Gorgeous Gruyere
We flew from the UK to Geneva, where we picked up the car we leased for a couple of months and spent a brief overnight. The next morning, we started our journey to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, driving the scenic route through Switzerland. The girls have heard many stories about our time in Switzerland in 2009, including our time in Gruyere where mommy mooed at the cows and we sampled a lot of yummy cheese!
Cheese fondue is probably Emmeline’s favourite meal of all time. Before we left on our trip, she told us how much she would love to have a cheese fondue in Switzerland. Well, we were able to detour over to Gruyere to show them this beautiful town, sample cheese, and have a traditional cheese fondue.
We got to the town after driving through some stunning scenery. We parked our vehicle at the base of the hill/mountain and began our hike up into the town. It was a beautiful hike, and we all really loved getting to stretch our legs and explore nature. The views out into valleys and of adjacent mountains were a unique sight we were not used to after our hikes in flat England. To be fair, we much prefer more level hikes to the inclines/declines. Jon and I both feel our age when we do too many steep climbs and/or descents!
Once we got to the top, we were surprised to see a bustling Christmas market. I suppose we shouldn’t have been so surprised, given it’s December 17th. But Gruyere is fairly small and it just hadn’t occurred to us they would have one. But they did, and it was so fun to walk around and check out the various stalls.
We stopped at a restaurant for fondue. We had no idea they had such a gorgeous rear sun terrace overlooking the valley below until we walked in. They were busy and we had to wait for a table. We lucked out because the first table that came available was right along the rear wall and overlooked the valley. It was a stunning backdrop for our lunch!
We ordered a traditional cheese fondue, a meat platter with local meats, and a cheese and bacon rosti. The foods were to die for. They were sooooo good! Though all three of my lovely family members told me they prefer the cheese fondue I make back home. Back when Jon and I were still living in Calgary, we went to a wine and food show where we got a brochure with traditional Swiss recipes. This included a cheese fondue, which they had also made and were giving out samples of that night. Over the past 15 years, I’ve perfected the recipe, which we make at least once every two months or so.
We also ordered some local wine and some fizzy drinks for the girls. We aren’t normally big dessert people. Well, scratch that. Jon and I aren’t. Our girls would happily eat dessert every meal if they could! But we rarely order desserts in restaurants. We made an exception, ordering Swiss merengues with fresh Gruyere whipped cream and raspberries. And oh wow. They were to die for. Jon also ordered an espresso, which came with a little Swiss chocolate cup filled with fresh Gruyere whipped cream. Also unbelievably good.
After a truly decadent and indulgent lunch, we walked around the Christmas market some more, trying to find the cheese shop where we had done tastings 14 years ago. We didn’t find that one but did find another that did the same thing. We managed to find space to taste all the different ages of Gruyere cheese, choosing our favourite and buying a block of it to bring with us to Germany.
Back in the Christmas market, we found a little stall selling traditional Raclette. I’ve heard of it, but never knew what was involved. I recognized what the man was doing because I had just seen someone similarly eating something on our way out of the restaurant after our lunch. But had no idea what they were eating, just that it was oozing cheese and looked heavenly! Well, now I know! It was fun to watch him heat the top layer of cheese, peel off the melted cheese to pour over potatoes and pickled onions and serve it with a small glass of white wine. We also managed to find a little extra room to share one of these amazing little dishes!
We realized we had spent a lot of time in Gruyere by now and still needed to hike back down to our car and drive another 6 hours to our next destination. So we reluctantly said goodbye to this gorgeous little town to carry onwards with our journey. We are so glad we took this detour and satisfied yet one more dream for our children and gave them an experience I think they will always remember!