Ueli showed up, the Swiss scientist I’ve known for many years, a person who has taught me a lot about the chemistry of milk and cheese, and we left for Gimmelwald and from there through the deep Lauterbrunnen valley to a remote spot a couple of hours away.  Cows came close, intrigued by the picnic, but Ueli muscled them away.  Later we climbed back up the mountain for cold draft beer.

All in all, four+ hours on our feet, and now back at the flat facing a rock face and sipping local white with Mostbruckli in anticipation of lentil soup and followed by small veal pounded flat and pan seared tomatoes and dried porcini, etc.

The exhaustion is compounded by the decreased oxygen: We’re close to 6000 feet above sea level.