Show Dairy at Affoltern in the Emmental, and St.James Trail to Burgdorf

Saturday February 3, 2024 -- This time we headed into the Emmental Region of Canton Bern, always a pretty part of Switzerland to walk in late winter when the snow has melted and the pastures are still green! In particular there are many trails which provide sweeping views of the Bernese Alps on clear days, which this was!

We started in Affoltern (in the) Emmental at the large show-dairy where you can watch how cheese is made, in particular and quite obviously Emmental cheese! (And of course, we bought some cheese, it was very yummy!). The main reason why we started here was that there is a red picture frame from the Grand Tour of Switzerland program which I wanted to be photographed in, but it turns out it was about 2 km down the road in the opposite direction from the trail we wanted to walk...

....which was another section of the St.James Trail ! (Or: Via Jakobi, or: Camino de Santiago). Snow-free winters are our preferred season for walking the St.James Trail, as many sections are on paved roads, which are cleaner than meadow trails at this time of year, and too exposed for us in summer.

We did the section ending in Burgdorf, where we originally wanted to walk up to the castle, but not only was the afternoon quite late along, but the castle was totally wrapped in scaffolding. That visit will have to wait another year or so. Out main goal was to have a look at a historical structure outside the city called the "Siechenhaus", where people afflicted with leprosy were banned to live out their years in the Middle Ages. It reminded us of those poor souls who caught COVID and were basically banished to isolated hospital rooms, to live out their last few days there....

One of many pretty Emmental-style houses we saw along the way. This one was along the bus route toward the village of Affoltern.

Before heading to the show dairy, we detoured to this cute building, a typical granary of the Emmental regions (called a Spycher), which in this case was convered to a butter museum

According to the sign on this building, this particular granary was built in 1617

A large old farm house in Affoltern near the main road.

And off we go to look at the show dairy (Schaukäserei)

The building where the cheese factory is located

You can watch through glass panels to the level below where the cheese is manufactured. At the time we were there, they had just completed a cycle and were cleaning and refilling the vats with milk.

The top level shop sold everything from locally handmade pastas and meringues, plus heart-shaped butter patties, dried meats, and of course loads of Emmental cheeses in large blocks, and slices of various kinds of raclette cheeses.

VIDEO:

Short video of the start of the process, as the milk is filled into the large vats.

Walking around the grounds of the show dairy

Our next stop was inside this building where there was a display of how the cheese used to be manufactured a few centuries ago

The sign indicated that this was the herdsman's cottage, built in 1741. Cheese was made by heating the milk over an open fire. People were much shorter hundreds of years ago!

The information center at the Show Dairy grounds.

For 175 Francs per night you can sleep in this barrel, eat food from the dairy, and watch the milk being delivered early in the morning. No showers, but an outdoor toilet!

A look at the nearby village of Affoltern

After a look at the show dairy and a vain attempt to find the Grand Tour of Switzerland frame south of the village, we headed north on our 13-km hike at about 11:45. We got to the train station in Burgdorf at 4:15 p.m. National Trail no.4 is the St.James Trail.

Heading north out of the village, we first pass another of many beautiful old farm houses

As we head uphill, looking south behind us is a very clear view of the highest of the Bernese Alps. On the far right are notably the North face of the Eiger, and Mt.Mönch next to it, and the very pointy one in the center is the Finsteraarhorn, at 4274 meters the highest peak in the Bernese Alps.

Along the way, some nice pasture trails, although at this time of year they tend to be quite soft and often muddy.

A look back at the village of Affoltern

A closer look at the road which we followed for a bit southwards out of town. The "Grand Tour of Switzerland" frame is still further on. But as a background, a very nince view of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. You can even just make out the Obervatory "Top of Europe" in the saddle (Jungfraujoch) between the two mountains in the center.

Directly to the south is the peak of Mt.Stockhorn, a peak we ascended on the memorable hike in September of last year. (Photos HERE)

About 20 minutes north of Affoltern we reached a farm called Schnabel, which translates to "Beak" (i.e. Bird's Beak)! We have almost another 3 hours to go to walk to our destination of Burgdorf.

This is the farm called Schnabel. From here, the worst part of this hike was along the paved road going uphill to the next farm called Junkholz, where we joined the St.James Trail.

Passing another magnificent old farmhouse at Junkholz, where we joined the official St.James Trail.

A Björn was born here in October of last year!

Being 12:30 now, we were glad to find a bench with a magnificent view for our picnic lunch!

These are the items we purchased at the show dairy shop in Affoltern, but we didn't open them here, as we already had sandwiches along.

Toward the east we had a view of Mount Rigi, which you can apparently see from a lot of locations in the northern part of Switzerland! The snow-covered Massif to the right is the Uri Rotstock, a massif I'd like to visit this summer.

Continuing on our hike after our picnic lunch on the bench, we are very happy to have these lovely views over the Emmental and the Bernese Alps.

Along the way we pass a monument called the Lueg (we didn't go up to it), a monument dedicated to the Bernese Cavalry, of which 54 members died of the Spanish Flu. On clear days, you can see 300 peaks in 14 cantons from up there, even thought its elevation is only 887 meters above sea level.

From the trail just 20 meters below the Lueg Monument, we also had a view of about 300 peaks!

A little further down the road we passed the Lueg Gasthof, which also features the Swiss Folk Music Center and a large outdoor seating arena for folk music concerts.

We often pass by benches inscribed with positiv sayings or invitations. In this case, written in the local Bernese dialect, it reads "Don't walk by, sit, enjoy yourself a bit"!

Continuing along our trail heading west, more views across the lovely Emmental landscape.

National Trail no.4 is the St.James Trail, the section of "El Camino de Santiago" through Switzerland. We still have another hour and 45 minutes to go to Burgdorf.

This next village is called Heimismatt, it had several extremely pretty buildings.

A fabulous farmhouse

More pretty buildings in Heimismatt

A roadside bench invited us for another stop at 2 p.m.

We're not the only ones enjoying the sunshine!

And then a bit further along, this lovely building is part of the farm called Gerstler. After this we entered a forested section, heading north.

In the next larger community called Kaltacker (where there is a bus stop), we passed the "Gasthof zum Hirschen"

Amazing little wooden granary now serves as a chicken house!

Heading southwest again, we pass a farm called "Egg".

At the Egg farm was an interesting historical building. From 1805 onward, handmade nails were produced here. The owners had 7 employees who hammered under the linden tree all summer. The nails were sold at market in Burgdorf until 1914. There was a large market for these nails during the two World Wars (40 million nails required by the Swiss Army in 1940). The nailer vocation was recognized in 1936 in Switzerland and required 2½ years of training. These nails were used to build the bridge over the Emme River in Rüegsauchschachen, a bridge we crossed in March 2021, thought to be the largest wooden bow bridge in Europe.

Another lovely house. Here you could help yourself to a cup of apple juice for 50 cents, and there was also homemade jam for sale (in the small cupboard on the side of the house) but we didn't buy anything here.

We are now walking along a crest with a view to the Jura mountains to the west. The snow-covered peak is the Chasseral; at 1606 meters it's the highest peak in the Bernese Jura. We were up on that peak once, in October 2019.

We asked the farmer if these were twins, and he said "No, but they have the same father"! (This was at a farm called Sonnberg-Neuhaus)

Looking down the hill on the north side of the crest we are walking on. The range in the back is one of the extensions of the Jura range.

Heading down through the forest now toward Burgdorf (another hour) through a channel carved in the sandstone hills, as we had read about on the Internet. It's called the Leuenhohle.

Heading down the Leuenhohle, a trail cut deep into the sandstone.

Back down at street level now we get the first look at the church on the hill in Burgdorf, and the "Siechenhaus", which is the house where the people of Burgdorf suffering from leprosy were banished to.

The Burgdorf leper house exists here since 1472, and has been under federal monument protection since 1925.

Next to the leper house is a chapel (consecrated in 1446) which served as a religious building for the sick people. It is one of the few country churches not destroyed during the Reformation.

Crossing the Emme River into the city of Burgdorf. We got here at 15:45

The Burgdorf castle is "wrapped" in scaffolding, so there seems to be restoration work in progress

The wooden covered bridge over the Little Emme River was built in 1776

The wooden covered bridge over the Little Emme River was built in 1776, but not originally at this location. It was moved here and renovated in 1959

Bernhard Luginbuehl was a Swiss sculptor especially with iron, had displayed one of his works at the Montreal Expo in 1967, and was a close friend of Jean Tinguely, also an iron sculptor. This is a museum dedicated to his works.