News News: Husbear's restaurant simulation (otherwise known as the final for most of his classes) was on Tuesday night and went swimmingly. He will hopefully be putting up a post about it in the near future, once he gets all of his pictures in order.
Meanwhile, time to get us out of Switzerland so I can move on to Anzio and Umbria, right?
Actually... there's not too much to tell about the last day in Switzerland. We had a mid-day train out of Spiez, so it was just a matter of getting from Interlaken to Spiez to pick up our Cisalpino train to Milan.
Before leaving Interlaken, we saw a bank of telephone booths. Another way Switzerland differs from Italy - these seemed to be clean, in working order, and offered Internet access. Here, when you can find a pay phone you have at least a 50% chance of it being broken, and even if it appears to be in working order it will likely tell you the number you are dialing does not exist.
Beautiful, isn't it? We sighed and admired the lovely phone booth for several minutes, until Husbear spotted an odd sign. Nudging me, he said, "What's that?"
Well, yes, he knew it was a McDonald's - but he was asking about the Asian sammich being advertised on the front. It seems to be a part of an entire Asian-themed menu... which, what? Why would they introduce that in Switzerland, of all places? (And, apparently, Germany?)
I like how this particular McDonald's is trying to blend into the background. "Nothing to see here, just a local Swiss eatery serving an odd array of Asian food..."
We bought a couple of tiny souvenirs (we have to buy with eventual weight in mind, since lord knows what we're going to do when it comes time to move again in May) and got to the train station in plenty of time for our train.
So... g'bye, Interlaken!
And hello, Spiez!
We only had a couple of hours in Spiez, long enough to get a bit of a feel for the town and put together a picnic lunch for the Milan-bound train. So, after a bit of a jaunt around town (enough to find that all of the stores were closed...) off, again, to the supermarket!
The Migros supermarket offered many delights, including a cured meat section make up of their famed "HorseLine". Yup, folks, more horse.
Migros also had another helpful way to bring fondue into your own home. It's quick, it's easy, it's frozen meat! It's also probably sliced thinner than you could easily do at home, so that's good.
We did put together a lovely picnic out of two different sausages and some cheese and dried apricots and bread. We then carried our picnic back past all of the closed stores to the train station.
Spiez was definitely breathtaking, and I'm sure it would have been even more so had anything been open besides the supermarket. Ah, well - that's just what we get for visiting on a Monday morning in the off-season.
The trip home to Florence was beautiful, though. We were able to see the Swiss mountains we had passed through in the dark the previous Thursday. Much of the snow looked fresh - I bet a lot of the Swiss ski runs opened soon after we were there.
After crossing the border into Italy, and being certain there weren't going to be any troublesome canine inspections (we had heard horror stories), we broke out our Swiss picnic spread and our Swiss Pinot Noir. Well, back in Italy, might as well switch back to wine....
That's it for Switzerland! Next time from me, Anzio and Lazio (Lazio being the area Rome's in). Perhaps food from Husbear first.
girlie
