A Taste of the Alps

This morning the duck is headed South, as all ducks are wont to do and we followed it to Interlaken West train station. Smart ducks conserve their energy and take the Golden Pass Train to Zweisimmen. Climbing out of the Simmental Valley, we arrive at Zweisimmen nestled at 4,000 feet in between some high mountain pastures. Boarding a small bus almost as wide as the road leading up a series of switchbacks, we're headed to a typical Alpenage, a Swiss Alp cheese dairy.

We can see the village far below

The air changes; it's a bit cooler than the valley although the bus interior seems to have brought along some of the heat from down below. A bright sun and the sound of cow bells greets us as we arrive at the summer pastures, wood-framed buildings and barn that marks our destination. The view is everything one would imagine. Across the valley, the other mountainsides are dotted with small buildings and pastures rising up to some snow capped peaks. There is even a glacier in the distance.

Our hosts for the tour today are a rosy-cheeked young woman whose boyfriend is the chief cheese maker, along with his mother, her sister and her sister's boyfriend who all tend the cows from early spring until early fall. When winter comes, and the upper pastures are snow covered, she is the receptionist at a ski school, and he is a ski instructor.

In the old days, the cows were herded up and down the mountainside, but modern times and machinery have changed all that. Cows are now given a lift by truck to save time and precious energy; they're here to graze on herb pastures and produce milk for some of the best cheese in Switzerland. Each of the decorated cow bells hanging from the rafters represents a prize winning cow.

Our guide explains that 9 to 12 hour days are the norm during their stay here, bringing cows in; milking; letting them out; making cheese; feeding the swine (who eat the whey produced - nothing goes to waste here); and conducting the occasional tour. They also rent out the building for weddings.

The cows have their tails tied to keep them out of the way when milking

It's a combination of both modern and primitive with well-worn timbers and spotlessly clean machinery coming together to produce stacks of cheese rounds aging on wooden racks in cool rooms. Part of the daily ritual includes the turning of the wheels of cheese as they age and marking their progress.

Mountain air gives you an appetite. Lunch today, made by the alpenage hands starts with fresh salad, a local wine and a local soft drink that tastes a little like ginger ale, potatoes and a delicious cheese known as "Raclette." 

The cheese is melted from large blocks under special heaters and scraped off onto your plate just before becoming burnt. It has a unique taste stemming from the pasture with its herbs that the cows eat.

Special warming units for preparing raclette.

After lunch and a few more pictures, it's back down the mountainside to catch the next train to Montreux. We're winding our way across one of the passes and enjoying the view as we leave the German-speaking part of Switzerland headed for the "Swiss Riviera." French is spoken here and gray stone houses slowly replace the half-timbered woody German-style chalets. The mountains are jagged and are called dents, the French word for teeth. 

Breathtaking views include deep gorges and valleys prompting one in our group to ask "how far down is it?" The reply from Andrea is swift and to the point: "In Switzerland we say it is two meters down and then Eternity."

At last, the hillside gives way to breaks in the trees for brief glimpses of  the Western end of Lake Geneva and the town of Montreux. Palm trees at the station where we change trains let us know that the weather is influenced by the Mediterranean. We also arrived in the middle of a heat wave and discovered the temperatures in the 90s!

We didn't expect palm trees in Switzerland!

This is the only station in Europe with three different rail gauges; regular, narrow for crossing the mountains and very skinny (the Rochers de Naye train) taking visitors to a nearby peak. We're on our way to our final destination for the day, Brig.

On arrival in the early evening, a wide avenue greets us outside the station where the duck leads us on the usual "short walk, 10 minutes, slightly uphill" through the heart of the city to our hotel. Rooms at the Schlosshotel, Art Furrer, either overlook the small park outside or the snow capped mountain that stand between us and the top of Italy.

An evening meal with salads, a delicious carrot soup and a choice of entree topped of with glasses of Coca-cola with real ice and good conversation rounds out our day before bedtime.

After a very full day, the duck is dog tired.

Maybe you will have enough energy to watch this short video about Swiss "cow culture."

Mt. Rigi, Swiss Cows and Dinner on Lake Lucerne

When you set out to visit Switzerland, you think first of the Alps--the mountains. (Well, maybe chocolate. Cheese. Swiss Army knives.) Since arriving in Lucerne, we had taken every opportunity to stand on our hotel balcony and look at the mountains: Mt. Pilatus to our right, and Mt. Rigi on our left. We took endless pictures of the mountains.

Mt. Pilatus

Today, we would visit Mt. Rigi and finally get "up close and personal" with a Swiss mountain. Finishing our lunch on the Ruess, we walk to the train station, and take a train to Arth-Goldau, and then transfer to the Rigi Bahn, the oldest cog railway in Europe (1871). Stopping just short of the top, we get off the train to take an easy hike through the fields and countryside before re-connecting with a separate line going down the backside of the mountain, taking us along a different route and to Vitznau on Lake Lucerne.




The center "rail" is for the cog on the
 railcars which prevents gravity from taking over on the steep climb and descent.

We start our hike

The weather was perfect. Clear, warm but not hot. The view was everything we'd imagined. As the path wound around, we heard them before we saw them: The cow bells! 

As Swiss dairy farmers send their cattle up to higher pastures in the summer, they use the bells to help keep track of the cows. But they are also symbolic. In Alpine cow culture, the best cows get the biggest, most impressive bells. Some of the bells are enormous! And the gentle sound of 15 or 20 bells all ringing in harmony has to be heard to be appreciated. We will never forget it.

Along our walk, we came to a field where we were able to come very close to the cows, and take these photos and video. We concluded that this must be "the most famous cow in the world" as she has ended up in thousands of tourists' photo albums! She seemed quite content to let us add her to ours too!

Of course, we brought home a souvenir cow bell to remind us of the beautiful music made by Swiss cows!

After our leisurely hike, we came to the train station where we would ride the cog railway back down Mt. Rigi on our way to the lakeside and Vitznau. While we waited for the train, we had the chance to visit a lovely little chapel tucked into a grotto in the rock. The spring outside the entrance is said to have healing powers.

We caught our first glimpse of para-gliders soaring and drifting in the updrafts. David was ready to sign up; Peggy wasn't so sure! You will see them more clearly in the embedded video below.

In Vitznau, we were able to see the cars on the roundhouse turntable getting ready to turn around and head back up the mountain.

But it was time now to board a paddlewheel boat to return to Lucerne. The boat, which is actually a side-wheeler, is over 100 years old and well maintained. We enjoyed our catered dinner of fresh fish and salad aboard and had time to see the other activity on Lake Lucerne as we made our way back to downtown.

It had been a LONG day, and we had now only to grab the bus, and then take our "easy walk--10 minutes--no problem" up the switchback hill to Hotel Royal.

We had to pack up and get ready for our first transfer, as we were headed to Interlaken the next morning!

Today's trip: Lucerne to Mt. Rigi to Vitznau and then across the lake back to Lucerne.

View Larger Map