Wednesday: Today was a really interesting day. We left the hotel early, at 7:30 am, without breakfast and took a van up the mountain on a winding single track paved road to a cheese farm.

On the way, however, we finally got our view of the North Face of the Eiger. It has been mostly in clouds for three days, and we never really had the full unobstructed view of the mountain. This shows the concave Nordwand as well as the Mönch peeking from behind the Eiger, and the Jungfrau further to the right. That saddle between the latter two mountain peaks is Jungfraujoch where we were two days ago.

Still, we never got to walk along the valley by the Eiger and see it up close; clouds were around it every time but this is another view today looming above Grindelwald.The Eiger seems to make its own weather and can be in clouds when the other mountains are in the clear.

When we arrived at the farm, the views were hard to ignore.

But we met Daniel who was going to explain the process by which cheese is made and indicated today was a busy day because they needed to move the cows further up the mountainside for summer pasture. They work in a consortium with seven farms across the mountainside and a joint decision is made as to when to move the cattle to which they all adhere. Each farmer owns their own cows and equipment but the land is owned communally.

Then he showed us the milking barn. At least this is the barn for now. Once the cattle are moved further up the mountain, another hut is used both for the milking and for one of the farmers to stay in overnight.

The cheese is made by hand and the process starts with the milk being cooked in a large kettle once they have it saved from three separate milkings. The cooking process separates the cream. In this photo, Andreas, the owner of the herd, is stirring the milk.

Daniel gave us a chance to taste the heated milk. Being selectively lactose intolerant, I passed on this opportunity.

We also noticed that Daniel and Andreas each had an earring in a different ear and they said it is a symbol of the part of Switzerland they come from. Andreas is from Grindelwald and he wears an earring in his left ear; Daniel’s is in his right ear. It’s a traditional item that they wear for festivals or other occasions where they dress in specific swiss clothing. I have to find out what type of earring Ross would be entitled to wear. Hmmm.

Then we went back outside to have breakfast and it included wonderful crusty bread with three types of cheese plus hot milk and cold milk and several types of jam in a beautiful setting. Have I mentioned the musical accompaniment of the cowbells?

Most of the cattle here were Simmental cattle. Their herd included 26 mature cows that they milk twice daily. He also told us that the younger cows, or teenagers, that are not being milked yet are kept in a lower position on the mountain.The constant sounds of the bells on the hillside provide a pleasant background noise.

Daniel also explained that when they get ready to move the cows up the mountain they put heavier bells on them that have a deeper sound. He said the cows understand that when they have these bells on, they are to climb up the mountain.

He also showed us the barn where the cheese is stored for up to several years after it’s made.

At the restaurant last night we had cheese from this farm that was made in 2016.

The next part of the process was to show us what happens after the milk is cooked for some time in the big kettle. The curds and whey start to separate. First, he pulled out some curds for us to taste.

Then Andreas gathered up the curds in the cheese cloth.

And moved it to a wooden container.

He made three containers of cheese from this pot, then stacked the containers on top of each other. The shelf above with stone weights on it, was lowered to press on top of the containers.

He also showed us a few goats they keep, not to make cheese, but mainly to help lead the cattle when they are moved on the mountain side.

At this point, our hikers were ready to tackle the hills and I caught a bus that took me back down to Grindelwald. But the visit to the farm was fascinating and full of information about this way of life. Made us appreciate cheese more and understand how important those cow bells were.

My trip down was on a full-size city bus which apparently comes this way several times a day. This trip was just me and the driver, and he was maneuvering around these sharp turns.

The start of the hike was from the farm.

They encountered an occasional friendly cow on the route.

The trail gradually started to go uphill.

Later, Ross contacted me that he was also returning to the hotel via bus and that I should meet him and our guide Louis at 1:30 pm to take another bus and gondola to meet the kids when they finished their hike. I was perfectly content at the hotel and asked why we couldn’t just wait for them here. Louis said, “cliff walk.” So we went. The gondola took us to First – think of the word “fierce” – a minor mountain summit on the slopes of the Schwarzhorn above Grindelwald. While on the gondola, we saw people below us buzzing downhill on the Trottibike which is similar to a scooter in that you stand on it and hang onto a small handlebar. You could also rent a tricycle-type bike, low to the ground, to travel along these same paved paths down the mountainside. Most people were not wearing helmets and many had crashed along the side of the path. Basically, this was a steep and curvy downhill paved path and I imagine a fairly high rate of speed could be achieved. No one along the path looked seriously injured but it just looked like a lot of accidents waiting to happen. It’s Europe.

Once we left the gondola and started on the cliff walk, it was so cloudy that we could not see what was below us.

Maybe that was just as well.

There was a restaurant at the top also, I’m sure a skier hangout in winter, and we waited there awhile but then Louis got a call from Steve that the rest of the group was in pouring rain and would likely be another hour. So we headed back down to town on the gondola. I think they had a wonderful hike complete with lots of cows and another great picnic lunch but the downhill section of the hike was marred by the rain and clouds.

Dinner that night was at a local Italian restaurant; some of us elected to do takeout and ate on our balcony at the hotel. Tomorrow, we travel to Zermatt.