Fresh for 2023

28 Jan

28 January, 2023.

Plans have a way of changing and my winter project was not going to be updati hiking guides. Motivated by new experiences and changes we encountered and fresh perspectives (who says repeat visits to the same location are boring?) it seemed beneficial to issue new-for-2023 editions.

The Val Gardena book now includes some ideas for rainy days as well as for lazier days without hiking. There are also extensions and options to some hikes for increased activity and where possible, and details on where shorter hikes can be linked together for longer excursions.

For Switzerland, there s a new chapter on rainy day ideas since we had about 10 days of cloudy and damp conditions during our late-season stay in 2022. We still found plenty of fun things to do. Some of teh hikes have been tweaked based on 2022 experiences.

In each book, all URLs and maps are up-to-date.

This is a great time of year for planning a summer or fall hiking trip to either Italy’s Val Gardena or Switzerland’s Berner Oberland.

Click here to buy “Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena” 5th edition on Amazon.com and “Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland” 3rd edition on Amazon.com

Both books are on Amazon in all markets worldwide for Kindle and where available, paperback as well.

Best of this-and-that    

31 Dec

31 December 2022.

Inevitably we are bombarded with “best of” lists and year-end compilations. If you hate these lists, just stop now because I am going to assault you with mine. I would love it, however, if you would respond with some of your favorites. They might become mine in 2023.

Best Book

Recently, I tried to recommend my favorite book of 2022 to someone and found myself perplexed: I have several I enjoyed so very much I had the devil of a time picking one.

Goodreads tells me I read only 32 books this year, 11,921 pages, ranging from travel books (5) to mysteries (12), and assorted fiction (15). Goodreads does not have a log of my cookbooks, but I know I read two new ones cover-to-cover for inspiration.

No single genre nor author shot to the top, rather my list is of entirely different specimens.

Tied for top book of 2022: Horse by Geraldine Brooks, West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. I think Gayle recommended all of these to me. I shall heed her every word on books to read.

Runners Up:  Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig, and A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway, both by Amor Towles.

Best Picture

We watch a lot of movies. Some are forgotten as soon as they finish. Some of my 2022 favorites are much older than 2022. We aren’t necessary current in our viewing so thank goodness for streaming.

The Fabelmans tops my list.This one will stay with me awhile and we will rewatch it soon. The acting, the script, the arc of the story, and the truth in this movie come together in a rewarding manner.

Others of merit: She Said (gripping!), The Outfit (Mark Rylance), Nobody (Bob Odenkirk), and Vice (Christian Bale as Dick Cheney is a transformation to behold).

Best TV Series

We have a real weakness for great series. While none of these will make my all-time top-10 series list, they are excellent entertainment and far better than network series. Not included are series that are ongoing that we started in years past like Vera, Shetland, Better Call Saul.

The following are in alphabetical order as I cannot pick a favorite.

Alaska Daily: Hilary Swank as an investigative reporter. Cliffhanger on season one. Will there be a season two?

For All Mankind: Alternative history drama about the space program starting in the 1960s. Particularly interesting to those of us who lived through the era. Awaiting season 4.

Gaslit: Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell and Sean Penn as John Mitchell in another stunning transformation.

Grace: We are suckers for British detective dramas. Season 3 is due out soon.

Inside Man: Stanley Tucci and David Tennant. Too bad it was only a mini-series.

Karen Pirie: Another British detective drama but aimed at a younger market than most. Thoroughly enjoyable.

The Restaurant: This is an outlier. I have two seasons under my belt and am looking forward to the final 10 episodes. In Swedish, with subtitles, so demands attention but extremely well-done with interesting characters.

Best Meal

Ahhh, so many good ones! Sazón in Santa Fe, Recipe A Neighborhood Kitchen in Newberg, and Tina’s in Dundee. But the standout for me was in Geneva at Boccadasse: Italian food cooked by Italians in Switzerland. It was the last night of our fall trip and we feasted on octopus with potato puree, Vermentino (one of our favorite wines with seafood), seafood pasta, and semifreddo. Absolute heaven and so memorable!

Polpo con crema di patate
Semifreddo. There was no sharing.

Best New Recipe

Slow-cooker Shrimp in Purgatory. OMG is this good! https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022265-slow-cooker-shrimp-in-purgatory. New to us this year, it is on the list for frequent repetition.

Best New-to-us Hike

Rifugio Emilio Comici to Mont di Sëura in the Alpe di Siusi. This was a difficult hike for us with a 900 foot descent, beyond what we usually do, but so terribly rewarding in that we did it. We self-congratulated for hours.

Looking back over the trail we hiked.

Best Urban Walk/Hike:

Mount Tabor. I had not been up on Mount Tabor in over 10 years so revisiting with my walking buddy, Grier, was a delight in rediscovering the area. Grier and I also hiked the Alameda Ridge in spring, which is a contender for Great Urban Walks. Thanks to Laura O. Foster’s books on Portland walks we are still discovering treks even after 30+ years living here.

Best Household Improvement: Molly & Sven joined us in January and March, respectively. Such a joy to have their lively selves cavorting about the house, even if they do want breakfast waayyyy too early.

Happiest of New Years to everyone! Tell me, what were your “bests” in 2022?

Christmas cards & cookies

17 Dec

17 December 2022.

Childhood memories have a powerful influence that seems even stronger as we age. Christmas memories can be particularly profound after decades of revisiting traditions from our youth. Reflecting on those memories from a distance of 60+ years offers a far different view than when you are 25.

My mother was a force at Christmas. I did not always recognize that. Where she got the energy in the 1950s and 1960s after working hard all day, on her feet as a nurse (in white uniform, cap, and sensible shoes, of course) I do not know. She came home and night-after-night wrote cards to dozens of people. This was not simply a matter of pulling out the address book and working through it, and she certainly did not have at her disposal the time-saver of a printer to merge addresses with address labels. Out came the cardboard table to reside in a corner of the living room until Christmas Eve day. Out came the boxes of cards, address book, holiday stamps, and the Christmas Card Ledger. We’d call it a “tracker” these days, I suppose. This ledger was a list of everyone she had sent cards to the prior years. Alongside their names, there were several columns encompassing years with a check box each for “sent” and “received.” Mom could record each person she graced with a card by year and also record if we had received one from them. I recall her having a guideline that if you did not receive a card from someone for two-or-three years, you dropped them from the outbound list.

A Christmas card from the Nortons was not simply signed or imprinted “Ruby & Eric,” (later by her name alone) but every single one included a personal note of some sort. It might be “It was great to see you in July,” or “We enjoyed the pictures of your family.” Mom did not think it appropriate to send a card if you weren’t going to personalize it. Some notes were longer and although I do not recall any Christmas Letters, there may have been one. Each card was hand addressed, return addressed, and stamped. Dozens of these went out each year and dozens were received, each sender dutifully recorded in her ledger. There was one photo card that I was clever enough to hang onto.

Circa 1959, brother Rick, our dachshund Pete, and me. Photo by our dad, no doubt.

Once the cards were done, the card table was put to use making at least five kinds of traditional Swedish Christmas cookies. Our favorite was probably the sandbakkels, a delicate buttery sugar cookie made in a special tin. We liked to put ice cream in them. Others included krumkaka, pepparkakor, snowballs (aka Russian tea cakes), and spritz. Other than the snowballs these delicate confections were futzy to make, requiring care in handling, control of humidity (not a problem in a Minnesota winter), and storage where your children could not access them until Christmas Eve. I recall there being peanut blossoms some years and sugar cookies my sister and I could decorate. Grandma made rosettes, but that is another story.

Mom made DOZENS of each cookie. Some went to neighbors in the popular cookie-exchanges of the era, but most were saved for the festive dinners whether at our house or one of the grandparents’.

Intermittently Mom would use said card table for wrapping gifts. This was often done after our bedtime, of course, and Santa gifts were always wrapped in a paper we had not seen in the household supply so the myth was perpetuated visually in the wrapping. I think only once, well past my years of innocent belief, did I discover a hiding place.

Of course all of those gifts were purchased in person. Mail order was rare in our house and there were downtown trips with Grandma and Mom during which I am certain some gifts were procured as we waited to see Santa.

I was just shy of two-years-old in this picture. Brother Rick was four years older. He still is.

We always got at least one thing we desperately wanted (Barbie Dream House, anyone?) and I know now that was not easy for our parents financially. There were full stockings although I always thought an orange and an apple in the toe made unfortunate filler. Raised in the Depression, Mom thought it practical.

Eventually little Nancy came along, 7 years after me. This is about 1964.

The truly crazy thing my parents did for several years was to invite in the neighbors, close friends, and sometimes teachers (I was honored and mortified when my 5th grade teacher showed up) to come ON CHRISTMAS DAY for brunch! They arrived over a period of a couple of hours, probably 3 dozen people all told, to eat Swedish sausage and Swedish pancakes. My mother labored over the Plett pan all morning, making 7 tiny, delicate, delicious pancakes at a time to refill the serving platter on the table until everyone was satisfied. No wonder we always were at the grandparents for Christmas dinner. Making all those pancakes is no small feat. I can barely make the darn things at all (it requires patience I do not have), but my brother has mastered the craft and we look forward to his Christmas breakfasts every year.

A Swedish Plett pan in which one makes plättar which are served with lingonberries. Yum!

Also at the brunch on Christmas Day, our dad poured eggnogs with rum and God-knows-what other cocktails while Mom sweated over the electric range and manned the electric skillet frying the sausage. Her cookies were also consumed in mass quantities that day. I remember her being dressed up, hair and make-up done, wearing a pretty Christmas apron.

I did not follow my mother into nursing nor did I ever master her cookies. My papparkakor always broke and since IKEA makes a very good ginger thin in a pretty Christmas tin, why go to the nightmare of making those from scratch? My sandbakkels either came out of the tins too thick and tough, or if as thin as they should be, crumbled upon release from the tins. I did not have my mother’s touch.

This is what sandbakkels should look like.

This year, after more than a decade, I managed to make krumkaka although taking 60-90 seconds per cookie to make them one-at-a-time taxed my patience. My first batch was lovely but humidity softened them up by the next day. I consulted my co-blogger Krumkaker for her Norwegian version. I am delighted to report that the batch I made yesterday is delightfully crisp today and they taste even better. They are incredibly delicate and with apologies to my brother, they are not going to make the trip to Durango. Next year I will send you a krumkaka iron and figure out how make them at a high elevation. I am bringing some not-fancy-but-tasty treats, calories be damned.

My first batch of krumkaka, tasty but failed in Oregon humidity. And my “new” krumkaka iron looking like one already any years old thanks to all the butter in the batter.

Similarly I do not send Christmas cards; at least not very many. I love receiving the cards and photos and letters from our friends but making a list and writing out cards is just not one of my habits at the holidays. For a few years I followed the trend of doing an e-card, cobbling together pictures from our travels. Now when we take our annual trips we talk about getting a really good picture of us together and maybe doing a card. We got exactly one picture together (below) on our 2022 trip which I classify as “not bad,” but certainly not worthy of designing a card around.

So apologies to my dear friends who take the time to write cards and letters and perhaps to send photos of children, grandchildren, and travels. We relish reading them and feeling like we have a little more connection as a result. Please do not take us off your lists!

This blog is my way of connecting to you and if you follow along, you have an idea of what we’ve been doing over the course of the year. Thank you for coming along on our adventures.

A Merry Christmas, (or Buon Natale or God Jul), Happy Hannukah, and Happy New Year to you all! May your holidays include some of the magic of youthful memories.

Hiking in the Alpe di Siusi, September 2022.

Auf Wiedersehen, Lauterbrunnen!

12 Oct

12 October 2022.

The Harvest Moon has passed and fall is entrenched with stunning color and crisp, cool air. Winter is not far behind in these Swiss Alps. Tomorrow we depart our favorite mountain community and start the journey home by way of Geneva. 

Each year it is hard to say goodbye. The promise of a return, already scheduled, will sustain us through the coming months. 

Despite more rain than we usually experience while here in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland, we have enjoyed our time of trekking, riding trains and lifts, exploring corners we’d not yet poked our heads into. There is so much to do we cannot even get back to all of our old favorites every year. 

I have a list of places and hikes to explore — in addition to our old favorites — in 2023. As long as we can keep putting one foot in front of the other we will be back.

A few photos to remember this trip. After all, this blog is my journal and I like to look back and remember the places, people, experiences, and animals we encountered. 

New friends, Chris and Jin, over dinner in Ortisei. We met because of our book.
This is my favorite photo from the trip, looking down toward the south end of the Lauterbrunnen Valley during our walk from Mürren to Gimmelwald. Fabulous fall colors contrasting with green pastures and the lofty mountains.

Tschüss!

More Rainy Day Plans

30 Sep

30 September 2022.

Mother Nature decided Switzerland was due for a good rain, which means snow in the high elevations. For those visiting the area for only 2 or 3 nights, which many do, it is sad because they are not treated to the amazing vistas brought by sunnier days. 

However, after a hot dry summer, we cannot deny the need for a good rain bringing relief to the farmers and hopes of early snow. 

Luckily, we are settled here for a month and  can take this in stride. Last week was a dream of sunny days and we have ideas for any weather be it hot, cold, misty, snowy, or heavy rain. 

The other day we did the first half of a walk along the Weiss Lütschine River (See Rainy Day Hikes).

Here are some other options we chose this week based on not-so-great weather.

Zweilütschinen to Wilderswil. This is the next portion of the Weisse Lütschine and is detailed in our book. This is a “path to lunch” which many of you know is a common theme. Our objective was a lovely Italian restaurant in Wilderswil, Luca Piccante. Great pizza! The 3 mile walk was a good first course but after eating an entire pizza each (Italian-style, not the hulking monstrous North American type), further walking was in order. There are ruins of a very old castle about 20 minutes from Wilderswil on an enjoyable path offering views over Interlaken. An additional 2.75 mile walk brought us to the train station and the BOB (Berner Oberland Bahn) took us back home. 

Mountain Joy Riding. Wednesday was supposed to be wet wet wet! The forecast was for 2-3 inches of rain between 0800 and 2100. Ugh. Taking advantage of our Berner Oberland Regional Passes, we did a grand tour of the Jungfrau Region. Here are the stages:

  • Wengernalpbahn (train) from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen and on to Kleine Scheidegg at 2061 meters/6762 feet of altitude
  • Change trains at the top to the Wengernalpbahn down to Grindelwald
  • Change trains to the BOB to Grindelwald Terminal base station for two fabulous lifts, the new Eiger Express and the Männlichen Gondolbahn
  • We took the Gondelbahn to Männlichen an amazingly long cableway
  • Männlichen to Wengen via another cableway
  • Wengernalpbahn back to Lauterbrunnen

I don’t like to advertise, but I have to recommend highly the Berner Oberland Regional Pass. It is expensive but the value is there and once purchased it is a no brainer to hop on any lift or train or bus and go anywhere in the region. This trip would cost CHF 134.00, but with the pass the cost was zero, niente, nada. We used 1/3 of the face value of our 10-day pass in this single day and still have 9 days to do as much riding as we desire. It is available for for 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 day periods. There is a further discount on the pass if one buys a Swiss Half Fare Card which I also recommend. Have lunch as we did in Grindelwald and walk around a bit for a break. Our loop including a stop for a nice lunch, took about 5 hours.

View on the right, above, is from the Wengernalpbahn descending into Grindelwald. We are actually above the fancy new Eiger Express Gondola.

Three Village Tour. For a we-don’t-want-to-do-much day, rain or shine, one can explore the three villages and do some shopping. Take the train up to Wengen and walk the village, maybe stop for coffee. Coming back down to Lauterbrunnen, stop at the Tourist Information Office to see what might interest you that you haven’t thought about, then walk the length of the village, perhaps past the Staubbach Falls and as far as Campling Jungfrau. You could have lunch here or in the village along the way. Finally, take the lift from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp and the little train to Mürren, walk the village, check the shops, and descend via the Schilthornbahn to Stechelberg where you can catch the bus back to Lauterbrunnen.

We left home at 10:00 and did not return until almost 16:00. It wasn’t hiking but it was a nice pace, about 3 miles of walking, and a leisurely chance to look for Christmas gifts. We had lunch “at home” in our apartment. The rain spit off and on but was never a deluge and there were occasional sun breaks. Another good reason for the BO Regional Pass is not having to weigh the expense of jumping on trains and lifts impetuously for shopping.

One of the benefits of rain is increased waterfall volume. Staubbach Falls near Lauterbrunnen was a bit thin until this week.

Lauterbrunnen Valley Walk. We have done this walk (it is detailed in our book) from the south to the north, from the north to the south, in sun, in rain, in mist. We love it. A rushing river, mountain peaks, waterfalls, cows, goats, and base jumpers offer diversion on this 4-mile easy path. We like to start at the last bus stop near Hotel Stechelberg and walk back to Lauterbrunnen, but both directions are beautiful. 

Little Stechelberg at the south end of the valley is little more than a Post Office, a hotel, and a few small farms, gardens, and houses. Very quiet. The clouds cover the majestic Breithorn mountain peak.

Take a cruise. The excitement factor is limited but the relaxation factor is high for a two-hour cruise with lunch on the Thunersee. Rain or shine, the BLS ships sail on both Lake Thun (Thunersee) and Lake Brienz (Brienzersee). The train delivers you to Thun, a lovely city worth exploring, right next to the landing for the ships. After boarding you can choose from a varied menu of choices from soups and salads to multi course meals or a snack. There’s plenty of time for a leisurely lunch while hopping from town to town along the lake with distant peaks and nearby waterfalls in view. There are also cruises that are not meal-centric. Cruises on both the Thunersee and Brienzersee are free with your Berner Oberland Regional Pass.

Perhaps Tolkien, who visited the Lauterbrunnen Valley in 1911, would not have been so inspired in his creation of Rivendell had he not experienced the misty mountains and abundant waterfalls brought by the gift of rain.

It seems the rainiest of days have passed for us — did not get wet today in 4+ miles of hiking — and starting Sunday we will have brilliant fall weather once more. Can’t say I am sorry to see the rain end, but we enjoyed our days nonetheless. 

%d bloggers like this: