Gruess Gott!

In Switzerland, you greet people. It's what you do; it's an important part of the unwritten social script. When you enter a shop, you greet the salesperson. When you go to the bakery to buy a loaf of bread, you greet whoever is behind the counter before placing your order. At a restaurant you greet your waiter, and if the table next to your is occupied you probably greet the people sitting next to you. You might even wish them "en Guete!" (Guten Appetite, or enjoy your meal) when their food is served. If you're in a small village and somebody walks past you on the street, you greet them (you don't have to do this in the city); you greet people on Wanderwegs (hiking trails) and when you enter an elevator that's already occupied. Here in Bern we say "Gruesseuch;" in Zurich it's "Gruezi." Swiss people can figure out where you come from by how you pronounce your greeting. Reto, who worked in Zurich for five years, switches to whatever is local; I'm a hopeless "Gruesseuch-er." (It's a wonder I'm speaking German at all, don't ask me to change those things I labored over!)

I thought the Swiss were big greeters, but Reto and I just returned from a long weekend at a wellness hotel and spa in Austria (more on this in a post of its own), and I'm here to tell you: the Austrians will greet you to death. I've never been greeted so many times a day in my life. (I suppose it helped that we were in a five star hotel and the staff was unfailingly correct, but still.) In Austria the traditional greeting is "Gruess Gott!" (literally, greetings to God) and I could not for the life of me adjust to it. I have a hard enough time saying Gruezi in Zurich - Gruess Gott was a cultural step too far. I alternated between my Bernese Gruesseuch - which was just fine because about half the people in our hotel were Swiss, and half of them were Bernese - and a German inflected "Hallo!" I can Gruesseuch with the best of them, but the Austrians really raise it to a whole new level.

Reto and I had a great weekend spa-ing, sauna-ing, and wellness-ing (details and a few pictures coming in a day or two). Alex stayed with his grandparents at the farm and had a great time too; he did get homesick for us at bed-time but otherwise did well on his first long weekend without us. It'll be awhile before Reto and I can sneak away just the two of us, so we wanted to sneak in this trip before December. We had two days of beautiful weather and one day of steady rain, which when you're staying at a wellness hotel is a great excuse for hanging out in the spa all day. We had a great time, but really missed Alex, so it's not so bad coming back to real life.

And I'm glad to back in the land of the Gruesseuch.