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Another Path to Lunch

16 Sep

16 September 2024.

Sundays are days for long walks and special lunches, at least while we are traveling. A few years ago, I wrote about a particular favorite, which we have now done three times (See https://girovaga.com/2021/10/03/a-path-to-lunch/) with plans to repeat as often as possible.

Yesterday we discovered another walk that led us to perhaps the finest mountain “hut” around, Rauchhütte on the Alpe di Siusi. I have read various raves about it: “Best hut! You have to go! Nowhere like it!” My cynical self said that all mountain huts are the same atmosphere, beverages, and mountain cuisine, in this case Südtirol specialties, beer, limited wine, grappa, and good coffee.  Rauchhütte is un altro mondo: a world apart.

Perhaps I should explain the concept of today’s mountain “huts.” In Italian we call one a rifugio or baita or malga, in German it is hütte. You would probably call one heavenly. We are talking real plates, glassware, and cutlery; Espresso machines and full kitchens; Clean bathrooms. They serve simple mountain food: hearty pastas, local specialities like canederli (a kind of dumpling), cheese and meat platters, polenta, game dishes featuring boar or venison, spareribs, lots of potatoes, beer, limited wines, some hard liquor. Always strudel, homemade cakes, coffee, and so on. Hearty fare. Occasionally a salad slips into the menu.

Approaching the baita Rauchhütte.

Imagine this terrace on a sunny, temperate day!

Rauchhütte defies the traditional baita. It is a gourmet experience, a wine-driven restaurant perched in one of the most beautiful mountain settings you will find. A fabulous deck, a warm and cozy dining room, stellar service, an impressive wine list, and elevated cuisine.

It was almost full when we arrived at noon. We were lucky to get the last unreserved table. Sunday lunch is a big deal and people target Rauchhütte for this special time.

Interior with views to the Sassolungo and Sasspiatto.

You cannot drive to Rauchhütte. You can cycle, hike, walk, or take a bus. We walked an hour to get there from AlpenHotel Panorama as well as an hour after lunch to — get this — ride a chair lift back to our home base! Who needs a bus?

Adding to the pleasure of the day, we are having a wintery September on the Alpe di Siusi. About 6 inches of snow fell Thursday into Friday, and Saturday was cursed with a bitterly cold wind. Sunday, the winds were still, and silence descended as it does with snow on the ground. Even most of the (few) people out were not talking much. Just enjoying the unusual scene. So did we. SIGH.

Lunch was divine. Fine wines by bottle or glass, a limited but excellent menu with many specials for the day featuring seasonal favorites like porcini or deer. Yes, the local specialities were present as well, but in an elevated manner, with the service you would expect in a fine-dining restaurant; except all the patrons were dressed for outdoor sports and had backpacks at their feet.

Ric’s lunch of canederli and goulash.

My choice: Housemade pappardelle with oxtail ragu.

Terrace wall decorated with (empty) wine bottles. They claim to have 300 labels in the wine cellar, mostly local.

A total of five miles and two hours of walking might have put a dent in the house made pappardelle with oxtail rags that I snarfed down. We will be back next year. I might even include one this in the next edition of Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena.

For those who are curious about the route and know the area or are visiting, we walked Trail #6 from Panorama downhill toward Ritsch, turning right on Trail #30 until it joins the main road at the Wiedner Egg bus stop. From there, follow the road to the “hut.” The easy-hiker way back is to walk the road back to the bus stop, then follow Trail #30, the Hans and Paula Steger Trail (also in our book) all the way to Compatsch, returning up to AlpenHotel Panorama via the chairlift.

Or take the bus if you had too much wine. That might happen next year because the wine list is simply awesome.

One of the views on our path to lunch, the magnificent Sassolungo and Sassopiatto.

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61,000 Steps

6 Sep

6 September 2024.

Not a bad pedometer count for 2-and-a-half days. I struggle to get to 10K on any given day at home.

Richmond, UK, turned out to be a perfect post-Transatlantic flight stopover between Portland and Italy. Instead of taking a second hop to the continent, with the inevitable 3-hour layover at Heathrow, we opted this year to sleep where we landed for a few nights. (Last year the haul from PDX to LRH to ZRH was exhausting.)

We knew we wanted to visit some locations in Richmond and not stay in central London. We did not know how much walking we’d manage to do. Excellent weather helped.

Kew Gardens is magnificent. This was our third tour there and we are still finding corners we had not explored. Kew is 330 acres of forest, groomed gardens, conservatories, a horticulture school, and research facilities. They claim status as “the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world” according to Wikipedia. Kew (see map) is four times bigger than Bodnant Gardens, which impressed us so much in Wales last year.

This visit we discovered a few areas previously unknown to us, including a magnificent collection of rock gardens organized by geography, and the (seemingly) boring “Grass Garden” was actually a stunning display of ornamental grasses, not a field of Kentucky Bluegrass. Makes me want acreage to be able to plant in such masses. The biological diversity in these 330 acres is astounding. We have visited in spring, late fall, and now late summer. Each season is spectacular, so if you are in London, take a day away to visit charming Richmond and Kew Gardens. By train, no less.

Day two for us was to be a visit to Hampton Court Palace, one of Henry the VIII’s country homes. Sadly, a few days before we arrived, we received word that they would be closed for seasonal maintenance on the only two days we had to visit. Due to fascination with Henry VIII (thank you, Wolf Hall) we have had HCP on the list for a few years and there it shall remain. Next visit.

Top row: The 1844 Palm House; Autumn color creeping in. Second row: The Grass Garden. Third row: Rock Garden.These photos do not begin to show the extent and the beauty. Fourth row: The Broad Walk, colorful borders.

Instead, we chose to walk a section of the Thames River Path. Imagine if the major river where you live had a walking path along it the entire length of it. With few exceptions, you can walk the 180-mile length of the path from near the source of the Thames to near the mouth. For reference, the main stem of the Willamette River in my state of Oregon is 187 miles long, so you could walk from Eugene to the Columbia River.

First Mate Siren

180 miles and 10 days were not in our plans, but a perfectly lovely stretch of about 6 miles suited us and included a ferry crossing at Twickenham with Siren the first mate and coffee at a garden café, plopping us back into Richmond near Kew, just in time for lunch.

Great signage; Ferryman (Siren’s dad); wide path, at least here, much used by locals; view of Richmond; Richmond Bridge

Richmond is a wonderful place to spend a few nights recovering from overseas travel or just because. Many restaurants and pubs, highly walkable, convenient to central London via public transportation if that is in the plan.

Walkers, take note. Nothing difficult but you will get your steps in!

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Checking things off

8 Sep

8 September 2023.

Lists abound: grocery lists, packing lists, wish lists, Christmas lists. I live by lists. I do not keep a bucket list, however. No grand scheme of things-to-do-before-I-can’t-remember-them. 

Ric and I do, however, make note of places we’d like to return to, things we’d like to do in our favorite places, and places we might want to work into a future itinerary. This trip, we have checked off some places and things that have been on our minds for awhile. Inevitably, we’ve added some as well.

The Gasterntal has been on my list since 2021 when a fellow-traveler pointed it out as we descended from Sunnbüel. (See Another valley to discover.) Seeing the sparkling river flowing through a valley in a deep gorge, I was intrigued because it is only available a few months a year and is challenging to reach. In true Swiss fashion, there is a way to get there by public transport and one does not have to walk all the way in. Calling a few days in advance — once we knew the weather was forecast to be pleasant — I secured seats on the little shuttle bus. 

What a wild ride! Vehicles are allowed to enter the valley, by permit, only for 20 minutes each hour, and allowed to exit for a different 20 minute period each hour. The road, carved into the rock face, is truly one vehicle at-a-time. Our shuttle deposited us at Selden, the proverbial end-of-the-road. From here, the hiking was all downhill, although that is not always as easy as it sounds. This is, after all, a remote valley.

We called this Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. From left, two views of the road carved out of the cliff. There were a couple of tunnels, too. Far right, the end of the road, at least as far as the bus would carry us. The valley goes on and experts can hike on and up and over to other valleys and towns.

One of the most amazing attributes is how few people we encountered in our two-hour hike. A handful hiking up (including people who hiked over 11 km from Kandersteg!), a few bikes where the hiking trail merged with the main road, a couple of cars that paid the day-fee for entry. 

The valley is beautiful and peaceful with only the sound of the glacier fed Kander River. The rugged downhill trail has rocks and roots making for tricky footing but eventually gives way to the bottom of the glacial valley and a pleasant walk across pastureland at the end. We were welcomed by grazing cows and lively calves at the Hotel Waldhaus, a welcome site with full meal service and adult refreshments. 

It is hard to show the beauty. Here are a few trail scenes.

Arriving at Hotel Waldhaus. Might be fun to spend a night here. Hearty Swiss fare for post-hike: Brautwurst is not like anything Johnsonville makes. This is served with onion gravy. We didn’t eat much for dinner.

Cross that off the list. Done and dusted! We are unlikely to repeat it, as good as it was, but I highly recommend it. If you follow our Easy-Hiker scale, this is a “4” on our scale of 1-to-3. 

The challenging hike at Pontresina accomplished last week (see On the road again) was also a list item. Returning to Pontresina was a list item as well, our first visit in 2018 being inspiration for a repeat. (See Postcard from Switzerland.)   In fact, this year’s visit to Pontresina has inspired us to put it on the short list for a 2024 return. There’s lots more to explore in the area and being able to speak Italian is a big draw for me.

This trip we also checked off Appenzell (lovely to visit but likely only once), Mount Niesen (no hiking but incredible views), and we are on our way to Annecy, France, which has intrigued me for a few years but has been hard to work into our annual itinerary. Eating French cuisine is a huge draw as well as the alpine environment. 

Atop the Niesen, “Switzerland’s pyramid.” From the left: The Niesen as seen from across Lake Thun near Interlaken last year; Lake Thun as seen from about 7800 feet on the Niesen; The Jungfrau Region mountains as seen from the restaurant terrace.

Still on the mental list: Hiking in Northumbria and the Isle of Wight, taking a night train between London and Edinburgh, and Midnight Trains from Paris to Venice, when it is launched.

Stay tuned!

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On the road again

1 Sep

1 September 2023.

Sorry I haven’t written. We’ve been very busy since arriving in Switzerland on August 23!

On every trip we seem to find ourselves on a hike we would not have taken had we known what was ahead. In 2021, we climbed a mountain. In 2022, we took a route in the Alpe di Siusi that was short enough, not too much elevation change, but included a steep, downhill, dolomite-strewn trail suitable for mountain goats, not necessarily septuagenarians.

This year’s happy error was the panoramic trail from Muottas Muragl to Alp Languard in Switzerland’s Engadine. This route featured in nearly every hiking source I could consult. Some called it “easy” or “moderately strenuous.” We’d call it, at the very least, challenging. The expected 2 hours became 3-and-a-quarter. It was only 4.25 miles long so our pace was slow. That should tell you something about the trail. Incredible vistas, gorgeous weather (sun and high-50s, Fahrenheit), rocky downhills, steep climbs, some narrow paths with frightening drop-offs, streams to cross (waterproof hiking boots held up nicely), and best of all, tilting flagstones over a scree field. 

My sister-in-law would have hated it!

The trail maintenance effort to create this flagstone path across the scree field is laudable. Still, a bit unnerving to cross as the stones canted much more than you can see, first one way, then another, and a few of them rocked in place when weight was placed on them.

Thank goodness we had our trekking sticks and terrific boots! 

Many many young people, as well as those in our age bracket, strode confidently along the trail. Others pussyfooted like us. I did have to stop feeling sorry for myself when we saw a woman older than us (!!) slowly and determinedly making her way. Luckily she had a minder with her. If it took us over 3 hours her pace would have been at least 4 hours. 

This may be the most crowded trail we have taken in all our years of hiking in Switzerland and Italy. Luckily groups arrived in time with a funicular and quickly dispersed. Occasionally we had to stand aside for a couple dozen students to trek past us, all very polite with a pleasant “Greützi!” Here a group lunches with a view of St. Moritz.

But it was beautiful! We are terribly proud of having done it. This route was on our list for 2018, the last time we were in Pontresina. At that time, the weather and trail conditions prohibited the trek. So, done and dusted: we did it. Non mai di piú!

From the trail, incredible view of Piz Bernina, the highest peak in the area, 14,283 feet above sea level.

Pontresina is one of the Italian-speaking valleys in this region, the Engadine, so it has been fun to exercise those Italian linguistic muscles. I have been studying German this summer, though, and I find a mixture spews out from time-to-time. German articles (der, die, das) with Italian nouns, for example. Das burro, anyone?

We also hiked to the Morteratsch Glacier below Piz Bernina the other day. Fresh snow the night before made for a stunning scene. This is a lovely 4.5 mile out and back. The trailhead is reached by a little mountain train of the Rhaetianbahn.

Surprisingly, in Appenzell, our stop prior to Pontresina, we encountered some Swiss who did not speak English and I managed in German. I was pretty happy since my academic efforts in the language ended in 1972. Duolingo has helped me refresh. 

We’ve had weather from 93F/34C to 37F/3C. Pack for that! (Actually, we did!) We only got drenched once, so far, in the last 20 minutes of a lovely hike in Appenzell. Rivers have raged and retreated, snow has fallen at higher elevations. No doubt the weather gods will throw more curves in the coming weeks, but we are prepared with layers of all types, Gortex, and great shoes.

Herewith, a few shots from our days in Zurich and Appenzell.

From the upper left: Morning in Zurich, Already 70 degrees; Cow parade in Appenzell, viewed from our room; The BarFussWeg or Barefoot Way. We did not do it barefooted. Some did. Yuck. It is tick season!

From the lower left: Along the Barefoot Way, many surfaces, some not friendly to bare feet; Cows always enhance the experience; Final picture a cloudy day for the Appenzeller Loop, a lovely walk through the landscape.

As they say in Deutsch, Bis bald! (See you soon!)

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Walking Wengen: Easy Hikes with Fabulous Views

26 May

27 May 2023.

It was with some reluctance that we stayed in Wengen this trip. As our plans were made only a few days in advance, finding a suitable apartment in one of the three villages boiled down to only a few choices that we could gulp and swallow the price on. 

Wengen’s Main Street: a few shops and restaurants along with several hotels, nestled beneath the Jungfrau.

Luckily, the apartment is comfortable and has all we need: dishwasher, washing machine, clothes dryer, and, most importantly, a Nespresso machine. It is also quiet since the village is car-free and each morning we wake to birdsong. We are immune to the hourly tolling of the church bells nearby as we fall into bed very tired from the day’s activities. 

Our reluctance to stay in Wengen stemmed from the need to ride the train down and up from the Lauterbrunnen station every day. While it is less than 20 minutes each way, it does add to travel times when going to Interlaken, Grindelwald, Mürren and beyond. It is, however, a stunningly beautiful ride and, after all, what else do we have to do? 

I took this photo of Lauterbrunnen from the train on our way back to Wengen yesterday.

On the plus side, we have gotten to know Wengen just a bit better. Prior trips had us passing through on the way to-or-from the Männlichen cable car. We had eaten a couple of meals here and years ago Ric once bought a wool hiking hat that still makes every trip. In the past we’ve taken in the view from the church and enjoyed two walks — Mönchblick and Staubbachbänkli — that we wrote about in our book Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland. Our temporary residency has led us to “discover” two more lovely walks as well as the fabulous Restaurant Maya Caprice and we have come to appreciate the silence of this car-free zone. 

Same waterfall, viewed from Hunneflue, above Wengen after a 25 minute walk.

We still love Lauterbrunnen and our happy home at James’ and Michele’s apartment, where we will pass a month again this fall. Wengen will also be on our list for a few outings in the fall.

For those visiting the area, be certain to stop at the Wengen Tourism Office next to the cable car station and pick up the Dorfplan, which is a little map of the village showing several very easy to moderate walks to viewpoints. These require no transportation and are lovely at any time of day with ever-changing lighting on the magnificent views. They will take you to corners of Wengen the casual visitor misses entirely as the majority are focused on the village center and getting up the mountains by train or cable car. Most of the paths are paved and many have lighting so that evening walks are feasible. 

No wonder we come back so often. There is always something new for the easy-hiker to discover.

Along the trail, a little bear cub carved into a tree stump.
One of three carved tree stumps that delighted us on our walk.
A playful project in a mossy area, a hidden treasure when you leave the Main Street.
Another part of the fanciful garden.
Ric is ready to dig in! An Italian pizzaiolo makes authentic Neopolitan pies at Maya Caprice in Wengen.

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