Day 9 - Melchsee Frutt

Sabine and Michi have an apartment in the mountains by the ski area where Andrina's ski club meets. This area is called Melchsee Frutt. For about six months out of the year you can drive the single lane hair-pin road up here, but the rest of the year the only way up is by gondola. The road is only one car width wide so you can only go down on odd hours and up on even hours. Anna, Sabine and I ride the gondola up, Anna's first time in a mountain gondola and she was nervous. The view is great!

Their apartment is so cute, the perfect size for three people and I can

imagine how cozy this would be with piles of snow outside. As we walk to the lake, the taupe colored Swiss cows with big clanking brass bells are everywhere. The sound of cow bells is the soundtrack for the Swiss Alps in the summer. There is a new elevator that takes us down to the lake, so modern and nice. Melchsee is a beautiful turquoise and blue alpine lake with a train that brings visitors all the way around. There are some tourists up here but not many, and no one else is swimming in the chilly water. It takes Anna a few minutes to get use to the temperature but pretty soon she's up to her neck and Andrina and Michi have joined her. Andrina has an inflatable paddle board, and has a great time paddling it around, and gives Anna a ride all around the lake. Anna takes her turn on it and paddles quite a distance around the lake by herself. Andrina is quite athletic and performs a perfect headstand on the paddle board while it is floating. Pretty impressive!

There is a cute chapel on the lake shore called Fruttkapelle that was built from stone in August of 1900. We are hanging out along the rocky shore next to the chapel today. It is a blue sky sunshine day until the clouds roll through in the late afternoon. They come in fast like a thick fog and pretty soon we are cold and ready to bundle up. We enjoy an ice cream on our way back while we get to know Sabine and Michi's neighbors here. They are super nice and we crack open some snacks back at their apartment and try the local hot drink - Kafi Luz - a very weak coffee with sugar and schnapps. You are suppose to be able to "read the newspaper" through this coffee. If you can't, it isn't made right. Turns out it is pretty tasty on this cold afternoon, my favorite is the one made with apple schnapps.

It's 5 o'clock and we need to make our way down the one lane road, Anna and Sabine take the gondola down. Sabine picks up some

handmade caramel sugar candies made by a farmer on the mountain and they are a sweet smoky caramel treat.

Anna and I join the Tanner's for dinner tonight and Alexandra makes a delicious dinner with risotto, veal, baked tomatoes and salad with a homemade panna cotta with berries for dessert. It's fun to hear about Garret's day with Jan and Bruno. The three of them rode bikes to Jan's school and toured the city of Zug, then spent a few hours swimming at the lake there. It sounds like a fun day and the boys enjoyed swimming in the hot sun.

We had such an awesome day enjoying the beautiful Swiss mountains, wonderful food, crazy fast driving around hairpin turns, and very cool gondolas. So thankful to my lovely cousins for their hospitality and generosity.