Only a two-and-a-half hour train ride from the bustling international city of Geneva are the gorgeous snowy peaks of the Bernese Oberland. This weekend, our orientation took us to the scenic ski-resort town of Gstaad (which I believe is pronounced “gsh-tAHd”) to enjoy the mountains. On the train ride down, I frantically took pictures of the towering mountians I thought were the world-famous Swiss Alps. However, Madame Piron informed us that these were only the comparatively tiny “pre-Alps.” According to her, these pre-Alps are cause to say “ooh!” but only the REAL Alps can make you say “ahhhhhhh…”
Upon arrival in the small German-speaking town of Gstaad, we had time to wander and take pictures. A group of us happened upon an interesting snow sculpture that looked like a headless snowman with Swiss flags growing out of its armpits. As we gathered around the patriotic snowman to take a picture, a friendly older gentleman gestured to us to come take a picture in the snowman head/igloo he built in his yard. He insisted on being in the picture too, and although I have no idea what he said, he seemed like a sweet man. He told Mme. Piron that he built it for his four grandchildren to play in.
After saying goodbye and “danke schon” to the snow-sculpting grandfather, we went into town for some crepes. Even though I had already eaten lunch on the train, I split a crepe with Brianna because there is always room for crepes.
From there, we did a little more exploring before our horse-drawn sleigh ride through the mountains. Just as we settled into our sleighs, it began to lightly snow, thus compelling me to sing “Sleigh Ride”. As we climbed higher into the mountains and the scenery became increasingly picturesque, I was in constant amazement both of the beauty of the mountains and the stamina of the horses. At about the half-way point of the ride, we were greeted by a local Swiss woman, her two children, and their dog near their home on the mountain. They passed out mugs of vin chaud, a Swiss specialty consisting of wine with spices, heated on a fire. Between the wine, the fire, and the dog, we were warmed up enough to make the trip back to town. In another hour we were back at our hotel, a little cold and wet, but mostly overwhelmed by the adventure we had just had.
The next day (Valentine’s Day), we traveled by bus to the nearby medieval village of Gruyeres. While Gruyeres is most famous for its gruyere cheese, we were there mainly to visit its castle (although I was also excited about the cheese). The centuries-old Gruyeres Castle stands above the rest of the town on top of a hill, and has served as everything from a fort to an artist’s getaway. As we explored, I considered moving to Switzerland permanently and living in the castle, but decided against it because the old stone and wood building is too drafty for my tastes.
After the castle, we had lunch in a restaurant in the village in which each dish featured a famous Gruyere dairy product.
While eating gruyere in Gruyeres is an extremely Swiss way to spend a day, Mme. Piron and Mme. Chantre apparently thought it was not quite Swiss enough. Our next stop was at the iconic Swiss chocolate factory, Cailler. Actually, Cailler is part interactive museum, part factory, part chocolate shop, and part Willy Wonka.
We started in the museum, where we learned about the history of chocolate. From there, an audio-guide taught us how to taste chocolate. As it turns out, the “proper” way is not to stuff as many into your face as is possible without choking. The professionals look at the shine of the chocolate, the smell, and the texture before daintily placing it on their tongues and inhaling through their teeth to let it melt and achieve its full flavor potential. It’s like wine tasting, but without the spit-buckets.
I came out of the chocolate-tasting lesson feeling like a chocolate connoisseur, and I fully intended to put my new chocolate-tasting skills to the test…and then we got to the free samples. There was white chocolate, chocolate with caramel, fruity chocolate, chocolate in the shape of heart, and an assortment of others. Taking a page from “I Love Lucy,” I stuffed as many into my cheeks as I could, but I still wanted to save some for later to taste properly. So, being the resourceful college-educated woman that I am, I started throwing the samples into the only bag I had on hand; an umbrella cover. As it turns out, this is strictly frowned upon by Cailler, and I was told by an employee I had to get rid of my sack of samples. I took one step toward the trash can, when Mme. Piron told me no one was looking and I could hide it in my purse. I’ve never been more excited to break the rules in my life.
After making a clean get-away from the tasting room, I joined the rest of the group in the kitchen. There, an Italian-Swiss chocolatier taught us how to make our very own chocolate bars! We melted the chocolate, pushed it around a marble slab for a bit, re-heated it, then added our choice of fillings/toppings and poured it in the molds. I added sea salt, caramel chips, rice krispies, chocolate-covered rice krispies, and cashews to mine. At the end, our teacher told us that we could take home both our chocolate bars AND the Cailler aprons we wore while making them, and I was (almost) as excited about the apron as I was about the chocolate.
Overall it was a pretty unbelievable weekend in Switzerland.
Julia in Geneva 