Back to Langnau, Switzerland - Friday, June 25, 2010

Back to Langnau, Switzerland - Friday, June 25, 2010

After a leisurely morning spent partly in the nearby town of Spiez where we are staying for 2 more nights yet, Jean and I went to find internet connection. I stopped in front of an abandoned store front parking lot and we were connected so for the next hour and a half almost I spent updating the blog and Jean sent several e-mails. It has been over a week since we were able to connect - very frustrating to say the least. What did we ever do before computers??

Then this afternoon we had been invited by Marion Rothlisberger from the Langnau Mennonite church to visit their farm upon her invitation at church last Sunday. They are a younger family with 2 daughters, one 17 and the younger 14 years of age. Her husband Kurt works in R & D at a local cheese factory by day and farms their 8 hectare farm in his spare hours. They live on her father’s divided farm - the other half went to the father’s brother then it was sold as I understand it. Her mother passed away 18 years ago and the father lives still in the original house/barn combination where she was born. Kurt and Marion built a new home or re-modeled it 15 years ago right beside the barn part so it is a compact little “community”. She was so good to us and has a real gift for entertaining strangers. We commented after, how reluctant we would probably have been to do what she did. She had also invited her 2 aunts - one speaks quite good English having been to Saskatchewan and Vancouver Island where another sister lives. The other aunt and her husband live nearby and were there as well. We were given a tour of the buildings including the stable where they have 8 brown swiss milking cows that they milk and send the milk away to be made into cheese. Three ponies and 2 rabbits made up the rest of the livestock although they did have a small pigpen. She has quite a few antiques sitting around outside and decorated tastefully with flowers - a very healthy garden and a great mountain top view. We sat out in front of their house and looked out over the fields and could see many farmers in every direction making hay while the weather is so favorable. Some farmers are very mechanized with balers and wagons while at least one we saw was pitching the hay onto the wagon by hand the old fashioned way. We counted at least 4 pitchers and 2 up on the wagon tramping it down and squaring the load - one driver of the tractor as well.
Outside the front door on the patio she served us Emmentaler cheese (that is their region) , 2 types of Swiss cookies, some fresh strawberries, coffee and an apple/ cinnamon cold drink. We left her our e-mails and addresses with the invitation to visit us in Canada if they ever come there for a vacation .
Over all it was a very fascinating experience and a rare privilege to have had a window into the life of a real working Swiss farm and family.