My Swiss friends

My first really adventure was a trip to Australia in 1994, where I studied English and made friends through a three-month course. I studied hard to get an English certificate called "First Certificate in English" (highly appreciated exam in Europe run by Cambridge University) . We had seen each other for ten years since then.
My purpose of this trip is to visit some of my friends after ten years. My Swiss French friend, Frederic lives in a lovely city of Neuchatel. We visited a cheese dairy of Gruyere, a famous Swiss mountain cheese. There are some cheese daires who keep their tradition of making cheese manually. But the factory applies the latest technology to make it possible to produce efficiently by only three workers.

 

 

After that, we hiked a few hours, enjoying a typical rural landscape like the picture below:

 

In the evening, I was invited to dinner at his parent's house to have a typical Swiss home dish called "Racrette".

 

 

First of all, the cheese is heated.  Once it melts, the surface is removed by a knife and served on a plate.

 This cheese dish is accompanied with boiled potatoes, pickled cucumbers and cured jam.

 

Zopf, a traditional Sunday Swiss bread made with white flour, plenty of milk and butter. It is my favourite.

 

Laveux is the wine growing area situated on the hill beside a lake, designated by UNESCO World heritage. We went there to taste some white wines and it was a beautiful day.

In the evening, we came back to a lovely Neuchatel and we had dinner there. What I had was Saucisson Neuchâtelois, a traditional Swiss sausage.

After leaving Neuchatel, on the way to Zurich, I went to visit another friend, Daniela. She picked me up at the station near her house and invited me for dinner. Even though it was a short visit, while she was preparing pizza and bruschetta (toast with chopped tomato) and having dinner, we talked a lot about our old days and what happened last ten years in Italian and English. This time, I had a chance to talk to her elder brother (who looks quite alike their father) and her son.

 

 

 

 

 

 





Luzern, Switzerland

Ten years has passed since I last visited Switzerland. Nothing seemed to be changed, looking at the scenes changing at the window on the train to my destination. Switzerland has a combination of cities with historical buildings and rural landscape with farming and livestock animals, namely cows. There seems to be no big building project which changes some cityscapes drastically. In Japan, when you have not visited a place for such a long time, you no longer feel you are actually in the same place. This illusion does not apply to Switzerland, I would say.
 My first destination was Luzern - a beautiful historical town beside a lake and is famous for a wooden bridge. I stayed at a youth hostel and in the next morning, I climbed up to the wall built around the town to enjoy looking over the view of Luzern.

The hightlight of tourism in Luzern is to visit this bridge and to walk it across and spend time along the lake.

Here in Luzern, you can have a traditional Swiss dish, "Wienserschnizel" at the restaurant called "the Old Swiss House". I would say the dish and services are the best in Switzerland. Since there is no wide range of traditional dishes in Swiss cuisine, I found it quite difficult to come across a restaurant where tourists can enjoy a typical and national dish in such an excellent quality. It is odd because the country produces a great variety of fresh vegetables, fruit and dairy products in high quality. The consumption rate of organic food in Switzerland is one of the highest in Europe. When it comes to dining outside home, many people tend to choose French, Italian and other country's cuisines. Probably, by this reason, there are not many restaurants specialized in the country's cuisine.

Anyway, the restaurant that I introduce here has a long history and have kept their tradtions for three generations. I am sure having a meal at the Old Swiss House will give a good memory.

 "Wienserschnizel" is a beef cutlet. Firstly, you prepare ingredients for coating a slice of beef. The picture below shows breadcrumbs and a mixture of beated egg and parmigiano reggiano cheese.

 Veal is pounded to become a thin layer.

 Butter is placed and a pan is heated. Butter melts gradually in a low heat.

 New the veal is first soaked into the egg mixture and then into breadcrumbs.

 When the pan is ready, the veal is placed onto the pan.

 When one side is down, the veal is turned upside down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name : Old Swiss House
Address : Löwenplatz 4, 6004 Luzern
Open : Tuesday to Sunday
Closed  : Monday

Phone : +41 (0)41 410 61 71
Email : info@oldswisshouse.ch
Website : http://www.oldswisshouse.ch/
There are two car parks opposite our establishment.
Bus Nos. 1, 18, 19, 22 and 23 stop right in front.