Heading for the Valley of Knives

A pair of very happy knife makers in Brunnen

When M was a little kid he saved his pocket money for a long time until he was able to buy himself a Victorinox, Swiss army camping pocket knife(he needed a big pocket in his bush shirt!). He has told me that in the car on the way home he managed to cut himself four or five times inspecting all the blades and gadgets. One of his most distressing travel experiences was leaving Aus, on a work trip, and realising that he still had his little single blade knife in his pocket; popping this in his pocket was as automatic as putting on his watch in the mornings. Of course it was confiscated in customs. When Willow was 18 months old, M decided to buy her a present whilst in Geneva - you guessed it - a Victorinox knife - it was white and he got it engraved with her name. Any excuse for another knife!

Mt Pilatus from our hotel terrace in Weggis. The township below the mountain is Hergiswil, Luzern is round the lake to the right. There are plenty of cable cars and cog rails to get people up and down the mountain.

Mt Pilatus behind Luzern's famous Chapel Bridge.  It cuts across the river diagonally and the inside roof is covered with paintings telling the stories of Saints and the founding fathers of the town.

In the research process before our trip (what is worse than finding out afterwards how close you'd been to something wonderful but ignorant of it) M discovered that the Victorinox factory and the official visitors store that offered the chance to assemble your very own knife was just a 20 min drive around the lake from our last stop. I had booked a hotel in Weggis, very picturesque, with the intent of using it as a base to go back and look around Luzern, that plan was now kaput - Valley of knives here we come.

Happy to have a sunny morning - looked forward to a cafe stop with this view after the knife making.

M's personal collection of Victorinox
and a Movenpic spoon (an essential tool in Switzerland)

There are only two stores where Victorinox obsessives can assemble their own knives in all the world; one is in Geneva and the other is in the town where the factory is, Brunnen. You must have a reservation as there is only one assembly point and each knife takes quarter of an hour. The CHF30 charge includes explanations of how and why from a multilingual guide, her final check to make sure it is up to standard and an engraving on the red Spartan you have assembled. Those of your group not engaging in the activity can watch with great admiration, enjoy the museum displays about the company or look around the store upstairs (more knives, luggage, perfume, knife accessories, clothes - even a book or two.)

Left: M and his completed knife!  Right: Petal is told that her light touch is essential in knife assembly work.
Both chose the Philips screw driver rather than the corkscrew.

The second table where the pieces are hammered together and the axle bits are trimmed down.

The museum displays.

Victorinox Logo Similar to the Swiss flag
This was inverted for another mighty Swiss inspiration.
The Red Cross Museum was in Geneva.

The original officer's knife is the Spartan - this is the model made in self assembly.  It was developed by the founder of Victorinox, Karl Elsener and trademarked in 1897. The current model has been refined since this first attempt and has become a bit of a legend in the knife world. It's design brilliance is celebrated by the Museum of Modern Art in New York who have one on display, as does an applied art museum in Munich and Phaidon Design Classics have given it a place in their three volume collection of ultimate designs.

I always wondered where the name came from, I had surmised that since they were originally created for the Swiss Army (ie every male between 18 and 35 in the country) that the first three syllables were for 'victory'. I have been wrong all these years - Mr Elsener named his invention after his mother - Victoria, ooh how sweet. Stainless steel was invented in the 1900s and Inox is the international term for it. All the blades in the Swiss army knife were stainless by 1921 so the company name was changed to include it. Today the company is run by the fourth generation of Elseners; sharp folks!

Left: Waterfront Cafe  Right: An efficient public convenience that only requires one plumbing exit, turn on the tap to wash your hands and the seat goes up so the excess water can fire into the bowl which is wide enough to catch all the splash.

A Chemist of the natural kind with beautiful wall murals beside the Victorinox store.  The painted clock is a sundial.

Outdoor pursuits are revered in this mountainous land. There is a bike and sail tour from Luzern to Brunnen and back (see below) , the bike racks are clever and no one we saw used locks.

Book the tour through - http://www.echo-trails.com/trip/e-bike-category/e-bike-lucerne

Chestnut roof tiles whittled in the deep dark winter?

More knife wielding crafts

Weggis lakeside. Loving the boat garage on the little house.

More of Weggis - One church had the most amazing cemetery and lovely clean public toilets.

 

The Memorial to Mark Twain who lived and wrote a while around Weggis. He is reported to have said that the saddest piece of stone he ever saw was the dying lion carved up on a poolside cliff on the way up Pilatus.  It was carved in honour of the Swiss guard protecting Louis XVI at the time of the French Revolution.  The only survivor, after the King told them to lay down their arms and not hurt his people(the revolutionaries) returned to his home and organised the memorial.  I have never heard that story before. We didn't have time go to see it - but there are great images of it here
 -  http://imgarcade.com/1/lion-monument/

Two Top Spots in Switzerland

7pm, April 2015- The Matterhorn

One of the big problems when planning a trip is how to choose what you can afford (time and cash) to do. Switzerland is smaller than Tasmania, a bit bigger than Scotland and quarter of it is covered in mountains or lakes. Even so we knew we wouldn't be able to see it all. Our car was being babysat in Luzern so that was our start and finish point, some things were not operating because Spring is not such a busy tourist time (not as much snow as the skiers like and too early for the summer wildflowers) and our desire to see amazing views from a train dictated our priorities.

This blog is about two places that we were glad to have included on our whistle stop tour.  Both may be considered tourist 'traps' but both are beautiful and there are food and accommodation options for the budget conscious like us.

Down south of Switzerland, close to the Italian border, is an iconic mountain that a few national companies use to identify their product as Swiss. At the end of the Matter valley is a ring of lofty peaks, including the highest in the country, Monté Rosa. One of those peaks sits right at the end of the valley cut by the Vispa river and could make an imaginative soul fear the soon arrival of a gigantic bull. The Matterhorn dominates the western skyline of Zermatt and is possibly the most photographed pile of rock in Switzerland.

Zermatt

This is one of the few places we stayed for two nights and wished we were staying for another couple. Sure the little village is quaint: the original climbers 'chalets' from the 1800s must be protected because they are still standing, the eateries range from a crepe store where you're served through a window to Michelin star rated and it is a little pool of humanity  surrounded by Alpine wilderness, but the great amazement of this place is one more rail journey away.

Left: The Museum - on display is the rope that snapped in 1865 during the first successful ascent of the Matterhorn - not so good for the fourth, fifth and sixth climbers that fell to their deaths!  There is an amazing range of architecture in Zermat.

Training up to the circle of peaks.

The line from Zermatt to the Gornergrat ridge is Europe's highest open air cog railway. It has been in action since 1898 but has been maintained well! Skiers disembark at whatever station they want to get off at, some of these have chair lifts and cable cars to more challenging slopes. The ski avenues we trundled past looked safe and fun for people new to the sport but we also saw some pretty impressive tracks through deep powder and people jumping off ridges to plummet down ankle wrecking drops.

Skiing around the Gornergrat Ridge - the guy on the right plunged down that drop to meet his friend waiting about 500m below him. There were lots of shops with adverts for the GoPro cameras with footage of some of the daring deeds in the area.

The concierge at our hotel said that the weather had just turned lovely, over Easter it had been overcast and damp, although it had snowed heavily one night. This was all perfect for us because as we stood on the Gornergrat ridge the sky was blue and we were surrounded by a ring of snow covered peaks, a rather overwhelming view.  Absolutely gorgeous!  There was no wind so we weren't cold although there was at the top of Monté Rosa; watching the 'snow cloud' flowering off the top peak was oddly compelling.

Snow clouds off Mt Rosa

We were able to stand out in the middle of the glistening landscape until the hugeness of everything began to feel a little surreal. To readjust our depth perception and prevent those awkward tripping off the edge of a cliff moments, we headed into the café to a window framed view of the Matterhorn.

Top: Cross country veterans  Bottom: All ages can ski up there.  Right: Train station from the café level.

The beasties up high. The Swiss equivalent to the NZ mountain parrot (the Kea) was just as cheeky but not so pretty. The St Bernard traditionally carries brandy in the barrel to revive the people they are sent to rescue.  I had to take a quick snap before the professional photographer who owned the dog and charged for photos could jump in the way as his customers rose from their pose. Why do Asian tourists hold up their fingers to do the bunny ears in every photo? Does it have some lucky significance?

The photographers at work!

Yes Petal, you took that photo!

A little Chapel outside the Gornergrat Hotel - 3100m.

The absence of petrol fueled vehicles and the constant whisper of the Vispa that could be heard everywhere in the little town, gives Zermatt a really special feel.  Even though there are dodgy hats and shops stuffed with clocks and Victorinox on the main streets and endless hotels and chaléts for rent, the absence of traffic sounds is incredibly relaxing.
Horses from the 5 star hotels clip clop their guests to and from the train station and bells on the harness of a hired gig jangle through conversations. Clomping from ski booted survivors, proudly walking through town after skiing down right to the edge of the snow keep a hallowed zone around themselves with the threat of the shouldered skis, They jump back on the rumbling train, up the mountain for another run before dark. The electric taxis and buses sneak up behind you and whiz past like lego come to life. And at every turn there are tables with grand vistas and interesting menus.

Top: Zermatt from our hotel terrace - facing back down the valley.
Bottom: The channeled Vispa river and our hotel dwarfed by the Matterhorn.

The Swiss celebrate their National pride!

Zermatt machines.

One of the guys at M's work ran the Zermatt marathon last year; 42km from St Nikulos (imagine that place in December), 3 towns down the Matter valley - up a constant climb of 1500m, through Zermatt to the Riffleberg station on the Gornegrat line. Zermatt is the half way point but the poor runners have to run up 1000m in the 2nd half. What a run. If you are one of my freaky running friends here is the link - limited places so book early!    http://regio.outdooractive.com/oar-zermatt-tourismus/en/tour/trail-running/zermatt-marathon/8991330/#dm=1 

We had to choose between traveling the Glacier express from St Moritz to Brig, which is said to be the most picturesque bit of rail in the country, or spend a day up the Matter valley. Our good luck with the weather meant we were very happy with the latter.

The second stop I want to remember in this recount is Interlarken. We only stayed here because of the Golden Pass rail trip through the center that we wanted to do. Because the lines change between three different gauges (I think that is width of tracks) the trains, although regular, are a bit difficult to coordinate. I couldn't book from Montreux through to Luzern in one day - so I booked a night at the town between two lakes. One of the priorities of finding hotels on line for this trip was proximity to the train stations. Interlarken has two - West and Oust, there is about a 20 minute walk through the town between them. The train to Lucern, that I had booked before leaving the UK (for a fee you can reserve seats on the Golden Pass line - it is very popular and with the time constraints we had I decided better to be safe than sorry) departed from the eastern station. The next priority is price and in these 'top spots' it is a bit tricky to find something that allows you to eat near the end of the month! The other thing I try to find is a view!

I think I got that last priority sorted!

The India Village Motels ticked all the boxes. Although it was only a 10 minute walk from the station, half of it is over a gravel riverside path. If it had been raining I would have booked a taxi. It was past a backpacker campsite and look pretty crunchy on the outside.  They are run by an English speaking Indian family and are much nicer on the inside. The thing that didn't make me regret the booking were the views from our 'Superior River View' room. It was so nice to find an electric jug. A hot cup of tea in hand, comfy armchair, feet on a low windowsill staring across sunlit water at a snow covered mountain on a perfectly still late afternoon with the local birds flitting and twittering - I wish I could bottle that feeling.  We were tired after a long day, we boarded the first train of the day at Zermatt around 7:30, and had overloaded visual memory so we took an hour or so to WiFi up and take it easy before our evening scouting trip into town.

An Interlarken side street

The big attraction of the town is that it is the base for people wanting to visit the famous Swiss peak of Jungfrau. It is a long day trip from Interlarken and we were disappointed to discover that we wouldn't have enough time. It provides a similar surrounded by mountains viewing point as Gornergrat but much further up the mountain. It has the highest post office in Switzerland, the highest railway station in Europe at 3,454m and the longest alpine glacier in the country.

In the center of Interlarken is a huge empty green space - a park with no football posts but lots of grass. Opposite it with stunning views straight up the valley to Jungfrau is one of the oldest big hotels in town.  I wouldn't mind betting that they owned the land so that their views couldn't be built out. As M and I walked down this boulevard that evening we looked up and saw paragliders circling down to land there. This is something both the girls have wanted to do so we got a flier off one of the pilots as he was folding up his glider for the next run to take back to Petal. There seemed to be several firms offering tandem flights from early to evening.  The weather was so settled and the outlook so majestic that it was a perfect opportunity.

Top: The closest we got to Jungfrau was this poster in the train Station.
Bottom: The Victoria Hotel gazes across the park at Jungfrau (Right)

Petal took all of 5 seconds to say yes to our offer, she looked up the Skywings site, checked Tripadvisor and decided that she'd live through the experience so I rang and booked her in for a mid morning flight. The Skywings van picked her up at the motels and kindly dropped M and I - with the bags, at the train station so we could stow them in a locker for the day. Petal was then taken up to the jump off point on one of the mountains behind Interlarken with another 8 or so people booked in for the same flight time.  The van picked up the pilots and their gliders from the park after their early morning flights on the way. What a living, gliding down five or six times a day when the weather is right.  Petal had instructions to txt us the colour of her 'wing' so we could video/photograph the right glider from the ground.

A few stunts as they flew across the town - the ohhoooh - heard plainly down below.

From an outside table at Kirchoff, a restaurant that over looked Hohematte (the big flat park) we sat and ordered coffees to wait for Petal's arrival - well I did, M couldn't sit still.  He walked over to the Skywings desk and started chatting to the Kiwi guy there. He phoned the takeoff site and found out that Petal would be piloted by Steve under a red, white and blue wing. Without missing a beat he then said to M, "She'll be lucky to make it, this is Steve's first flight." I must say that the dry Kiwi humour isn't quite so funny when your daughter's life and your own misgivings are keenly front and center!

M and I breathed a sigh of relief as they landed safely, our legs were more wobbly than Petal's!  She loved it and the pilot suggested that she become a pilot - they need female ones because the Muslim female tourists will only fly with a girl!

One of the churches competing for bell supremacy.

There are more expensive watch shops in a smaller space in  Interlarken than anywhere else I have ever been. Big tourist buses pull up, hordes of tourists jump out and 45mins later are boarding again with little bags that cost them anywhere from CHF500 to CHF 580 000 (that was the most expensive one we saw in a window!)
This area is big in Bollywood films, they've even filmed some of their biggest stars up at Jungfrau, so there are lots of Indian restaurants and lots of Indian tourists. In all the watch and kitchen shops there were Asian serving staff who could speak to the Japanese and Chinese tourists. Of course everyone knew enough English for all we required.
The streets weren't lined with flags as much as stands of postcards. Although I searched, I couldn't find a red head Heidi postcard for my cousin anywhere. All her little girls are blond so the blond Heidi and Peter whisked its way to NZ and arrived within the week!

For a town that was once a powerful monastry that declined after the reformation and was revived by Edwardian and Victorian European tours into a resort town, it is no wonder that its heart and purpose is tourism.
Plan for two nights if you want to go up to Jungfrau or stay up at one of the little mountain villages higher up the valley. (Grindelwald or Lauterbrunner) A company called Viator do day trips by coach from Zurich and pick up people in  Interlarken on their way for around £140. Apparently there is an ice sculpture palace cut into the heart of the Glacier. Most guides say not to bother going if it is cloudy and advise to book ahead in the Summer months.

Facing towards the entrance to one of the two lakes that the river flows between, bordering Interlarken.

Swiss Cheese and Chocolate

Switzerland has countless valleys of green
for cows to chomp on to produce milk to supply
the huge Swiss dairy industry.

Driving through Europe, you soon notice a little initial below the European Union star circle to the left of each car's number plate.  They let you know which country the car is registered in: F for France, B for Belgium, D for Deutschland(Germany) etc. People driving into Europe from Great Britain are encouraged to slap an extra large magnetic GB on the boot to let those used to driving on the right hand side of the road know that they have a loopy left hander amongst them. Cars from Switzerland don't have the stars because Switzerland is not part of the European Union they often have the red shield with the white cross and the letters CH. Their currency is Swiss Franks and on all the price tags it has CHF but the only thing I can think that the CH stands for is CHEESE or maybe CHOCOLATE!

Plates!

The Swiss are fairly serious about their food; in 2000,  Josef Zisyadis, a member of Parliament, obtained 2 million CHF from the Federal Government and more from the Canton governments and private businesses to create the 'Culinary Heritage of Switzerland' association.  It even made an encyclopedia of the research compiled. The website includes recipes and lists of processed food that is Swiss, been in production for at least forty years and is still in production.  http://www.kulinarischeserbe.ch/default.aspx?page=ucSearch 

Different regional chocolate companies, Cailler was the first
Swiss chocolate maker. I think the company has been
bought out by Nestlé.
I don't think Muesli chocolate is very healthy?!

Cheese and Chocolate are major food groups and were in plentiful supply on our journey. Each Canton seemed to have their own specialties, heavily influenced by the food culture of the language they speak. Last Easter we dropped into Zurich after our drive down the Blackforest Rd and had a little shop in the Lindt factory store there. Strangely, this worldwide face of Switzerland is not the only choc co. around the place, in fact I think I saw less Lindt self space in supermarkets here that in the French ones. We didn't see a single Lindt cafe - there are three in the Sydney CBD!  Of course the Toblerone in all it's many guises flashed it's Matterhorn symbol at us from every food and souvenir store we walked past.

Laderach specialise in slabs of chocolate with different flavours but had yummy truffle eggs as well, they are everywhere in Switzerland. This one is in the train station at Geneve. The Bachmann stores seemed only to be in Luzern and had so much more than chocolate.

The best hot chocolate we had was at a very entertaining chocolate shop in Interlarken. The store was called Funky Chocolate Club. They stocked chocolate from artisans from all over Switzerland and used chocolate from all over the world to create their 'salads' - they argue that since cacao comes from a tree so is a plant that chocolate is technically a salad. They have a workshop where you can mold your own special creations and blend a variety of Lindt and spices into the perfect hot chocolate. A shelf full of large chocolate phallus' with a sign threatening to send one to your mother from you as a gift if you mess about with them gurgled up a giggle or two. I imagine that some stock had meet a sticky end at the hands of a few crudely immature customers at some stage.

Left: A souvenir M was keen for me to purchase from one of the kitchen shops.
Right: Funky Chocolate down a side street in Interlarken - hot chocolate through a straw.

These were from Bachmann in time for Easter Sunday but the
after Easter sales of choc were tempting! Duckie from the Hotel

The ultimate reference for a country's chocolate expertise must be Petals' comment after gnawing on an Easter bin sale rabbit - 'this is really good chocolate and it is just the supermarket brand'.

Petal first fell in love with the Swiss staple after buying a bar from Bachmann in Luzern (Look out for the bright pink logos). This smooth and buttery milk chocolate was a little sweeter than normal but converted a lolly fiend into a chocolate devourer, more protein and calcium so I'm not complaining. Bachmann also has a cat as their mascot, cats seem to find Petal wherever we go and ask for a pat. We didn't see a Bachmann store anywhere else so on returning to Luzern she popped into one of the station stores to buy another block for herself and one for Willow.

Squeaks of excitement emanated from Petal as we perused the grocery aisles, one of our favourite travel pastimes. In the cereal aisle she found a box of Ovaltine crisps, spelt Ovomaltine but with the same distinctive orange packaging. In the fridges were rows of Ovaltine chocolate milk and the biscuit aisle sported a cream biscuit. The chocolate aisle produced oohs and ahhs. Her favourite infant school tuck shop snack of Ovaltinies were here and the sight of them prompted revelations about ingenious strategies that Petal and her cousin, Tas, contrived in order to snaffle a packet in the toilets during class. Leelee called them Sly and Gobbo with very good reason. There were Ovaltine breakfast bars, snack bars, and blocks of the aerated malted goodie. We did not get one of everything! The Hotels she liked the most were the ones who had Ovomaltine or Suchard express sachets in their breakfast buffets. The breakfasts I liked the most were the ones with the Swiss Bircher Muesli and a sort of jellied cranberry sauce to pour on top.

The almond/gingerbread style cookie on the left was not to M's
taste but anytime was good for a Movenpic moment!

One thing we were unable to do was go on the Golden Pass Chocolate train, it only runs May-October. For CHF99 per adult(1/2 price with the Swiss pass) you get coffee and chocolate croissant chugging up the mountain, a bus trip to Gruyeres and their cheese factory then down to the Cailler-Nestlé factory before chugging back down to Montreux. Kids are half price (Free with the Swiss pass).

Left: Hand moulding cheese in the ultra modern Engelberg Dairy built inside an old Abbey.                 Right: Tete de Moine

There were so many other regional cheeses. One that looked very pretty in the sandwich shops and delis was Tete de Moine (translates to Head of Monk, a cylinder of cheese that was made in an Abbey. The monks kept one per monk(per head) and gave the rest away). It is cut by a Girolle creating super fine slices that fold up into rosettes; they call these chanterelles because they look similar to the golden mushrooms with the frilly edges.  Strangely we didn't see anything much of the holey cheese I always think of as Swiss, we saw a lot more of it in the Netherlands. A big tourist service is providing tasting tours of cheese factories.

At a Cafe in Yverdon-les-Bains I first saw the word Flammenkuche and ordered one off the menu - it sounded dramatic, I got the vegetarian one, always safer! A little disappointing - there was no flambé, just a rectangular pizza. Quite tasty but just a pizza with no tomato base. The other cheesy food we had a try of was Kasekuchen, the slice of this we were served was a cross between a pizza and welsh rarebit. A thick cheese topping on a bread type base.

Fondue in Zermatt

A cheesy joy that I was determined to try was the legendary Fondue. While at Zermatt we decided to have a late lunch for this initiation, we thought so much cheese near to bedtime might nightmares release. Many of the restaurants offered the oh so Swiss dish. The traditional option was served with chunks of day old bread ( I think the fresh stuff would have folded under the weight) and tiny boiled potatoes.  Some offered Fondue with truffle, some with Champagne but all were served in a thick ceramic pot on top of a oil burner to keep it hot. M covered the flame with the little lid provided when ours began to bubble - the gloopy splurts weren't pleasant when they landed on your hands. The one we had was made with Freiburger Vacherin and Gruyere. 

By Lusanne, I already had the emergency
extra bag for grocery items out and in use!

When I went to pay for the meal, the woman behind the bar was keen to practice her English and started giving me tips about making Fondue. She said the big rule was to never let the cheese get hotter than 50 degrees and that a mix of cheeses was better than just one type. She warned me that adding cornstarch as some recipes said was only necessary if the cheese split after overheating and that putting wine in to make it easier to melt the cheese at the beginning only diluted the full joy of the fondue experience. She also advised me to stir all the time until a skin formed over the hole in the wooden spoon (a special bit of Fondue making kit apparently).

It was very rich.  On the table was a Swiss seasoning we often saw in Cafes - both in granulated and liquid form - called Aromat.  I found if I cut the little potato in half and dipped it in this Soy sauce type of fluid (but with deeper more complex tones) it cut through the weight of the cheese.  M started double dipping his spuds by rolling them in the air (we were sitting outside enjoying the snow topped mountain views) to harden up then would dip them a second time before gobbling. A more common practice by the locals was to dampen (not soak) the bread in whatever spirit or wine they had ordered before fondueing. We didn't try it with our apple juice!

There are a lot of kitchen souvenir shops in Switzerland, one thing we saw in several places were bread knives with the cutting edge in the shape of the mountain ranges in the area, named on the blade too. We saw thermometers along with the long handled forks and pot holding paraphernalia in the stores for people wanting to cook up a fondue at home.  I really think that is best kept to a place with mountain views after a big day of snow sports. Sometimes when the kids had friends over I'd do a chocolate fondue with strawberries and marshmallows thanks to the kit Poss gave to Petal one Christmas, I think that's as far as we'll go.

The peaks opposite Geneve - imagine the bumpy horizon exaggerated slightly, cast in steel, sharpened and cutting bread.

Rosti and fried egg at Stadel,
Zermatt. Soo many good
restaurants there.

Another dish we enjoyed was the Rosti.  Mum used to call them potato fritters. They serve them in Switzerland as plate sized pancakes, To make:1/2 cook the potatoes the day before, skin then grate when cold, mix with some egg and seasoning, sprinkle over a hot, oiled pan, flip half way through to achieve a golden brown on both sides then serve immediately with cheese melted on top under the grill, fried eggs or sausage and onion gravy.  This used to be a common Swiss breakfast but is served any time now.

With the German influence, the spargle (asparagus) season was being celebrated. We went to a brilliant restaurant in Zermatt, China Garden; M's cheese threshold had been reached! They served an asparagus and cashew dish that was delish. A store keeper up at Gornergrat was slurping up white spargle in burnt butter sauce between customers queuing at her desk. I was a bit nervous that my postcards would have an added sniff and lick quality.

Amazing interior murals and delicious Chinese veg dishes.  China Garden - Zermatt

One of the best meals we had was at Weggis; The Alpenblick Hotel's Garden Restaurant.  They offered one set menu each evening and you bought whichever elements you wanted. We got in fairly late so just ordered the main. It was a wild garlic risotto with honeyed fennel and a perfectly aged beef steak.  They served our three dishes on one platter with large serving spoons and empty hot plates at our places. Both practices are interesting innovations in keeping costs and service times down. I noticed that the same three women did everything from reception to waiting tables and bar tending. It looked like they were slowly renovating the place - I guess once they're done families won't really be able to afford to stay there.  The top three floors of the six level building with sauna indoor pool and underground garaging, were permanent residents. Another clever way of keeping rooms full!

A post card showing all the Cantons of Switzerland - most have their own types of cheese and special dishes.  The original European fusion food - blending the best from France, Germany and Italy with their own leaning towards Dairy. 

Another excellent discovery was how into apples the Swiss are. Apparently this big cider swigging country nearly lost this culinary heritage when apple juice became unpopular in the sixties, trees were cut out by bankrupt orcharders and vineyards sprung up. Happily the trend is reversing and the apple is golden again. Most lakeside homes and farms had espaliered apple trees budding up. We also found the best sparkling apple juice ever, it had deep rich toffee tones. We brought a few 2L bottles home with us - thank goodness we drove! Head office of Ramseier is at Sursee whose pretty train station we passed through on our way from Lucern to Bern.  Wish someone from the company would decide to emigrate to NZ and put some of their wonderful apple crops to good use with a remembered recipe!

Apples growing along a fence in Weggis

The apple of course has historical significance to the very birth of the country. People from different Alpine valleys got together and decided they were going to stop the surrounding nationalities marching through their land to fight each other, wrecking their properties and resources in the process. They formed guerrilla groups of alpine gangs, I wonder if yodeling was the war cry for their resistance? One group who used to be part of them had gotten big and powerful, the Austrians had become a nation in their own right and was trying to absorb the smaller Swiss states into itself with the use of deputised Sheriffs.

As always in legends of this type (so similar to Robin Hood!) there was a bad sheriff! Gessler is the power hungry and greedy exploiter in this tale, he was sheriff of the canton of Uri and had his castle at the opposite end of the lake to where Luzern is now. The capital town was Altdorf and one day an Alpine hunter, William Tell, arrived with his son. In the centre of the market square he refused to bow to the pole with Gessler's peacock feather adorned hat on top. For this act of rebellion Tell's son was tied to the pole with an apple balanced on his head. Gessler ordered Tell to shoot the apple off his son's head or watch while his guards butchered him. I would imagine that the whole town had gathered by now - what a spectacle. So when William Tell did successfully split the apple with his arrow, without causing any harm to his son, Gessler's guards were outnumbered and the boy was set free. William however was arrested because a second arrow slipped from his cloak and he admitted that if he had hurt his son it would have been turned on the Sheriff.  Eventually one of William's arrows did pierce Gessler's heart in a later ambush - or so the story goes. The Swiss Confederation threw off the yoke of Austrian domination. The apple(in liquid form) is used to toast the nation.
For a more complete version of the story look at http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/william-tell--killer-or-freedom-fighter-/31244332 

It's hard to find paracetamol in Switzerland.
Everyone seems to use the naturopath apothecaries,
no wonder Riccola is such a huge company.

One of the things I have really enjoyed about our journeys from place to place is seeing how people in different places throw together the same sorts of ingredients in different ways to create such a huge variety of eating experiences,

By the way, the reason Switzerland, a country of so many languages, has CH for its initials is because its official title is The Swiss Confederation. (In French - Suisse, Italian - Svizzera, Romansh - Svizra and German, the largest language group - Schweiz.) The variety is celebrated and bonds of nationhood (since August 1 1291) are steeped more deeply in the cantons' constant battles for independence from its bordering states, the style of democracy that has kept the harmony between them so successfully and their Alpine roots.
Perhaps not to offend any of the language groups, they have written the name of their confederated states in Latin - which is Confoederatio Helvetica - thus CH. I applaud their nonpartisan efforts, but knowing this won't stop me thinking chocolate, or cheese whenever I see a Swiss registered car!

 A great way to take in the scenery.  Uri, the Canton William Tell hunted in, is just beyond the end of this arm of the lake.
Coffee in Brunnen - home of Victorinox - see another blog for that thrill.