Food

Matt and I are the category of traveler Rick Steves would refer to as "tightwads". We walk the kilometer and a half to train station to avoid the €1 tram ticket. We drink whatever is cheapest on the menu - be it beer, water, soda, or something we can't translate. We attend church in cathedrals that charge entrance fees just to get in free.

Imagine my near heart attack when I discovered that a club sandwich cost 26 francs in Switzerland - and that didn't include chips and drink. And we aren't talking room service at a swanky hotel. My blood pressure only went down when I remembered we had kitchens at both of the hostels we were staying at during the weekend.

Picnic and cook we would, but I still wanted to experience some authentic Swiss cuisine. Matt had been talking about Alpine macaroni since he got back from Zurich last spring, so we knew that had to make the menu sometime during the weekend. As luck would have it, we found Alpine macaroni frozen dinners at the local grocery store. We added a bottle of cheap red Swiss wine and we had ourselves a true Swiss meal.When we shopped for dinner at the Chalet Martin, we were a little bit more adventurous and bought the ingredients to make raclette- a melted cheese dish similar to fondue, except you put the melted cheese on the food instead of dipping food into melted cheese. We had a great time melting the different cheeses (pepper, garlic, and regular) under a special burner and spreading it on bread and broccoli. Mmmm!