This best sums up the Wengen Cheese Festival, which is a favorite of ours. It is a very large festival where you can buy Swiss specialties, especially cheese; enjoy Swiss food, folkloric music or buy a cow share. They also have a cheese making demonstration.
They had Lisa Stoll, age 22, play the Alpen horn during different times in the afternoon. She is amazing!!!!! I would say she is a rock star of Alpen horn music. One of the songs she played actually brought tears to my eyes. It was haunting but yet quite beautiful. I just read she played at the Basel Tattoo yesterday. That must have been a sight to see. I listened to her on YouTube when I got back to the room. She is so talented. She explained she uses two different mouth pieces. One is for the key of C and the other for the key of F. You can see her switching mouthpieces as she plays certain songs. Fascinating to see and hear.
The men of Wengen do the cooking. Yummy food!
I just love their homemade pumpkin soup with pumpkin oil and seeds on top. They add fresh cream, too.
Raclette A block of cheese heated over a burner and scraped onto a piece of bread.
Rösti. The Swiss version of hash brown potatoes. They put in lots of butter, onions, bacon and some chicken stock.
The men do the cooking!
Bennett, they had Schwarzwälder Torte, Black Forest cake. We know you can always find it in Wengen.
In Wengen, you are allowed to buy a share of a cow. At the cheese festival you can pick up your wheel of cheese plus any other gift they wish to add. I have wanted to do this for years and Michael has always talked me out of it. If the festival were held last weekend, I would have bought a share for the 2019 season. He worries how we would get the cheese home.
You get to choose which wheel of cheese you want. They may look small but they are heavy.
As an extra, they included alcohol and jam.
They had a cheese making demonstration, too.
The little boy received a round of applause as he mixed the cheese for quite awhile.
I always accept when they offer a drink of curds and whey. The announcer said if I drank a glass of this every day, I would live to be a 100 years old. Delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!
They had two yodeling groups.
They even received a wheel of cheese and some sausage.
Two Alpen horn groups
This group was new this year.
This group has been performing for years. The man on the far end comes from Germany.
This group presented a flag to the festival. The festival is celebrating its 20th year. The man holding the bowl puts a 5 CHF in it and spins it to make a swishing sound. It added something to the song Amazing Grace when they played it on the Alpen horns.
The band played toe tapping songs.
They held a raffle.
They had a steinstossen area. The farmers especially enjoy this sport. You take a rock and see how far you can toss it.
Steinstossen is the Swiss variant of stone put, a competition in throwing a heavy stone. Practiced among the alpine population since prehistoric times, it is recorded to have taken place in Basel in the 13th century. During the 15th century, it is frequently recorded to have been practiced alongside the Schützenfeste of the Old Swiss Confederacy. It is also central to the Unspunnenfest, first held in 1805, with its symbol - the 83.5 kg (183 pounds) Unspunnenstein. Yes, that number is correct. These rocks weren't quite as heavy as I saw last year at the Unspunnenfest I attended but......
Young or old...boys or girls...everyone wants a try. They measure precisely! There are prizes to be won for the different groups.
First place is a wheel of cheese.
When we left the festival, we did a little shopping at the Swiss Made Shop and talked with Kathy and the owner, whose name I always forget. Also, we walked to the end of town and looked out over the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Even though the clouds were coming in, the mountains were still beautiful.
It was off to Città Vecchia for dinner. Michael has waited a whole year for the mixed salad and Rusticana Pizza. The hot chili oil is quite spicy. He wasn't disappointed.
Ended the meal with a Colonel, lemon sorbet with a very large amount of vodka. It was way over a shot glass full! Yes, my cheeks are that red! Perfect ending to another perfect day in Switzerland.
