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Three months later, we ventured outside Germany to explore southern Switzerland, fondly referred to by the towns there as the "Swiss Riviera". Though we stayed in Lausanne, renting a car allowed us to drive along Lake Geneva and visit Montreux and Vevey, passing through other towns too. We arrived by train via Basel and the ride could not have been more scenic. Green fields, sunflowers, mountains, lakes, hills of vineyards... and lots of sun. Upon arrival, we headed to our apartment, close to the city center. However, we didn't realize the massive hills made walking around a somewhat complicated adventure. I wish I'd learned early on that there are elevators to take you up and down the hills, making it a lot more fun to explore Lausanne on foot! Once we figured that out (after lugging ourselves straight up for about 1000 meters), we found an outpost of Holy Cow for a dinner of local burgers and fries, then dropped by the Coop grocery store for provisions for the...

Living in Germany, I've come to appreciate the farmers' market experience in an entirely different way from ones I've been to in California, Texas, and the DC metro area. When I've shopped at in the US, the markets only run from the spring to the fall, and the emphasis is on locally-grown goods. Sometimes, though you usually have to ask, products come from as far away as the other coast. Generally, though, they are from the state you're in. The prices are generally much higher than you'd pay at a grocery store, the logic being that you're paying the farmer, a much smaller scale producer, directly, and a more fair price for the food. The options available may be more exotic and rare, too - vegetables you wouldn't see at the grocery store, or have never heard of (ramps were new to me until visiting the Dupont Circle market in DC). When I moved to Mainz, Germany, a city by German standards (population: 200,000 - a far cry from the city of Washington, DC...