|| July 28 ||
Findings: Mosquito bites, Farmer's Market, Free Bin, Fountains
Food: Pretzels, Kaleo's Raclette
In the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of someone scraping paint. I walked out into the hallway to determine where the noise was coming from. In the next room over I found Alek, Kaleo's eight-year-old son, rubbing his back along the rough, wood-paneled wall. He looked at me with panic and amusement and said, "Have to scratch my back. A mosquito." Alek is exceptionally strong. I expected to see large scratch marks and blood on his back, but when he turned around what I saw were five to ten absurdly large mosquito bites. Alek's expression said, "What am I supposed to do?" I made 'X's in the bites and he fell asleep.
Johanna is up early and I spirit her outside before she wakes the house. Four hours sleep in 48 hours. Today should go well. The storm has blown over and left a clear, glistening morning. From outside, the house is handsomely shabby facing the glare of the sun. Cows are out and the mountain is out. We descend the steep, momentary slope to the misty lake. This is a surface of competitive rowers (the world championships for crew were held here last year) and even at this early hour the oars are on the water. Somehow the intense, quiet training adds to the tranquility. As the morning progresses the commuter trains are more frequent--quiet blasts of air to remind you of the forward purpose of man if you've drifted off with the swans and the ducks.
At some point during the day, everyone was awake. It might have been around noon. It was Tuesday so we walked to the farmer's market to shop. Along the way we discovered that free bins exist even in Switzerland. Everyone in our group found a treasure and mine is this photo.
Lucerne is described as the "most typically Swiss" of all the Swiss cities. The area around the farmer's market explains why: old wooden footbridges, swans, castle-y shaped structures, and cute kids with red, Swiss-cross sun visors.
After the market and a delicious Bavarian pretzel snack, we walked over to the KKL art museum. The building was designed by Jean Nouvel and is topped by a gorgeous, cantilevered roof.*
*For proper architectural photos, see the image search results on google.
Emma and I went off in search of organic strawberries for our planned attempt at homemade ice cream. Johanna and Chris continued on with Kaleo, Alek, Jeanne, and Ilia and learned that there are fountains everywhere in Lucerne. You can drink from them (but only from the tap, not the pool). Fountains are perfect for cooling off.
Emma and I rejoined the group at the last fountain behind the castle wall. Later in the afternoon back at the farmhouse the kids played in a little pool in the yard and the adults monitored the situation while cooking and unpacking. Here is the view from the window above the kitchen sink.
Kaleo made us raclette, a typical Swiss meal with potatoes, cornichons, onions and most importantly a lot of melted raclette cheese. You place slices of cheese into tiny enamel ramekins and slide the ramekins into a mini-broiler, made especially for this meal. Once melted, the cheese is poured over the potatoes, cornichons, and onions. It has a wonderful combination of textures and flavors and is just right with a green salad along side.
After a game of "grab-the-person-walking-by-and-pile-on-Anne" we turned in for the night.
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