Swiss Hospitality
I just got back from a 12-day holiday in Europe with MrN. It was unplanned. MrN came home from work one day and informed me, "We will be doing some travelling next week. Are you game for it?" Of course!
It was part holiday, part work for him. I just tagged along. The plan was Zurich-Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris-Edinburgh. Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris was work. Zurich & Edinburgh was pure holiday for us.
It took me 2 days to pack because I haven't been to Europe in a long time. The last time was the UK for Nadim's graduation in 2017. This trip was nice because everything had been pre-arranged. Flights, accommodation, where to go, what to do... we just followed the itinerary. Thanks to Dave.. he made our holidays so much easier and stress free.
Of all the 5 countries we visited, I love Switzerland the most. It is just so beautiful. Itś dramatic landscape, rolling hills and rugged terrain captivated my soul. And the people are just so nice. Warm & friendly. Not standoffish.
Since this was the first time i travelled in my tudung, i was quite anxious. I heard so many stories about how the French discriminate against hijab-clad female workers. How they were asked to remove the hijab if they wanted to stay employed. Surprisingly, I never felt any less or treated unequally in all the places i visited. People were just so nice.
One incident that particularly intrigued me happened during breakfast on our last day in Zurich. That day, we had breakfast at Springli at Zurich Airport while waiting for our flight to Amsterdam at 11am. I wanted to order the spinach tartlet and salmon canape as they looked so inviting. And they were "meat-free".
When I informed the waitress, she kindly told me that most of their bread items contained some sort of meat products to glaze. That's why the bread looked shiny. She advised me to just order the breakfast set that came with plain bread, butter and jam.
I thought that was very attentive of her. I thanked her for being so kind. I guess, she saw me in my tudung and thought I must be a Muslim. Hence, she informed me that some of their bread are not halal.
Now, THAT is Swiss Hospitality.
Swiss Hospitality (meaning): World famous standard of service known for extreme precision, deep attention to detail and a warm, customer first approach. Precision & quality, anticipating needs, multilingual skills, efficiency & punctuality, rich heritage (derived from 19th century luxury palace hotels built along the Swiss Alps.
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