After nearly 36 hours in this place, I have made note of the following things:
- I have yet to meet anyone without at least barebones English and the willingness to use it for the benefit of North American barbarians.
- There are lots of birds here; many more than I am used to seeing in January. This includes crows hanging out on the roofs of buildings as well as ducks and some type of gull happily swimming in the cold lake.
- Many of the residential buildings within sight of our hotel still have TV antennas on them.
- While walking around town, almost everyone smiles and says ‘Bonjour’ if you look at them as you pass by.
- Our hotel’s idea of complementary breakfast includes 9 different kinds of cereal, 4 different kinds of bread, 8 different kinds of jam, 10 different kinds of yogurt, cheese, ham, and made-on-demand espresso.
- From what I’ve seen so far, all of the non-tropical fruit in the big supermarkets here is actually grown in Switzerland.
- The viticulture they have going on here in #%@&-ing insane. I have never seen vineyards this size or on such steep slopes, and they’re everywhere along the lakeside.
- I have yet to locate a tobacconist, despite seeing multiple gentlemen walking around smoking pipes. (!)
- The great majority of items we’ve purchased thus far have been within +/- 10% of Toronto retail prices. Two big exceptions are diapers (where name brands are at least +25% of the Toronto price) and draft beer. (I paid Sfr. 8.50 today for a pint of Boddington’s, and the posted prices for other brands have been similar at other bars we’ve walked past.)
- The one local Pinot Noir we’ve tried so far was nice enough, but not spectacular.
More soon!