drink seco issue no. 4
10 days in an RV, Steinbocks, Crispy Mountain Tops, and a surprise!!
God Morgon from Switzerland! A cheesy postcard opener cliche I know… but it is yet to get old that drive for a few hours in Europe and be in a completely different country! My liguality grows by the month! This week’s dispatch comes to you from Switzerland and the delectable delight of Kate and I’s road trip adventure in an RV through Switzerland. As always, led through our stomach, although this time with a bit of a camping twist (aka lots of different types of soup)…
In the last newsletter, I mentioned that Kate was going to learn how to drive a manual in the hopes of being prepared for a Thelma and Louise situation on our road trip. Well, I can confirm that this did not happen… instead I was left doing all the driving (Frances McDormand who?) with my Passenger Princess keeping me company, and undertaking the very important task of podcast DJ and pointing out all the cows on our road trip (and god were there plenty).
Also in this week’s newsletter, we have some very exciting personal news to share!
Let’s get into it!
Switzerland is a very different pace to San Sebastian, for one they’re not kidding about punctuality and organization. I would say “Spanish, take notes” but that would probably contradict so much that I love about them. Secondly, Switzerland has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve been, which after years of traveling is saying something. These days it takes a lot more to take my breath away. Just wait for the photos. This trip was also a welcome break from the chaotic past few weeks we’ve had in San Seb, truly a breath of fresh air.
Finally, if there was any part of me that was hanging onto Spanish summer/warm autumn days, that has officially ended after our Switzerland trip. But honestly, it was the best winter opening, reminding me of all the best bits of winter- good soup (okay Adam Driver), warm drinks, fresh mornings, autumn leaves, and not drowning in sweat when you hike lol. If this was a movie premiere for winter at the Cannes Film Festival I’d be sold. Oscars all round.
Okay, without further ado, here’s a little taste of our travels:
The Bad
Day 1: True crime or Taken 2? Take your pick
I’ll admit our trip didn’t get off to the best start, you’d think that with all the stereotypes of lesbians and U-Hauls we’d be in our natural habitat, but no. The first day ended in with the back of the RV in a ditch at the end of a French closed road. If only I could read French… Thanks to my self-proclaimed incredible manual skills, I was able to dig as out while admittedly, bawling my eyes out and completely losing my cool. About five minutes before this, I had thought someone was following us the whole way down this closed road (which turned out just to be our rear lights and a case of the ‘first-time caravan drivers’ syndrome. Anyone picking up on the running ‘Taken’ theme with my newsletter adventures? You would think that would teach us to stop scaring ourselves with true crime podcasts...
We never did find our find our campsite so we ended up sleeping at a French rest stop, known as an ‘Aire de Service’. These are typically free overnight parking spots in France and were first introduced through the French government who recognized the economic contribution that motorhome owners brought to an area. They aren’t always scenic, but they’re free and typically near gas, amenities, and food.
Day 2: Bagels and beagles
To add to the previous day’s dramas, I thought I had lost my credit card during the big bang into the ditch so we started the day heading back in search of my card. Our first cue that it was going to be a better day, we ran into a big French hunting man, dressed the part with a bagel and two dogs. Talk about stereotypes. We weren’t quite sure what it was he was hunting, pheasants? truffles? But he did blow his bugle at us a few times. A positive sign I hope? Rereading this, the start of our road trip is starting to sound like a child’s fable right? Pass the Swedish Hunter who will give you a secret signal and the key to go down the windy road where you will answer three riddles… Trust me, it does improve. We weren’t ever able to find that closed road, so after another few hurdles we headed off on our 5 hour drive to Neuchâtel in hope of better luck, cardless, but hopeful.
The Good
Day 3: You sweep the fields?
The next day it seems our luck had finally turned and we spent an amazing day exploring, eating, drinking, camping and hiking. All in perfect weather.
One thing we noticed throughout Switzerland was how clean everything was! There was no trash anywhere and the parks, lakes and mountains were beautifully pristine and clean. In Switzerland there’s an overall high connection to nature and care for the environment. One of the benefits from living surrounded by such beautiful mountains and nature. This attitude and pride meant places we would never even think to sweep were spotless.
Similarly, Switzerland has a strict recycling program, that boasts to recycle over 50% of its waste. Likewise, in 2019, 75% of its power came from renewable sources compared to 20% of the US’s. In terms of sustainability and eco-friendliness it’s just behind the Scandi countries. And it shows.
Day 4: Paddock to plate, the real deal
We started the next day with a short 2 hour drive to Erlebnisbauernhof and Camping Gerbe in Meierskappel, just outside of Lucerne. Our campsite was an incredible working farm and cider house. They had just picked the apples for cider production and there were huge buckets of them lined up for production! (If you want to read more about the Spanish sidra, I spoke about it in my previous newsletter here).
That night we fell asleep and awoke to the sounds of friendly farm animals, a nice change from our slightly horror movie-esq previous nights. I think we’re more Carol Rooney Maras than her Swedish Lisbeth Salander The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo...
The farm made all their own cheeses and butchered their own meats, naturally we couldn’t pass up trying them all. Farm to table- fast tracked! It’s interesting to see how other countries approach organic eating in comparison to the US. It’s really highlighted how inaccessible healthy, organic eating is back home and the privilege and almost trendiness of ‘paddock to plate restaurants’, which I’m sure you’ve gathered by now is the norm over here, especially in San Sebastian. Later in our trip we came across a quaint farm advertising fresh milk from an automatic dispenser, where you could bring your own bottle and fill it with unpasteurized milk from the farm for 1.50 francs! Amazing.
Likewise, in Switzerland, you’re required to list where all the products you’re selling are from are from (in stores or restaurants). Usually when I see this in western countries it’s in a fancier restaurant and along with the origin of the meats you almost get a life story of the animal ‘born and bred in Texas, three siblings, avid tennis player, New York Times reader’. In Switzerland it’s not just part of a trend, exclusive for the latest cool restaurant, but rather, a way of life.
I never eat fast food (really) but we ate a burger at McDonald’s and even they listed where their meat was from! To make it better, this wasn’t a standard burger, either. It tasted like a proper burger. I must also give a touch of praise to the use of a real egg, that was cooked to perfection, which I’m pretty sure is also very different than the McDonald’s in the US as well.
Switzerland has very stringent labelling requirements about production and ingredient origin (as does the rest of the EU but even more so Switzerland since 2017). For both prepackaged and non prepackaged food, it’s compulsory to include written labels detailing the origin of the products, any hormone or GMO usage, any technological procedures for increasing animal performance, and interesting for fishing- inclusion of fishing gear used, the area, and method of production!
This promotes ethical and sustainable food practices and it’s interesting to see how this compliments the general Swiss culture which emphasises caring for the environment and your body.
Anyways, back to our Swiss adventure. We finished the day with a bike ride towards the lake for a glass of wine. On the way back back we felt like a couple of carefree kids ripping down the streets through the autumn leaves as the sun set. Yet another reminder to never grow up.
Day 5: Bunker down
On our fifth day we went to Lucerne and tried navigating the bus system. After a bit of confusion and hassle of downloading apps we learned not only do the buses accept cash, they also work on an honor system. I think this again just speaks to the Swiss culture and people, especially since bus tickets are pricey.
Lucerne was gorgeous, but after a few hours of walking around the town which was centered between it’s two famous bridges, we didn’t feel like we need to stay there too long. The Chapel Bridge is actually where they filmed parts of Harry Potter. Really throughout most of Europe you can find a Harry Potter or Game of Thrones film reference.
Later that day we boarded a ferry which gave us a beautiful view of the city. Check out this view!
What’s interesting about this area is that a couple of hundred metres from Lake Lucerne is a huge camouflage door and a hint at some of Switzerland’s lesser known history, the National Redoubt Strategy. The National Redoubt Strategy describes a series of widely distributed fortifications which began in the 1880s to protect Switzerland against foreign invasion. Switzerland has long recognised it’s limited defence capacity and therefore designed a defence strategy that allowed for all of the army and large parts of the population to hide away in bunkers in the mountains for an extended period of time, defended by the ‘Borderline’ army position.
During World War 2 with the threat of Hitler’s invasion these bunkers became even more important and the National Rebout Strategy was expanded. The largest bunker in Switzerland (and the world) is the one above Lucerne which can fit 20,000 people. Within the mountains are are a wide network of bunkers complete with kitchens, modern (1940s) toilets, separate sleeping and office quarters, dining and lounge rooms, war rooms, disinfection areas, water tanks, generators, ammunition rooms and storage! Once again, during the Cold War the government expanded these bunkers and required every resident to be within a 30 minute walk of a bunker so that today there are approximately 360,000 bunkers that can fit 9 million people. The National Redoubt strategy has come into discussion again recently following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the threat of nuclear war.
Day 6: Channeling our inner Julie Andrews
The next day we drove to Lauterbrunnen, home to 72 waterfalls! At this stage I was getting to love driving the caravan, super easy even with all the switchbacks.
Our breathe was taken away by the plunging, green forests dabbled with orange autumn leaves and little trains cutting through the mountains. As we went on we spotted our first glaciers!! We then made our way through the small alpine village to our campsite, surrounded by rolling hills and cows. The hills are alive with the sound of music, baby! We spent the rest of the day exploring the cow-littered hills towards the underground waterfalls where I got my first taste of glacier water (this newsletter isn’t called Drink Seco for nothing!)
We ended the day with a classic camp meal of tomato soup, swiss cocoa, and beer. Simple. Classic.
Day 7: Drinks Seco feat. Bond…again
We explored our surroundings on our bikes once again and headed back to the underground waterfalls before heading over to the funicular to go up the top of Steel Horn mountain, famous for its 360 degree restaurant and the filming of the 1969 James Bond movie- Her Majesty’s Secret Service. What did I tell you about Europe and famous filming locations? James Bond seems to keep coming up in our travels, unfortunately his wife does not... When we got to the top we had a large basket of delicious meats, cheeses, and wines overlooking the white cat mountains. Pretty specky, but also pretty touristy, and not recommended unless you go in winter when ALL of the mountains are snow-capped and luscious.
The best part of this ride was the ride up and down itself, and the short pit stop I made in Mürren. Somehow this tiny and very traditional mountain village in the Bernese Highlands of Switzerland has a population of 450 year-round! At 1,638 metres (5,374 ft) above sea level, there is no public road, so the funicular is the only way up (and down).
Day 8: Good soup
The next day was pretty rainy so we enjoyed a slower, lazier morning that was welcomed after being on the go so much. We did some RV maintenance before heading to Interlaken to see what all the buzz was about. Personally, compared to Lauterbrunnen and Neuchâtel, it wasn’t anything wild and was pretty touristy.
One of pros of this though was that there were a lot of Middle Eastern and Asian restaurants. We had a delicious first meal at ‘The Little Thai’ before grabbing some groceries and heading up to a pub for our essential beer and pretzel intake and then some warm pumpkin soup (I told you this newsletter would be soup-y!). Unfortunately, food, like everything else in Switzerland, is expensive.
That night we had zucchini soup and onion soup, no, not French onion. But as Julia Childs said “It’s hard to imagine civilisation without onions”.
Day 9: The moment you’ve been waiting for…
Our 9th day was our biggest day yet, we got up, drove to Brienz and boarded the steam train to head up the mountain. We got off at Planalp and begun our 3.5 hour hike up the steep mountain, for most of it, we were the only ones there! Exhausted, and with sore legs we were getting pretty tired when we spotted something in the distance… A steinbock and her kitz (fawn)!! So breathtaking! You can see some of the photos below and see how close I got! David Attenborough who? Not long after our spotting we met some super sweet Americans who drove 12 hours just to see the steinbocks due to an instagram post!
Steinbocks are a type of wild goat that live in the mountains and alps. *Cue David Attenborough voice over for your animal history lesson*. The biggest population of steinbocks live in the Swiss alps Approximately 1,800 are living there now. Their horns can grow up to a metre and they weigh around 70kgs. Steinbock are usually spotted in herds coming down the mountains around late April/June so it was pretty special we spotted one! They were actually the first Swiss conservation project after years of hunting.
After another 15 minutes of uphill walking we reached the top. The panoramic views were other-worldly. Switzerland nature had me speechless once again! To add to the movie moment, there was a sweet German couple playing spanish music on a guitar!
I was just about ready to head back down when Kate asked a german woman if she could take a video. I started to get suspicious. When I turned around Kate was on one knee holding an open ring box and asked me to marry her! I said, “of course!” I started to cry and kiss her and then got down on my knees to join her which got us both laughing, because apparently that’s not normal.
At this point the friends we made earlier came up the mountain and asked if we “just got engaged?!” before congratulating us. We walked back down the mountain for celebratory prosecco, grabbed a few more bottles for the road and hopped on the train with our new friends, toasting to ourselves and the mountain.
When we got back the camp was busy with people partying but we were so tired and happy we didn’t care. Dinner that night was the steak we had been carrying around since the start of our trip waiting for the right time to eat, with boiled butter potatoes and a beet and goat cheese salad. No soup haha.
The last day we got up early to begin or 10 hour trek back home. Tired, happy, full of love.
I loved this post as much as I love beef noodle. soup. The beautiful pictures and. the story telling in. your voice with call backs to movies. 5 stars!