Makin' CHEESE!

One of the little things we brought back with us from our trip was a little cheese making kit. So the girls & I tried it out. We heated the milk and added the rennet. Then we used this nifty little stirrer to break up the curds.

Next we scooped out the curds into the little mold.

After it sits for a while you take it out of the mold to dry. Isn't it cute?

We rubbed salt water on it every day for a few days, and this is what it looked like.
This is what it looked like when we cut into it. It tasted all right but could use a little more salt or longer time doing the salt rubs. We also needed a cellar.
It was a long process for a little tiny cheese. If I were to do it again I would want a bigger amount for the work put into it. I hear mozzarella is easy to make.....

Day 14 Bern, Last day

OK I think I was tired of taking photos because I only have 3 for this day. Bern is the capital of Switzerland. The streets were cobble stone with statued fountains all along the main streets. (I can't believe I didn't get a picture of that.) There is also a famous Bear pit (Bern means bear) But there were no bears in it because the are renovating and building a new bear pit. But I did get a picture of the clock tower (the Swiss are know for their clocks) Crowds of people stand around to watch it chime in the hour, it has all kinds of moving parts with figures ringing bells and such.

Alright this photo we did a little play on words, and decided that they made chocolate fabric here. YUM.

This is a apartment that Albert Einstein lived in for a few years.

We got to tour the Capital building and do some shopping here We enjoyed our visit her in the old city. We later took an hour train ride to Zurich where we were to catch our flight home the next morning. We enjoyed our trip so much, but when we got off the plane in Arkansas and saw the kids waiting there with open arms.... There is just no place like home with your family around.

Day 13 Free day, Temple

Shaun & I were hoping for an opportunity to go to the temple in Bern.The day we were in Bern was booked solid and we were beginning to think we weren't going to be able to go. Our one free day was in a town an hour or so away. So we decided To get up at 4:30 am. to catch the 5:18 train after a couple of connections and one wrong turn we made it. Shaun has wanted to go here since his mission, the Swiss temple was on the cover of his french hymn book. This is a very bilingual temple. There were some missionary couples from the states so that made it a little easier. The session was in Italian so we used the headsets. Luckily there was a lady from Florida there picking up her son from his mission sitting next to me, She helped me where needed. It was a great experience and I am glad we found a way to go.

An interesting point, the temple grounds did not have a fence around it like most do.

We rode the train in & out of Grindelwald several times. I kept seeing this building and thought it was interesting so I took a picture because you can really see the house and the barn under one roof. House on the left barn on the right.
Here is a picture of our hostel in Grindelwald. If you look in the background on the hillside you can see a little house with a white dot (flag) by it That is where we stayed.
We had to walk up a very steep hill to get to the hostel but it was worth it for the view. Our balcony is on the left by the flagpole.

Our last night, us on our balcony with the Eiger behind us.

Did I mention I could live here?

Day 12 Ballenburg Museum

Today we took a train to Brienz and the a bus ride to Ballenburg. This was about a 3 mile long open air museum. They have taken old Swiss homes, barns, and other structures and reconstructed them, then grouped them by regions where they were found in Switzerland. Inside the buildings there was period furnishings and an occasional person working the old arts. It was kind of like a living museum. You could easily spend 2 days there but we only had half a day. (OK maybe I could spend 2-3 days, 1/2 a day was enough for Shaun.) I started taking pictures but decided I would literally have hundreds so I stopped. So here are a few random ones. This was an awesome place!

Doesn't Shaun look cute as Peter?

Just a view of the thickness of the thatched roof.

That is a lot of straw!

A lot of these buildings were home and barn under one roof.

Several of the kitchens we saw were in a hallway in the center of the building, they were black with soot, and very dark and dingy.

They had cloths you could try on, Shaun found an alpine hat.

I thought this was kind of neat, The chickens coop was in the barn so they built a little ramp for the chickens to get in.

I just like chickens, It's kind of like cows with bells. I just like it.

We then met this lady and her husband in the Heirloom garden. They talked to us about growing plants and saving the seeds. They maintain this small garden at the museum and then they have a larger one that they save and sell seeds from.

Have you ever heard the term skinny as a bean pole? Well here are a bunch of bean poles.

I did not have enough time at this place. If you take a trip to Switzerland go here, but plan a few days.