I like this poem.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference


Robert Frost

Appenzell

On Sunday we drove to Appenzell. I must stop saying this, but I can't help it: Another beautiful typically Swiss town. You known when you get that feeling when you want to say "Oooh oooh look look!" I feel like that each time I see a cute cosy wooden house with flowers flowing over balconies. And green hills, and typical farm houses with those cows who give us the oh so good chocolate and cheese... If you don't know what I mean, just have a look at these pictures. And if you don't live in Switzerland, come and visit us so you can see for yourself. How did we get so lucky to land here?

This is in the town of Appenzell. I was suprised to see how many little shops were open. Selling mostly touristy souvenirs but it was nice to feel like a tourist and browse (and to see shops open on a SUNDAY!!)

Here I'm staring at chocolates... We bought some liqueur which we must still try and I can't remember what it was right now (it's downstairs and I'm not getting out of bed now) and whiskey flavored fudge. So good.

Appenzell: The town of stinky cheese! Appenzeller cheese is really really very stinky. No I mean really. But good taste though. (It says Appenzell on the building, you'll have to click to enlarge if you can't see it.)

My knight on his horse, riding off into the Swiss Alps.

How pretty is this? Look at those little windows and the curtains. That's just the way little girls draw curtains in a window!

Remember that lens André rented? Here is where I took over the camera while he was driving. I snapped pictures most of the way home.

We set the navigator to avoid the motorways so we could take the scenic route.

You see what I mean?

Just look at this adorable little house! Do click on the picture so you can see it full size. You have to really see this properly.

What would it be like to live on a farm like this?

With a real barn.

And have your own chocolate and cheese cows.

And to plant lots and lots of flowers.

See, like these. Next spring this is what our balcony is going to look like.

Ok, maybe I shouldn't make promises I can't keep.

But I'm going to try.

So go and visit Appenzell and take the road less travelled.

Saturday in Zurich

Saturday we took the train in to Zurich and walked around the old town part. Here's a picture of Zurich Hauptbahnhof.

I was in search of a new pair of jeans. We weren't successful so I still am in search of those jeans...

In the one store while I was trying on jeans I heard André speaking Afrikaans to some other people. There were this couple who heard us speaking Afrikaans to each other and they're also from South Africa now living and working here. It was so nice to hear and speak Afrikaans again to someone else besides each other. We stood in this small little shop chatting and after a while the shop assistant asked us to stand and talk outside if we're not going to buy anything!!

For a late lunch/ early dinner we went to the Zeughauskeller again where we went for Andre's birthday. This time we remembered to also get a picture of the entrance of the restaurant. (Not much to see actually..)

We ordered the Major's Sword which is steak wrapped around a very long sword! It's for two people. And we had it with rösti.

André convinced me to have dessert which didn't take too much convincing. I had the Vacherin Glacé which consisted of two toffee/ caramel flavored meringue biscuits with vanilla ice cream in between. Topped with (lots of) cream and marinated raspberries. It was amazing!!

Oh and André tried their special beer that comes in this huge glass. First they pour some whiskey in the glass and light it.

Then they pour the beer, which is some malt beer, and sprinkle some wheat on top. I don't like beer at all, but this one I didn't find too bad actually.

And André like it too of course.

Rent-a-lens

André has been looking at new lenses for his camera for such a long time now, not sure which one to buy (also because it's so expensive). So this weekend he rented a lens. You book the lens online at rent-a-lens.ch and it gets delivered to your door on the day that you've ordered it for. André rented it from Friday - Sunday.

It came in this little crate with a lock on (lots of money inside this little crate). On the outside cover of the crate some documents are taped and inside this is the code for the lock.

Once you've unlocked the crate you'll find the lens neatly and safely packed inside. This morning we packed it the same way and dropped it off at the post office to be sent back.

So we've had lots of fun snapping away this weekend. I was even snapping out the car window on the way back from Appenzell this afternoon! The weekend pictures will follow later :-)

I was snapped by a google car!

I've been meaning to tell you about this, but never got around to it. Just after we moved into our apartment I was walking down our street, just going for a stroll to explore our new town when a little blue car slowly drove past me... It had a funny looking thing on the roof and while I was still trying to figure this out it went SNAP! in my face! It was a Google car, busy capturing all of Switzerland for Google street view.

Here's a picture of a Google street view car with the camera on the roof. (It says Google on the car, that's how I knew...)

And here's a trike which they use in areas where the cars can't go, like narrow roads. Yeah you thought you could hide? Oh no, they will come and snap you too!

So that must have been in May after we moved in here. I just forgot about it because we thought it would take ages before they actually have Switzerland up on street view. But now it's here and you can see me walking down our street eating (South African) grapes! I'm wearing my hat as usual so you can't see my face really. But it's me!

Here's the link, I hope it takes you to the right spot. It's a bit difficult to navigate and to move around (click and drag) and see what you want to see. Takes some time getting used to. I'm walking past a light yellow house, there's a big grey bin in front of me and on the other side of the road there are lots of cars parked at a car selling place. I'm wearing what Andre calls my mushroom hat, a cream colored floppy hat and a long sleeve navy top. You can turn all around and see me from all angles! haha this is fun!

So now you can see the street where we live :-)

PS If you're family or a friend and want to see which one is our apartment you'll have to skype us. Coming from SA I still don't feel safe telling the world exactly which door is ours..

Bern

Finally! Here are the pictures from our day in Bern last Saturday. There were too many to choose from so I chose the best ones and put them in a slideshow/ video.

Some info on Bern from our Lonely Planet book: Switzerland, and things you'll see in the pictures:

The medieval town centre is u-shaped along a river bend (Aare river) and has been declared a World Heritage site.

The cobbled streets are lined with covered arcades and cellar shops. Pity we didn't get a picture of these shop doors leading you underground. You can see the covered arcades in the pictures.

There are 11 decorative fountains built around 1545 which depict characters from history and/ or folklore. The most famous is the Kindlifressenbrunnen (Ogre Fountain) of a giant snacking on children!

The Zytglogge (Zeitglockenturm in High German), clock tower, has revolving figures that begin twirling at four minutes before every hour. We didn't wait to see this, but I did get a picture of a bunch of people staring up at the clock (also pictured) waiting for this.

There was a huge market when we were there, I'm not sure if this happens every Saturday? One section was selling all kinds of stuff like clothes, baskets, jewelry, DVD's, anything. And then there was the fruit and veg market which sold all these delicious fresh foods including breads, meats, cheeses, flowers, honey and lots more.

Did you know that Einstein lived in Bern? He actually developed his theory of relativity in 1905 here. You can visit the apartment where he lived with his family which is now a museum. We didn't but André took a picture of the outside of it. You can see it in the video.

Also in the pictures you'll see the 15th century Gothic Münster (cathedral). Everywhere you go in Switzerland there will be something that is the highest or the steepest or the fastest or the best in something. Bern apparently has the tallest cathedral at 100m. You can climb the hundreds of steps up the tower but of course not something I would do!

Behind the cathedral is a lovely park. There were some people playing games and there's a café under the trees. (This is the picture where André is sticking his tongue out at me.)

You can see the 1902 Houses of Parliament. A beautiful building, Saturday pictured with the market in front of it. It has a stained glass dome and apparently a huge, 214-bulb chandelier. We didn't notice this when we were there but I actually see we did get it in the picture!! If you look carefully you might see it too with the lights on shining through the window right in the centre.

In 1191 some powerful duke (I'm not going to bore you with names) had his first hunting success here, shooting a bear, or Bärn in the local dialect, and that's where this city got it's name.

Hope you learnt something today? I did! Now here are the pictures, enjoy :-) If for some reason you can't see the video here, you can go to my vimeo page by clicking here.

Bern, Switzerland from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

I survived my first haircut!

I finally did it! Went for my first visit to the hairdresser here in Switzerland. I decided to go to the one André went to a while back. There are many hairdressers working there and the girl who did my hair was really nice. Nice is important to me. You have to be nice to me if you're going to do my hair. My hairdresser in cape Town was very very nice to me. So this girl is from Kosovo, click the link to see a map if you don't know where it is. I didn't.

She understood what I wanted. I had to speak German as none of them speak any English but we understood each other. She kept asking me "Ist es gut?" (Is it good/ Are you ok?) which they actually pronounce here more something like "Ish gut?" So she scored points for checking on me. She scored bonus points when she told me my German is very good, after I told her it's not just so she understand she shouldn't even try speaking Swiss German to me. She reckons in half a year my German will be perfect! That's good news, but I'm not so sure. Maybe if I visit her once a week for a chat in German.

Now to get to the actually cutting and coloring. I've been used to spending 3-4 hours at the hairdresser for my highlights. This morning I was there for just over an hour only. Not complaining about that because I don't like sitting there for long. It took her only 10 minutes to put the highlight stuff with the foils on my hair! TEN minutes! That's a record. I explained that I only wanted half a head highlights, so that's only the top which shows when my hair is down and the sides which shows when my hair is tied up. And that she did. In about 50 min less time than it took my hairdresser back home. But then she did not do it nearly as carefully. It looks fine actually, but Delene back home made it look perfectly natural and blended in, strand by tiny strand. And I have a lot of hair. I always felt bad asking Delene to do a full head of highlights for me.

The colour is not exactly what I was hoping for but it could have been worse. And I think this might actually blend in even more with my natural color. I'm not going to post a picture. I'm sure Andre will capture me with the new lens he's getting this weekend soon enough to show you what it looks like.

My hair is now also a whole lot shorter which feels better. Strange but better. It was very long and now it's just on my shoulders. So a big difference. I do like some change.

I wont have my hair blow-dried at the hairdresser again. They don't get it as straight as I like it. I came home and immediately got the straightener out. If I don't it's all fuzzy and all over the place.

It cost me Sfr. 90 for highlights, cut and blow-dry which I feel is not that bad. That's R673, double what Delene charged me but she did not ever charge me very much. At any other salon in SA I expect I would have paid around the same as I did here today.

So after being so nervous and scared and sitting there all tensed up, it was actually not that bad.