Anna1013

My friend is leaving for Zurich, Badreichen, and Salzburg at the ending of this month.

She's been going gluten free for over a year now due to a allergy to anything with gluten in it. I've tried doing some searches but found nothing in for Zurich.

Any rest. or grocery stores in Zurich that you know of that are gluten free?

In Germany, they will be in Badreichen, which is a small area, so I doubt there might be anything gluten free, but I thought I would just throw it out there.

Any suggestions would be great!

moolyn

Anna, have your friend visit http://celiactravel.com/

She not only will be able to find restaurant cards in various languages to print up and take with her but she can use the search feature to find helpful information about eating gluten free in these specific countries.

In Zurich, she might like to try raclette or rosti. In Germany, most restaurants cook meals from scratch so can easily accomodate people with a gluten intolerence.

Suggest that she bring some rice cakes and almonds or walnuts with her for emergencies. It's usually easy to find gluten free sandwich stuff to put on top of rice cakes and fruit to have with the nuts.

Do you have any more exciting trips planned? I can't wait for another of your fabulous trip reports! I

Anna1013

Thanks moolyn for the link - I'm off to check it out right now. My friend is prepared to bring lots of snacks with her.

Thanks so much for the entirely undeserved comment about my trip report - I'm glad to know that my crazy ramblings are appreciated and not met with by vacant stares as they sometimes are in my real life!

By the way, I have to inform you that I am deeply grieved that I am unable to make any trips to Europe soon...see, I'm nothing if not dramatic. That is unless you're offering to sponsor me in exchange for a trip report

By the way, didn't you go to Britain again this summer? Did you happen to post another wonderful trip report about the lake district?

traveller1959

Gluten allergies are well-known in Germany and Switzerland. The German word for "gluten free" is "glutenfrei".

Celiactravel.com's restaurant card in German is very good. Restaurants will be able to serve gluten free items.

In supermarkets, especially in the health food section, you will find a lot of gluten free products, including rice cakes, it will be marked on the label "glutenfrei".
Also look for this symbol:
www.mueller-hamburg.de/zoli.htm

You will get even better choices in health food stores. There are named "Reformhaus" or "Bioladen". A drugstore might also be a good source for gluten free food.

SloJan2

I agree with traveller. I think that those on glutenfree diets are acutally better serviced in Germany and Switzerland than in the US! She shouldn´t have any problems.

traveller1959

To locate a health food store, it might help to print out this text and to show it to the hotel concierge or any other person:

Ich leider unter einer ernsten Lebensmittelallergie.
Können Sie zeigen, wo ich ein Reformhaus oder einen Bio-Laden finde? Danke.

(I suffer from a serious food allergy. Can you show me where to find a health food store? Thank you.)

moolyn

Anna, as others have pointed out, people with a gluten intolerance are much better served in Europe than North America so your friend doesn't have to bring lots of safe snacks with her, just enough for emergencies, like flight delays, and to tide her over until she can shop. I always bring interesting GF stuff home, in fact.

We weren't in England this year but have photos from the year before that I should add to my other lake district report when I have time. I'm pleased that you remember it.

Anna1013

traveller1959 - thanks so much for all your tips! I really appreciate you giving me the german translation to find a health food store.

Moolyn - I'll be sure to tell my friend that she can find lots of GF snacks. I'll be looking forward to your lovely photos!

kleeblatt

Switzerland has more gluten and celiac free products than ever before. I'd go to Migros and Coop for these products first just because it may be cheaper than going to speciality stores.

I've seen the price of gluten-free flour at a local bakery and realized these speciality products are expensive.

Anna1013

schuler - thanks so much for suggesting those two places...I'm guessing they are the bigger supermarkets in Switzerland? I'll go check online and see if I can print out a listing of there locations for my friend.

They'll be staying with friends in Germany, so I'm sure they will be able to find the local supermarkets in Germany. But, any suggestions for supermarkets that would have gluten free items in Germany would be welcome.

traveller1959

Anna, EVERY German supermarket has gluten-free products. The larger the supermarket, the better the choice. Health food stores usually have the best choice, but they are more expensive.

Anna1013

schuler,

I tried to google both Migros and Coop supermarket because I wanted to give my friend a print-out of their locations within Zurich.

However, Migros didn't seem to have a english translation. I went to the Coop site and it redirected you to the english site, but I couldn't find any information about store locations.

Do you have any idea where I can find locations for these stores in Zurich?

traveller1959

Migros has 34 locations in Zürich. You find it practically everywhere.

See:

http://migros.maponair.com/Scripts/h...ch&lang=de

and click on the locations.

flanneruk

Two points about Migros:

- even in Switzerland, the bigger the store, the wider the selection of specialist products. If you type 'Zurich' into the location finder on their website (Filalsuche at the top on the German-language site: Recherche des Magasins on the French-language one) a popup screen throws up all their Zurich sites: the more Ms before the city name, the bigger the shop (http://tinyurl.com/5zc8nv). MMM means a very big hypermarket with more or less everything Migros sells.

- Migros publishes excellent - possibly the best of any grocery chain in the world - data on gluten-free products on its website, with deailed line-by-line information on EVEYTHING it stocks: the great advantage of not selling all those crappy manufacturers' brands. If your friend understands - or can find someone who understands - French, Italian or German, it's well worth downloading the guide. In French: http://tinyurl.com/69tvly

kleeblatt

There are lots of Migros AND Coop stores everywhere. Ask your hotel and they will be able to direct you to the nearest one.

The Migros super store (MMM) is the biggest but COOP stores can be very big too.

I shop in both. Migros tends to have its own brands whereas Coop doesn't. Migros tends to be a tiny bit cheaper than Coop.

Anna1013

traveller1959 - thanks for the link

flanner - thanks for the explanations on how to navigate the site. My friend doesn't understand any of those languages, but they will be meeting up with a friend who speaks German. Do you know how I can download a german translation?

schuler - thanks for all your advice.

Deniswilliamson

You can check Gluten Free Hotels Guide for hotels that serve gluten free food.
I know they have hotels in Germany(http://www.glutenfreehotelsguide.com/country.php?id=15 ). They also have listing for hotels that serve gluten free food in Salzburg (http://www.glutenfreehotelsguide.com/city.php?id=21 ) and Innsbruck(http://www.glutenfreehotelsguide.com/city.php?id=22 ).