We toured the gorgeous Swiss mountains with David and Marikka while on our way down towards Italia. David's parents live in a valley that is nestled between grandiose snow-capped mountains and they very courteously invited us for dinner in their home. It was quite an experience driving to their house because, to get there, you load your car onto a train into what look like cattle cars and the train pulls you right under a mountain through a dark black tunnel. It was a little creepy and once again we had a Willy Wonka experience because it looked exactly like the scene where they are on the pink candy wonka yacht being hurtled through the dark passageways with eerie low glow lights swirling by. I'm going to say our whole vacation has been a mix of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Tolkiens' Lord of the Rings.
After driving off the train car we drove through what David calls the classic is Heidi-Land. Beautiful hilly green pastures full of yellow flowers, classic Wooden Swiss houses displaying beautiful painted shutters, and lots of Swiss cows. We drove past gray swiss cows, brown swiss cows, mottled swiss cows, and black swiss cows that look like Ferdinand the bull. The deep black cows were wearing huge bells. David informed us that a popular sport in Switzerland is to have fighting cow (no not bull) matches. Apparently this special breed of cow keep a very strict hierarchy and the bells sound differently depending on how dominant the cow is. They place the most dominant heifers in a ring and quickly find out who the queen of the cows is.
We arrived at David's parents in the evening and we sat on their glass encased dining room with views of bright green wineries and purple-blue snow capped mountains. Paul and Dominique spoiled us and treated us to foie gras and a fresh salad with asparagus to start! They also treated us to some wonderful wine, tender porkloin with carrots and fries, and to top it off a dessert of fresh strawberries in tart cups with Swiss chocolate. We were in heaven and managed to thank them with our butchered French phrases. Merci beaucoup!!! Afterwards they sent us off into the violet, blue, and pink twilight of the valley towards their cabin in mountains. We drove up and up through multiple hair-pin turns to get to St. Luc, the small town where the cabin is. The views were spectacular and we saw villages and chapels nestled in the cliffs of the mountains.
The cabin itself used to be a storage shed but David's grandfather converted it into a gorgeous guesthouse. The entire cabin has amazing golden brown woodworking throughout it's three stories and is decorated with what look like years and years of family heirlooms. There are two balconies overlooking the peaks of the Swiss mountains and we were so high up that it seemed as though we could be even with the snowy peaks. They even have a view of the Matterhorn from their upper balcony. We slept that night on cushy little beds with down pillows and blankets. I only awoke once to the sound of Matt tumbling down the stairs. To get to the bathroom on the bottom floor you must descend two flights of very steep steps with a thick rope along the wall to guide you. Unfortunately Matt missed a step and slid down a flight of stairs ending in a very loud "boom!!" Three startled voices called out "you ok there." Matt has a nice purple Swiss souvenir on his hiney :) Overall though the trip to St. Luc was spectacular and I felt as though I was on the leg of the lord of the rings journey where they are trekking up towards Cahadras through the peaks of the snow capped mountains. Except of course for the fact that we were able to pass and a wizard wasn't trying to smush us with rocks ;)
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