A Taste of Switzerland and Santa

Santa? In Switzerland?

After arriving in Vevey, we navigated our way down to our Swiss abode, the Riviera Lodge, a hostel right on Lac Leman aka Lake Geneva. On the other side of the lake lies France. What a beautiful spot! We found our rooms on the third floor all with views of the lake, and very comfortable except we don’t have our own bathroom! Oh, we have been spoiled! Stacey went out to find some groceries for breakfast (and some mixers for our alcohol) while the rest of us just vegged.

Raw Steak for Dinner — It Was Delicious

Eventually, we roused ourselves enough to head out to dinner. Three restaurants had been recommended to us, and the one we chose was just lovely. The French-speaking waitress was extremely helpful. I ordered some escargots for entrée and then something that sounded interesting (in French) for mains. Lorelle and Kiryn stuck to the steak and salad while Stacey shared my spirit of adventure and ordered Steak Tartare which was raw minced meat you could mix with several different herbs to eat. It was top quality beef and I love raw meat! Mine was a blue steak (just melt in the mouth) with a mushroom and tomato risotto poured over it. There was a whole saucepan of risotto so Kiryn finished it off for me as I couldn’t eat it all.

New sunnies for me

And so to bed. My cough still hasn’t improved and it seems to be worse at night. I eventually fell asleep just before 2 but was awakened at 4.30 am by a coughing fit and couldn’t go back to sleep. 4 nights in a row with minimal sleep — I am going to crack soon. After showering in the 45-second showers, I headed down to the optometrist to see if my sunglasses could be repaired. (I had trodden on them yesterday morning in our rush to leave Venice) Alas, they were beyond repair, but they could fit my prescription lenses into new frames which would cost me the princely sum of 232 Swiss francs. I don’t even want to know how much that is in real money! Amazingly the first pair I tried on were a perfect fit and didn’t look too bad either, and they could have them ready by this afternoon.

So off we trooped to Rochers-de-Naye over 2000 metres high to see the view. Kiryn was still feeling poorly so opted to stay in bed but since it was train all the way and no walking, I thought I’d make the effort. We trained it to Montreux, then hopped aboard the train up to the top of Rochers-de-Naye. There were dozens of little kids on the train and we started to think it must be school holidays until we found out we were actually on the SANTA train chugging up to Santa’s Grotto!

All we wanted to see was the view! (although Santa’s Grotto was pretty cool too.) We thought the trip was included in our Eurail pass but we were only able to obtain half-price tickets — still 25 Swiss francs each! But worth every franc! The views were indescribably stunning; the mountains, the lakes, the forests, the pastures — our senses were overloaded with beauty. And it was so warm, I didn’t even need to put on any of the cold weather gear I had carried with me. I found a rocking chair and lay in the sun while Stacey and Lorelle trekked up to the topmost peak — as if we weren’t high enough already! We only stayed an hour as we had to catch the next train down.

When we reached Montreux, the girls decided to head off to see Freddie (Freddie Mercury’s statue) while I headed back to Vevey to collect my newly framed sunnies. I stopped at the supermarché to pick up some local wine as Stacey is cooking stir-fry for dinner.

Lost — again!

I don’t know how — Vevey is not a big town — but I lost my bearings and ended up completely and utterly lost. I am certainly making an art form out of getting lost! Even though it was only about 5 pm, it was quite dark especially when I took a shortcut through an unlit park. Through pure luck, I managed to come across the optometrist, collect my new sunnies (Raybans, no less!) and head for home.

A home-cooked meal

After a delicious stir-fry cooked by Stacey with assistance from Lorelle, we headed to our room to devise tomorrow’s plan of attack — the cheese factory at Gruyères and the chocolate factory at Broc. I ended up succumbing to sleep while everyone else was still talking. I simply cannot function on 2-and-a-half hours’ sleep for 5 consecutive nights!

After a good 9 and a half hours’ sleep, I woke up feeling a little more refreshed. Stacey and I shared a breakfast of muesli, bananas, yoghurt, milk, orange juice and a cup of tea — I think I made up for my lack of breakfast yesterday and headed off to the station. Train to Montreux, change trains for the Golden Pass train to Montbovon, then the train to Gruyères. Stacey and I had planned to walk up to the castle first to work up an appetite for the cheese fondue which was to be our lunch.

Gruyères and Cheese Fondue

We walked through the prettiest village I have ever seen (another superlative!) to one of the best castles I have ever seen (notice I did say ONE of!) There’s a few high up in my regard. It was just the sort of castle I like — not over the top decadent — but very comfortable nevertheless. It had an amazing art collection by modern artists most of which I really loved. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed into the history of Gruyères video presentation because we were 2 minutes late in getting back to the desk! Grrrrr!

I wrote about Gruyères in this story.

We could hear our cheese fondue calling us so hurried down the hill to the restaurant. It was scrumptious — we ate every last spot of cheese and bread — but it wasn’t cheap — 29.50 Swiss francs, but that’s all we had eaten all day (well, apart from breakfast!)

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

Then off to Bulle to change trains for Broc and chocolat! An absolutely top-notch tour at the Caillers-Nestlé plant followed our arrival (and I’m not just saying that because of the “as much chocolate as you could eat” at the end of the tour), it was a very entertaining and informative tour for only 10 Swiss francs. I think I ate at least 30 Swiss francs worth! I tasted every single chocolate they had, plus had more than one of each of my favourites which were called the Ambassador collection. I was tempted to buy a box but just filled my water bottle instead. All I wanted to drink was a large glass of milk but ended up having a cold something with honey and cream, which washed the chocolate feast down. I think the manufacturers have figured out you can’t eat as much chocolate as you would like to without drinking something too.

Back to the train for the reverse ride home. We all hopped off at Vevey except Stacey who’s heading off to meet a friend in Geneva. Kiryn shopped for some extra ingredients for fried rice, while I managed to get a load of washing on, and Lorelle cooked dinner. As you can imagine, I wasn’t very hungry after all that chocolate!