Posted By John

Growing up in southern California, our family would occasionally make trips into Mexico. My dad would always say, “Remember, when we are here, we are ambassadors of our country.” Not a bad way of looking at things, I think.

As far as I can tell, everything is smaller in Switzerland. Most of the roads we find ourselves traveling on take us from one small village to another. It is incredibly scenic here and words hardly do it justice. Our agent, Paul, has stated in the past that “some people here just can’t see past these mountains.” That might very well be true, but I sure haven’t seen this in the village of Obstalden where we are staying.

In the restaurant/bar of Hotel Sternen,

a more welcome environment cannot be found. In a room with walls and ceilings made of beautiful wood, this seems to be a local favorite place for villagers to gather. With some down time between shows, Rough Shop has spent an inordinate amount of time in this room. Locals come and go throughout the day & night, and I get no sense of an insular feeling here. As people pass by us, we are always greeted warmly. If we’re eating, passersby say, “Bon Appetit.” I could do with a place like this in St. Louis. It might exist but I haven’t found it, yet. And when I do, it probably won’t look out over the deepest lake in Switzerland or across snow-filled Alps with waterfalls coming down.

It’s generally not a good thing when a band on tour has a Friday off. One thing the U.S. and Switzerland have in common are that music clubs come and go. A club where we were booked closed, so we have a rare Friday off. As a result, we took refuge at Hotel Sternen (which is where we stayed the first night here), which is not a bad way to go. At least, the free wireless internet (did I mention that most of Switzerland seems to have wireless internet?) allows us to catch up on e-mail, download photos and do some blog postings. All over pitchers of a Swiss beer called Feldschossen, of course.

I guess this is where the drinking and good eating portion of the blog post kicks in. It is early evening, and we have just sat down to some really fine eating. Anne and Marie are having Berner Rosti, a combination of shredded potatoes, melted cheese, smoked ham and a fried egg on top.

This entrée didn’t have a heart symbol by it on the menu. Andy and I both have the Cordon Bleu, which would be just like one would have in the US except that instead of chicken, it is a large bone-in piece of local pork stuffed with three kinds of cheeses, smoked local ham, and pan fried. As Marcel (the owner of Hotel Sternen and the restaurant chef) explains, the Cordon Bleu is his largest-selling item. I can see why. “I use three cheeses; a fine local cheese for flavor, racalette cheese for melting, and another cheese to give it just the right volume.”

After the meal, I guess it is apparent to Marcel that we are going to be in the restaurant for the duration of the evening and he says, “You should make session.” By this time, more people are strolling in for a drink and most people are done eating. We end up pushing aside a table and just playing unamplified in a corner of the bar. Since Anne can’t use her electric standup bass, she also plays guitar in this setup. This ends up being big-time fun. All the tables become full and, throughout the night, people keep sending up the house beer to us - Bugel-Spez, a Swiss beer.

What a bunch of friendly folks these people are. They are clearly enjoying the music while having conversations, playing cards and drinking.

Anything with Andy’s dobro playing especially was a hit. At some point in the evening, some crazy concoction of egg and cherry liqueur was passed around to everybody in the bar (around 25 people). Sounds strange but was actually quite good and somewhat potent. Marcel then came up and dropped a baseball hat in front of us that had been passed around and filled with eighty Swiss francs (over $80 USD).

After we stopped playing, we ended up talking to Marcel and his girlfriend, Sylvia, until after 2:00 in the morning. Marcel insists that we drink a Swiss liqueur called Willisauer that is served warm and has one coffee bean mixed in for color. Once again, very potent, but we didn’t care since we all just had to walk up to our rooms. Truth be told, this liqueur with twelve different kinds of herbs was pretty strange. I’m not sure I’ll be seeking it out again but, still, a really nice way to end an evening.

The next morning after breakfast, we are presented with our bill and all drinks from the day before were deducted from the bill. In addition to the standard breakfast (included with hotel and already quite wonderful)

Marcel presented us with a big pan of Rosti to split between us. Fabulous, I tell you. What we thought would be an uneventful night off ended up being a really memorable evening. Marcel’s girlfriend, Sylvia, sells a line of natural body care products and is really a warm person. Marcel is quite a character and, when not working in the kitchen like a maniac, he’s sitting at a table drinking and smoking with the villagers. Marie commented that the bar at Hotel Sternen is kind of like a Swiss Frederick’s Music Lounge.

OK, off to Lachen for a show……