Journey through the vineyards, etc (Day 5)

We are not wine experts, by any stretch of the imagination, so the day we had today may have been like throwing pearls before swine. Nonetheless, we had an incredible time walking through the vineyards near Chexbre (pronounced "SHEB") and enjoying the view of row upon row of grape vines, grown on many levels of terraces built into the lakeside over the centuries. This area has recently been declared a UNESCO world heritage site, and it's easy to see why. For those of you who have been to Cinque Terre in Italy, this area is very similar only adjoining a lake instead of the Mediterranean.

The temperature was a hot 32 degrees today, and with Elias on my back the whole time, it was a good workout (the path was far from flat). Lucia again was suffering from the spaghetti legs and so needed a bit of carrying (20+ pounds on my back and 30+ pounds in frount is a bit of a load!). Between Danielle and I, Lucia probably walked only 50% of the time, but I've got to give her credit for her patience. What's so interesting to a 4-year-old about endless fields of grapes?

I was reading in the Bible today about Jesus' first miracle during his time on earth - turning water into wine. His wine apparently was really good (unusually good to be served at the later part of a wedding party, when it was served, according to the story). Made me think of this place. (No deeper connection than that, I'm afraid.) In the story (John 2), even before the miracle took place, it seems Mary knew that her Son was capable of extraordinary - miraculous? - things. What must have that been like for her?

Our host family left us a couple of bottles of wine, and the red we had tonight was made by some winemaker friends of there's. I guess it's not uncommon to be a winemaker around here. Anyways, it was delightful, and unfortunately not available in the stores. There's wine tasting at the big outdoor market in Vevey on Saturdays and that's where you'll find us this weekend.

The new camera we got before the trip has renewed my interest in photography, and has given Danielle the courage to practice more (and develop her own interest in it). Sure helps to be in new surroundings! I'm attaching a few "experimental" and artsy photos, to show what we've been playing around with.

The two shots of Lucia on the old tire swing are ones where I've "panned" the camera to get a sense of motion in the picture. I kinda like this look.

The "espresso" shot below is what we look forward to every morning here. The Webers have a fantastic espresso machine called a "Nespresso" (Nestle espresso). It's a fine piece of engineering and can produce a shot of high quality espresso in seconds. I think it's worth a few francs as well.

Look at that crema!

Finally, here's the little fella enjoying a moment on the swing with mama nearby. That's my boy.

Gruyere (Day 4)

Cheese. And lots of it. That's what we had for lunch at "La Maison de Gruyere", and boy was it yummy. This was the first part of our short excursion by car outside of Mont Pelerin. As you may or may not be able to see from the picture on the left, Danielle and I each inadvertently ordered a ham & Swiss cheese salad, thinking we were ordering sandwiches, and what we were each served was probably the equivalent of a 2x4x6 inch block of cheese, diced up and served with ham over a handful of lettuce. It was quite amazing that neither of us suffered that block-of-lead-in-stomach sensation after.

The plan had been to visit Gruyere, have lunch, and then tour the cheese factory, but on the advice of some other tourists we opted to head for the top of Mont Moleson instead for a view of all Switzerland. ("Molson Mountain", to the Swiss-Canadian rednecks.) The weather has been stellar in terms of temperature, but unfortunately the sky has been a little hazy, making picture-taking a bit more of a challenge. I've been using a polarizer filter to bring out colour (including any blue that's in the sky) with limited success. Regardless, we got some great shots from the top of the mountain (which we climbed via "funicular railway" and gondola). The walking paths at the top were along narrow ridges between mountain peaks, and it seemed that there was a cross mounted on each peak. Nice reminder of who created this place. The slope on either side of the trails was unbelievably steep, and even more unbelievable was the endless chiming of cow bells that could be heard the whole time we were on top of the mountain!
I am convinced the Swiss have the most athletic cows in the world. (If you think there's a cow theme developing in this blog, you're right. Wherever we go, we cannot escape the cow. It's part of the culture.)

Hiking with the kiddies actually worked out pretty well. You can see from the picture how enthralled Elias was with the scenery. He kept nice and quiet. Lucia alternated between complaining as soon as there was an uphill grade to desperately trying to pick wildflowers to feed the mountain goats (there were none, but she wouldn't believe us.)

Our walk on the mountain made us thirsty enough to slap down 6 Swiss francs for a bottle of San Pellegrino gassy water. Without a doubt, it was the best water I've EVER had.

A very memorable day, indeed. It felt like we were treated to the quintessence of la Suisse. It's a true blessing to be here.