We left early in the morning to drive up to Bern. I finally got to see the Swiss Temple. It was incredible to see how international it is. The workers there come from so many different countries. We heard French, German, Spanish, Italian. It is a beautiful temple.
We got out in Bern to see the bear park and as we were driving out of the city we found an incredible view of the whole city with the river bend.
After Bern we went into Fribourg and saw the Gutenberg museum- where the printing press was invented.
We did a lot of driving through the Swiss country side- a lot of cities in one day.
Our next stop was in Broc for the Maison Cailler, a chocolate museum. Yep, you read me right. Chocolate Museum.
We could smell chocolate from outside. And inside you buy your tickets for a tour in the right language and then you wait in their shop for your group to be called. When I say shop, I mean large chocolate store- with a large wall loaded with bars and a little cafe.
When our tour got started we were in a room with Mayan stone decor. The recording started up and said that we would be starting on a journey through the history of chocolate in the world and how it came to Switzerland. Then the floor started descending. It was so Disneyland. The floor dropped about five feet until it was now at the right level for a different door at our side could open up and when we walked through we were in a jungle- still smelling of chocolate. The tour continued to be very fun and a little cheesy at times. But it did a REALLY good job of making you want chocolate at the end. They had a room with great big sacs of cocoa beans and nuts from different countries. You can eat them if you want and I tried a cocoa bean- but they are gross. For a moment it DID taste like chocolate, but it also tasted like wood and it was ridiculously bitter. But I tried it! That's a new thing. Behind glass, like at Krispy Kreme, you can see the Cailler bars being made. Their machinery is really impressive.
The very last thing before we get back to the store in the front is the chocolate tasting room. Yep- tasting. The best part: they don't kick you out. You can stay in there as long as you want and the chocolate just keeps getting replenished. The unfortunate thing is that there is nothing with which to clean your palette. After about 7 pieces I stopped being able to taste the differences. And after about 12 pieces, I couldn't put any more chocolate in my mouth. But it was SO GOOD.
After we left the chocolate factory we went to Gruyère to the Cheese factory. What a day, right? We didn't actually go into the museum, but we saw the large basement where the huge rounds of cheese are stored and aged and machine-brushed with salt water. And of course we went to the store and bought cheese and Gruyère cream (double cream). This cream is very special and I have been searching for it since the beginning of my mission after the Jaquets introduced it to me. It is a typical swiss dessert to eat Meringues with double cream, and it is AMAZING. I mean- its basically pure sugar, but the combination of the sugar meringues with the unsweetened cream is so good that they made an ice cream flavor from it. Seriously. When I made my mom try it she said "just a bite." Then I gave dad a whole one and ate another one myself and then my mom said "maybe I'll have one more."
After we left Gruyère we drove down to Montreux, on the south east edge of lake Geneva. This is where you find the fantastic Chateau de Chillon. This castle is built right on the rocks that stick out of the water. It is on many lists of top things to do in Europe, so it didn't take much convincing of my parents to go. But when you see pictures you might not understand why it is so popular. It isn't the biggest or most beautiful castle- and we certainly have seen many of those. But it didn't take long once we got inside for my parents to understand. They just kept saying "this is so cool!" and "there's more?"
There are no guided tours- you just have free reign- over every inch of the castle. I'm not kidding- you go everywhere- and it is so fun to imagine that you're in a different century. We only had an hour to see the whole thing- but luckily since I'd been there before I remembered where to go and we were able to keep a good pace to see everything. As we were leaving right at 7, when they were closing, a group of people coming for a private party were arriving. Some stupid women were wearing tall heels- but they were in for a hard surprise that the whole castle is paved with cobble stones- good luck walking! It was perfect timing to take gorgeous pictures of the exterior because it was sunset!
It was a perfect day. Seriously- there are no words. Thank goodness there are pictures. When I look at them I can imagine I'm back there, experiencing it all over again. And to finish this perfect day, we went to get a kebab from the restaurant where I first discovered the Kebab- in the beginning of my mission. The same man works there, and I remembered how nice he always was. Missionaries went there so often and he would always wave when he saw us walk by. I was glad to see that the shop is still there and business was booming. They were very busy. And the kebabs were delicious and huge. I'm so proud of 'my first kebab shop' which still makes the best ones.
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