Interlaken is indescribable in the winter. There is no haze and the snow covering the mountains has dropped to a lower elevation. You get rid of the summer haze and the scenery becomes magical.
It is raining again today but it truly does not matter. So... any pictures today are taken with the phone as they have been the last few days. Just don’t want to use my good camera in the rain. The temperature is almost Springlike. Today, the temperature in Interlaken will be around 50 degrees. We have had warm weather since we arrived in Germany. We are not complaining, though.
Interlaken in the Winter is like a ghost town. Most of the tourists are gone. There was one bus of tourists from Asia but they left last evening.
Michael and I had a restful sleep and enjoyed a hearty breakfast in the hotel dining room. We had so many choices for breakfast. They even had fresh vegetables and fruits that you could juice. It was quite popular with people. If you come to my house, I have many different choices of tea. In fact, Cordula gave us one of my favorite German teas, Nasse Füße which translates to “wet feet”. It is delicious but sounds strange. Well, I could choose from 17 different teas this morning. Yes, there are more choices than English Breakfast and Earl Gray, which are two of my favorites, also. There were many choices for the Asian diners as well as the Middle Easterners. Oh, then there were the bread choices. Crusty rolls on the outside with soft squishy centers. Swiss creamy rich butter and Swiss cheeses were a highlight with me. Well, I could go on and on describing breakfast.
We are meeting Franzi late this afternoon and are going to Luzern for dinner. Franzi works at Kambly, the maker of our favorite biscuit (cookie). Michael is looking forward to buying some more lemon biscuits and sables with hazelnuts. I am looking forward to buy some more pretzel like biscuits. We shouldn’t do too much tasting as we are having dinner in Luzern.
First stop of the day was Bern. It doesn’t matter if it rains, there are arcades to walk under.
A skating rink is set up in front of the Parliament Building.
Decorations at the train station.
I could hear classical music at the train station. The acoustics are amazing!
Bern is decorated for Christmas. Small trees with lights are hanging off buildings. It must look beautiful when they are lit at night. Another street has candles.
We walked through three Christmas Markets. There is as much police presence as there was in the Christmas Markets in Germany. I was worried after what happened in Strasbourg but I feel better now.
Senses are working overtime. Here are the results after a few minutes. Hear: Christmas music, classical music from a piano, children laughing, babies crying, people talking, etc. Smell: chocolate, smoke, brats, perfume, scented soap, incense, gingerbread, etc. Sight: blinking lights, Christmas trees, colorful children’s toys, chocolate Santa’s, etc. Touch: sharp Christmas tree needles, rough bark from a log, smooth chocolate, etc. Taste: creamy chocolate and gingerbread.
Mistletoe hanging at the entrance to one of the markets.
Yes, those certainly are Swiss cows.
Nougat
At the cathedral, they are setting up for Christmas mass which will be televised.
Lit candles and wrote prayer intentions for family and friends at the cathedral and at the Catholic Church.
Enjoyed looking at the window displays. Globus, like our Macy’s, has a wonderful display. The man has a white unicorn instead of a horse when he rescues the woman.
Pastries, Meats, Chocolates........Everything looks so delicious!
Filling for the Pastetli
A little poem about the three sparrows. We found them at the market in front of the cathedral. Fun to watch them eating and to listen to them sing.
Hiding in the trees
Our next stop took us to Trubschachen to buy our Kambly biscuits and to see Fränzi. Such pretty decorations at the entrance to the Kambly factory store.
When we arrived, Fränzi was teaching a gingerbread making class. She was our instructor many years ago when we took a biscuit making class with Tanja, Joli and Ferosa from Sunny Days B&B.
The houses were so adorable! Fränzi gifted us the house she had created. It even had a black cat which reminded me of TeTe.
Kambly has added some different biscuit varieties like quinoa with raspberries. I thought it was good and Michael thought it was dry. There is also a larger gluten free biscuit and pretzel section. The tasting tins were constantly refilled.
The penguin bags include an assortment for younger children.
"1958
I was a brainchild of Oscar J. Kambly. At that time, appetizers or snack crackers like we know them now were not known yet. Since Oscar J. Kambly had just developed a new technology enabling him to produce light, crispy biscuits, I leaped into his head and delighted him with a vision of me as a bite-sized snack. I chose a special occasion to do so: His wife’s birthday who was born under the zodiac sign of Pisces. And since the only quiet time in the entrepreneur’s busy day was when he was shaving in the morning, I waited for this very moment to enter his thoughts. The very same day he and his team started to work on my design: A baking mold was produced and a prototype baked. I was named “Goldfischli”, meaning “Little Goldfish” in Swiss German, and within the shortest of time I, the light and crispy bite-sized salted snack cracker, became a pioneering new product on the Swiss food market."
Kambly has such a talented group of people working there.
It takes time and patience to create these tiny figures.
These are all my favorites. Hard to chose just one.
Cute tails on the pigs
The caprice biscuit is dipped in chocolate on each end.
Check out the black sheep's black legs. Adorable!
Such rosy cheeks!
Santa???
We waited for Fränzi to finish work and then we took the train to Luzern for dinner. When in Luzern, we always go to dinner at the Old Swiss House for their famous Wiener Schnitzel.
The man whom greeted us and the older woman whom took our drink order looked familiar to me. Well, when I checked the restaurant brochure I knew why. He is the owner and she is his mother.
Even though another waitress started cooking the schnitzel, Philipp Buholzer did most of the cooking.
He said his grandmother had come up with the recipe. They cook 1250 Wiener Schnitzel at your table every month. Michael told him we have tried the recipe,we downloaded from the Internet, for the schnitzel but Michael always had trouble with the bread crumbs for the noodles. Mr. Buholzer showed Michael what to do. Michael has to mash down the crumbs more and use lots more butter!!!!!! The bread crumbs should be very wet and not dry in the pan. Once the bread crumbs start to bubble, spoon it over the noodles. All the butter goes onto the noodles and the crumbs dry out. Another secret is to fry it very slowly over low heat. Delicious!!!!!!!!
For dessert, we had the lemon sorbet with prosecco and vodka. They also included fresh fruit and a pirouette cookie.
Christmas lights in Luzern Difficult to take pictures in the rain
Train station decoration
What a wonderful day!!! Many memories to treasure!!!!