Our permits finally arrived

We finally received our permits after 6 months! With it being so late in the year there were no more B-permits left so we both now have L-permits. While the B-permit is an annual, renewable permit, the L-permit is for people who will be working here for a limited period only, like on a contract. It doesn't make a difference to us at the moment. And hopefully wont in the future! We were just not very impressed with the colour of these permits! Lilac.

But it now allows us to leave Switzerland and be able to return again after a weekend away. So this weekend we are off to Germany to visit my mom and stepdad. As soon as Andre finishes work here next to me we'll load the car!

Bremgarten Market

In June we went to Bremgarten to a big market there for the first time. Shortly after that I read about another one they will be having in October and I made sure we didn't miss this one since the previous one was really good. And again we weren't disappointed. Lots of stalls, lots of people and lots of yummy things to eat like garlic bread (with lots of garlic!), crepes, waffles, and of course sausages and raclette.It was quite rainy on Sunday but we were lucky to get a couple of rain free hours to walk around at the market with our visitors before they had to fly back to the UK.

Are you ready for the Christmas markets? I've already marked those I want to visit on my calender! Have a look at this website to see where and when it's happening.

Holiday with friends: the video

We had some friends here visiting us and we went for a weekend away to Neuchatel as I've mentioned before. This is some video we took there. Well not much video of Neuchatel besides the fish tank in the hotel actually! The rest is of the snow in Engelberg in the way back from Neuchatel. And a night out in Zurich with dinner at the Blue Monkey Thai restaurant.

If for some reason the video won't play here on the blog, you can view it here on vimeo.

Friends visit in Switzerland from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Blue Monkey

Friday night we had dinner at the Blue Monkey, a trendy Thai restaurant in Zurich. Some good cocktails, shots and of course really good Thai curries. The food was perfect. I had the duck red curry with jasmine rice. Just spicy enough. And just look at how colourful it all is!

We'll be visiting this one again!

Chocolates everywhere!

I love chocolates. I cannot say no to chocolates. And this is becoming a problem. But how am I going to stop eating chocolates if my kitchen looks like this:

We have Italian chocolates which our friends brought us from Italy. Chocolates, fudge and cake from Walder in Neuchatel, the French part of Switzerland. And then Lindt and others from here. All sooo good, you just cannot say no. Does anybody have a treadmill I can buy?

The first snow! -Engelberg

On our way back from Neuchatel on Sunday we had lunch in Engelberg. Andre and I spent a weekend there before and we wanted to go for lunch at a cosy little restaurant we had dinner at on our previous visit. But it seems many restaurants close for holiday during October and that was the case with this one too.

But let me start at the beginning. The past week or so we've heard and read in the papers about the first snow falling higher up in the mountains. As we were driving up to Engelberg we started seeing snow all around us next to the road and in the trees. So beautiful! We don't get snow in SA so we still get very excited about snow and we oohed and aahed all the way up the mountain.

We got out the car, changed shoes and put on gloves and hats and went crazy in the snow!

We walked around a little bit and passed the Alpenclub Hotel which was on our list of possible hotels to stay at on our previous visit so decided to try it for lunch this time.

The guys ordered the house specialty which got them bibs around their necks, tied by the waitress!! hehe

I had my first taste of raclette. I've been getting the impression that raclette, like fondue, is something the Swiss enjoy during winter and quite a specialty here. I must say I was a little disappointed... It's only a melted cheese open sandwich. It was good, but I expected something different to what we could get in any restaurant back home. And what's with all the special raclette cheese grillers? We used to make these in the oven or microwave. Or is there something about these grillers that I don't know?

Anyway. It was good. There was a lot of ham too and as you can see a LOT of cheese! I will order it again because its nice as a light lunch. Although you don't feel too light after all that cheese!

Neuchatel

This past weekend we drove to Neuchatel with our friends, Jamie and Charlene, visiting us from the UK. It was our first visit to the French part of Switzerland and it really was VERY French. We were surprised at how few people were able to speak English. Here in the German part you can get by without knowing much German as most people here are able to speak English. It was also quite difficult for us not knowing ANY French, while we at least know some German to help us this side of the country.

But we were able to eat, drink, sleep and shop well! We stayed at the Beaulac Hotel which is right on the water with stunning views over the lake.

It is also very close to the old town where we spent most of our time wandering around.

On Saturday there was a market with lovely fresh fruit and veg, heaps of mushrooms and very long breads.

We met another South African couple there too. Andre just happened to hear them speak Afrikaans when they passed us and we started chatting. They recommended a good place for crepes called Bach & Buck (look out for the green sign above the door on the main street) where we then went for lunch. The most delicious crepes! And interesting beer mugs...

They also told us where to go for the best chocolate in town where Jamie did some shopping.

And cheese fondue for dinner at Brasserie le Cardinal.