Favorite Restaurant Is Sold

Deborah Kade
Sep 16
5 min read

Oh, no... tell me it isn't so! Yes, our favorite restaurant, the Old Swiss House, has been sold!!!!

"After decades of being run with great dedication and passion by the Buholzer family, our house will enter a new chapter starting August 1: The Studer-Friedli family will take over the management of the Old Swiss House and continue the proven concept with just as much enthusiasm."

"On the Old Swiss House website it is written : The history, the special atmosphere, and the attention to detail will remain. The unique "Mouton Rothschild" collection and the legendary Wiener Schnitzel prepared at the table will also continue to be key elements of our house."

Pia and Katherina are also still working there, though.

Cleaning day at the Interlaken West station.

We are on the ICE 278 which starts in Interlaken Ost and will terminate at the Berlin, Germany Ost station at 19:41 later today. This is the German train that is always late.Guess what! The train is already two minutes late arriving at Interlake West!!!

Michael has to have his wienerschnitzel at the Old Swiss House in Luzern so guess where we are headed. Instead of taking the train from Interlaken Ost through the pass at Meiringen we are taking the route we took the other day with changes in Thun, Konolfingen, and Langnau.

Lovely scenery in the Emmental region.

Such large farms.

This is quite a steep hill. It must be tricky to drive on in the winter.

As soon as we got off the train in Konolfingen, there was an overpowering sweet smell in the air. Wonder what they are producing in the Nestle factory today?

The Nestlé factory in Konolfingen, Switzerland, is a global production and research center for specialized nutritional products, primarily focusing on

infant formula, dairy products, and healthcare nutrition

Key products and activities include:

Specialized infant formula: A major product line is new-generation, probiotic infant formula, including those for special dietary needs like protein allergies. The factory manufactures brands such as NAN and other high-tech formulas.
Clinical and healthcare nutrition: The facility also produces clinical health nutrition products, which are part of the offerings from Nestlé Health Science.
Dairy products and milk desserts: The site has a long history of producing a variety of milk-based products.

Research and development: As home to a Nestlé Product Technology Centre (PTC), the Konolfingen site is a hub for innovation. It develops new products and technologies for dairy and plant-based dairy alternatives before they are released to consumers worldwide. It is particularly known for developing technologies like hypoallergenic infant formula and a patented spray-drying process.

Saw three different Kambly trains from Konolfingen to Langnau. Great advertising.

Our first stop in Luzern was at the Old Swiss House for lunch.

Crunchy crust and soft inside.

Gorgeous paintings and antiques.

Lead glass windows

Preparing the wienerschnitzel

A deluxe house-style Wienerschnitzel as you have never tasted before! Very tender cutlets of veal are dipped in our own top-secret blend of beaten egg, Swiss cheese and herbs. The cutlet is then coated in specially prepared breadcrumbs and cooked in pure butter at your table. We serve our delicious now world-famous Wienerschnitzel with half a lemon and fresh egg noodles.

We have been serving this specialty for more than fifty years; with up to one thousand servings per month, it remains our most popular dish!

The recipe…

150 grams of best-quality veal, pounded till very tender
Five lightly beaten eggs, 50 grams grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper
Homemade breadcrumbs
A generous quantity of butter, 80 grams per person
Half a lemon
Serve with: fine egg noodles garnished with roasted breadcrumb

The presentation of the veal. Pia used that whole block of butter .

This is cranberry sauce. The berries are very small, though, as compared to American cranberries.

For dessert I had the house specialty, chocolate mousse, with many, many, many dollops of whipped cream.

Michael had the scropino, lemon sorbet with vodka and prosecco.

Michael and I had the happy birthday plate. It was his birthday yesterday and our anniversary today.

Katherina also extended her best wishes to Marnie and David. I recommended this restaurant when they were in Luzern in May.

Always a pleasure to see Pia again!

Michael and I walked through the Old Town section and looked up at the paintings on the walls of some buildings.

"Frescoes decorate buildings in Luzern to visually preserve and celebrate the city's rich cultural heritage, history, and religious significance, with paintings on buildings and bridges depicting local legends, Swiss history, biblical stories, and the lives of patron saints. These paintings also serve as public declarations of civic pride and religious devotion, with some facades featuring religious imagery or commemorating significant events like the Battle of Dornach."

Goethe stayed in this guild hall on his way to and from Italy

Battle of Dornach in 1499. The Battle of Dornach was fought on July 22, 1499 between the troops of Emperor Maximilian I and the Old Swiss Confederacy, close to the Swiss village of Dornach. The battle ended in a decisive defeat for Maximilian, and concluded the Swabian War between the Swiss and the Swabian League.

This building had housed a jewelry business, and was faced with painted panels: on one, rings are garlanded together, and held aloft by cavorting cherubs.

“Then there is advertising, such as the garland motif advertising a jeweler; each ring on the panel has a different mount.”

Look at the final ring, held by a cherub at the left-most side of the painting. What do you think that skull is all about? Could it be part of the vows when you say, "Until death do us part." What do you think?

Buildings in the Gothic Revival and Tudor styles often have oriel windows.

"An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an upper floor, but is also sometimes used on the ground floor."

"Oriel windows became popular in the 15th century. They allowed more sunlight into a room compared to conventional flat windows, and were therefore popular in northern countries such as England. They also could increase the usable space in a house without changing the footprint of the building.^"

Dragon rain downspouts

The Spreuerbrücke is having work done on it. The bridge was completed in 1408 as a part of the city fortification.

"It is called the Spreuer Bridge because the chaff from the town mills, i.e. the grain waste from threshing, was thrown over the edge of the bridge into the Reuss. The southern half of the bridge, built in 1408, stands at right angles to the Reuss, the northern half at an angle to it."

"The Spreuer Bridge, like the Chapel Bridge, boasts a striking series of paintings. Painted by Caspar Meglinger between 1625 and 1635, they bear impressive witness to a subject matter that was much in vogue in the Middle Ages: the Dance Macabre (Dance of Death). The pictures remind the viewer that death is ubiquitous and comes to everyone, regardless of one's station in life."