BUNKER HILL, Ohio -- Hand-stitched quilts and kitschy country collectibles I expected; reasonably priced antiques I hoped for. But cheese in every imaginable flavor, such as rainbow sherbet or peanut butter-flavored cream cheese? Not so much.

Here in the heart of Ohio Amish country, though, cheese made the old-fashioned way (i.e., by hand, using Amish farm milk) rivals antiquing and Amish-spotting as one of the more popular tourist draws. There are those delicious free samples and special viewing areas that allow clueless suburbanites like me to observe every aspect of the cheese-making process.

At Heini's Cheese Chalet in this tiny village just north of Berlin, for example, visitors who show up before noon can watch as workers cut coagulated milk into cheese curds and, after that's been cooked, drain away the whey and place the curd in stainless steel "hoops." Then, when they're tired of sticking toothpicks into the more than 50 cheeses available for sampling, they can treat themselves to a slice of homemade fudge or stock up on two-pound bags of pastry fillings piled in refrigerated cases ($3.49 for red raspberry, $2.29 for Bavarian cream).

A similar story unfolds each day at Guggisberg Cheese, a Swiss chalet-style cheesehouse just north of Charm. Only here, the emphasis is on the "Original Baby Swiss" that Swiss cheesemaker Alfred Guggisberg invented more than 50 years ago and today is sold by young women in dirndls. In homage to its heritage, the store also has a nice selection of cuckoo clocks.

People who make their home in Western Pennsylvania might think the center of Amish life revolves around Lancaster County, which is home to America's oldest Amish settlement; large Amish populations are also in parts of Lawrence and Mercer counties. Yet Holmes County in northeast-central Ohio actually counts more "plain people" than any other place in the United States.

In all, some 36,000 Amish and Mennonites are settled here, a fact that affords tourists an unprecedented opportunity to observe them at work and play: plowing their fields with draft horses, riding bikes, negotiating traffic in a horse-drawn buggy, cutting the grass with a pushmower, standing barefoot at the side of a road to hawk strawberries (a bargain at $2 a pint ).

Mennonites share the same simple lifestyle and similar religious beliefs as the Amish but use electricity and drive cars.

We had started our visit to Ohio Amish country almost by accident the night before, at one of the area's lesser-known but wonderfully named tourist spots: the Bridge of Dreams in Brinkhaven. I'd read about the 370-foot-long structure -- a former railroad bridge built in the '20s over the Mohican River and converted to Ohio's longest covered bridge in 1998 -- in a tourist guide but couldn't find it on a map. So despite its alluring moniker, we gave up.

Then suddenly, as we drove east on Route 62 toward Millersburg, we saw a sign directing drivers to a viewing area just under the bridge. It was pretty, but without any Amish buggies lumbering across it, not too exciting. We were quickly back in our car.

We had better luck in Millersburg, a charming little hamlet founded in 1815. After checking into our hotel, we headed back into town for some dinner. Unfortunately, it was late enough (after 9 p.m.) that most everything was shuttered. Fortunately, a kind barmaid at Hotel Millersburg's bustling tavern took pity on us and got the kitchen to accept our hungry plea for a few appetizers. Then again, the Victorian-style hotel -- which is on the National Register of Historic Places -- has a long history of going the extra mile for out-of-towners; it welcomed its first guest in 1847, making it one of Ohio's oldest operating hotels.

		Lancaster County tour Holmes County, Ohio, isn't the only place you can get up close and personal with an Amish family. The "Amish VIP Tour" in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County also introduces "English" tourists to their simpler way of life. Now in its second year, the tour takes visitors first to an Amish farm at milking time and then on to the work space of an Amish craftsman (depending on the night, you'll visit either a painted-gourd maker, a quilter or a carpet-loom shop). The last stop takes you inside an Amish home for some conversation. Tours depart at 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays through October from the Amish Experience Theater at Plain & Fancy Farm on Route 340, 1 1/2 miles east of Bird-in-Hand. Tickets cost $39.95 per person; tours are limited to 14 people. For more information, call 1-717-768-3600, ext. 210, or visit www.amishexperience.com. -- Gretchen McKay

The following morning we checked out the historic district's many attractions, including the 28-room Victorian House Museum, reputedly one of the best examples of Queen Anne architecture in America. Millersburg is also home to a glass museum and a wide variety of antique and funky gift shops.

Even more shopping can be found six miles down the road in Berlin, the oldest village in Holmes County. Unlike Lancaster County, which is known for its factory outlet malls, the stores here tend toward the small and personal. Many offer locally made arts and crafts and collectibles; there's also quite a few devoted to all things "country," a fact that makes it feel much more touristy than Millersburg. But there were a few surprises. For example, I spied some vintage Victorian hats at Queen Anne's Lace in the historic Pomerene House, bought some hot sauce at Berlin Chili Traders and enjoyed a latte at the urbane Java Jo Coffee Bar, all on East Main Street.

We also spent the good part of an hour sorting through the thousands of primitives, glassware, furniture and other collectibles offered for sale by some 70 vendors at the Berlin Village Antique Mall. The largest store of its kind in the area, it boasts more than 26,000 square feet of shopping over two levels. I ended up buying a traditional black Amish bonnet for $12.

From there, we headed north on Route 62 past Heini's to Winesburg, a picturesque town that's home not only to a tractor museum and a Wendell August forge (it includes both the world's largest handmade replica of the packet ship Columbia and the world's largest Amish buggy) but also a wonderful antiques store in an old general store. Along the way, we spied countless signs for wood shops, quilt makers and bakeries -- reminders that the Amish (and their English brethren) are just as likely to make their living off cottage industries as they are from farming and the dairy industry.

Had we gone just a few more miles on Route 62, we could have seen the world's largest cuckoo clock at Grandma's Alpine Homestead Swiss Village. Instead, we headed west to Mount Hope, where a livestock auction is held every Wednesday, and then north to Kidron, where we spent a happy hour wandering around Lehman's, the rambling, old-fashioned hardware store that caters to the Amish. Of particular interest was the non-electric appliances, such as a wood cook stove. (Can you imagine cooking for the family every night on that?) So authentic is its old-time merchandise that anytime Hollywood shoots a period movie, set designers come calling.

From there, it was just a short ride to what we thought was the Smucker's museum in Orrville. Sadly, it turned out to be just a really big store; the "museum" was little more than a walkway jammed with photos and video presentations detailing the company's 110-year history. Oh, well. At least we got to see the giant copper kettle in which Jerome M. Smucker made his famous apple butter using an old family recipe.

Geared to tourists, there's no dearth of restaurants in Holmes County. But we were hungry for something authentic. We found exactly that at the Becks Mills home of Amish farmer/chairmaker John Yoder and his wife, Fannie. Arranged by Amish Culture Tours in Berlin, the $20 communal meal was nothing fancy; the roast beef, buttered noodles and fried chicken the Yoders served the group on plain white dishes reminded me of something my grandma would have cooked for Sunday dinner. But how cool to be in a real Amish home, even if we weren't allowed to take pictures (close up, anyway). We did, however, get a tour of John's workshop and barn after dessert.

When we first started plotting our trip to the heart of Ohio's Amish country, we'd planned on visiting Steiner Cheese in the tiny hamlet of Baltic, billed as the oldest cheesehouse in the country (it dates to 1833).

But as is so often the case, we ran out of time. On our way back to Pittsburgh, though, we managed to drive through Walnut Creek, where a giant flea market is staged every Thursday, Friday and Saturday April through December.

We also took a spin around Sugarcreek in adjacent Tuscarawas County, which, thanks to its many Swiss-style building fronts, is known as the "Little Switzerland of Ohio." Charmed, we vowed to return for its Ohio Swiss Festival, held annually the fourth weekend after Labor Day.