Alsatian Pizza

"Flammkuchen" is a dish that originated in the region of Alsace along the border of Germany and France.  It consists of extremely thin bread dough, traditionally topped with "creme fraiche" (similar to sour cream), cheese, pork fat and sliced onions, and then baked in a wood oven.  In the supermarkets here you can buy packaged "Flammkuchen" dough which comes in thin sheets. 

That is what Brigritta and I prepared Thursday night for supper.  She adds additional toppings to it, so that it is very much like a pizza.  Two sheets of dough come in the package.  Since she is a vegetarian she prepared one without meat and I prepared the other one which included Serbian dried beef that a friend of Peter's had given him.  

The dough was spread with "creme fraiche" and we both added thinly sliced zucchini, two kinds of cheese, diced tomatoes, chopped Spanish olives, and thinly sliced green onions.

Fresh out of the oven.  Peter slices the "Flammkuchen" that Brigitta had put together.

And here is the "Flammkuchen" that I had prepared.

They were both delicious!

Up to the Castle

My cousin Brigitta is a school teacher, and on Thursday she had to attend meetings in preparation for the beginning of the new school year next Monday.  Her partner Peter, however, is a retired teacher, so today he and I took a walk up to Schloss Uster… Uster Castle... the most prominent landmark in the city of Uster.

We took a "Wanderweg", another one of those hiking trails that are ubiquitous in Switzerland.  Our path took us through a pleasant residential area, but we also saw fruit orchards, cows, sheep and chickens.  

 A city dweller from the U.S. might find it odd that we were passing cows grazing in pastures within the city limits of a town of 35,000 people.  However, in Switzerland forests and farmlands are protect by law from development.  Nearly 45% of the land in Uster is agricultural.  The one thing that these cows lacked were cowbells.  Those bells are a delightful sound which are so much a part of atmosphere of Switzerland.  

It was an easy walk up to the top of the hill where the castle is located.

 The castle was originally built in the 1200s, but has been rebuilt and renovated many times since then, most recently in 1917.  The building today is used as a private boarding school and is not open to the public.

Across from the castle is a restaurant which for many served traditional Swiss food.  Since 2009, however, it has been a steakhouse called "Argentina".  We went inside for lunch.  

Our waitress was a lady from Colombia.  I spoke some German with her, but I spoke mostly Spanish.  Who would have thought that I would be speaking Spanish to a Colombian in an Argentinian restaurant in a small Swiss city!

We did not order steak, but rather the lunch special of the day, which was chicken cordon bleu.  It included a starter of soup or salad.  Peter had salad, and I had carrot soup.

We also had dessert.  I had a scoop of raspberry sorbet and Peter had an apple tart.

I treated Peter to lunch, and fortunately I had brought plenty of Swiss francs with me.  Switzerland of course is a notoriously expensive country.  Even though we were not eating in a touristy restaurant, and we ordered the special of the day, the bill came to 72 Swiss francs, about 73 U.S. dollars.  At least in Switzerland you do not have to tip much.  Peter said that the tip of 5 francs... less than 7%... was generous.

Although it was raining on our way up to the castle, during lunch the sun came out, and after eating I took some pictures of the view from the top of the hill.

At the upper right you can see a small sliver of the Greifensee, the lake which I mentioned in my previous post.

On the hillside to the left is a vineyard which produces a local wine.  Peter served some the night before at supper.  I am not a wine connoisseur, but I thought it had a very unique flavor which I liked.

  This Swiss Reformed Church was built in 1828.  It stands at the foot of the castle hill.

Looking toward downtown Uster

When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain

Whenever I fly to Europe, even though I cannot sleep on the plane, and I am hit with jet lag, my strategy is to never give in to the desire to take a nap that first day.  I force myself to stay up until 9:00 or 10:00 P.M., and then the next day my body will have adjusted to the new time zone.

So after supper yesterday evening, my cousin Brigitta and I decided to take a short walk along a nearby  "wanderweg" (hiking path).  The entire nation of Switzerland is crisscrossed with "wanderweg"... you can hike to most anywhere in the country.  

We drove a short distance to a path that goes along the Greifensee, a lake on the edge of the town of Uster.

At the start of our walk, there was a small observation tower from which we could look out across the marshlands to the lake.

My cousin Brigitta

I happened to look in the opposite direction, and I saw the full moon (or nearly full moon) rising over the mountain.

As it turned out, we never hiked to the lake.  Instead, we watched the moon as it came over the mountain.

A Home with a View

Yesterday morning I was met at Zurich airport by my cousin Brigitta and her partner Peter.  They drove me to their home where I am spending my first two nights in Switzerland.  

Their house is located in Uster, a small city not too far from Zurich.  It is a beautiful home.

Their house is located on the very edge of Uster.  In one direction you can see the town.  Left of center in the photo is the tower of Uster's small "schloss" or castle, which today houses a school.

In every other direction, there are glorious views of the Swiss countryside, and on the horizon, the Alps!

Let's zoom in on those mountains...

What a magnificent place to begin my stay in Switzerland, enjoying the warm hospitality of Brigitta and Peter and beautiful Swiss vistas.

A Flight to Remember

The Swiss Airlines lounge in Chicago O'Hare might have been a disappointment, but the flight to Switzerland was definitely not.  This was the first time that I had flown to Europe on Business Class, and it was a great experience.

I had a window seat all by myself.  There was plenty of legroom, the seat had a built-in massage feature, there was a table to the side where I could put stuff, and the seat converted into a flat bed.

When the steward saw me taking a picture of the seat, he offered to take a photo of me in it.

That brings me to one of the most outstanding aspects of the flight... the crew was fantastic, especially the steward who served my side of the cabin.  He was a very amiable fellow, and I had great fun practicing my limited German with him.  He would answer in German, and I could only catch a few words.  I heard him say "Perfekt", and I asked "Mein Deutsch?" (My German?)  "Ja", he said.  I shook my head no, but I appreciated the compliment.  I told him about my Swiss cousins, and that my great grandmother came from Switzerland. I told him that the cousin that was going to meet me at the airport lives in the city of Uster, and he said that he used to live in Uster.

When we boarded the plane, it was raining in Chicago.

   
But as we taxied to the runway, the sun came out.

Later, as evening fell, a full moon appeared in the sky.

Supper was a multicourse event.  The appetizers included salad, cheeses, and grilled artichoke hearts with ham, tomatoes and pearl onions

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For a main course I selected beef tenderloin.  Although it was not the most flavorful beef that I have had, it was very tender.

For dessert there was passion fruit cheesecake.

The meal was not incredible, but it certainly was far better than the typical airline meal.

In spite of the seat which becomes a flat bed, and the two glasses of wine that I had with supper, I was still unable to sleep.

We were still far off the coast of Ireland when dawn's first light appeared.

The thick cloud cover broke while flying over the French countryside near Paris.

And then on the horizon the Alps were visible.

The green Swiss countryside as we make our final approach to Zurich Airport.

The flight ended on a delightful and memorable note.  My steward presented me, and me alone, with a box of Lindt Chocolates.  I guess he was impressed with my efforts to speak German.  He said to me, "If you eat one each day, you will speak Swiss German!"

On My Way

The initial, short leg of my journey is complete.  I am writing this from the Swiss Lounge at O'Hare Airport in Chicago.

My flight from Cleveland to Chicago was in one of those little commuter jets that I refer to as "puddle jumpers".  They are not very comfortable, but at least I had an exit seat so there was plenty of legroom, and it is only an hour flight.

My "puddle jumper" awaits at the gate in Cleveland.

While waiting at the gate I talked with another couple who were also flying to Switzerland.  They were taking an earlier flight on Swiss Airlines from Chicago to Zurich.  Their layover in Chicago was a shorter than I would like, less than two hours.  This was their first trip to Europe, and they were going to take a river cruise down the Rhine River.  I told them... based on my previous experience flying to Switzerland... that they should follow the signs to baggage claim and from there take the train to Terminal 5, the international terminal.  There they would have to go through security again. 

I just hope that they did not follow my instructions, and miss their flight because of me.  Work is being done on the train between terminals.  For the time being, you have to take a bus from one end of Terminal 1 to the international terminal.  When I realized the change I even went back to see if I could find them. (They had been waiting for their gate-checked carry-on.)  But I didn't see them.  I hope that they noticed the signs saying "Transfer to Terminal 5". 

You have to wait in line for the bus to Terminal 5.  It is not a very efficient system, but the good thing is that you are remaining within a secured area, and you do not have to go through security again when you arrive at the terminal.

I had a long layover, but I was looking forward to spending that time in the Swiss Airlines Lounge.  (Since I am traveling business class, I have access to their lounge.)  I had been told that the European airlines have much nicer lounges than the U.S. airlines.  Well, I entered the Swiss lounge, and, frankly, I was rather disappointed.  It is nothing special, and it is tiny compared to the United Airlines lounges in Houston and Chicago.

This photo shows about 25% of the entire facility.

However, since they do not carry the volume of passengers, it is much quieter than the United lounges. 

In a couple more hours I will be boarding my flight to Switzerland.

Auf wiedersehen!