Pilatus Mountain, Raclette, <3 Switzerland!

Day 14


A gorgeous deco poster from Pilatus.

My lovely hostess, Colette works for the Pilatus mountain resort here in Lucerne, and she decided that she'd spend Sunday showing me around. The mountain itself - a 7000 foot monster - looms over the town of Lucerne, inspiring various legends about red dragons in the burg below. The mountain itself is rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Pontius Pilate, who apparently wandered, scorned, until he hit the mountain wherein he expired. (There is a lovely drawing at the resort of a gigantic Pilate taking a bath in a mountain lake and scaring the snot out of the villagers who have come up to exorcise him).

It was also reputed that dragons inhabited the rocky cliffs on top of Pilatus, feeding off nutrients caught in the rocks and occasionally buzzing the village to carry away sheep. The mountain was forbidden to visitors on pain of death by dragon-or-Roman- up until the rise of modern times, wherein a hotel was built on the mountain's peak for the benefit of local travelers. (I love the retro postcard I've linked to here). Locals like to boast that Richard Wagner got the inspiration for his Ring Cycle from standing on top of the peak here.


A lake viewed from the summit of Pilatus - the Black Forest can be seen off in the distance.

But about us. We awoke somewhat early, had some excellent cappuccino, then hopped in the convertible to park downtown. Pilatus can be accessed via ferry, and a nice ferry it is: sparkling clean and efficient as most Swiss things are. The weather was clear and warm, the water was sparkly-clear and impossibly blue, and I generally felt rather like I was taking a cruise in some sort of Disney movie. (The cruise company offers fondue cruises, sushi cruises and evenfajita cruises which I feel under qualified to comment on - Swiss people seem to really dig them some Mexican food). We were going to take the "Golden Round Trip" up and over the mountain: to the base via ferry, up by cogwheel train, and down via gondola.

The ferry took us by sweeping granite cliffs, gigantic contemporary homes and old-school Swiss mansions, and Europe's Tallest Elevator parked on the side of the hill - looked horrifying. I want to go. After a pleasant hour and a half or so, we arrived at the entrance to the Pilatus resort, a small visitors center designed to ferry people up the side of the hill.



Pilatus boasts the world's steepest cogwheel railway - built in 1889 and still not rivaled in world cog-wheel technology. At a 48% gradient (and you can tell!) the train is initially rather terrifying to go up in, but you get used to it soon enough: the views up the side of the mountain really are breathtaking. The train takes you past verdant Grimm's Fairy Taleseque forests, quaint Swiss farmhouses, and other green areas before passing into the rocky regions of the high mountain slopes: as it was hot outside, the area was filled with gasping hikers in knee socks, waving as the train went by. I think that's entirely too much steepness for my taste, although Colette says one of her friends does it every day. Yikes.



We arrived at the hotel, restaurant, and visitors center at the top, which was filled with tourists from various regions of the world oohing and awing at the admittedly awesome 360 degree views. Colette pointed out various sights: you can see the whole of Lucerne, other area lakes, the rest of the massive Lake Lucerne itself, and even the beginnings of the Black Forest from the summit. Have some pictures.


View of Lucerne from the summit.


View from the hotel.

We hiked to the site of the Weather Center - which has also got a web-cam you might like to look at - and then down again through "Pilate's Cherry Pit" - apparently when Pontius Pilate tossed cherry pits, they carved humongous, rocky tunnels into the earth. There's a very steep set of metal stairs down it, and I was glad I had on my practical shoes. Once you go down that,you're on the other side of the mountain (the one facing Lucerne, away from where you came in) and are able to get incredible views while clinging to the rock face. We saw a wild mountain goat, blending in well (but not well enough) with the mountain vegetation, ignoring the kids yelling CAPRICORN at him in German. Next was a walk through the "Dragon's Gallery" - a rocky cavern with holes cut out to observe the view below. It's also hung with some paintings by a local artist, illustrating area dragon myths - these were very nice.


Dried Swiss meats. Yum.

After the walk, it was time for lunch at the peak's Slow Food restaurant. It is always nice that these slow food restaurants seem to magically appear when I need them. Colette was friends with our waiter - who happened to be a high up manager who enjoyed waiting when he could - and perused the very Swiss menu. We were given a plate of Swiss cheese and some traditional cured meats. I was taken with the Bündnerfleisch, a common cured beef variety and very tasty. It is also produced in Italy, although the Swiss adore it - and I can see why, as it has a distinctive meaty flavor and a great hit of pepper.


Raclette prior to melty goodness.

For our main course, we settled on a traditional raclette, the Swiss speciality of melted-at-your table cheese, served with pickles, potatoes, and other tasty items. The word raclette refers to the cheese variety itself, a Swiss-cheese esque semi-soft cow's milk variety, originating in the Swiss canton of Valais. Raclette is prepared at your table by use of a machine (though it can be done in front of the fire at home,) where the cheese is melted to toasty perfection and scraped onto diner's plates. It is considered important to drink only tea or white wine, such as Riesling, with Raclette - the cheese supposedly will turn into a hard and possibly fatal ball in your stomach. I think any excuse to consume white wine is a good excuse.


Melty raclette. Oh baby.

This was delicious - melty cheese in tandem with vinegary pickles is a taste sensation. I also blasphemed the Swiss gastronomic gods and sampled strawberries covered in cheese, which was absolutely excellent - chocolate covered strawberries need not apply. I also loved scraping off the melted, hard bits off the raclette melter's surface - those are the best.


Prawns - very nice.

We also sampled some sauteed prawns with vegetables and mixed salad. These were very tasty, sauteed in plenty of butter and spices, and served with a nice Italian-dressed salad. The prawns also were excellent dipped in cheese. Admittedly, I am not sure what food-stuff would not benefit from being dipped in melted cheese. Sardines? Grape jelly? Help me out here.


We lingered for a while with proscecco and enjoyed the fabulous views of the valley below from the restaurant - but it was time to move on. We were heading to Pilatus's gigantic summer toboggan run and ropes course, after all. We did take a short nap in some handy lounge chairs - don't want those deadly cheese balls to form in our stomachs by engaging in vigorous activity too soon, right? Thought so.


I had last done a summer toboggan source about 8 years ago in Utah, and was happy to get a chance to do another go-round. I am a total wuss and very speed averse, so I was happy not to find myself caught between a few 19 year old American guys - the prospect of being flipped out into an (admittedly soft and cushy) Swiss meadow with a metal sleigh on top of me didn't attract me. So I coasted real nice and slow down the side of the hill, enjoying the views below me and enjoying the (for me) rush of the wind in my hair. I may have enjoyed the ride up even more: they hook a pole to the back of your sled and pull you ass-first backup the track, giving you ample time to ponder the Swiss scenery and knee-socked Germans walking past.


Next was time for the ropes course. Although in my sordid youth I was a pretty intensive outdoors adventurer, I'd never really done a ropes course before. I was afraid of heights as a young thing, though I eventually cured myself through a few bouts of rock climbing. (I would have liked to have gone further with rock climbing, but my total inability to tie any sort of knot other then the one involved with my shoes held me back from that dream). I decided to head into this with an open mind - after all, it did look fun, although the ropes course was humongous and elaborate (and high).

I really enjoyed the ropes course, much to my surprise. The highness did stymie me a bit - there were lots of really sharp looking branches and objects for impalement below me - but I got into it rather quickly and grew to enjoy scaling trees, jumping onto platforms, and balancing on wobbly tires. I found it a Zen thing, almost: since your mind is convinced you are going to tumble a zillion feet and die although you are securely roped in, you are unable to concentrate on anything but getting to the next bit of solid ground. As someone who finds concentration difficult, to say the least, being able to concentrate so totally on this was very pleasant. The zip lines were also great: once you get over the initial OH NO I'M GOING TO DIE factor, they're amazing. It's also a killer whole-body workout.


View of the lake from the summit of Pilatus.

Once we finished the ropes course, it was time to take the gondola down the hill to Kriens, the town that adjoins Lucerne. I love mountain gondolas, and this was the most impressive example I'd ever encountered - it goes right down the mountain face through huge stands of pine trees. We encountered a very charming Swiss lady in the gondola - I learned a few words of German in the process. As always, I am picking out food words first.

Colette's office is at the base of the gondola, and we visited her workspace for a minute (scoring a great Pilatus cap). Afterwards, we headed to the Korean restaurant conveniently located across the street - Colette is friends with the owners. We enjoyed Rivella, a kind of soda made from left over milk serum. As the advertising phrase says: "A little strange, but very nice." So true - tasted almost lemony to me. It is only good extremely cold. We also had some happy-hour kimchi (one of my favorite foods) and some yakimandeu. Apparently there are quite a few Koreans in Switzerland, which I was unaware of.

We jumped on the bus back into town, where we picked up the car. Fairly knackered, we spent the remainder of the evening hanging around the house. We had some sauteed chicken and salad for dinner, and slept like rocks. Conclusion: Pilatus is absolutely worth a visit.

A great food blog about raclette may be found here.