Helvetic Road Hazards – Bovine and Other

Winter is right around the corner.  This morning before I went out on my bike ride I checked the weather report – 2 degrees!  Holy Cow!  Ok, granted in was in Celsius, it’s still a jolt to see such low numbers.

The months of July, August, and September were exciting riding times for Doug and I.  Swiss roads are the best!  Swiss drivers are so courteous of cyclists!  Swiss countryside and scenery are incomparable!  Every bike ride was a new discovery, a new gorgeous area to explore.  We were in heaven.

The chilly weather is bringing a bit of an edge to the Swiss cycling experience.  The drivers seem a little less patient – it never fails to shock me how they will wait until I’m getting close before they decide it’s safe to pull in front of me.  Now I’m expecting it – I look for that little second of indecision from the driver, a slight rocking of their car, and then they decide … what the heck, I’ll go for it.  Luckily I’m usually out on roads without too many cars.  But that brings other hazards as well…

Hunting season must have started, because I’m hearing shots fired in the woods where I’ve never heard shots before (I have a few routes next to les champs de tir).  My average speed travelling through the woods has picked up, and I’m hoping my red jersey doesn’t somehow resemble a buck’s rump.  I feel a jolt of fear (just like I would imagine a deer feels) when I hear a rustle in the woods.  I actually had a deer jump out right in front of me the other day.  The poor thing was scared to death; he stumbled, struggled to get up as he kicked his feet in the air, righted himself, turned and looked at me for a second, and then bounded away.  I have a friend whose car has been jumped by deer three different times (she’s a deer magnet), so I’ve developed a healthy fear of deer in the wild.

Fall colors just starting in the Jura Mountains

Last weekend Doug and I went on a 98-mile bike up the Col de Marchairuz in the Jura mountains – it was a warm, sunny, fall day and a fantastic ride.  On the way down the mountain Doug pointed out that the side of the road seemed to be trampled down, and that there was a lot of “mud” in the road.   Had they just had "la désalpe" – where they bring the cows down from the mountain for the winter?  Sure enough, just as we were reaching the bottom of the mountain, we were stopped by a troupe of cows walking in the middle of the road.  The cows were decorated with flowers, large bells, and being led by a procession dressed in traditional fare – it was a beautiful sight.

Look what side of the fence this cow was on!

 Typical stone fences in the Jura mountains

 "La Dèsalpe" Procession

 The Beauties

I absolutely love cows – they are such gentle creatures with big expressive eyes.  I used to say that I don’t even mind their “eau de barnyard” smell.  I've changed my opinion on that since I've had to endure bike rides next to endless fields fertilized with the stuff.  It’s especially bad when you’re going up a hill on a hot day next to a recently “fertilized” field.   But I do admire the way the Swiss take care of their fields – they are a sight to behold – they have the blackest, most fertile soil I’ve ever seen.

I’ve also learned that if you stand with your back to a field of cows, within minutes you’ll have the entire herd just behind you.  I’ve been startled by this several times - – they don’t say a word, they are just suddenly right behind you. 

These cows came to check out Doug and I, and even sniffed my bike

New friend

Back to road hazards...some of the tiny roads that we ride on are only wide enough for one car, so when you see a tractor barreling down toward you, you know that you’re the one that has to get out of the way.  The tractors can have various sharp implements extending out from both sides.   I’ve had to jump up on an embankment with my bike just in the nick of time – it must have been lunch or quitting time for that farmer because he wasn’t stopin’.

And finally, the impeccable Swiss roads also mean that there is constant road repair.  I’ll discover a fantastic new route and then read that the road will be closed for a month due to roadwork.  They seemed to be overly concerned with drainage right now, which worries me – it there something coming that I need to know about?  And what about all those “route non-déneigé” signs I’ve been seeing?  I’m afraid that we’re going to need a new winter sport soon.

* Translation tools on the bar to the right to make sense of the franglais…

Swiss Cheese Awards

Just when we think we’ve seen the best that Switzerland has to offer we discover a new area that we fall in love with.  That happened to us on our way to Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland (near the Italian border).  We went to Bellinzona by train via Lucerne and could tell that we have another area to see – more gorgeous Ireland-green countryside, waterfalls cascading off the steep cliffs that line the valley along the train tracks.

A couple of weeks ago Doug was so excited to tell me that he had read an article about the 8^th Annual Swiss Cheese Awards, booked a hotel in the town that was hosting the awards, and bought tickets to the evening gala (reservations limited).  Doug’s a late entrant to the cheese-lovers’ club – when we first met (over 30 years ago) he announced that he didn’t like cheese.  He’s done a 180-degree turn, and now collects cheese books, and is still trying to work his way through one book to try over 360 kinds of French cheese.

So off to Bellinzona we went, marveling at the efficiency of the Swiss transportation system that allows us to walk from our house to the bus, to the metro, to the train, and eventually to our hotel.  Bellinzona is the home of three famous 15^th century castles (Castelgrande, Montebello, Sasso Corbaro) and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The castles are lit at night and seem to glow above the city.

Just off the train in Bellinzona

The cheese contest judging was Saturday morning in the city hall courtyard, which was lined with about 30 pedestals of different types of cheese from all over Switzerland – some we were familiar with like Gruyère, Emmental, Vacherin and Raclette and others we’d never heard of Svitz, Applenzeller, L’Etivaz, and Berner Alpkase.   The judges were dressed in black vests, white aprons and red berets – with pens and clipboards in hand. Cheese judging is serious business– first the cheese is paraded by the judges so they can grade the appearance, then each judge helps themselves to a piece of cheese with their cheese knife that has a hook at the end to get a good hold of the cheese.   They sniff the cheese, pop it in their mouths, look up, look around, chew slowly, and write some notes on a form that is swiftly collected at the end of the judging.

As you can see from the photos there were only a few spectators…maybe 10-15, including Doug and I.  We were standing by a woman who was the wife of a judge, and heard him speak English to her, so we started to chat.  It turns out that they are cheese makers from Wisconsin who had won the World’s Best Cheese Award a few years back.  The next thing we knew, one of the French-speaking judges started to give us samples of the cheeses that they were judging – he must have assumed we were also former world cheese award winners (or perhaps their next door neighbors).   Luckily the cheese samples started near the end of the judging, but we were pretty sure we could never eat a bite of cheese again by the end of the competition.  We said goodbye to our new friends, and said that we would see them later at the gala. 

Seriously needing some exercise to work off the cheese bolus, we hiked up the hill to Castelgrande, the largest of the three castles.   Walking around the grounds it was easy to transport ourselves back to medieval times, imagining how the walls and ramparts protected the town from invaders.

As evening approached we were having some second thoughts about the gala. Why exactly did we think going to the Swiss Cheese Awards gala was a good idea?  It turned out that our trepidation was well-founded – the Swiss Cheese Awards "gala" is a 2 1/2 hour awards presentation in Italian-German-French, announcing each of the 30 winners of the different categories of Swiss cheese.  Since we don’t speak German or Italian, our understanding of the awards ceremony came and went as they moved through the different languages - the light would come on momentarily when they switched into French, only to go to darkness when German was spoken, and then dusk for Italian (it’s close to French, so we got about half of it).

As the night progressed we realized that we were probably the ONLY non-cheese-industry attendees to the gala.  Imagine going to a soccer awards dinner for a neighboring town and listening to the awards being presented, and three hours later getting your dinner.  Luckily our tablemates were mostly French speaking (so we could communicate), friendly and entertaining.  We hope to visit one who makes Fromaggio d’Alpe ticinese, and has a bed and breakfast above Gotthard pass in the Swiss-Italian Alps (sounds like a great bike ride in the spring). 

The French man (top left) managed to kiss all the women 

at the table at the end of the night

After our dinner was served, they made an announcement that seemed to excite everyone.  The dessert buffet was opening – a selection of each of the winners’ cheeses.  The gala attendees seemed genuinely giddy, and the line to the buffet was long.  I went through the line with Doug to give him moral support, and watched as each cheese maker looked Doug in the eye as they placed a piece of cheese on his plate.  He was incapable of saying no to any of them.  Thirty pieces of cheese later, he went back to the table to start on his dessert.

Doug at the end of the buffet looking a little worried 

At the end of the evening we visited the table of our new Wisconsin judge friend and his wife, who were incredulous that we were attending the “gala” that even the cheese makers dreaded.  “Someone didn’t research this” was his actual comment.  We were happy to be the brunt of the jovial table’s jokes, but at the end of the event, another Wisconsonian World Cheese Award winner at the table confided to me that it was refreshing to meet someone (aka Doug) so enthusiastic about cheese.  I’m sure they’re still chuckling at us in Wisconsin…

Parade in Bellinzona on Sunday

Cows coming down from the mountains for the winter (after the Alpenage)