More on Switzerland

As I mentioned the other day, Joelle and I stayed with friends who do a house exchange every summer. The cost of everything in Switzerland usually makes visiting a non-issue but thanks for this invite we had a wonderful opportunity to see a bit of the Alps. Our friends have been going since 1984 so they know the bus/cog rail/train/boat system as well as Joelle knows the Paris Metro. Our hosts are in the 70s but still love doing stunning walks and peaceful picnics. Terry has been having knee and hip problems but she still fought through the pain to get to a few of the special walks.

The trails are so well maintained and most walkers are tidy, doing their best to leave it as they found it. I was also impressed with the drive to reduce garbage. Almost every house in the village had a compost pile and they were big on recycling. Garbage bags at the store come with an extra tax so the more you stuff them and throw them into the public system the more taxes you pay. (Anywhere else do this? It was new to me.) On the down side, our friends have noticed the drastic change with the glaciers since their first visits.

I was walking with the fancy hat crew. Joelle was sporting the ever-popular "tie a sweater on your head" look and our host Bob had his regular orange fedora. The great thing about the orange hat is that I could always find Bob even when there were crowds.

Then again, they could always find me with my fluorescent yellow biking jacket. As it's summer, the cows are mostly up in the hills eating wild grass. During the spring and autumn there are festivals for the migration up or down the mountain to celebrate that time of the year. The products that come from wild grass eating cows is definitely superior to corn fed. In France we had a special cheese (Salers) that is similar to another cheese (which I believe is "Comte") but is exclusively from the wild grass eating cows.


Typical flowers along the walking path.


There's nothing quite like an authentic rösti. It's simple but any time you mix potatoes and cheese it's going to be tasty.

And finally, the local meringue with cream. We *really* needed to do some walking after the cheese and cream though we both fell asleep on the next train that brought us around the mountain to the boat. We opted for a vegetable soup that night back at the house.