March 15, 2009

"Halfway across Switzerland...Not Just for Cheese!"

You don't really need to drive halfway across Switzerland for cheese, you can find it anywhere, everywhere, and in every variety.  But, I did anyway, and on my second full day in Switzerland, but it wasn't just for the cheese!  Friends.  Fishing friends to be exact, and nothing keeps fishing friends from going to great lengths to share some new fishing stories and reminisce on old ones.

I woke up this morning and was barely dry from the shower when our friend Ihnsan, from a village near Luzern, about an hour away from Bern, was ringing at my door.  He and his wife and come to fetch me and I didn't even really know where I was going....but safe with friends for sure.  We left Bern and headed to the south and east to meet our Raclette Cheese Master fisherfriend, Roger Theler and his wife MaryLou.  We took the scenic route, past Lake Geneve, looking down on the charming town of Montreux and up the valley to Wallais, in the heart of the french speaking Alps.  Every sign I saw for three hours straight was French it seemed, and nothing was even vaguely familiar, except the mountains which looked like the Chugach range back home...on steroids. 

We stopped only once briefly, to photograph the beauty of Lake Geneve and Montreux, and then as the highway was ending in Wallais we turned up hill and climbed a very, very narrow Swiss Alp road that offered only a short rock wall to guard the speeding ski resort bound drivers from falling off the cliffs into the bottomless valley below.  The road was dry, which was surprising considering the volume of snow still covering everything.  The sun was shining, and it looked like Alaska in late spring when the skiing can be phenomenal. 

After well over 100 photos of mountains, lakes, tunnels, vineyards, and Swiss homes and churches dotting the hillsides along the highway, we arrived at Roger's.  He stood outside his chalet, in the bright afternoon sunshine, and raised a toast in his glass filled with Walliaser Weiswein.  Cool.  So good to see him, halfway across Switzerland, and on the other side of the world from Alaska.  Roger and Ihsan have been coming to Alaska for salmon fishing annualy for the past 15 years or better.  The past two summers we've enjoyed Roger's fireside Raclette parties at our place, as well as some great fishing.  And here I was, enjoying Raclette and Roger's home made dried meats similar to prosciutto with he and his wife, as well as Ihsan and his wife Necla. 

We enjoyed several hours together, I was completely full of cheese and wine and a homemade schnapps made from the roots of an alpine flower by Roger when we departed for the return trip to Bern, during which I slept off some of my jet lag.  I woke about the time we were driving onto a flatbed train in Goppenstein, taking a shortcut some 10 miles or more UNDER the Alps to Kandersteg and back to Bern.  What an awesome day.

Raclette Cheese Roaster

Raclette & Kartoffeln

Lake Geneve & The Alps

Montreux, Lake Geneve

Three Amigos Switzerland