.
I was in doggie heaven! There were plenty of new and fresh smells, I saw donkeys along the way, mud was aplenty for me to roll around in and there were endless miles of walking and running to be had. I would have no problem living in Wengen.
(Checking out the other side of this fence in the Alps - there was a large cliff on the other side. It would've been safe for me to go down; however, my predicament was getting Natalie and Jason down it; therefore, we selected another route.)
(This is so Swiss! - here is a little restaurant we found on our hiking trail. No doubt we'll be back to this place come wintertime. You could already smell the hint of mulled cider in the air!)
(A beautiful path along one of the trails we took on our way back down the mountain.)
(I found another cliff! This time I really wanted to race down towards the rushing river at the bottom, but the leash got in my way.)
(A view of the Alps on our hike - it was unbelievably beautiful)
(Here's me in the shadow of the Alps taking it all in!)
After about 2 and a half hours of non-stop playing in the Alps, we found ourselves back in the hotel room cleaning up and resting before dinner.
For Natalie and Jason, dinner turned out to be a fabulous meal at a restaurant right near the hotel. Highlights of the meal included strawberry prosecco aperitifs, wild garlic soup, mushroom turnovers and succulent lamb. I, of course, got to try all of these (well, except for the prosecco).
(Natalie and her strawberry prosecco!)
(Natalie asked me to include this, because she thought it was so funny - this is the toilet in the restaurant's bathroom. Why Natalie brings her iPhone into the bathroom with her, I don't know. But, I do know that if she and Jason ever open their bakery, there will definitely be a sparkly toilet seat in the customer's restroom!)
My dinner was less than fun. Natalie and Jason forgot to bring my dog food bowls, so, they attempted to feed me my not-so-enticing kibble in a soap dish from the hotel room. They get to eat at a nice restaurant on fancy plates, while I’m sitting on the floor being tortured by all the smells and then they add insult-to-injury by feeding me out of a soap dish! Needless to say, I did not eat my dinner out of protest.
The next morning, we packed up and slowly made our way back home as we had dinner plans with our landlords, Christianne and Silvio, that evening. It was a nice drive and we even stopped in nearby Grindelwald for lunch and a walk.
(A view of the clocktower in Grindelwald.)
(Since I was boycotting my food over the weekend, I made sure to beg extra at every meal. This is at lunch in Grindelwald and Jason is clearly inching away from me, but I'm holding firm on my position!)
Once we got home it was scorching hot and Natalie only made matters worse by heating our oven to a ridiculous temperature for the apple pie she would be baking for dessert that evening.
Despite the heat radiating from our home (thanks Natalie!), Jason and Natalie enjoyed a cool, lovely dinner made by Christianne and Silvio on their back patio and I had fun hanging out with Eliot.
It was a perfect ending to my week and I had plenty of dreams that night about the Alps, my friend Eliot and the great time I am having here in Geneva.
Paws,
Sabrina
(Yes, those are my paws hanging off the couch - I am probably sleeping in this picture.)
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