Cheese Chocolate and Rain

 So I originally planned to just go to the chocolate factory and then 10 minutes away or so is the town of Gruyère (wonder what they do).  Well logically it was a nightmare and would be a 4-5 hour trip one way.  This is the down side of only using a train for transportation. We book a tour of both with Viator overpriced but it is a small dent in Scott and Brian’s inheritance and we are sure they would approve the expense 

The tour left at 8:15 and we had rain almost the entire way. First stop the chocolate factory. A fun tour animated and like a Disney ride. The upside on the way to the proverbial gift shop. There are bowls of the different chocolate varieties they make.  They are help yourself bowls with no one counting.  Should have brought the backpack as you don’t know when you are going need need a snack. 

Next stop cheese. This was not as exciting. It was a walk around with an audio guide.  I had to rush Dan as we were the last ones to finish. The next was a tasting of fondue. Would have been fun except somehow Our tour didn’t sign us up for this part of the tour. So 5 of us are taken to town to explore and meet the bus 2 hours later.  This would have been terrific again except it began pouring rain and windy ( I may have broken my second umbrella this trip).  After trying 3 restaurants we finally found one with a table inside for lunch.  This is when I find out Dan really doesn’t like fondue.  What are we doing in Switzerland??  Turns out there is something called a racellette  you warm the cheese and scrape it onto bread etc.  This maybe a possibility. I tried a croutes which is cheese melted onto toast. It was terrific. We will have to experiment more.  

The town of Gruyère was having a good tour and if it was sunny we would have tried that. It would have been good to taste some local samples from the 10-12 places. In the rain and wind it was not so fun. The town also had a castle that could have been explored.  In retrospect I think I would enjoy another trip to the city to see the castle and explore some shops

On the way back to Geneva we were able to take part of the Golden Pass train.  The scenery was amazing.  Switzerland is so green and Dan is loving the trees   I had hoped to do laundry when we returned to the city since the sun is shining as we went to check out the laundromat the area was a little sketchy so there is always tomorrow. We will travel to the mountains tomorrow