Bonus track

When I left Geneva last Saturday, I didn't go home straight away. I rather used the opportunity to drive around Switzerland for a little while. Here some bonus material for those, who have never visited Switzerland.

Bye bye, lake of Geneva...

01.10.2011 - Gruyère (chocolate factory and cheese fondue)

First I visited the chocolate factory near Gruyère from the Cailler company, which is a fusion of the companies Nestlé, Kohler and Peter. Cailler actually was the first chocolate company which succeeded in making milk-chocolate, since Nestlé provided them with their famous milk-powder.

To enter you need to buy a 10 CHF ticket which is quite expensive in my opinion. But, the factory itself is like a entertainment park and quite fun. First you enter several rooms, which contain nicely decorated theme-rooms where an automatic storyteller gives you all the information about the history of chocolate and Cailler.

How chocolate came from the Aztec culture....

...over the ocean...

... to the mountains of Gruyère ...

to become a signiture product of Nestlé and Cailler.

After this tour you can watch, how the chocolate is made:

First smell at the cocoa-beans.... hmmmmm.... they smell very nice!!

so many chocolate bars!

sorted fully automatically by a robot...

voila!

After the factory, we were led to the tasting room, where you could have chocolate all you can eat:

The maison de Cailler in chocolate:

and here the original:

After the factory, we visited the little village of Gruyère. That's where the famous Gruyère cheese comes from!

The obligatory cheese fondue and raclette:

This is how cheese is made:

The littel village:

Many cute figurines:

typically Swiss:

and strange things:

02.10.2011 - Zermatt

Next stop: Zermatt - the most southern part in the world where the official language is German and a luxury resort in winter seasons where rich Russian and Chinese tourists drink champaign and eat caviar.

First, you need to go to a little village called Täsch and leave your car there, since Zermatt itself is a car-free-zone. Then you take the train from there. You really can tell that this area is really rich. Everything is new and very clean.

Trainstation in Zermatt

Zermatt:

Even though Zermatt is somewhere up the mountains, totally cut off of the rest of civilization, you can find all the luxury brands, you can imagine (Gucci, Prada, Chanel etc.). I really could not decide, wheather I like this cleanness and modernity or I hate it.

But, what I loved, is the view on the Matterhorn:

Since the furnicular to the top view on the Matterhorn cost 100 CHF / person (!), we decided to take just a little ride for only 10 CHF / person for a little (4 hours) hiking tour on the Alps.

very steep...

but a nice view from the top!

These funny holes are glacier-pots. They are created by stones grinded into rocks by the movement of the glacier. And as they are pushed in a circular manner by the glacier the stone cuts a hole into the rock - deeper and deeper with the years.









Passing traditional swiss cottages with some unique constructions.





We wondered whether this construction has the puropose of keeping away mice from getting into the house. But who knows?


Next, we came tho the "Gorner-canyon":


Going down very narrow and steep stairs - was kind of scary...


cristal clear water!






very adventurous!


03.10.2011 - Gotthardpass and Luzern

On the way from Zermatt to Luzern, we had to go over the Gotthardpass.


here you can see the streets winding up the mountain.


we needed to drive over this mountain.


view from the Gotthard mountain.





And we reached Luzern:

The famous wooden bridge, which was originally built 1365, but then was destroyed by a fire in 1993 and rebuilt in 1998.






these wooden pieces were charred by the fire.






Here an old uniquely decorated pharmacy.




Some funny artwork, named "the armor":




Very famous in Luzern: Ziegenkrapfen


Some houses in the inner city:




And now, I really can close this blog for good. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!