Day 19: Locarno, Snails

View of the hills of Locarno.

Today I decided to take the train to Locarno, one of Switzerland's well known Ticino lake-side resorts. When most Americans consider Switzerland (if they do at all,) images spring to mind of St. Bernard dogs, yodelers, and immense quantities of cheese. Locarno, Lugano, and Ticino in general possess none of these qualities - the area is instead defined by palm trees, Italian scenery, and gelato shops and pizza joints.

There are, rest assured, just as many German tourists in knee shorts as in the rest of Switzerland. Locarno's status as a tourist hot-spot is nothing new: the city was hosting tourists as early as Roman times. The city was also the site of the Locarno Treaties, seven agreements negotiated during World War I to secure a territorial settlement and bring relations with Germany back to a state of normalcy. The city also hosts the world-famous International Film Festival, where the downtown Piazza Grande is turned into a glitzy movie theater. Sounds nice, doesn't it?



I hopped on the 9:00 train and was in Locarno in a mere half hour. I really love Europe's local trains - they're the aspect of the Continent I would most dearly love to bring to the USA. Having no car in the USA is a real pain in the ass most of the time, but in Europe, it's not a big deal at all. Of course there's the argument that the USA is frickin' enormous and new (in terms of development) and Europe is teeny-tiny and old and possesses much infrastructure - but still, c'mon, we're giving all this lip service to enviromental protection and reducing our reliance on oil. Public transportation would be swell.

Anyhow. I ended up hanging out by the lake side and drawing really terrible landscapes for a large portion of the day, watching old folks wander by. (Europe in June is full of old folks on holiday - people still working aren't on vacation yet). I finally roused myself to walk through the town, which was charming in a very Italian fashion, complete with a big ol' piazza. They were filming some sort of teenage show there, so I hung out and watched the production crew. It's hilarious how obvious it is that people in film and TV production think they are the most awesome people who have ever walked the earth, even if they are 50, pudgy, and balding.


Church in the old town of Locarno.

I walked up the hill and was treated to a great view of the lake and all the pastel-colored buildings and houses below.



There is also the Castello Visconteo, which I walked around but could not figure out how to enter. Needs more obvious labels for idiot tourists. Some speculate that the castle was actually designed by one Leonardo da Vinci, although this hasn't been proven yet.


A distressingly modernist downtown fountain.

Had lunch at a small pizza joint - just had my usual, salad with prosciutto and mozzarella. A warm summer rain began to came down as I ate, so I hung out under the veranda for a bit while I was done and drew the people around me. I like drawing people in public but am always afraid they will catch me looking at them, come over to see what exactly I am doing, and grow vastly offended at my rendering of them. Is this irrational?


An impressive snail. They get humongo in Switzerland.

I walked down the lake for a while, passing by various docks for expensive yachts and contempo condos - looked lovely. I ended up hanging out in a park below an old cathedral outside of town, listening to the waves and enjoying the warm weather. Thunderstorms rolled in over the mountains, however, so I decided to hop the train back to Bellinzona. Which I did: I ended up back in the village near where Daniel and Teresa lived in the middle of the rain. I walked to the nearby Migros (always helpful,) purchased a bright red umbrella and some cherries, then walked back up the hill. Another day in Southern Switzerland done.

Day 18: Bellinzona castles!

A typically picturesque Ticino villa.

I woke up at the ridiculously late (for me) hour of 10:30. I always get really mortified when I sleep that late - I had the windows shut and apparently slumbered right through my alarm! After some yogurt and some good strong coffee, I was out the door into town.





On the way into town, past Teresa and Daniel's home, I wandered by this old church. I enjoyed looking into it: it was abandoned and distinctly medieval in feeling, felt undisturbed since the days of knightdom and Black Plague misadventures. The paintings on the walls outside in particular retained that primitive and attractive sense of medieval simplicity. Seek it out and have a look if you find yourself in Bellinzona, it's well worth it.


The Villa dei Cedri through the trees.

My first stop was the garden of the Villa dei Cedri, a historic villa that has been turned into a modern art museum. I didn't go inside the actual museum, but I did enjoy wandering around the lush grounds.


Some emotionally distressing modern art.


This bust was on the gate of one of the private villas on the pathway to town. Perhaps this was intended to chase visitors away.


An attractive angel statue on the side of the villa.


Castle Grande.

Next stop was Castle Grande, the tremendous castle that dominates downtown Bellinzona. The castle walls run all the way up the hill, and it's really quite an arresting sight: antiquated brick, palm trees and cacti, and the mountains up above. The town of Bellinzona itself is strikingly Mediterranean: no chalets or Tudor here. It is rather like Italy without the dirt and the yelling.


A view of the city from Castle Grande. The Roman Catholic Collegiate Church SS Pietro can be seen here. It was built in 1424 and largely rebuilt in 1517 by one Tomaso Rodari. Did not go inside as it was locked and forcing entry into the House of God seemed unwise.

Castle Grande's site has been occupied since Neolithic times - antiquated Swiss cavemen were squatting in wood huts and hunting mammoths here long long ago, presumably. The castle itself began to be constructed around the 13th century and was added onto in drips and drabs subsequently. Bellinzona was an essential strategic point for Italian despots of all creeds and areas (see below for more background) - the castle controlled the essential pass through the Alps. The castle today is grassy and nicely reconstructed, and features a couple of luxury restaurants serving delicate treats to tourists.

I enjoyed the museum, which featured an exhibit on Otzi, the world famous Ice Man. The poor son of a bitch lived around 3330 B.C, and was murdered near Bolzano by a (presumed) rival - shot in the back with an arrow. His excellently preserved body was discovered in an exposed ice flow in 1991, and he's been studied extensively ever since. Thanks to his unfortunate fate, scientists have been all able to deduce all kinds of interesting stuff about neolithic Europeans - they've even been able to reconstruct his clothing from scraps found on his body. (Otzi's people favored extremely snappy spotted cow-skin leggings).


After my visit to the Castle, it was about lunch time, and I follow lunch time schedules with slightly obsessive rigor. (Another reason I like Switzerland: an entire country of people as obsessive about proper scheduling and Being on Time as I am, I could not ask for more). I wandered around Bellinzona's fetching little downtown for a while, rejecting various cafes for various stupid reasons - they're all Italian down there, they're all about the same, no fondue or raclette or alpine macaroni to be found, tons of pizzerias and gelato shops you know the score.



I finally settled on one rather chintzy looking outdoor cafe, and had one of my favorites for lunch: bresaola (dried beef) with parmesan cheese and rucola (arugula). Delicious when drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and perfect on a hot day. Dried meat is one of Europe's best contributions to humanity, fine art and cathedrals and crap like that coming in a poor second.



I decided to trek to the second castle, which is up the hill and in a direct line of sight from Castle Grande. It was a very pleasant walk through a series of back-alleys winding up to the peak - the allies go by various quaint, pastel colored villas, shrouded in palm trees and not-often-cleared vegetation. It all felt very mysterious and atmospheric, hordes of electric green lizards scurrying out of my way as I huffed up the stairs. I finally made it to the castle: the stairs open up to a lovely green lawn at the end of the route.



As it is not tourist high-season yet and the Swiss are not off work, I had the place essentially to myself: I parked myself on a comfortable looking rampart and did a bit of sketching, enjoying the view and the cool breezes.


The view from the second castle.

I left my rampart eventually and walked down through the castle: there was an actual drawbridge and a moat. I found this perfectly satisfied my expectations of what a castle is and what a castle should be.


Another exceptional view of the town below.

After the castles, I hung around town a bit more, sipping a cappuccino or two and watching the world go by. I ended up at the local Migros and hung out in the square where all the towns aspiring punk kids congregated, eating cherries and enjoying the warm weather. At the end of the evening, I headed back for a nice dinner with Daniel and Noah, then slept like the proverbial rock. Wandering around castles can be somewhat tiring.

Day 17: Leaving Lucerne, Bellinzona and Ticino

Sadly, today I had to leave Lucerne. Colette needed to go to work early, so we woke up and had a good-bye breakfast. She was kind enough to give me a lovely bag she'd picked up from her travels in India - as I had managed to successfully demolish my own bags from India, I was very pleased indeed.


A beautiful day.

Thanks to the magical qualities of the Swiss public transportation system, getting my gigantic bag onto the bus into town and down the hill was surprisingly easy (especially because the weather was gorgeous). I alit at the bus station and decided to hang out in the sun on the dock for a while. All of Switzerland's aspiring dissolute youths seemed to be hanging out by the fountain in front of the convention center, practicing their world-despising sneers and showing off their impeccable scene-kids hair cuts. Sorry, guys - you live in Lucerne. In Switzerland. How bad can it possibly be?


One of Lucerne's classic paddle-wheel boats.

I had a quick lunch at some buffet-salad place - antipasto plates are always and eternally will be my pal - and got on the train. It was clean, quiet, and efficient (you're surprised, right?). The route from Lucerne to Bellinzona is drop-dead gorgeous, passing by (perhaps aforementioned) primordial glaciers, rushing mountain streams, awe-inspiringly steep farms and other classical Swiss sights. I however, fell asleep. (I can't stay awake on any method of conveyance - boats being the worst. This is probably a blessing).

We arrived in Bellinzona, and I was picked up at the station by the lovely Teresa, Daniel, and Noah. Teresa is my friend Judith's pal from grade-school, and she'd kindly agreed to host me for a few days while I explored the Ticino canton of Switzerland. Daniel, her husband, hails from Israel but has spent a lot of time in New York City - he was even a Grey Line bus tour host at one point.

A little about Bellinzona and Ticino. Bellinzona has been a strategic pass through the Alps since Roman times, making it a pivotal trading center between Italy and regions beyond. A fort was first built here during the reign of Augustus, and the town's position as a key strategic and trading point saw its considerable growth as the centuries went by. The city has come under the control of a few zillion different powers, which I am entirely too lazy to list here: groups from the Eastern Byzantine Empire to the Longoboards to Frankish Kingdom had control of the area. Milan eventually gained control of Bellinzona and would retain it for over a century. Louis XII of France finally captured Bellinzona from the Milanese in 1499, but was kicked out when the Bellinzonans revolted violently against the French occupation. On April 14 in 1500, Bellinzona joined the Swiss Confederation, but it did not become a part of the canton of Ticino until 1803, where it shared a rotating capital-ship with Lugano and Locarno. The city feels extremely Italian, full of piazzas, terra-cotta architecture, and a decidedly Mediterranean way of life and ambience. Most people speak Italian, and many people of Italian descent or origin reside here.

In any case, we headed back to their lovely new house, set up against the green hills of the region. Daniel prepared some roasted chicken, and we had dinner. Teresa took me on a stroll up the hill, affording a beautiful view of the valley and the mountains, complete with a picturesque white waterfall. Exhausted, I went to bed early - I was going to explore Bellinzona's famous castles the next day.

Day 16: Raclette, St. Leodegar, Mysterious Cheeses

Day 16


It is a rather pointy place, St. Leodegar.

I spent another day walking around town, ducking into various buildings and exploring the Old Town.


Lucerne is infested with venomous Mute Swans. Here they are attacking an innocent woman.


View up from the church.

I decided to go inside the Church of St. Leodegar, Lucerne's iconic pointy-towered church. The Renaissance-style church was built between 1633 and 1639, on the base of a former Roman basilica which burned entirely to the ground. There had been a church on the site as early as the 8th century - the pleasantly named Pippin the Short had donated an abbey in the name of St. Maurice to the area at that time. The church today functions as both a monastary church and a parish church, and also hosts a considerable stream of tourists. It's truly lovely, both inside and outside: the paintings and decorations within are incredible, and I enjoyed checking them out. Insofar as Lucerne's dragons go, some good accounts may be found here about the beasts connection to the historic church.

Here's one of the stories:

One autumn, a cooper (barrel-maker) was foraging on Pilatus for tree branches, to make hoops for his barrels. He stumbled and fell headlong into a deep cave, coming to rest between two female dragons, who were pleased by his arrival and offered him a dragon stone. He soon became hungry. Observing how the dragons repeatedly licked at a particular boulder in the cave, he did likewise and so nourished himself throughout the winter. When spring arrived, one dragon flew away from her winter lair. The other circled cajolingly around the cooper, as if to persuade him that it was time to depart. She crept to the mouth of the cave and hoisted the cooper out by the tip of her tail. Thus rescued, the cooper returned home to his family.

See, dragons only eat people occasionally. The cooper, fittingly grateful for his rescue, had the whole story embroidered on a cloth and donated it to the church. It is still there.


Esoteric mushrooms gathered from Switzerland's fecund slopes, or some junk like that. I want these very much.


Fruits - the cherries up here are excellent.

The other high point of the day was a trip to Lucerne's farmers market, which operates on Saturdays and Tuesday's along the banks of the river and near the bridges. Vendors from all over the region come in to sell fruits, vegetables, preserves, cheeses, and all matter of local edibles to city-dwellers.



I began chatting with a cheese vendor, who had some beautiful, earthy looking stuff in his booth. I don't speak any German and he didn't speak any English, but a nice woman passing by stepped in to translate. We soon had a good three way conversation going about the merits of various cheeses, as he fed me excellent slices of various things. I bought a piece of delicious raclette-cheese with green peppercorns. He also gave me something interesting: an entire dried pear, which had, during the dehydration process, turned into a tiny and concentrated burst of pear flavor. I've never seen these suckers in the USA. (He also told me, proudly, that they "make ya regular".)

Some other sights around town:


A Russian-esque building which pleased me.


An overcast day, but still soulfully beautiful.


The super-modern convention center over the lake.


Another shot of the shore and the lake hotels.


Raclette setup before the fun begins.

Most importantly, Colette decided to make me raclette today. Colette is known for her raclette making prowess, and I was very happy that she'd make raclette for me in a decidedly non-raclette friendly time of the year. Traditional, old school raclette is prepared with potatoes, pickles, onions, and nothing else, no foolin' - but Colette likes to mix it up a bit. We had our raclette with mushrooms, pineapple, chicken, shrimp, pickles, garlic, onions, red pepper, and even some Chinese funghi we'd started soaking the day before - and that's without getting into the sauces and condiments. (I am considering wedding a bottle of Heinz Curry Sauce).


Our friend the raclette grill.


Grilling meats and vegetables on top of the grill. Cheese is put in trays and melted below. Clever, no?


Melty cheese. Oh baby.

It was absolutely delicious, and a lot of fun: I'm surprised raclette hasn't taken off in the USA like fondue. Fondue is delicious, but one is required to keep on stirring and stirring away while eating it - whereas raclette allows you to go at your own place, allowing for conversation, wine re-filling, and thoughtful digestion. It's also such an incredibly versatile method of cooking: you melt the cheese below the tabletop grill, but the grill lends itself to all manner of uses. By the end of the meal, we had done Asian-style raclette: we grilled all sorts of stuff with some soy sauce, which was delicious. (Grilled pineapple is always a winner).

Day 15: The Lion of Lucerne, Lao Food, Migros Rocks

Day 15


The shore of Lake Lucerne.

Colette had to work today, so I spent the day exploring downtown Lucerne. It's a nice and rather international place, full of tourists of all flavors and vintages. People come to Lucerne from every corner of the earth to gawk at extremely large mountains, take scenic boat rides, and purchase over-priced chocolates. Lucerne is extraordinarily clean and efficient, perhaps the quintessential terrifically functional Swiss city. I think it would be interesting to plant a piece of trash in an out of the way-area and see how long it takes to get picked up - I suspect not long.


An ornately painted building in downtown Lucerne.

Lucerne has tons of excellent clothing and design shops that I've never heard of before in my life. Everything was more expensive then I could possibly afford but impeccably designed. Lucerne also has an incredibly diverse selection of restaurants, which cater to the diverse groups of people that visit the city. There are at least seven Thai restaurants downtown, and as I have yet to see a Thai restaurant in the whole of Italy, that's a pretty amazing ratio. There's also Indian, Japanese, Mongolian BBQ, Spanish, Brazilian - so on and so on, many of them apparently pretty good. You can even go on a Fajita Cruise if you are so inclined, or suck down a cold Corona at an approximated Mexican cantina after sledding down the slopes of Pilatus. Don't get me wrong: I'm from California, for God's sake - fecund diversity makes me feel at home. I judge the livability of a place by the quantity of cuisines on offer, and Lucerne passes the test.



I went to the Vientiane-Thai-Lao-Vietnamese for lunch. If I don't have Thai or Vietnamese food at least once every two weeks, I get all wobbly. Had to get my fix, and Colette suggested it to me. I had a seafood salad and it was delicious, heavily spiced and really, really authentic. If this place was near me, I'd eat there all the time. I did have the interesting experience of ordering food in broken English-Lao-German.
























Paintings on the Kapellbrücke bridge.



Perhaps you would find this unimportant, but Lucerne has nice public bathrooms. I think you can assess the functionality and pleasantness of a place by its public bathrooms. Lucerne's are pretty much clean and do not give you the vague suspicion that someone has murdered a hooker within their confines, unlike those in other locales. (Beijing has bathrooms that are, I am pretty certain, portals into Hell - Dante would have been proud). New Orleans, wonderful place that it is, has exactly one public bathroom in the French Quarter. What do you think, is my equation of niceness correct?



After lunch, I realized that I hadn't visited Lucerne's famous Lion monument, immortalized by Mark Twain as one of the saddest things he had ever seen. I am always one to trust Mark Twain's assessments of value, and I decided to go find the place before heading back to Adligenswil and Colette's place. The Lion is located a ways back from the lake shore, and it was a bit of a wander to find the place, past many Das BeerenStein type restaurants and hotels.



But I found it, and was immediately struck by the beauty and size of the place: the lion is carved out of the rocks above a deep and clear pool, set in a grotto-like environment. It's very peaceful, and the tragic emotion of the lion itself is evident: I can understand why Twain responded so strongly to it. Designed by one Bertel Thorvaldsen, the lion was constructed in 1820, to commemorate the Swiss Guards slaughtered at the Tuileries Palace during the French Revolution. (Swiss Guards, it seems, get around). More then six hundred of the guards were killed during the confrontation, and hundreds more died under imprisonment or in the ensuing September Massacres - only one regiment of about 300 survived the violence, as they had been sent to Normandy. The dedication on the monument reads (in Latin) - Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti ("To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss). Insofar as symbolism goes, the shield leaning on the lion's flank is emblazoned with a fleur-de-lies, while the other shield bears the Swiss coat of arms. All of the officers who perished in the massacre are listed below. It is gorgeous and unexpected, and I highly suggest you visit it.

Next door is the Bourbaki Panorama, a gigantic 1821 painting - before the rise of the movies, tremendous and dramatic paintings were about as exciting as things got. The painting commemorates the sheltering of French troops in Switzerland during the Franco-Prussian war - per neutrality agreements, they could find safety in Switzerland as long as they put down their arms and agreed to stay in camps until the wars end. No, I didn't go in - they charge for admission, you know - but I've seen panoramas before and they are old-school fun. I did buy a passion-fruit chocolate bar in the gift shop so I like to feel I did my part to preserve the city's cultural heritage.

I decided to head back to the house, but I was going to do some shopping at the local Migros first, Switzerland's gigantic (Well, by Swiss standards) chain of supermarkets and grocery stores. Although they are not a small chain, I think they're great stores: lots of fresh, attractive produce and meats, helpful employees, impeccably clean, the whole nine yards. (Have you noticed that in Switzerland, the area of origin of all meat served at restaurants must be publicly posted? I like that a lot). I was going to make Colette some aloo gobi and some roast chicken, so I picked out the relevant vegetables (as well as some crazy cheap Italian cherries) and headed up the hill. All of Switzerlands children are currently addicted to Migro's animal-sticker collecting game- you get a packet of stickers to paste in a book for every 20 francs spent. If you want to befriend a Swiss child, give them some Migros animal stickers.

The curry came out pretty well, I think - aloo gobi is crazy easy to make - and we had a nice wine-accompanied dinner after Colette returned. The evening was spent watching movies in German, which I never tire of. Something is inherently funny about German-over dubbings.

Conclusion? I love Lucerne. Perhaps someday I will get a summer home there like George Clooney. That'll be the day...

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.