SWISS DINNER CRUISE
I must commend the Swiss Tourism Board once again for yet another creative fete.
Once or twice a year, they have a press event to let us know what’s happening in their country, and they surprise us all the time; no two events are the same! They keep us constantly interested.
Over the years, I’ve been to a luncheon at a Swiss restaurant in the Valley, a buffet at a music studio in Santa Monica, and a lovely luncheon at the Hollywood Roosevelt in Hollywood, to name a few.
But, this time they outdid themselves with a dinner cruise around Marina Del Rey. It was on the evening that I had returned from a month in New York, so I was dragging, to say the least, but I would not have missed this soiree.
The musicians. (It was hard to take non-blurry pix with the boat moving, I guess.) All photos by Celia Yusem.
They gave all the guests time to find the ship (which wasn’t easy) by having a lengthy mingling cocktail “hour” first. Making the experience that much more pleasant, during this time and the whole evening, (except for during the speeches, of course,) was a duo of excellent musicians. Saxophonist Jimmy Reid and pianist Greg Manning added so much more to the excursion than I’m sure even they know.
There was a fabulous surprise during this time that was especially appreciated by teetotaler me, who would have been a tad bored otherwise. The info was snuck to me by a lovely Swiss man, who said that I should go downstairs to the Bridal Suite. (Don’t worry—I wasn’t alone, so that wasn’t scary, like I just made it sound!) We basically knocked on a door, ala “Joe sent me,” and inside were two masseuses giving lengthy chair massages!!! Only two other guests knew about it at that point. (They made an announcement later.)
Masseuse Adele Beeman working on an unnamed guest, with super-shiny hair!
I got Adele Beeman, and my pal Celia got Annie Latta, and we were both in heaven. My broken back was so much worse than usual after a month of clearing-out my house in New York, and going from six hours on a plane, on no sleep, to the shaky footing of a boat was hard on it. But, after ten minutes in Adele’s able hands, I actually felt much better. I don’t know if I could have made it through the evening otherwise, actually.
When we finally took off from the pier, the assemblage gathered on the inside deck to see a video presentation of what the different areas of Switzerland have to offer nowadays. (On a side note, an idiot guy who was sitting at my table kicked the plug out of the wall, and didn’t fess up, so the video went down. But the always pleasant Swiss reps just kept right on going and painted imaginary pictures for us with their words. That was great.)
The buffet, pre-food.
Then we had the dinner, for which we were all more than ready. (I was starving.) In truth, the cruise’s pat buffet food was nothing to write home about. But the crafty Swiss had set-up two tables in a separate area where they served their signature “raclette,” which is incredibly delicious melted cheese. They served it over the traditional boiled potatoes, onions, and pickles, and, for some reason, (that none of the hosts could even figure out,) they had bacon on the side, as well. I have to give them this—the Swiss know their cheese!!! It was the highlight of the meal!
Desserts, in the front room of the boat.
There was a dessert buffet set-up in another area of the boat, but Celia and I were too full of the cheese, so we had to pass. The boat docked about three hours after we left, which was perfect. All the drinkers had had their coffee and were ready to drive home at that point.
As we disembarked, we each got a lovely goodie bag with several items, chief among them for me being Swiss chocolate, of course! An added surprise was a waiter standing on the dock with a tray of truffles with which to end the night. The only better ending would have been if Basel-born Roger Federer would have been there to greet us! There’s always their next event! Fingers crossed.
