Gruyeres (Part 2)

I was dropped off at my B&B in the village of Epagny and unloaded my stuff. I then set out to walk through the village located at the base of Gruyere, taking in the scenery of roosters in yards, cows of course and the Alps.

I hiked up the hill to the Guyere village. There is not much there but is it ever charming. It is just one street, a church and a castle surrounded by old city walls.

I found the view of the Alps most dramatic when the sun was starting to set....

they looked like something out of a painting.

View from the Castle Gruyeres 

I couldn't leave town without taking in the traditional dish, Cheese Fondue! I ate at "Le Chalet" just outside of the castle. The fondue was terrific. And once again, the Swiss
garnish their cheese dishes with pickles and pearl onion.......

Gruyeres at night

Gruyeres! (Part 1)

Last Friday I visited a well known little medieval cheese town called Gruyeres. It was nice to get out of the city (Geneva) and spend some time in the rural area. 

When I got out of the train station Maison du Gruyeres was directly in front of me. They have a restaurant, store, museum and tour.....it was certainly on my to do list. 

I came across the most helpful people. They stored my super heavy back pack while I did the tour. But first I sat at the restaurant bar and ordered the soup du chalet (the secret ingredient is cheese!). A man came out of the kitchen and goes around and greets all the diners. We got to chatting and he was the chef and owner of the restaurant and store, Jean -Francois. He said he worked in Canada for 4 years in Montreal and Banff. He called up a great B&B for me to stay in for cheap, had one of his staff drive me there, gave me a free glass of wine and a key chain:) The people at the B&B were great too....not a word of english but drove me to the train station the next morning!

Countryside outside Gruyere

Chateaux Gruyeres & view of my pending hike up the hill!

Dianne with Chef Jean-Francois

Gruyere production room

Dreary Geneva (January 5 & 6)

Last wednesday morning I left the beauty of Zermatt, took a 4 hour train ride and arrived in the overcast city of Geneva. The city kind of reminds me of Paris. On thursday it rained off and on through the day so I took in the most comfortable option for sightseeing - bus tour!  I was not moved or impressed with what I saw, but perhaps it was because the weather was so poor? I made the most of it, it was great to be able to try and speak the little french I know....and of course I ate and drank in french style!

Rue Mont Blanc (on left)

I did learn some interesting things about the city. Geneva is a commercial center along with many world and European head offices. Not only are the home to just about every watch brand you can think of, you will also find: The world health organization (remember SARS?), International labour office, World AIDS office, Red Cross originated here, World trade organization, European headquarters for the UN, Unicef and there is an Inter-Religion office too. They have representation of 300 religions in the one building! I can't imagine the dialogue that goes on within those walls....

I don't imagine too man 'warm fuzzies'.

192 flags in front of the
United Nations Office

Standing on the Rhone River with the
largest water fountain in Europe behind me

The Holiday decorations were still up and were very impressive. 

So the folks on this blog that are around my age at some point would have owned a SWATCH watch right? Swatch came alive in 1983 and takes me back to my grade school days. Everyone had one or 3 of them. I took a tour of the SWATCH gallery, home to almost 2,000 watches since 1983.

I was thrilled to find my very 1st swatch next to Angel D.

Zermatt...On top of the world!!!

Ahhhh, Zermatt!!! I have found my winter wonderlandJ  This will be a longer Blog than I would normally like to write, but this place was AMAZING!! 

 Zermatt is 3.5 hours south and west of Zurich and is bordering Italy. The last hour and a half of the train ride was most specular….out of a movie and only in my dreams. Imagine, a rustic, slow moving train traveling on an incline, surrounded by snow covered Alps. The train can’t move very fast as it hugs the mountains on the right, and immediately to the left is a very large drop off into valleys and rivers. Oh dear, I had a few choice words of exclaim since I was sitting on the left of the train! 

Then I step out of the station to narrow, snow filled covered streets, wooden Swiss chalet architecture and people walking around in their ski gear. 

The town has a warm, inviting and athletic feel….how great is this! 

Typical narrow street of Zermatt

View from my hotel room

In the afternoon I took the train up the mountain to Gornergrat (10,134 ft) to get a panoramic view of the Alps. The big attraction here other than the skiing is Matterhorn Mountain (14,691 ft).

One of the views from top of Gornergrat

I found it interesting that they would have a chapel at the top
of the mountain for the dare devil skiiers!

  


Views of Matterhorn from Gornergrat, the 5th tallest mountain in Switzerland.

I am so high up I can see the fog in the distance

View from the train during the decent

On the way back down towards Zermatt I decided to get off the train early at the stop 

Riffelalp (7,253 ft). The train makes a number of stops up the mountain to drop off skiiers at different altitudes, so you don't have to ski the whole 10,000+ feet:) 

I didn't have skis on but wanted to 

experience more of the environment, so I hiked down to Zermatt! I calculated the hike 

down the mountain was about 2,000 feet and took about 90 minutes. It was stunning to see the lighting change as it was towards the end of the day. 

Forest hike with Matterhorn 
in the background

The village lights coming on during dusk

So after my hike I thought I deserved and should partake in some of the apres - ski atmosphere. I came across a Veuve Cliquot Champagne ICE bar (made of real ice!). Afterwards I went to a pub with live music and chatted it up with a couple of girls from Sweeden. What a day, what a place!! 

I just might take up skiing so I can come back and visit this place and others like it. 

Zermatt at night

Lucerne, January 3rd

Lucerne is a day trip from Zurich where I toured the lion monument, hilly city walls, a church, the old town and the Chapel bridge. It was a sunny, but very cold day. I managed to find a large wine shop a premium department store called Globus. I got warm by studying the labels of Swiss and Spanish wines and chatting with the clerk about Switzerland's grape varietals.

The Lion monument is very impressive as it is cut into this rock cliff. It is dedicated to the memory of the Swiss Body Guars of Louis XVI of France who fell during the French Revolution (1792).

The colourful buildings on one of the many winding streets in the old town of Lucerne.

This is a Catholic church I stumbled upon of Franciscan order called St. Maria. My favorite feature was this 3D cherub ceiling. 

This is the wooden Chapel bridge that dates back to the 14th century. Angle D is flying over it heading to Lake Lucerne, which is just on the other side of the bridge.

Raclette

In my last blog I mentioned I would be trying one of the Swiss winter specialties, Raclette. Here are some photos. First is the appliance that grills the cheese in a shallow dish, you then pour it over the potato's and eat it with an onion or pickle or a corn ear. I believe there are 4 food groups in the Canadian food guide....I'm still trying to figure out which one this will fit into....?

Happy New Year from the land of chocolate and cheese!

Yesterday I walked the old town of Zurich located on the east side of the Linmat River. Check out "Angel D" hanging out by the river with St. Peter's Church in the background. This church features the largest clock face in Europe. The old town has plenty of window shopping opportunities, stunning cobblestone streets, squares (platz) with fountains and decorated christmas trees. Also in my journey, I came across a vending machine. It offered the regular confectionary items plus a pregnancy test, condoms and Swiss cannabis tea....all of which I was NOT in need of!

 

You could have guessed there is some serious overload of chocolate and cheese in Zurich. Tonight we are having one of Switzerland's winter dishes, Raclette. It is melted cheese you scrape ober boiled potato, cold meats, picked onion and gherkins. Type it in on google and see some photos....I can feel my metabolism slowing down already. Yesterday, this friendly Italian man sold me chestnuts on the street. Never had them before and not sure I will have them again. They are kinda dry with a bit of a bite. Should have went for one of the chocolates I'm admiring in the store window below.

 

We stayed in for New Years last night and my friends invited over another family. The family is in Zurich for a 4 month work term and guess where they are from? Waterloo! We had a fun night with lots of bubbly and watched the count down on German TV which was hilarious. The photos below are of my godkids Marcus and Lily, and with their parents Katarina and Chris. I met Katarina in University when I subleted a room where she lived. We hit it off famously after a number of shots of black zambuca at the bar....oh, that can't come as a shock to you!