A "typique" Swiss day

Today we decided to pretend we were real Swiss on a typical Saturday. Or, at least, we decided to pretend we were the people that are pictured in the postcards on all of the regional Swiss tourist offices and have a Swiss-image tourist impression of a "typical Swiss day."

Well, scratch that, because we started the day with a typical American breakfast of buttermilk pancakes. I found buttermilk at Coop! Our first real American breakfast! (We even found a meat resembling American bacon!) Okay, let's forget about that and move onto our "typical Swiss day."

The day starts with us driving down to the Pully Centre train station with Laura's passport (and passport photo) in hand so that she can buy her monthly Swiss train pass to make it slightly less expensive to get to work. You dummies -- Swiss train network offices are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. How typically Swiss!

Moving on, we depart Pully Centre without a monthly train pass but with high spirits for a great day.

Leysin. Beautiful? You decide.
 (Picture by Roland Zumbuehl, Arlesheim, courtesy Picswiss)

Pull off the motorway for our first fill-up of gas. $65 (equivalent) and <11 gallons later we pull back onto the motorway. Our destination: Leysin, a small resort town up in the mountains less than an hour's drive away. Our mission: snow tubing, or as they call it here, tobogganing (I know, I know).

Leysin is distinguished more by its proximity to Lausanne, not by its massive skiing or picturesque beauty. Although I feel ridiculous (and perhaps typically Swiss?) for saying that. Had we been snow tubing toboganning at this place anywhere within a day's drive of our home in Minneapolis I would have been awestruck. Now, two weeks in Switzerland and I'm thinking, it's okay, not much of a view....

Before we begin our snow tubing toboganning it's time for lunch. We again decided to do the typical Swiss thing and picnic. Driving through Leysin, though, we're having a hard time finding a place to do this. Had we gone directly to the snow tubing toboganning place we would have found a ridiculously cool snow cave with picnic bench inside just to suit our needs. But, we're not typically Swiss enough to think of this. So we drive around Leysin looking for a park bench. We finally spot one and make a quick maneuver to pull into a little turn-out next to the road. But, looking at the park bench, we reconsider (as it's in the shade), and there's a nice view over the valley directly in front of our car. So we lay our blanket down in front of the car, position Laura and me against the drop-off (another typically Swiss thing: no guard rails in front of death-inducing drops) and sit down to eat. Only after sitting down do we realize that we have parked in the neighborhood dog-business area. We are literally sitting on top of and surrounded by massive quantities of dog poop. I think everyone except Laura had already stepped in it, too. I'll leave the next few minutes of our adventure to your active imaginations, but while it's sort of funny to think back on, it was definitely not fun at the time.

What to say about snow tubing toboganning? The boys had fun. Here are pictures to prove it.

Oh, all right, there is something to say. The Swiss seem to be utterly unafraid of lawsuits. There were no restrictions as to how many tubes you and your friends could link together. The runs were ice-slick fast and heavily banked. The place offered free helmets but didn't insist that anyone wear one, etc. It was fun, but also very not-American.

Raclette cheese pulled out from the raclette grill.
It's not quite ready...

My meal with sides. Note potatoes with
yummy, gooey raclette cheese!

So we return home. What to eat after a day in the mountains? A typical Swiss meal, of course! No, not fondue. This is raclette, a traditional meal from Valais, the neighboring mountainous French-speaking canton. Here's how the meal goes. Pick a bunch of things to lay on a plate. It's really up to you, but typically would include some dry-aged meats, small pickles, pickled onions, maybe some fruit like sliced pears, perhaps some bacon. Then, boil some small potatoes. Put the potatoes on your plate along with whatever you like from the side dishes. Then, take raclette cheese, and put it inside a raclette machine that melts and browns a little bit the cheese. Pull your melted, gooey, yummy cheese out and scape it off over your potatoes (raclette is apparently French for "to scrape"). Pair this with some white Swiss wine and Voila! Oh. My. God. I think I have a new favorite meal. Seriously, like maybe better than prime rib meal. Laura thinks I'm insane. (But she really liked it, too. Still, the best meal? Jared, you're crazy!) I may be crazy, but I know what I like.