Goodbye Neuchâtel, Helloooo Germany!

You can only eat so much traditional Swiss food before you and your belly start thinking, “OK, this is getting silly. If only my mom and dad were here to tell me that I am out of control and a cheese-induced high has caused me to completely lose touch with reality and maybe I need to be sent to rehab in the form of some consistently sad and bland diet, probably supplied by Great Britain…”
lake neuchatel
There are few things that can take my mind off Swiss cheese...
And just like that, mom and dad are there, offering to send you not to rehab, but to a cozy German cabin where you can reunite with them, replacing a mild cheese addiction with familial comforts and maybe some Schweinshaxe.
Classic john getting ready to say goodbye
neuchatel switzerland
I do want to leave, right?
I was sad to say goodbye to Martine and Patrice—they had turned a mere four days into a fantastic schmorgasboard of Swiss/German/French culture immersion, and John and I didn’t even have to do any farmwork. But let’s be honest, after three months of living amongst other peoples’ cultures, I was ready to get back to my own, if only for a few days. So it was with open arms that I greeted my parents Sunday afternoon, happy to be among people who were very much my own blood.
neuchatel switzerland
Goodbye Lake Neuchatel...












But before getting on that train, let’s have a final outing with the Bijons at the one and only Neuchâtel farmer’s market...
neuchatel switzerland
Patrice & Martine, we'll miss you!
swiss farmer's market
The quaintest market in the world
bread swiss market
just bring the whole bread oven. fine with me.
chanterelle mushroom
Hmm, I'll just take that pile of chanterelles right there,
if you don't mind?
swiss farmer's market
Since when did candied fruit and garlic not go together?
  
wild musrooms
Something tells me it's mushroom season. And another something tells me I'm waaaay too excited about this.
swiss farmer's market
About buying your tomatoes
from a local farm...convinced yet?
swiss tomatoes
overload overload overload
swiss farmer's market
Colors! Salami! Olives!
swiss farmer's market
Be careful with that "self-service" term
   
swiss farmer's market
Excuse me, ma'am, could you temporarily black out
while I try to steal your shirt?
swiss farmers market
Morel mushrooms...so close, yet so far...
neuchatel switzerland
Get down from there right now!
chowgypsy
Hmmm, do I want to be photographed with this guy?
From there, the Bijons sent us off to Bern, walking us all the way to the train platform in the way that only friends and family will do. Arriving in Bern, we waited for our carpooling driver to scoop us up in front of a hotel. This time I used the website carpooling.co.uk, and was lucky to find Ralf, and optician from Switzerland who promptly scooped us up and proceeded to show the autobahn who was boss as he took us the two hours to Offenbourg, where my parents would pick us up and we would continue onwards to our rented cabin in the tiny tiny town of Hayingen.
hayingen
Look out Germany, here come the Kaisers...

Stay tuned!

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