The Switzerland Report - Day 3

|| July 30 ||

Findings: Gondola, Pilatus, Toboggan

Food: Lunch on the mountain, Alpler Magrone, Salad you don't want to share

This was one of our bigger adventures: bike to a gondola, ride the gondola to the top of Mount Pilatus, hike for two miles down the mountain, stop for lunch at a mountain restaurant, walk a half mile to a bus to take us the rest of the way down the mountain, and then bike home.

Alek left early that morning with his mom, Karin, for a long weekend at the sea. We were down to 7. We had four bikes, one for each grown-up and two of the bikes had trailers for the three girls. We took a 30-minute tour of the city which involved going up, down, and over. We parked the bikes at the Pilatus gondola and rode up. At the top of the mountain was a summer toboggan run, 1350 meters of shiny steel with steep slopes and tunnels and speed. It was so fun everyone wanted to go again and faster, but hunger was setting in so we decided to start our hike to the restaurant. The day was cooler than the previous two days, overcast, and perfect for a hike down the mountain. Ilia and Jeanne are such great hikers, especially Ilia (because she is older). Ilia loved finding berries, bugs, animals, and mushrooms on all of our hikes. She was often the first to spot items of interest and her enthusiasm still lights me up when I write this weeks later.


We stopped about half-way down for another traditional Swiss meal called Alpler Magrone. Kaleo and Emma drank apple wine and even though I built up my tolerance in preparation for our European trip, the plane ride over knocked me back onto the wagon and I couldn't get off. I drank alpine water.

The Alpler Magrone was sooooo good. It is basically macaroni and cheese but with really good cheese, waxy potatoes, and caramelized onions. It is served with homemade applesauce. I've made it 3 times in the four weeks we've been home and I haven't cooked more than 3 times in the last year. That's how much I loved it. Actually, I loved the salad even more. They must have used lettuce from a nearby garden. The dressing was some sort of buttermilk or sour cream base with chopped herbs, something like Ranch crossed with Green Goddess. Chris didn't order salad to go with the giant sausage and the Röschti that he did order, so he asked for a bite of my salad. I replied, "Fine. But you can only have one, small bite, very small." At which point, Emma started laughing and I realized she gauges if I really like something by asking me to share. Another blind spot illuminated!



We needed to hustle to catch the bus at a nearby village that would take us to the bottom of the mountain. The bike ride home at dusk was beautiful. Kaleo took us on a new route on the other side of the river. I can't remember anything more of that day except dropping into a deep sleep.

Day 4>>