Festival fast food

We could say that we miss hotdogs, pottles of chips and candy floss…..but then we’d be lying. The food at swiss festivals is on a different level and the Flammkuchen we had at the balloon festival was the best we’ve ever had. Flammkuchen (or Tarte flambée) is a famous dish originally from the Alsace region in France. It’s basically a very thin pizza base covered in crème fraîche, onions and bacon and then, as the name suggests, “baked in the flames”. Yum!!!

Other choices included the ever-present  bratwurst, meat in a bun, roesti (fried potato cake), minestrone and donuts. We did our best to try the lot!

A lot of hot air……. balloons

Last weekend was the beginning of the 32nd annual Hot Air Balloon Festival  in Château-d’Oex, a tiny but very picturesque town in the French-speaking region of Swizerland. The dozens of colourful balloons flying over the snow-covered valley made for quite a spectacle.

The programme on Saturday included a mass lift-off, various races and competitions for the pilots, an airshow, lots of paraglider and parachute stunts and best of all, the “special balloons”. These come in all shapes and are massive! The scottish piper balloon must have been 50m tall!

It was hilarious watching the massive rooster-shaped balloon trying to peck the smaller balloons while an enormous lion-shaped balloon watched from a distance. Quite surreal really.

The most annoying puzzle ever!

This puzzle has been driving us nuts since Christmas Day. It’s an aerial photo of the St Gallen Cathedral and Old Town – and as you can see there are not many different colours. We nearly gave up several times but have finally finished it after more than 3 weeks of frustration. We might give puzzles a rest for a while…..

Turkish Breakfast

One of our favorite things about going on holiday is eating out for breakfast. It’s weird, but our favourite places in the world also seem to have the best breakfasts – coffee and pastries in Italy, Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) in Vietnam, bacon and eggs in Takamatua…… the list goes on.

After visiting Istanbul, we can now add the Turkish breakfast to our list of favourites. We found the restaurant Van Kahvaltı Evi on a fantastic Istanbul food blog Istanbul Eats. The place was brilliant!

A traditional Turkish breakfast consists of cheese, tomato, cucumber, olives and fresh bread. Along with this we also tried kaymak, a creamy dairy product which you eat with honey, and cacik (a thick yogurt spread).

All of this is washed down with a bottomless cup of strong tea and finally a short sharp Turkish coffee.

It was a knock-out.

Bazaar Banter

Istanbul’s Bazaars are full of colour and life. The stall holders are eager to sell their goods and are a constant source of entertainment.

Some of the funniest banter we heard included:

“Oh hello, I have been waiting for you all day! I can help you spend your money.”

“Hello Lady, you look very beautiful and very nice”

“Don’t think so much, thinking only makes your life more complicated”

“If it’s a gift don’t worry, they will like whatever you give them, they can’t see all these choices”

“A carpet? No problem, we will send it to your house in New Zealand.” “We don’t have a house in New Zealand” “One step at a time! First a carpet, then a house to put it in”

“Lady, don’t break my heart!”

“You look very happy together. I have very nice carpets. You buy one for her and you buy one for him. Everyone is happy.”

“Don’t worry your husband will pay!”

“Something for your mother-in-law?”

Seasons Greetings!

Winter’s not that bad

Our first day skiing this season was a cracker! It snowed all week and then came out fine and sunny on Sunday. Perfect! The snow was great and the view amazing. Best of all, everyone else was doing their Christmas shopping so there were no queues.

On the way home we stopped off at friends’ for a cheese fondue. You can’t get a better day in Switzerland!

It’s a bit nippy…

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Then St Gallen looks like it’s going to be the place to be on the 25th!

It is absolutely FREEZING!! It is currently -7.1 degrees outside (at 11am) and it doesn’t look likely to improve anytime soon. Londoners, stop your moaning!!!!

Samichlaus comes to town!

Samichlaus (the Swiss Father Christmas) comes to town early in Switzerland. On the 6th December he comes by donkey from his home somewhere in the forest and goes door-to-door rewarding kids who have been good with yummy treats – mandarins, peanuts and chocolates. Samichlaus’ scary sidekick Schmutzli is always with him. Apparently he used to carry a whip and would kidnap the naughty children by carrying them away into the forest in his sack. Nowadays he’s a lot more friendly though – he even has presents in his sack.

After today, Samichlaus’ work is done for the year. On the 24th December the Christkind, an angelic infant with wings, will bring the presents for under the Christmas tree.

As you can see, even big kids get quite excited when Samichlaus comes to town!

Introducing Kim the celebrity English teacher!

Kim was featured in the local St Gallen newspaper today! Kim was quoted as saying “We play, sing, make crafts and paint, and the kids suddenly forget that they are doing all of this in English!”

There’s also a quote from one of her 5-year old students: ” Mum, I want to go to English another 100,000 million times”. That’s better feedback than she ever got as a scientist!

Autographs can be requested by leaving a comment on this post.