As we hit the halfway point of our trip, we prepared ourself for our busiest day yet! Additionally, despite the number of mountains in Switzerland, nothing could have prepared us for the amount of hills we would have to conquer today. But before we could get to that, we went downstairs to grab a quick breakfast.
We all needed to be packed up right after eating, as for the first of two times we were going to switch hotels. Meeting in the lobby with all of our luggage at 8:15 A.M., we traveled downhill to a coach bus, storing all of our suitcases in it before hopping on, heading to our first stop of the day: Le Maison de Gruyère.
Here, we had the opportunity to take a look through their interactive museum where we were talked through the cheese making process from Cherry the Cow, who we could hear thanks to a headset each person was given. As we traveled through the different stations and learned new facts, we eventually made it to the actual cheese factory, where we saw worker's transporting the cheese from the vats to circular molds, dent the date onto the liquid, and more. All of this was seen from a bird's-eye view.
Once everyone was satisfied in what they saw, we then went to our cheese tasting, where we were each given four different kinds of cheeses to taste and snack on. Every type had a unique flavor, but we were all in agreement on their tastiness.
Our journey at Le Maison de Gruyère was not done yet, as we had some free time to check out the gift store and purchase a few items.
It was after this that we encountered our second hill today as we were on our way to Château de Gruyères. However, the mountain was so lengthy that it felt like we were climbing up 6 or 7 separate hills! Before reaching our stopping point, the views made the burning in our legs slightly worth it.
As we finally got to the top, we were welcomed by a small little town full of cafes and gift shops. We had a couple of hours to roam and shop around, with some of us choosing to look at the Château de Gruyères in particular. The castle, built in the 1200s, housed bailiffs from Fribourg as well as Geneva's Bovy and Balland families before it was turned into a tourist attraction and opened to the public in 1939.
There were many interesting artifacts displayed throughout the rooms, which had a similar look to the original decor of the castle hundreds of years ago. However, the castle's garden was the place where the most time was spent, as the flowers and shrubbery were not only beautiful, but so was the view.
In the center of the town was a beautiful fountain which we decided to get a group photo in front of before heading off to the coach bus once again.
Our journey continued at the Maison Cailler Factory where we learned about another food that Switzerland is highly recognized for: chocolate. Here, we experienced another interactive tour, this one focused on the entire history of chocolate . At the end of this section of the factory, there were more small exhibitions to look at, and there were around 6 different flavors of chocolate for guests to get free samplings of.
As if this was not enough chocolate, we then had a few moments to look around the factory's gift shop, one that was full of different and unique kinds of chocolate. To give our sweet tooth and bodies a break, we then left to finally move towards the hotel room. Since the trip to Lausanne was around an hour, nearly the entire bus took this opportunity to get some extra minutes of sleep in.
When the bus dropped us off this time and handed us our suitcases, we then reached the steepest of the previous few hills. To make matters worse, we had to drag the suitcases up with us. It was difficult but we all managed to finally reach our hotel.
We had around an hour to get ready for our seven course dinner at DéCi Comptoir Gourmand, where we were given several different dishes while learning a lot about the Swiss cuisine these meals were based on. The meals included foods ranging from pork chops to caviar to brownies. There was truly something for everyone.
Not only was the dinner delicious, but the experience proved to be very resourceful since we were truly able to expand our knowledge of traditional Swiss food.
Due to the large spread of food we had to consume, we ended up getting back to our rooms later than usual. Especially after the extreme amount of walking we endured over the course of day 4, we were all exhausted, but fell asleep anticipating the adventures tomorrow awaited.
Good night from Lausanne!