Two factory tours today! Cheese and Chocolate
Morning
We got up around 7:30 and by 9:05 we were on a train. We were headed to Gruyeres. Gruyeres is where they make Gruyere (no 's') cheese.
Shuffling Sara and Julia out the apartment door, through the town of Fribourg, and onto a train platform was easy. We have been used to traveling by train with all our luggage, so with just the bob-stroller and a backpack we were footloose and fancy free.
Our coffee maker in the apartment takes special capsules, so our first stop in the train station was to a coffee shop. We passed a Starbucks on our way to the train station, but it was closed! We don't know if it was closed because it was early on Sunday or if it was closed Sunday altogether.
The train ticket was expensive, or at least more expensive than we thought it would be. For all of us it was 32 CF. And that is with the half-fare (half price) card that we have. The kids travel free. Since our destination was under an hour away we thought it would be much cheaper. Not that we are questioning the price, it is just that sometimes thing are more pricy than you originally think. But really, the tickets that we got were "full day" tickets, which turned out to be more handy than we really knew at the time. (More later.)
First Train Ride
To get to the little town of Gruyeres we had to change trains once. Changing trains is easy in this small region of the French/Swiss Country side (they speak French here). All we had to do was cross the platform to reach our second train - a cute train that looked like it should have been in a museum. It was sweet, boxy, and just looked like something from a 1960s postcard. The girls are train experts now, and they walked over to the train together, pushed the button to open the doors, and walked up the steep metal steps to get on the train. Then, with out looking back, they march down the train aisle to find a family set of seats. (Family seats are two seats facing each other with a little table.) When they find a seat, they climb up, sit next to each other, and stare out the window. This leaves Dan and I to sit down opposite them and admire how cute they are.
Gruyeres
When the tiny one building train-station sign said "Gruyeres" we got off the train. Right onto the train tracks. It was snowing. Big huge flakes were pelting down from the sky. I found that funny, since I had made it a point to have my sun glasses and I put sun screen on Sara and Julia - it was sunny when we left Fribourg and now it was snowing less than 1 hour away in the countryside!
Oh, the train ride to get there was jaw dropping gorgeous. As the train whizzed along we had patchwork quilt green pastures at eye level, and they we could look up to see the snow capped Alps rising up as if from a dream. For about 45 minutes it was so pretty, you could film it and show it on TV, just the landscape was astounding. Not only was the landscape pretty, but the towns we passed by looked like they were from a fairy tale. Not just one or two towns -- all the towns were cute. With church steeples, sloped roof houses, and just oozing cute. Swizerland is both beautiful and cute - how do they manage that? The towns were intermixed with farms. Sometimes the train brought us passed towns and sometimes we were treated to green, green, green farm land - even in Winter. The snow was there, but higher.
Bus Ride to Gruyeres
Since our "day pass" included buses and trains, we hopped on the bus when we got to the Gruyeres train station. It bought us right to the town. Rick Steves calls Gruyeres "magical ambience" and "charming" and "feels like a movie set" and it really was. But first we had some fun to deal with. When we got off the buss to Gruyeres (a 3 minute ride from the train station) Dan said, "sh*t I left your backpack on the bus!" So we figured out that the bus would be circling around again in an hour and we didn't worry about it.
We explored Gruyeres. It is tiny. It is perfect. And in February, we were the only ones there. It is really one "street" (no cars of course) that leads up to the castle. Does it get any better than that? We wanted to have lunch (at the place with the best fondue in Switzerland) so we got a table, only to find out that we were too early for lunch by 1/2 hour. Not wanting to wait that long we went to the castle.
The castle sat up at the top of the hill surrounded by ramparts. We stood up there and looked around. Snow swirled around us. Sara and Julia leaped out of the Bob and explored. It was as if we were back a few centuries - looking at landscape and a town that has been around since the middle ages, and is kept up for us all to admire now.
Leaving the castle we headed back into town. It was time to see if my backpack was still on the bus, and we decided to take the bus anyway to get back to the train station to the Cheese Factory (La Maison du Gruyere). Julia was being lovey dovey, and I carried her as we walked through magical Gruyeres with snow that looked like we were in a giant Swiss snow globe. She put her head on my shoulder and I leaned my head down to reach hers. She is usually so full of energy and vigor that when she is like that I soak it up!
The bus arrived. My backpack was in the front window! Yeah. Neither Dan or I was that worried about it, but we were glad to be reunited with it.
Cheese Factory: La Maison Du Gruyere
"Swiss Cheese" is famous and Gruyere is where it is at. We walked into the place they make it (it HAS to be made in Gruyere to be called Gruyere). Our first stop was the restaurant. Julia picked our seat. A great perch over looking an outdoor demonstration of cheese making! We had: fondue (amazing) which came with a cloth bag of potatoes, a dish of gherkins, and a bunch of little white onions. We also had cheese croquettes (like a golf ball sized cheese ball) that came on an amazing set of salads. The salads were like diced carrots, diced cabbage, corn, etc (Dad, if you are reading this the salads were like we had when we had fondue in Zermatt.) And we got the kids a hamburger (that didn't come with a bun) and french fries.
Sara and Julia were great during the meal. Julia ate whatever we gave her (she is a good sport!) and she played with toys from my backpack (some blocks and dolls). Sara mainly ate potatoes (from the fondue) and that left Dan and I to savor the fondue (with world class cheese made right there!) and the whole thing was awesome.
After the meal (62 CF) we bought a family ticket (12 CF) to tour the factory. I put Julia in the Ergo baby and she goofed around (poking me in the face and pulling my hair) until she fell asleep. I viewed the Swiss cheese maker making cheese with my Julia asleep on me. The facory tour included some displays and then a big room where they actually make the cheese - then at the end you can see where they age it - with the robots that tend to it!
Afternoon
Do you want to go to the chocolate factory? Dan asked me. Is that a question you can so 'no' too? So we hopped back on an adorable train (using our day pass) and chugged along to the middle of the swiss country side where the Nestle Cailler Chocolate Factory (in the town of Broc).
Just getting around the Swiss country side (first to Gruyeres, and then to Broc) on these trains felt like a dream. The world was in our pocket as we just joy rided around the dreamy setting. The trains were frequent, and empty. We often had the whole train car (if not the whole train) to our selves. It was totally awesome and the girls were having the best time.
So we got to Broc to the Cailler Chocolate Factory. I didn't know what to expect, but it was amazing! For 8 CF each (for some reason the lady gave me the price of 8 CF even though the price was 10 CF, maybe we got a cute kid discount). we got to do the chocolate tour and also see the chocolate being made. The tour was better than Disney - with AV effects that transported you back to the Aztec era when chocolate was discovered, all the way up to a sailing ship (you really felt like you were on a boat!). Then we saw chocolate being made - with great robotics - and a sample room where you could try one of everything! (On silver platters - you could probably try 40 different chocolates - I took bites of each one, and put the remainders in a little bag.)
After a brief stop in the cafe (for soup and yogurt) we went back to the adorable train (powered by overhead electric lines) and were the only ones on it cruising back to Bulle, then back to Fribourg. Our "day" passes worked well - for the whole time our transportation was covered we didn't have to think about separate tickets.
Evening
It was 5:30 when we were back in Fribourg. Sara jumped out of the stroller to run (and I mean run) back down the pedestrian area to get to our apartment. Julia wanted to get out of the stroller too, and cried "Mama!" so I'd get her out. I carried her in my arms for a while, 'till she wiggled out of my arms and we ran at the same pace as Sara. I'm sure with every step Julia was airborne since we were taking big running steps and she is only 1 year old! Julia loves to run (she bounces up and down to achieve the motion of running) and we beat Dan back to the apartment and we were all breathing hard with the fun exertion of running - it was great.
Dan cooked dinner (salmon, asperagus, and pasta) while I gave the girls a bath. Dinner was nice then we put them to bed. It is 8:43 now and time for me to sleep too!
Quote of the day
(upon our return to the apartment) Sara: "That was quite a journey to the cheese factory. That was the best day of my life."
Great day.
END
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