Wednesday was to be cheese day. We were off to Einsiedeln to visit an impressive abbey, a Swiss farm, and a cheese-making facility, with a fondue lunch. Rudy was our driver.
Our drive to Einsiedeln was gorgeous. We passed beautiful small towns filled with Swiss chalets. In most of these houses, the first floor was made of stone, and it was where the family kept the animals in winter. Window boxes were filled with geraniums to repel insects. We learned that Switzerland’s proper name is the Helvetic Confederation, abbreviated CH or CHE. We also learned that the Swiss pay a lot of taxes, follow rules, and that consensus is very important.
We passed the Astrid Chapel. Named for Princess Astrid of Sweden, who was married to King Leopold III of Belgium. Mother of three children, she was tragically killed in a car accident in 1935. Her husband was driving when he hit a fruit tree and lost control. The chapel was built in her memory, and it and the land it stands on are officially Belgian territory. Her youngest child was King Phillipe of Belgium, the current King (in 2026).
Housing is very expensive in Switzerland, and most people rent and take public transportation to save money.
We passed through Goldau, where in 1806 the deadliest rockslide in the history of Switzerland happened. 111 homes and nearly 500 people were killed. Many of the boulders were left where they fell, and as the area was repopulated, people built around them.
Our first stop of the day was at the Einsiedeln Abbey, one of the most important Baroque monasteries in Switzerland. St. Meinrad of Einsiedeln was a German Benedictine monk born in the late 700’s who lived as a hermit in remote Switzerland. He established a hermitage in 828 in the Einsiedeln Forest. One day, he was murdered by two robbers, hoping to find something of value in his shrine. Legend says that he had two ravens, which were like pets to him. The birds saw the robbers attack St. Meinrad, and they pursued the criminals all the way to Zürich, relentlessly attacking them until they were brought to court, found guilty, and executed. These two legendary ravens are the symbol of the town that came to exist. Over the years, the hermitage became a very influential Abbey.
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| Einsiedeln Abbey |
It is now the home of the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, which attracts around 800,000 pilgrims and tourists a year. The Madonna has a collection of around 40 dresses featuring intricate embroidery and precious stones, which are changed with the seasons.
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| Madonna in an elegant gold dress |
The Abbey was beautiful, and when we visited, workers were preparing for the Feast of Corpus Christi, a celebration of the Eucharist. In Switzerland, it is celebrated on the first Thursday of June, and our guide called it a “bridge holiday” because in many parts of Switzerland, people are off from Thursday through Sunday to celebrate. It was raining steadily while we were at the Abbey, but aside from making me more nervous as I walked down the stone steps, it had no negative effect on our visit.
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| Preparing for the Feast of Corpus Christi |
Our next stop was to visit Sonya, a 3rd generation dairy farmer with some of the most beautiful cows I’ve ever seen. Their farm has original Swiss brown cows, one of the oldest cattle breeds in the world. They are used for both dairy and meat, and Sonya’s farm has 25 original heifers and 25 dairy cows, which are generally cross-bred with US Swiss cows to improve milk production.
They currently have 3 female calves, Olivia, Lavina, and Nurina. The calves are given names that start with the same letter as their mom’s.
Sonya told us that, according to Swiss law, the cows need to be fed primarily with what they grow on their own land. Her family has 75 acres of land. Some of it stretches up the alpine hills. During the summer, the cows graze on the higher pastures, while the farmers harvest and dry the grass from the lower pastures to feed them during the winter.
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| Sonya with Tipsy the cat |
Sonya’s cows are milked twice a day and fed right afterward, so they are cooperative during the process. It takes an hour to milk all of them (5 at a time). They don’t pasteurize their milk. They store it in a tank, and when the tank is full, it is picked up by truck and taken away to be sold or made into local cheese.
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| The milking area |
She gave us a sample of fresh, pasteurized milk. It was very good, thick, and creamy.
In addition to their cows, Sonya also tends to 80 Swiss noble swine, all pregnant. Three farms take turns. One farm manages the breeding, then Sonya keeps them during pregnancy, then passes them on to a third farm to have their piglets.
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| She told us these sows are ready to deliver |
After our visit to the farm (and after our bus driver navigated some construction on a very narrow road), we headed to Milchmanufaktur Einsiedeln (Einsiedeln Dairy), a cheese factory. Out of the window of the restroom, you can see the practice ski jump facility nearby.
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| Year-round ski jump practice |
We were greeted by our guide Tracy with a drink of strawberry-flavored whey. It was very tasty. We asked about selling flavored whey outside their area and learned it’s expensive and fragile. Most of the US market sells powdered whey as a fitness product, but flavored liquid whey is not common.
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| Jeremy, Julia, and Jerry look a bit unsure, but the flavored whey was delicious. |
Making cheese requires milk, a starter bacterium, rennet (enzymes that used to come from cows and are now manufactured from a fungus), and salt. For everyday production, the factory uses machinery for the entire process, but for special demos like ours, they use traditional methods. First, you must slowly heat the milk in a copper cauldron. Heating too fast may scald the milk. Add the bacteria and rennet and let the milk coagulate.
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| Testing the temperature and consistency of the milk |
While we waited, our guide took us on a tour of the facility. We put on lab coats and plastic shoe covers for this part. We later heard that most factories don't let people get close to the process anymore, so we were thankful to get this behind-the-scenes look and didn't mind the extra precautions. We saw the huge vats where cheese is made daily.
We also saw the salt bath where the cheese sits after molding, and the room where the daily salt wash is done.
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| The salt bath |
For the next stage of cheesemaking, two volunteers were recruited: Jeannie and Jeremy, another Texas traveler in our group. Using cheesecloth and about 4 people (it’s heavy), you scrape up the curds and put them into a large mold to drain. Apparently the larger the curds, the softer the cheese. We managed on our first try, which our guide said was unusual (she may have been being nice to us).
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| Jeremy and Jeannie and the glamorous job of making cheese |
From there, the semi-solid mass is cut into 16 pieces, each gently rolled into a cylinder and added to the mold, with a weight on top to drain the liquid whey. Once they are drained, they are added to a salt bath, which serves as a preservative, helps them continue drying, and adds flavor. Next, they are moved to a holding area where they receive a daily salt wash (for semi-hard cheeses) for a few weeks.
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| Curds and whey |
After our success inl cheesemaking, we tasted yogurt flavors and various cheeses (Einsiedler Bergkäse (mountain cheese), Sihltaler (what we would call Swiss cheese), and Einsiedler Bsetzistein (a hard cheese whose name means “cobblestone,” for its texture)). Coffee-flavored yogurt is the most popular; pear is a regional favorite
They use fruit grown near Lake Constance, a lake which borders Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
Our cheese-making was successful, so we moved on to our lunch. We were treated to a cheese fondue lunch, with bread, potatoes, and fried apples for dipping. We also had a small glass of schnapps to dip in first, although we were cautioned not to go too heavy on it. The salad and white wine were good. We had fresh ice cream for dessert, which was fantastic. Apparently, we are not cheese fondue people, because neither of us particularly cared for it.
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| Cheese fondue: the bag has potatoes, the basket has bread, and the small cup has schnapps |
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| The ice cream was fantastic! |
After a very relaxing bus ride back to Lucerne, we dropped off our cheese at our hotel room and walked with Sky to see two more sights in Lucerne: the Church of St. Leodegar and the Lion monument.
The Church of St. Leodegar is a gorgeous, large Catholic church built on the site of a Roman basilica that burned in 1633. It is named for St. Leodegar, one of the two patron saints of Lucerne.
The Lion of Lucerne is a beautiful monument to 800 members of the Swiss Guard who died during the French Revolution. It is carved from sandstone, 30 feet long, almost 20 feet tall, and stunning; it struck me as very sad. The Lion is dying, a broken spear in its side, while protecting a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis, representing the French monarchy. Beside him is another shield with the coat of arms of Switzerland. There is a large pond at the base. It is a beautiful and poignant sight. Mark Twain wrote it was, "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."
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| The Lion of Lucerne |
Today, the Swiss Guard is prohibited from foreign military service, with one exception. They still serve as the Pope's bodyguards.
For dinner, we picked up a couple of day-old discount sandwiches from the Äss bar (technically, it means “eat” in German, but they are aware of the joke).
After dinner, we packed for our last day in Switzerland.
.HEIC)
