Switzerland: Part 1

Hello Blogland!

How are you?

Time has its way of taking advantage of good intentions. 

I have set blog goals and blog restart days/weeks many times, but never lived up to my own expectations.

I have said many times here, that I started blogging to document my family and it makes me so mad that I dropped that ball for a few years, but all I can do is move forward now and perhaps play a little catch up along the way.  

Hubs and I went on a wonderful vacation this summer in August.  

We spent two weeks in Europe, one in Switzerland and one in northern Italy.

Our flight flew out of Raleigh to Laguardia and after that layover, we boarded our flight to Zurich.

Hubs traded in a lot of his points to gets us the fancy seats up in front.  We ate and slept well. 

We arrived in Zurich around 8:30 and surprisingly, our room was ready for us.

We stayed at Hotel Schweizerhof which was a great location. It is directly across the street from the train station and is on the Bahnhofstrasse -  

("Widely regarded as one of the most exclusive shopping destinations in the world.").

After we rested a bit and showered, we got acclimated with the area around us and that evening we met our guide for a private Zurich food tour.

Peter took us down some of the most beautiful streets in Zurich as we made our way to our three different stops. 

Our first stop was our "appetizer stop".  

Peter ordered us the Swiss version of a charcuterie board and a Swiss beer sampler.  

I wasn't sure how all `three of us were supposed to share the sampler, but he talked and explained about how the Swiss just pass things around and not think about it.  So we shared bevrages with a complete stranger and lived to talk about it.  

(When in Switzerland!)

Second stop was at the oldest Swiss restaurant in Zurich and of course we had fondue as our main course.  Basically, we had a pot of boiling cheese and a loaf of bread for dinner and it was delicious.  

I was given the most authentic recipe for Swiss fondue - maybe I'll share it one day.  

After stuffing ourselves with fondue, we walked to the most unique gelato shop. I had a cup of ginger, black pepper and brown sugar gelato.   

The next day, we wandered Zurich.  Zurich is not a large city and it is very walkable. It may have some history, but Hubs and I did not take it upon ourselves to worry about learning it.  We walked, ate, drank and shopped. We even bought some souvenirs from the fancy designer stores!

Who are we?

SWISS CHOCOLATE 

Yes, absolutely, Swiss chocolate lives up to its name!

We stopped in several chocolate shops while in Zurich, they are everywhere.  

One of the most popular chocolatiers is Sprungli. 

We made quite a few stops in this shop which was luckily very close to our hotel.  Every time we walked by, we would get two pieces of chocolate and share them. As a souvenir for our 3 girls we bought them a box of chocolates and I wish we would've bought some for ourselves.  BUT, no joke, our hotel had a chocolate cart and everyday the cutest little man would knock on our door and ask us if we wanted anything! We were shy and well mannered the first time, but the second and third, not so much! I'm talking HUGE chocolate bars, six different flavors and we were each welcomed to select several each time.  

This picture is from another chocolate shop.

and most of their store was sheets of different chocolate barks.

This Christmas, I will be attempting and experimenting with chocolate barks, for sure!

I didn't know what expect form Swiss food, except for the obvious fondue and potatoes that are served everywhere.  Most of our lunches ended up being a Swiss style charcuterie board. I loved that they serve vegetables with it, especially the pickled pearl onions.  Veal was on every menu we saw. I cannot get over where veal comes from so I had a hard with that, but Hubs ordered it several times.

 I tasted it and it was really good. 

sausage (veal) salad - very common 

a lot of fresh water fish from the local lakes

veal

sliced cold veal with seared tuna app

We went to Swiss Chuchi for dinner, our last night in Zurich.

We hadn't had our fill of fondue just yet and so we went for it.

Yep, a pot of melted cheese and a loaf of bread for dinner again, but at least we ordered the side of pickled veggies to go along with it. That's healthy, right?  

us - after our fondue :)

We shuffled back to our hotel and of course ate one of those big ol' chocolate bars for dessert!

When in Switzerland!

Brittany's Wedding Reception

I went MIA again!

(sad face)

There are A LOT of crazy time consuming things going on in our house right now. Christmas was very restful - which is the opposite of what it usually is.  Once the holidays were over, our schedule morphed into fifth gear and we are just trying to get to the finish line right now.  We are in the thick of things, mainly planning another wedding - YES, another wedding! It is in May.  (More on this later.) Also for some reason, we thought it would be a great idea to start doing some updating and redoing around our house. My dance card is full!

But I am going to finish up Brittany's wedding before I move on to the other things.

You can catch up and read about Brittany's wedding here, here, here, here, here and here.

After the ceremony, the reception was held just three miles away at a near by country club. 

We did not do a plated meal at the reception. Instead we did a strolling dinner/stations reception. As the guests arrived and started filling the ballroom, there were passed hors d'oeuvres and a large fruit and cheese station opened. The band was playing soft jazz and standards as background music. Each guest did have a seat, but were encouraged to mix and mingle by the layout of the stations, lots of cocktail tables mixed in among the regular tables and more passed hors d'oeuvres as the night went on. The heavier stations opened up casually and slowly throughout the night. 

Stations:

spring salad in martini glasses

duck and lamb sliders

seared tuna

mashed potato bar in martini glasses with toppings

beef carving station

pasta station 

There were a lot of touches of the subtle bumble bee / "meant to be" theme scattered around the reception.  Some of the frames were a honeycomb pattern, the cake also had a honeycomb pattern and a tiny bumble bees on one layer and we printed and framed sayings for the cocktail tables. The escort cards had the same bee wax seal as the invitations did and I even found small wooden beehives that I painted gold and they were place here and there on the reception tables. 

The guest book was a photo book that I made of Brittany and Mr. B's engagement pictures.

The head table was centered at the edge of the dance floor in the center of the room. It was three farm tables with a lace runner with a combination of flowers and candles and anchored by two large arrangements with hanging candles. 

The guest tables were round with two different linens on them. 

Half of the tables had a low compote bowl arrangement and the other half had a tall collection of candles with bud vases. 

The first dance was to Honeybee by Blake Shelton.

 Brittany had been waiting for this moment all of her life and ya'll, 

she looked like she was having so much fun.

The hubs welcomed everyone, asked the blessing and then danced with Brittany to 

Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison. 

 Mr. B danced with his mom right after.

Later in the evening the cake was cut and served with chocolate covered strawberries. 

(The gold splotches only showed up in the photos. 

They were a painted on glitter that was really pretty in person.)

honeycomb flutes

family cake knife and server used at my wedding

You can see the honeycomb pattern and two bumble bees on the cake in this picture.

AND look at that cake topper from behind!  (Totally Brittany's personality!)

 The dance floor was hopping the entire night and everyone had so much fun!

Our band did a fabulous job - we are using them again for the next wedding!

The hubs stopped thinking about the budget for a little bit and danced with his three daughters all at 

the same time!

Glow sticks and neon fedoras were passed out late into the evening. Because the wedding was Saturday, October 29th, the night that a lot of people would be going to Halloween parties, we also had masquerade masks to pass out.  Everyone LOVED them!  

I did not know that B and B were going to exit in masquerade masks - in fact, we kind of discussed that they shouldn't for the sake of the photos, but they did their own thing and did it anyway. 

It does match their personalities. 

I had a flag made of the their monogram crest that Brooke designed for them. 

Mr. B was surprised and loved it!  

They did a faux get away on a golf cart and went around the building! 

Brittany and B did not want the night with their friends to end here, so they rented a bus for 

all of them to go downtown to a Halloween party.

That is where the masquerade masks came in handy since no one had a costume to put on. 

 Our guests left with doughnuts and coffee to go!

 The End

(finally)