One of my very first blog posts, eleven years ago, told the story of how I made contact with my Swiss cousins. After I retired, I started doing research on my family genealogy. One of my great-grandmothers was from Switzerland, and her death certificate gave the town where she was born... Othmarsingen. I discovered that the town had a website, and I wrote a message in the guestbook asking if anyone had any information about my Swiss family. Niklaus, who at the time was one of the town councilmen, read my message, and did a bit of detective work. He found a distant cousin who was still living in Othmarsingen. That was the beginning of my relationship with my Swiss family, and I owe it all to Niklaus.
Nick and I have kept in touch all these years, and each time that I travel to Switzerland, we get together. I told him that I was going to spend a few nights in Aarau, which is only a short drive from Othmarsingen where he still lives. He suggested a restaurant near Aarau where we could meet, and since I wanted to treat my cousin Walter and his wife Helen for dinner, the four of us got together.
The restaurant is called Chalet Saalhoehe. It is located in the forests of the foothills of the Jura Mountains, which extend along the border between Switzerland and France.
In spite of its rustic setting the restaurant was quite elegant. Everyone is familiar with fondue, one of Switzerland's most famous dishes. But we had something I had never heard of... "Fleischfondue" (Meat fondue). Just as with cheese fondue, we shared a heated fondue pot. But instead of melted cheese, the pot was filled with hot broth. We had plates of sliced beef and vegetables which we put on skewers and dipped into the pot.
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