Wengen and the Forest Hut

This morning’s view was a glorious site to wake up to. Clear blue skies and clouds dancing overhead.

Our last day in Switzerland was the most perfect weather we could have wanted with temperatures in the 50’s, sunny skies and crisp, pure air. Our hotel Maya Caprice is situated on the mountainside in a Swiss village called Wengen.

After breakfast we meandered through a couple shops to find some little souvenirs to bring home. Dave was disappointed that he couldn’t squeeze this hat into his backpack.

The village has one train stop for people to catch a train to go further up the mountain or to go back down to the valley. The train tracks ran right in front of our hotel.

One of the ski slopes ended just up a little ways from our hotel, so we always saw people walking by in all their ski gear. Outside our hotel and many other shops there were racks to hold skis, snowboards and poles. They were as common as seeing bike racks outside our stores at home.

For lunch I caught up with some others in our group while Dave caught up on some sleep. We met at the hotel restaurant and sat out on the terrace. I had a cappuccino with a side of mountain scenery.

We ordered four pizzas to share. One was laden with roasted veggies (my favorite) and another was the waiter’s favorite surprise special not found on the menu. It included their own roasted tomatoes, green asparagus, white asparagus (which is in season here), shaved truffles, and a very runny poached egg in the middle.

When we were all stuffed to the max, our waiter bought out three plates of mystery desserts for us. We think he was trying to clean out the kitchen. This dessert had lady fingers with a strawberry cream layer, chocolate ganache, and maybe some candied pistachios on top. Then the surprise was the ridge of “cream” you see down the middle. It turned out to be some sort of basil-garlicky-buttery concoction. We all tried it, but it wasn’t exactly our favorite.

For the afternoon, we did a little more shopping and walking and then went back to the hotel for a little down time.

We all met for supper down in the lobby. We were told that we could either take a 30 minute hike up the mountain or hop in a van that would hold 10 people. To get back home, we were given orders to bring a flashlight for the hike back down the mountainside.

A group of us hopped in the van, which precariously drove us up the mountain on a gravel road which soon turned into a snowy, slushy, mucky, deep-rutted road.

It felt like we would slide down the mountain if we sat too close to that edge of the van.

We were dropped off by a little wood shed, and then we had to hike further up the road to get to our restaurant.

We arrived at a shack in the middle of the woods where we were greeted outside and served wine in plastic shot glasses.

We propped our hiking poles outside in the snow and hung out around a wooden picnic table until our supper was prepared.

We were told if we needed to use the restroom there was an outhouse available. Of course, curiosity got the better of us so we had to check it out. We decided we wouldn’t be using it once it got dark, if at all.

Our dinner shack/restaurant, called Forest Hut, was built in the mountains in the late 1960’s for loggers.

To this day, there is no electricity. According to the locals, this is THE place to go for a dining experience we’d never forget.

Once inside, we were seated at rustic wooden tables with benches and chairs. The hut was lit only with candles and lanterns. There was no heat, other than what came from the kitchen, but it stayed quite warm in there.

Each table had communal fondue pots and raclette stoves. For us, it was extremely exciting to have fondue in its country of origin since Dave’s mom has served this dish as a Christmas tradition for years. A little fun fact: fondue was promoted as a Swiss national dish by the Swiss Cheese Union in 1930.

Although fondue was familiar to us, neither of us had ever had raclette. Raclette is a Swiss dish of melted raclette cheese typically served with potatoes.

The server explained how to place the dish with a slice of cheese on the raclette stove and then use our wooden spatula to scrape the melted cheese over our potatoes, bread, pickles and minced garlic. We discovered that if we left the cheese on too long it would turn into a cheese crisp, which was an accident turned delicacy!!

By the time we were all done with our meal, we could hardly think about cheese.

With full bellies, warm cheeks and happy hearts, we stepped out into the dark cold night, grabbed our frozen jackets off the outdoor coat hooks (which were mostly wood screws), and readied ourselves for a downhill stomp through the snow with the aid of our hiking sticks and cell phone flashlights. Thirty minutes later, we were back in the village and ready to say good-night with another favorite experience to add to the collection.