Day 3: Einsiedeln and lots of Cheese

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.   

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. 

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. 

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). 

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. 

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. 

Cheese fondue: the bag has potatoes, the basket has bread, and the small cup has schnapps

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."

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. 

 

Day 2: Lucerne City Center and Max Chocolate

 Tuesday, June 2

We woke to a gorgeous view out the window. We enjoyed the hotel, breakfast bar, and prepared for our walking tour of Lucerne.

The view from our window

 

From the breakfast buffet

A well-balanced breakfast?

Sky told us that the mountains we could see are called the pre-Alps. Pilatus is the largest local mountain, and she informed us we would be visiting Pilatus on Thursday.

Our Hotel was built in 1906, originally named the Palace, and was bought by a Chinese company during COVID. They renovated and renamed it the Mandarin Oriental Palace. 

Lucerne gets 10 million visitors a year (about 2 million stay overnight). 8500 residents. 

Hotel Montana on the hill nearby. It features the world’s shortest cable car ride, taking passengers from the street below to the hotel lobby in 60 seconds. 

In Lucerne, hotel guests are given a bus voucher, so Sky taught us how to use public transportation there in case we chose to get around on our own. Our bus stop was the Palace Casino stop, named for our hotel and the nearby Casino Hotel (and casino). Buses 6, 8, and 24 would all take us from the City Center to our stop.

The city of Lucerne is very Catholic, and the Anglican Church was built for English explorers. Most of Switzerland is protestant today, but Lucerne remains Catholic. 

In Switzerland, church taxes are deducted from each worker’s paycheck. You declare your religion or that you are “not religious.”

The flag of Lucerne has two horizontal stripes, white on top and blue below. Switzerland has a highly decentralized government. The national government handles foreign policy, defense, the national railroad, and currency. Switzerland uses the Swiss Franc, abbreviated CH, which we learned upon arrival. Fortunately, most places accept credit cards.  

The flag of Lucerne in front of Town Hall Tower

Weinmarkt Square is the pedestrian-only medieval square in Lucerne’s Old Town. It was originally a central market where people could purchase the goods they needed. For example, the grain market was where people sold grain. There is not much flat area in Switzerland, so grain was shipped from Italy using the Rhine River. The river that runs through the city of Lucerne is the Reuss (pronounced Roys).

We saw the Town Hall Tower, originally built to watch for fires from the corner windows. It was built higher over the years, as evidenced by the different materials used in each addition. Fire was a huge threat, so each family had a bucket in their homes, and if they heard warning bells, they would report with their buckets to help.

The Town Hall Tower also features a Renaissance-style clock that displays the phases of the moon. 

Town Hall Tower

A meeting place for bakers marked by a gold pretzel

There are large painted facades on the buildings throughout Weinmarkt square, celebrating various elements of the city’s culture and heritage. For example, one features the image of a Passion Play. The town of Lucerne held annual Passion Plays on Good Friday from 1453 to 1616. 

A mural depicting the Last Supper in Weinmarkt square

The town also features linden trees, planted near the river. The linden is believed to bring harmony, and on the ground near one are the words for birth, life, and death. One marks the place where the medieval court would pass judgment. There is a local proverb that says, “Beneath a linden tree, you cannot tell a lie.” The trees also smell nice and help keep the air clean and fresh. 

A Linden Tree in Lucerne

The water in both Lake Lucerne and the Ruess river is very clear and drinkable. Town officials manually control the lake's water level by placing or removing 12-foot wooden boards to regulate flow. Fishing is not much of an industry because the water is so clear that fish don’t grow to a large size. 

The Reuss River flow can be altered here

One really remarkable feature of Lucerne is the fountains that carry spring water from nearby Mount Dragon. The water is so clean that you can bring a cup or bottle and drink it straight from the fountain (there are also street-level faucets for dogs). We all sampled the water, and Bill refilled his water bottle. 

Bill gets a cool drink from a Lucerne Fountain

A street-level dog drinking fountain

There are two (of the original three) large covered wooden footbridges in Lucerne that span the Reuss River. Both bridges feature paintings by local painter Hans Heinrich Wägmann on spruce-wood boards, displayed in triangular frames at the top. Many of the paintings feature St Maurice and Saint Leodegar, the patron saints of Lucerne. St. Maurice was a 3rd century Egyptian military leader and Roman commander who was martyred for refusing an order by Emperor Maximian to murder local Christians. Maximian ordered every tenth soldier killed (the punishment called decimation). Eventually, the entire legion was executed. Saint Leodegar was the son of a Burgundian nobleman from Paris. He became a priest and a monk. Unfortunately, he got on the bad side of several kings in Northern France and was tortured and beheaded. There are also stone statues of both men outside the Church of St. Leodegar in Lucerne. 

 

The Mill Bridge

The ones on the Spreuer Bridge (Mill Bridge), built in the 13th century, feature a Danse Macabre theme, each displaying skeletons to remind us that we will all die eventually, so we may as well enjoy life. 

The second large wooden bridge is the Kapellbrücke (meaning “Chapel Bridge”). It’s the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe. A fire on the Chapel Bridge in 1993 destroyed almost the entire bridge in 12 minutes. Fortunately, when the bridge was shortened to make way for commercial buildings, some of the original triangular paintings were placed in storage. They were added when the bridge was rebuilt.

Incredible triangular-shaped paintings along the bridge

The Wasserturm (Water Tower) and the Chapel Bridge

The Wasserturm (Water tower, meaning "standing in the water," not "storing water") was built in the 13th century and is part of the Chapel Bridge. It has 8 sides, thick walls, and, over the years, has been used as a torture site, prison, and archive. The strong, stone walls kept the town archives safe, and provided secure housing for prisoners 9 feet deep. Sky told us that sometimes feuding couples would be locked in the tower to “encourage’ reconciliation since divorce was not permitted. The Water Tower also houses the largest breeding colony of alpine swifts in Lucerne. The swifts winter in South Africa and migrate in the spring.

Surrounding the town of Lucerne is the Musegg Wall, 800 meters long, built around 1400. It features nine surviving towers; each one created in a different architectural style.  Sky told us you can walk the length of the wall, but we opted not to even try. She also said the varied architectural styles didn’t serve any real purpose other than to show off the talent of the town’s builders. 

One of the towers along the Musegg Wall

The Alte Suidtersche Apotheke (Old Suidter's Pharmacy) is the oldest continually operating pharmacy in Lucerne. It was founded in 1833 and features modern pharmaceuticals as well as some folk medicine remedies. 

Alte Suidtersche Apotheke (Old Suidter's Pharmacy)

Around Lucerne are lots of statues of a hairy, bearded giant carrying an uprooted tree, called wilder mann. He’s considered the guardian of Lucerne. The myth was based on large bones were dug up in the area and were mistaken for those of a 16’ giant. They later discovered they were mammoth bones, but the statues and legends remained. 

We visited the Jesuit church in Lucerne; the first Baroque church built north of the Alps. It was built by the Jesuit College of Lucerne as part of an attempt to keep Lucerne Catholic. Construction began in 1667, the church was inaugurated in 1677, and the final tower was completed in 1893. The beautiful red marble is fake, just painted plaster, as it was too expensive to import that much red marble. It looks gorgeous, though! One of the side chapels is devoted to Saint Nicholas of Flüe (also known as Bruder Klaus), a hermit regarded as the patron saint of Switzerland and as the Father of Swiss neutrality. A farmer with 10 children and a local judge, he left the community (with his wife’s permission) to live in isolation in a cave. He was known as a peacemaker, and local officials often sought his advice. His robe and walking stick are stored in his altar in the church. 

Ceiling of the Jesuit Church in Lucerne

Note the gorgeous faux red marble surrounding the altar

We briefly returned to the hotel to relax, then headed back to the city center and split a roast beef sandwich with tartar sauce from the bakery near our afternoon meeting place. 

Our afternoon excursion was to Max Chocolatier with Annamaria, our chocolatier from Seville, Spain. The company was founded in 2009 by owner Patrik Köenig. It is named for his youngest son, Max, who has Down syndrome, the youngest of 3 boys, who currently lives in Miami. Max loved the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a child, and it inspired his dad to create Max Chocolates. They only have 3 physical locations, all nearby. They don’t want to leave Switzerland because they believe chocolate making should be done by hand with care, not mass-produced. Their products are all natural and responsibly sourced from around the world. The cacao beans are imported primarily from South America and Africa (each has a distinct flavor influenced by nearby plants), while other ingredients come from around the world. For example, they get pineapple from Hawaii, pecans from Georgia, and bourbon from Tennessee. They get vanilla from several locations, including Mexico. We got to meet the owner, Patrik, right before our tasting. They are very open to suggestions about flavor combinations to try. We would be sampling their summer collection.

Cacao Pod

We began in the lounge with a chocolate tasting.

Round plate has milk chocolate with caramel and apricot, white chocolate with beets, milk chocolate with caramel and passion fruit, oval plate has ganache squares in dark and milk chocolate, roasted Spanish almonds covered in house chocolate, and milk chocolate with pineapple jelly (Jeannie's favorite)

First, we sampled white chocolate with beets. It was pink in color. I couldn’t taste any beets- maybe a light raspberry taste? It was very good. Next, we sampled a milk chocolate with caramel and cream infused with apricot. It tasted a little tart, perhaps a bit like cherry. It was also very good.

Our third sample was milk chocolate with caramel, salt, and passion fruit. It was delicious and tasted a bit like jam. This one was a group favorite. 

Next were Spanish almonds, roasted and caramelized, blended with house chocolate, and covered with fine cocoa powder. Then we had milk chocolate with pineapple jelly with vanilla (loved this one). 

Next up, we were asked to compare three ganache squares, each with a different cacao percentage. We tried 70% Costa Rica ganache (good), 82% from Colombia (also good), and 100% (I forgot where it was from). Did not like that one at all. It dried out our mouths. We ate more beet chocolate to get rid of the taste. 

After our tasting, we were invited to make our own chocolate bars. To maintain a clean kitchen, we each had to put on an apron and a hat. Then we chose the type of chocolate: white, milk, or dark. Annamaria retrieved parchment bags filled with melted chocolate, and we filled the mold with 70-75 g of chocolate, piping to the edges first, then filling in, tapping it gently on the table to eliminate any air bubbles. We chose which toppings to add: cacao, hazelnut, pistachio, pumpkin seed, almond, caramel, chili, salt, and/or black pepper

Jeannie pipes in her chocolate

Bill adds his toppings

Jeannie made a milk chocolate bar with hazelnut, caramel, and salt. 

Bill’s creation was dark chocolate with pumpkin seeds, salt, chili pepper, and caramel. 

Max’s uses many different molds for their chocolate. Besides the standard bar or squares, they also mold cows (of course), bulldogs, teddy bears, rabbits at Easter, and Santas at Christmas.  

Creamy white chocolate

Swiss Chocolate Cows!

Annamarie also showed us the moving belt they use to cool truffles. When they add them to the belt, they put the bells on first. When they hear the bells fall to the floor, they know it’s time to go catch the truffles. They use three different machines to melt the three different kinds of chocolate, white, milk, dark - all at different temperatures. They also have a “Recycle bin” for mistakes. Some of the chocolate in the recycling bin is remelted for future use, and some is taken home by chocolatiers.  

Chocolate conveyor belt

We retrieved our now cooled chocolate bars and a gift from Patrik, and resigned ourselves to leaving this chocolate paradise.

A gift from our hotel - more chocolate!

It was raining when we finished, so we ran back to the bus stop and caught a ride home, very thankful we had brought our umbrellas.  

Bill relaxed with an Eichof, a local beer, at happy hour in the hotel while Jeannie napped. 

Dinner was burgers from Holy Cow Burgers. Bill navigated the bus system to get there and went to an underground shop for a beer, but when he returned to the bus stop, he didn’t see any buses with the correct numbers to get back to the hotel, so he gave up and walked.  As he did, one of the correct buses passed him by. The beer was a triple high-draft lager, Valaisanne. 

Day 1 of our Trip to the Rhine River

 I do not like Heathrow airport, and it does not like me. To begin at the beginning, we woke up on Sunday, May 31, at 7:30 AM, planning to leave for the airport at noon for our 3:30 flight. Bill ran to the grocery store to get some bacon. I just happened to check my email. We received a mysterious email from travel, saying our flight had been changed to Monday, June 1. I tried to log in to my Viking.com account but couldn’t. I looked at the British Airways website, and it had the Monday, June 1 flight as well. We texted Jeremy. He was no help, but an email he had forwarded to us previously had a phone number for Viking, so I called them, and a rep named Sparkle let us know that British Airways canceled our flight and rescheduled us for one on Monday. The problem was that Monday is the first day of our extension. We would not arrive until Tuesday morning. She rebooked us on a flight departing at 12:50 pm on Sunday, with two connecting flights. That left me around 5 minutes to log in and select seats. We headed to the airport a little after 9 AM. We flew to Philadelphia, where we waited with a British family who shook our section of the chairs with a rousing rendition of “The lady goes trot, trot, trot.” I don’t think farmers gallop, but I had to let that go. Once we boarded, we flew from Philadelphia to Heathrow, where we are currently sitting, waiting until 8:25 am, when they will tell us which gate our 9:15 flight will depart from. We will then (hopefully) fly to Zürich, Switzerland.

When the gate was posted, it was only a few hundred yards from where we had been waiting. While we were seated waiting for our boarding group, a woman came over to ask us a few survey questions about our experience at Heathrow. When I told her we were American, she said she was sorry about all the problems. I told her we hadn’t voted for him, and she said, “Of course you didn’t!”  She said it sounds to them like there are just shootings everywhere and asked how it feels to be surrounded by people with such strong and different opinions. We were among the last people to board, and after the relative comfort of premium economy, it felt like sitting in a shoe box. Takeoff was delayed a bit, giving us time to listen to a young boy read aloud the names of every nearby aircraft to everyone nearby. Once we were finally in the air, the flight itself was ok, but the landing was rough. The wind was apparently a bit much, so the pilot touched the plane down but “disengaged,” and we went back up to circle around and try again. Between that bouncing, a general lack of air, and a dirty diaper nearby, both of us were feeling rather nauseated, and there were no air sickness bags to be found. Thankfully, with help from my portable fan, we made it without incident.

We were slow getting through the airport thanks to long lines in the women’s restrooms, but our Viking person was waiting for us. She contacted our driver, Wolfgang, who drove us to Lucerne in a Mercedes-Benz.

We met Sky, our host for our Lucerne extension. She is originally from Istanbul but has lived in Switzerland for 20 years with her German husband and her three teenage kids. She used to work for the Red Cross in Geneva. The hotel was gorgeous, with a view of the lake and the Alps. The hotel reception gave us an overview of our room and left us to relax. We were asleep by 3:30, skipping the welcome drink and dinner.