Alps – Eat and Drink Like A European

Olpererhütte – The Very Best of the Alps

December 30, 2022/in Alps, Dolomites/by Craig Bresett

One of the best things about hiking in Europe’s Alps is the amazing network of alpine huts (“refuge” in French, “rifugio” in Italian, “hütte” in German). Hikers can set out on most any trail and somewhere along the way there will be a hut where they can rest, get a meal or a cup of coffee, and in some cases stay the night if they wish. These aren’t just mountain resorts that you can drive up to like we’re used to in North America – these are literal places of refuge high in the alpine that are only accessible by hiking (or skiing in the winter). Some of them are so rugged they can only receive their supplies by pack animals or helicopter!

The very rugged Rifugio Monte Cristallo was built during WW I into the side of the mountain and is still used by climbers today.

Rifugio Guido Lorenzi in the Dolomites.

One of my favourites is the Olpererhütte in Austria’s Zillertall, which is why I’ve included it in our Very Best of the Alps Tour. The scenic suspension bridge behind the refuge will make you stop for a photo, guaranteed! And then you can rest your feet and satiate your hunger and thirst at the refuge’s excellent restaurant, with fine views over Lake Schlegeisspeicher.

Olpererhütte – originally opened in 1881 as a simple shelter, it is now a full restaurant offering accommodations to backpackers.

Kaiserschmarrn – a perfect meal after a hike and a specialty at Olpererhütte! It’s chewy Austrian pancakes shredded and served with applesauce and raisins. Yum!

Nothing like a refreshing pilsner beer after sweating your way up the trail!

The Joy of Raclette

November 19, 2022/in Alps, Raclette/by Craig Bresett

Alpine cuisine is very cheese-centric, and with good reason. It seems in some parts of the Alps there are more happy cows than people wandering around the meadows enjoying the beautiful vistas. I always rave about the milk, cream, and butter in the Alps – there’s obviously a connection between the free range dairy cows munching on wildflowers and drinking from glacial melt streams and the rich, sweet milk they produce. And of course, the people of the Alps have become experts at preserving all of that milk in the form of cheese.

La Raclette by Ernest Biéler (1903)

There are many ways that Alpine cheese is consumed – fondue is of course the one that comes to mind when you think of the Alps, particularly the Swiss Alps. However, for me, after a long day hiking or skiing in the mountains, Raclette is the way to go. This traditional cuisine has its roots in the medieval era, when cow herders moving cattle through the high Alpine meadows would carry blocks of hard cheese for their evening meals, setting them beside their campfires to melt the outer layer so it could be spread on the stale bread they had to eat while away from their villages.

Today Raclette is served a couple of different ways – in Switzerland it will usually be melted by a large wood fire and scraped onto plates by servers.

Traditional Swiss Raclette – half the block warms up while the server scrapes the melted part off the other half.

I prefer the French method, popular in Chamonix, where the server actually brings a small Raclette oven to your table and you melt the raclette as you go. It’s always perfectly hot and melty! It is usually served with boiled potatoes, ham, and pickles and a glass of Savoy wine. Such a simple dish, but simply delicious!

French style Raclette – the wood fire is brought right to your table!

Join us for a proper tableside Raclette dinner in Chamonix on our Very Best of the Alps Tour!

Lac Blanc – French Alps

November 12, 2022/in Alps/by Craig Bresett

The Very Best of the Alps

One of the most gorgeous hikes in the world – take the lift to La Flégère from Chamonix and hike to Lac Blanc in the French Alps. Beautiful views of Mont Blanc and the entire range, and a fine alpine hut to rest your legs and enjoy a beverage or snack before descending! This is what hiking is like in the Alps. I’d love to have you join us on our Very Best of the Alps tour in 2023!

Bolzano, Italy: A Mountain Town with Culture, Class, & History.

April 9, 2014/in Alps, Bolzano, Dolomites, Europe, History, Italy, Ötzi, travel/by Craig Bresett

Bolzano is a fascinating stop on our Grand Tour. It’s located in the Italian Alps, but German speaking. Along with its outstanding natural beauty it houses one of Europe’s most interesting archeological finds: Ötzi, the mummified remains of a prehistoric man found in 1991 by hikers in the nearby mountains. In the following post Tim Pozzi of BBC Travel highlights some of Bolzano’s many charms.

Bolzano is the gateway to the Dolomites. It sits in a valley, and it’s quite something to gaze up from the main square, pretty Piazza Walther, at the forest-clad slopes and ridges of jagged limestone that surround it.

The centre is traffic-free, so as you meander away from Piazza Walther you hear sparrows cheeping, coffee machines whirring, old women gossiping, cups and saucers clinking.

The colourful medieval, Gothic and Belle Époque buildings, with their stepped gables, turrets and attractively faded frescoes, have a north European feel. Yet the porticoed main commercial street, Via Portici, feels Mediterranean. At Piazza delle Erbe, described with pleasure by Goethe in his Italian Journey, the two flavours meet. Some of the cosiest bars and cafés are hidden behind the stalls of fruit and flowers, spices and cheeses. And speaking of fruit – did you know that South Tyrol produces 12 per cent of Europe’s apples?

Bolzano’s churches; its Franciscan cloisters with 15th-century frescoes of monks from Scotland and Newcastle; its Mercantile Museum; and Museion, a spectacular, glass-clad collection of modern art on the banks of the River Talvera, are all rewarding places to visit. But Bolzano’s biggest attraction is Ötzi, a mummy discovered by chance in 1991 after spending the previous 5,300 years frozen in mountain ice. Most intriguingly, he was murdered.

You can see Ötzi in his fridge, kept at 21F (-6C), at the Museum of Archaeology, alongside a thrillingly vast quantity of artefacts found with him, from bear-fur hat to bow and arrows, and fascinating footage of the police, not realising how old he was, extracting his body.

This being the 20th anniversary of his discovery [in 2011], there is also a stunning new reconstruction of how tattooed, muscly Ötzi would have looked on the last day of his life.

The chance to come face to face with a man who lived some 500 years before the building of the Pyramids makes the journey to Bolzano worthwhile on its own.

Olpererhütte – The Very Best of the Alps

The Joy of Raclette

Lac Blanc – French Alps

Bolzano, Italy: A Mountain Town with Culture, Class, & History.

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