Day Twenty-One - Vevey, Switzerland

Day Twenty-One – Vevey, Switzerland

Well this morning might have been the most anticipated morning of the trip: the trek to the Cailler chocolate factory! Obviously, Switzerland is known for their chocolate and Cailler is one of the most famous brands! This chocolate factory is so famous that you have to make your reservations two years in advance! How crazy is that? We got to learn a lot about travel and tourism by talking with the lady.

This place was like a miniature Willy Wonka Factory – we first stepped inside an enclosed room where things started moving then it became an elevator and then a secret door opened that led us into the tour! We learned all about the history of chocolate and it was crazy to hear some of the old legends and myths associated with this divine dessert. But I have to admit, I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have because my mind was set on one thing: the tasting room.

After going through different rooms learning about the history of chocolate, we got to see part of their factory where they create their chocolate goodies so that was pretty interesting! But then the doors swung open and BAM there was the tasting room.

At first, I thought the table of chocolate goodies was a lot smaller than I anticipated. I had heard it was hard to make it all the way around the table, tasting everything once, so when I saw the table I was like “oh my gosh I definitely can do this.” Boy was I wrong. That chocolate was SO rich that by the end I couldn’t even taste test the last few because I probably would’ve gotten sick!! It was absolutely heavenly. I bought some for everyone in the fam so that they could experience it along with me.  It’s crazy, though, I had bought a $.60 bar of chocolate the other day from the grocery store and even that little knock off brand of chocolate was so much better than anything we have in the States…it’s just a higher caliber here. I normally don’t have a huge sweet tooth but for some reason, all I’ve wanted on this trip is chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate!

My name is Mary Chambers and I’m a chocoholic.

That’s the first step right? Someone get me out of Europe before I gain a thousand pounds from all the bread and chocolate I’ve eaten! I need a good steak at this point.

After we left the Factory of Dreams (that’s what I like to call it), a bunch of us decided to travel up to Interlaken, which is a really pretty city in Switzerland. There aren’t many huge, amazing monuments or attractions here in Switzerland so the thing to do is just go to different cities and see the beautiful views. We travel by train here and the views on the train rides are absolutely gorgeous. I thought maybe I was just seeing the prettiest parts of Switzerland but nope, I’m pretty sure this entire country is just absolutely stunning. Every train ride we take shows gorgeous mountains with flower-filled hillsides and little streams running down the mountain. I think I may retire here… :P

Anyways, in Interlaken we just walked around and looked at the view and did some souvenir shopping (Austin, I’ll give you a hint – one of your presents came from here!!).  Then a few of us were exhausted (and I’m essentially a cripple at this point with my foot) so we headed back to eat dinner and call it a night early.

Until next time!

MC