World Travelers Chris and Serena stop in!
Just two days after Matt's parents left us, good friends from Hamilton arrived for a visit during their 3 week European tour (some of you might recall Matt standing up beside Chris at their wedding in October). We spent our only night between guests washing sheets and cleaning, reminiscent of our days of Airbnb hosting when "turnovers" were as much a part of our life as grocery shopping (shoutout to Kari for keeping that operation going)! We even provided a self check-in feature and sent them thorough instructions so they could get into our apartment on their own and make themselves at home while we working. In contrast with our Airbnb in Canada, our Swiss B&B compensation comes in the form of the more invaluable commodities of good conversation, fellowship, and lasting memories!
Chris and Serena easily filled the void and quiet that our previous guests had left behind. [Sjaarda parents: it turns out we miss the humming (Mom) and constant commentary (Dad) more than we expected!]. Although we have a lot of vacation time in Europe, we still don't have quite enough to take holidays the entire time all our guests are here. So for each guest, we try to find the right balance between entertaining, finding a routine together, playing hotel, etc! For two days, we sent them off on their own while we worked, but we spent the next three days together exploring the area by train and by foot, deciding to stay local and exchange lodging costs for transportation and experiences nearby.
C & S share our love for the outdoors, so we did our best to show off the beauty around us in Switzerland. The easiest and cheapest way to experience the mountains is on foot, so we planned a few hikes. Serena quickly became skeptical of Matt's time and distance estimates after our first hike, which was "supposed" to be a 8 km jaunt, but ended up being ~25 km up the Alps. For those of you that have hiked with Matt before, you know this is hardly surprising! Eventually we made it home, bedraggled and hungry. We easily gave in to the Swiss food prices and ordered Indian take-out that night (perhaps an odd choice for Switzerland - but was supremely tasty nonetheless!). For our second expedition, we were a bit more conservative in our hiking estimates, but ended up stuck in a tiny town that operates buses only once per hour and missed the one we needed by only 5 minutes (oops)! Not quite the plan, but memories made!
Our time with Chris and Serena was great for so many reasons. We could easily pick up where we left off 6 months ago with great conversations that were of both the serious and humorous variety. Also, Chris and Serena (but especially Chris) are quintessential hamiltonians, so it was as if Hamilton came to us for a few days! They (but really... just Chris) enjoy a good (read: expensive) cup of coffee made in either a pour over or aeropress, run an instagram account called hikethehamont, bike to work on the regular, own an assortment of Hamilton clothes, exclusively eat avocado and eggs for breakfast, and most importantly: wear Blundstones 12 months a year. Although we love Hamilton, come to think of it, these aren't really features that define us at all (actually Matt is the opposite in many ways: no instagram, puts too much sugar in his coffee, doesn't like avo, no interest in owning blundstones...). Thankfully, our relationship is deeper than these trivial things, and we even felt comfortable serving bread/cereal (*shudder*) for breakfast one morning!
We are really thankful for friends that that we share many (other) interests with, both superficially and at a deeper, richer level as well. Thanks for visiting, Chris and Serena! I hope we sent you on your way with enough clean clothes to last you until you got home. Below is a few pictures of some highlights of our time together.
Chris and Serena easily filled the void and quiet that our previous guests had left behind. [Sjaarda parents: it turns out we miss the humming (Mom) and constant commentary (Dad) more than we expected!]. Although we have a lot of vacation time in Europe, we still don't have quite enough to take holidays the entire time all our guests are here. So for each guest, we try to find the right balance between entertaining, finding a routine together, playing hotel, etc! For two days, we sent them off on their own while we worked, but we spent the next three days together exploring the area by train and by foot, deciding to stay local and exchange lodging costs for transportation and experiences nearby.
C & S share our love for the outdoors, so we did our best to show off the beauty around us in Switzerland. The easiest and cheapest way to experience the mountains is on foot, so we planned a few hikes. Serena quickly became skeptical of Matt's time and distance estimates after our first hike, which was "supposed" to be a 8 km jaunt, but ended up being ~25 km up the Alps. For those of you that have hiked with Matt before, you know this is hardly surprising! Eventually we made it home, bedraggled and hungry. We easily gave in to the Swiss food prices and ordered Indian take-out that night (perhaps an odd choice for Switzerland - but was supremely tasty nonetheless!). For our second expedition, we were a bit more conservative in our hiking estimates, but ended up stuck in a tiny town that operates buses only once per hour and missed the one we needed by only 5 minutes (oops)! Not quite the plan, but memories made!
Our time with Chris and Serena was great for so many reasons. We could easily pick up where we left off 6 months ago with great conversations that were of both the serious and humorous variety. Also, Chris and Serena (but especially Chris) are quintessential hamiltonians, so it was as if Hamilton came to us for a few days! They (but really... just Chris) enjoy a good (read: expensive) cup of coffee made in either a pour over or aeropress, run an instagram account called hikethehamont, bike to work on the regular, own an assortment of Hamilton clothes, exclusively eat avocado and eggs for breakfast, and most importantly: wear Blundstones 12 months a year. Although we love Hamilton, come to think of it, these aren't really features that define us at all (actually Matt is the opposite in many ways: no instagram, puts too much sugar in his coffee, doesn't like avo, no interest in owning blundstones...). Thankfully, our relationship is deeper than these trivial things, and we even felt comfortable serving bread/cereal (*shudder*) for breakfast one morning!
We are really thankful for friends that that we share many (other) interests with, both superficially and at a deeper, richer level as well. Thanks for visiting, Chris and Serena! I hope we sent you on your way with enough clean clothes to last you until you got home. Below is a few pictures of some highlights of our time together.
Walking the old streets of Lausanne our first night together.
View of the city of Sion.
Hanging out in the Alps. Only a few hours, we were extremely hot, but we needed all our layers at the top. Natural AC (all we can get here as there is basically no AC anywhere in Europe)!
Chris and Serena bought us a beautiful bowl! But Matt promptly chipped it a few hours later...
A random cave that was actually very deep (also provided us with some natural AC).
Sooo cool lookin'.
Strolling by Lac Léman. The lake is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, but count on about 20 minutes back - up the dreaded hill!
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