Visiting the Daetwylers

Back in June we went on our first out of town trip here. We went to visit our Huntersville neighbors, who happen to have family in Switzerland (what a small world!!) and were visiting them for a few weeks over the summer. We found out about their plans before we even moved to GVA and we were so looking forward to getting together with them this entire time.Ralp and Kali are our next door neighbors in the US, and Ralph's parents live in a small towm in the German part of Switzerland now, and run the main branch of their family company there.
We left work around 2:30pm and got on the road. The trip took about 3 hrs and we got to Bleienbach around 6pm.

We stopped by the Daetwyler Sr house to meet up with everyone. What a fantastic place they have too ! It is a very modern looking loft on the top floor of the building where their office is. They designed it all by themselves (well an architect did, but all the ideas were theirs). I was especially impressed by Ralph's Mom's kitchen. It is just amazing!

Ralph and Kali took us to dinner in the neighboring town to an tiny, traditional restaurant where we got to try some delicious Swiss German food. The restaurant is located in a little old house but apparently it is pretty famous there. It had plaques for winning all kinds of food awards and recognition. And it was packed the entire time we were there.

After dinner they dropped us off at Ralph's parent's previous house in the village, where we would be spending the nights. The house is still owned by the family but currently noone is living in it.
We slept like logs! The bed was so comfy and it was so peaceful and quiet there, not a peep or car sound from outside. Such a nice change after our noisy city apartment!
The next morning we drove back to the Daetwyler compound and met everone for breakfast. Afterwards Ralph gave us a tour of their factory and plane hangar and told us all about the history of their family business which was pretty amazing to say the least and will get a post of its own soon...

We spent a few hours touring the factory, then we picked up Kali and their little girl Emalyn, and headed to the town of Emmental to an old fashioned cheese factory, which shows the traditional process for making Emmentaler cheese. To most of you it would be commonly known as SWISS CHEESE! Yes yes, Emmentaler is the mild yellow cheese with lots of holes which we call swiss. It tastes soooo much better here though when it's made from local milk and according to the traditional recipe.
Here is a few shots from the cheese factory including the tiny old house where the chese used to be made in the olden days.

I don't think we would have made it back in those days... Look how low the beams were!!

And here are some shots from the modern part of the cheese factory...

We had a lovely lunch at the factory and while everyone got something different, all our dishes were covered in thick layers of delicious melted cheesy goodness! My meal was the bomb and I HAVE GOT to attempt it at home some day. I think it was called Spiegel Ei mit Kaesse Roeschti, which turned out to be sunny side up egg on top of a mound of hash brown potatoes and all covered with shredded cheese and broiled. O M G!! So good!

This is Ralph and Kali's daughter Emalyn, not our food, obviously :) She was so good all day!

We wanted to go up for a hike that afternoon but the weather got pretty nasty - it rained and got really cold so we just went back to the Daetwylers' and hung out there. Fortunately in the afternoon the weather cleared up so we went for a little walk across the fields to Ralph's grandparents' old farmhouse and pigged out on yummy cherries straight off the tree!!

Later we met up with Peter and Rosie (Ralph's parents) and walked down to a little Italian place next to the airplane hangar for a delicious pizza dinner. Afterwards we said goodbye to everyone and drove back to our little house, and the next morning we left to go home from there.

We had such a fantastic time with the Daetwylers, junior and senior. Thanks so much Ralph and Kali for inviting us over and to the parents for their hospitality. It was such a treat to see you guys! We hope you come back soon this time so that we can have you over in Geneva.