Im off to "Heidi Land"

Aka Switzerland... and back to the Alps again for another adventure with the AlpineHikers team. This time to the eastern part of the country called the Engadine - known as the alpine setting of the famous story about a little girl Heidi, but often better known today for ritzy St Moritz and Davos.

Also reporting live once again from the LAX business lounge awaiting my direct chariot through the skies across the arctic polar seas to reach  Zürich. After a couple visits with family I will be gliding along the rails via some of the most famous and scenic tracks on the planet, and brushing up on my Romansch to say hello to the locals ( the fourth official Swiss language - Latin based toung of the region left by the Romans millennia ago. At the crossroads of thevswiss Austrian and Italian boarders there will be another change to practice a little Italiano again too ( with a little Spanish that always seems to sneak into my version!)

Planning to take lots of snaps of amazing mountain scenery and the famous distinctive regional architecture of the Engadine region. Until then... Ciao for now! ....(one more trip to the bar for a refill!)

Fromage blanc is not yogurt

Things you learn at breakfast on a rainy alpine morning:

1. That big bowl of fresh "yogurt" isn't ... It's fromage blanc and has an interesting after taste not well suited for granola (but maybe fresh fruit)

2. Making your own soft boiled eggs is a betting sport

3. Chamomix becomes a suburb if Tokyo in August

4. Rainy day in the Alpes may still be better than sunny day at office with no windows.

5. Picking out a hiking route to test out the Gortex or the best pastry shop to wait out the AM rain.

Back to Eurolandia

First blog of the year... But sitting back in the Lufthansa Lounge at LAX inspires one! If only I had something exciting to say! Back on the road ( or cloud) with my hiking boots, camera and Rick Steves guide heading for the Alps! French Chamonix Mont Blanc (where they grow those cool fountain pens high in the alp), a bit of Italy in Courmeyer, then back to Swiss wine country and alpine mountain retreats! Aka the Top of Europe!

Off to Italy.,,

Sitting in the lounge at LAX waiting for the flight to Zürich then Venice for another adventure for 2 weeks. This time... Village Italy around Tuscany and environs of the north...

More to come...

Planning for big trips a year in advance is always fun; it seems like so far away, but it comes at you fast. Using miles for free flight requires 10-11 months of early booking - but Euro-flights are so expensive now - its worth the effort. If anyone is interested in signing up, Lufthansa has a great new deal and benefits for their new MasterCard (like big bonus miles, free-companion tickets, etc) - I find Munich, Frankfurt and Zürich are great direct-flight hubs for almost anyplace in Europe so this sounded good to me! I know many airlines have this - but the big Euro carriers finally seemed to tap into our U.S. market miles-plans and are offering us things they didn't before.

So - Stay tuned for more adventures, this time in Spain and Portugal coming up in April & May 08, as well as a sequel to this past summers Swiss Alps tour: Hiking Chamonix to Zermatt (French & Swiss Alps) next September 08, once again with my good buddies at Alpinehikers.com (...and possibly the Dolomites with them in 2009 - who wants to join me?)

My Summer has been so busy I haven't had time to finish my updates/notes from the last trips, but I will try to post them shortly. I will also try to put some notes up from my recent "reality-check" adventure as an assistant wine-maker at a local winery these past 2 months!

Cheese… Its what’s for dinner! (NFTTv2)

More notes from the trails… and in some cases the edge… literally!

In some cases – its all that’s for dinner! But don’t misinterpret my words… All four major food groups are well represented… cheese, bacon, bread and beer. The rouge alpine lifestyle often demands the 1-2-power punch of protein and carb energy for scaling walls and herding swiss-brown cattle up steep alpine meadow cliffs (…well – they kind of herd themselves most of the time, but the former paints a picture we yanks can better associate with). But the Swiss are rather health conscious, much like the Scandinavians, despite what it may sound like. The whole organic and biodynamic movement (called BEO here) is supported by the masses at every farmers market and a growing number of small and larger grocery stores. While exotic cuisine for them may still consist of “rice-kashimere” and curries, the traditional kitchen is well balanced with garden-fresh salads and veggies. As visitors – we just don’t notice this part much!

Almost every night – whether in a hut at 2800m or a fancy bistro in the valley, every day at every meal you will find cheese and porcine-products. Pot after pot of lactic-love flows from the kitchen in the forms of fondue, racklette, emmentaler-roestti, alpler-maccaroni and (my favorite) the kaseschnittes. The later is a supersized-alpine-version of grilled cheese, with slices of bacon or ham and sometimes a perfectly fried egg (breakfast lunch AND dinner of champions!) Even the veal is accompanied by ham and cheese in a classic CordonBleu.

“Never mind the beef… This here is cheese country, son!” We over hear a farmer telling his son in a rustic highland dialect (uh, well, not really – again just painting a picture)…

Well – we did have some nice organic-free-range local beef filets and Chateaux-Briand at a fancy 3-star hotel in Kandersteg. Its interesting to note that the countries of origin are listed for all meets and fish listed on the menu. This was due to the mad-cow thing. A lot of the beef (if not domestic) came from Brazil, US, or SouthAfrica, and lamb from the Ausies.

La BELL-époque... (Notes from the trails)

“…The Bells! The Bells!....” as Quasimodo, the famous half-back for NotreDame, once exclaimed, yelling to his QB about the 2-min warning (or something like that). But the bells so prevalent around me are not just church bells every ¼ hour, but also COW Bells. Yes, here in the alps, one is awakened daily to the sounds of an alpine cowcerto by Bessy and her bevy of brown bovine buddies, heading up pasture for their graze after an early morning milking. Up at dawn, and waiting for breakfast, I gaze out of my chalet window and greet them. They seem to ask me, “Cow are you this morning? Cow about a nice cup of cowffee?”

As the cow-cophony of sound resonates down the valley, I try, in vain, to avoid making much noise myself this early in the AM. So I wonder, is there an alpine-hut etiquette for early risers’ noise? It was sooo quiet at 6:30 – just the sound of the bells and the water in the stream nearby. Every board squeaks in these places. The harder you try NOT to make a noise – the louder the squeaky noise is. So, after a few days of this, I find Im better off just rambling down the hall and the stairs quickly and get it over with. Ironically – even some of the 3-star hotels had squeaky components… but that all adds to the charm I guess… along with the cow bells! These harmonious sounds would be a ubiquitous part of our daily adventures for the next 10 days... a treat to be sure.

From my blog-journal notes at Schwarzwaldalp chalet @1454m