Europe, 2024 Zurich Days 14 – 17

Since I last wrote Obi and I have have returned from Nyon and I have been on a chocolate overload. Friday was a day of travel after a morning at the Airbnb we ventured to begin the 4 hour journey to Nyon. As usual the trains ran smoothly and we, without missing a minute arrived on the nose. I enjoyed being back in Nyon seeing my dear friend – who, as I mentioned I met on an Outward Bound trip 17 year ago. I was 23 yrs old – and we hiked the Colorado Rockies. We always find ways to reminisce about the trip and the highlights we both remember or remind each other happened. I enjoyed so much seeing his two daughters – Obi and I brought a favorite game of ours called Go Sushi!, taught them how to play and had some great laughs at the lowest score we’ve ever seen and then another round beating Obi. On Saturday, Obi, Will and I ventured on a hike with the goal of seeing wild Edelweiss, the rare Swiss National flower. We decided to hike to Col du Pillon, with a final destination at Cabane des Diablerets which is a mountain refuge/hut with delicious food and beds for the night. The refuge is 2,485 meters high – and our starting point was just about 1,360 m. The hike was estimated to take 4 hrs which is the exact time it took. The last time I was in Switzerland visiting Will and his family I had ventured to this same area and took a different route up to the refuge. I went looking for Edelweiss, scouring the mountain top rocks as instructed by Will and sadly found none. I have been longing to see this elusive flower for some time and Will, being a botanist of sorts and flower lover was eager to also see some. We started the hike around 10:20 am, the sun was hot but we were sun screened up, well fueled and ready for action. The hike begins with about an hour on steep carriage road, with the road ending at a ski lift top station. This mountain hosts many winter skiers – though given the terrain one surely needs to have experience, this is not a mountain for beginners. We saw one ski laugh which said, “the point of no return” – gulp. After the carriage road ends, you find yourself on a beautiful trail mostly rocks with shrubs along the sides. We were moving at a steady pace and saw a few other folks on the trail as well. There was a lovely water stop near a waterfall which we utilized and filled our supplies. The hike ultimately merges with a plateau of sorts, a generally flat section which steadily gains in elevation. Shortly after this, is when Will suggested we fan out to search or the flower. Last time, Will was in a similar area and found the flower. I was scanning the ground looking and not totally know what it looked like I thought I found it a few times…until at last I DID! Yes, there it was, two perfect Edelweiss flowers with their fuzzy white and pointy pedals. I was over the moon – as was Will. I think Obi found our excitement more entertaining – but he too, was glad to have seen such a special flower.

My mom and sister always give me a hard time for not “stopping to smell the flowers” – given when I hike or ride, I am on a mission with one goal, reach the end. But you see – I did stop and smell flowers after all!

After we spotted these first two, the higher we climbed we came across a few other sections with robust amounts of the flower. We seemed to have gotten very lucky with the right timing as the flowers were in their prime bloom. Oh, what a magnificent moment. The hike continued though and we needed to steadily trek onward and upward. Slowly but surely we eventually made it to the refuge and wow, what an accomplishment that was. Can you tell how happy we were?

We ended up sitting inside the refuge simply because the sun was pounding – though a bit cooler inside it was calming. I ordered a soup, and Will and Obi ordered a Swiss classic – a toasted piece of divine bread with butter, then smeared with hearty mustard, topped with cornichon and pickled onions and smothered in cheese fondue – finally baked to absolute perfection. I wish I was a foodie who took pictures of their meals – because this was photo worthy. This is like grilled cheese to the max – it’s called a Croûte au fromage. Will ordered his with a piece of thin ham, Obi without. I took a bite of Obi’s and POW – my taste buds were on hyper drive, I immedaitly regretted my healthy soup option (which was very lovely). Will was feeling a bit overdone from the hike – and despite him and Obi drooling over their food he couldn’t finish his and so I at first reluctantly but then without a moment of hesitation ate the rest of his right up. We spent about 45 minutes in the car not debriefing the hike, but the Croûte au fromage – every aspect of that most spectacular meal trying to plan out how to re-create it. We know it won’t ever taste the same, but I am certainly going to try. We ended the meal with a homemade slice of apricot tarte with a nut based crust – which was amazing, but sadly we all wanted the forte of our meal to be the Croûte au fromage. Sorry – too much food talk? What can I say, this meal blew our minds away. We rode the very steep cable car back to the parking lot and we prepared to walk an hour downhill to our car location. As we were waiting a woman approached me asking if I was waiting for the bus – in German. I responded, in German and we struck up a conversation – she had three seats in her car and I asked if she would be willing to drive us (as she was headed in the same direction). It’s a 5 min drive – but a long walk. She was very kind and happens to have a hitchhikers sticker on her car. Thank you Regina!

It’s always hard to say goodbye to friends – especially those who live so far away. I was so grateful to have the time with Will and his family and look forward to our next visit. Obi and I left Nyon on Sunday – and ended our day with a self guided audio tour of the Lindt chocolate factory. Chocolate for dinner? That was Obi’s plan at least. The tour was okay – I think we were both hoping for some human to human interaction – but with so many people and the sheer size of the place we understood why it was structured in this way. We did both appreciate that the tour began with a deep dive into the farming and process of the cocoa bean connecting chocolate consumers with the origins of the bean and the ‘bean to bar’ pipeline. We were then brought back into time and learned a bit more about the Olmec one of the earliest civilizations in Latin America (to drink and use cocoa for medicinal uses) and then the Mayans who called the bean and chocolate drink as the food/drink of the Gods. The Spaniards who conquered the Aztec Empire then exploited their skills and crop, saw potential in this bean but knew that Europeans would find it too bitter. They introduced the idea of adding sugar and using a tool called a whisk. People started to enjoy this more and given the sweated frothy state it grew in popularity. Though credit it given to Agustín Farfán who first used chocolate for medical uses (in Europe) and introduced it more formally to Europe. From there – many attempts had been made until finally Rodolphe Lindt invented (by accident) the conching machine which grinds the beans, condensed milks, sugar and spices for a long amount of time and the constant grinding and accumulation of heat melts everything together into a silky and smooth consistency which can be molded into chocolate bars. Switzerland was and remains home to many chocolatiers some of which are no longer in existence and many of which remain strong. The tour does include three sample sections. The first are chocolate “waterfalls” for dark, milk and white chocolate from which you pump samples onto a spoon. The melted liquid goes down smooth – Obi perfected his sample, two dark pumps mixed with one milk pump – so good. Then we sampled four different bars to hone our flavor identification skills (dark, milk, dark with orange and dark with caramel). The chocolate drops from a small machine above and is meant to snap off. We might’ve tried each one more than once…:) The final sampling station are the traditional Lindt truffles. At this point we just took our allotted share but couldn’t eat anymore. We rolled out like a truffle and ventured home for a detox meal: salad!

Today my good friend Maggie, who I met and worked with in South Africa is coming to visit from England. She is staying three nights with us. SO instead of hiking I stayed local and met Obi and two friends of his from STL (one who works at Google) for lunch. Then, because I didn’t have enough chocolate yet, I mapped out 12 different chocolatiers in Zurich and took a self guided walking tour. I found these delectable locations from a woman’s blog I have come to really appreciate. I visited each shop (though two were closed) – maybe for the best. I bought items from each shop – to bring home – and only ate one piece of chocolate. At the very last location I was offered a free treat. I bought some truffles for us to share tonight- good thing Maggie and I have two days of hiking planned:)