Europe Trip
Today was a quieter day, and we had a slower start before heading out to the Cailler/Nestle chocolate factory in Broc. It was only a half hour drive away, and the weather was great (temperature in high teens, mostly sunny), and we really enjoyed another drive in the Swiss pre-alps.
The tour in Broc really managed to capture the kids’ imagination, as we walked through a series of themed rooms with sound and light demonstrations, taking us through the history of chocolate in general and its history in Switzerland in particular. We each had an audio guide in our language, and we had lots of fun moving through the tour, eagerly awaiting the finale – chocolate tasting!
The chocolates were presented in a long row, and we moved along tasting white, milk, dark, hazelnut, cream, wafer, coffee and a long list of others. Despite only taking one or two small chocolates from each section, we all still managed to walk away feeling a bit like we’d over-indulged!
From Broc we drove to Gruyeres and wandered up the hill towards the old castle, taking in the town sights along the way. En-route we popped into a café owned by the Swiss creator of the alien creatures in the Aliens series, and the whole café was decked out in Alien themed furniture and memorabilia.
In the city square we managed to encounter four Swiss guys playing the Alphorn – it was a lovely sound and we were pleased to experience a moment of traditional Swiss life.
After driving to a cheese factory to pick up some cheese nearby, we stumbled across another traditional Swiss moment. This time it was a bunch of farmers taking their cows down from the mountains for winter. The whole road was blocked off for five minutes as the long row of cows (complete with bells making a racket) were led down the main street. We only heard afterwards that a number of people were injured when a horse ran amok in the crowd that had gathered, scared by the commotion.
We stopped once more to pick up a mountain of cheese for dinner, and then settled back to a relaxing afternoon, enjoying the views and the sun.
James Burnet
34 chapters
15 Apr 2020
Day 27
September 24, 2016
|
Rougemont, Broc, Gruyeres
Today was a quieter day, and we had a slower start before heading out to the Cailler/Nestle chocolate factory in Broc. It was only a half hour drive away, and the weather was great (temperature in high teens, mostly sunny), and we really enjoyed another drive in the Swiss pre-alps.
The tour in Broc really managed to capture the kids’ imagination, as we walked through a series of themed rooms with sound and light demonstrations, taking us through the history of chocolate in general and its history in Switzerland in particular. We each had an audio guide in our language, and we had lots of fun moving through the tour, eagerly awaiting the finale – chocolate tasting!
The chocolates were presented in a long row, and we moved along tasting white, milk, dark, hazelnut, cream, wafer, coffee and a long list of others. Despite only taking one or two small chocolates from each section, we all still managed to walk away feeling a bit like we’d over-indulged!
From Broc we drove to Gruyeres and wandered up the hill towards the old castle, taking in the town sights along the way. En-route we popped into a café owned by the Swiss creator of the alien creatures in the Aliens series, and the whole café was decked out in Alien themed furniture and memorabilia.
In the city square we managed to encounter four Swiss guys playing the Alphorn – it was a lovely sound and we were pleased to experience a moment of traditional Swiss life.
After driving to a cheese factory to pick up some cheese nearby, we stumbled across another traditional Swiss moment. This time it was a bunch of farmers taking their cows down from the mountains for winter. The whole road was blocked off for five minutes as the long row of cows (complete with bells making a racket) were led down the main street. We only heard afterwards that a number of people were injured when a horse ran amok in the crowd that had gathered, scared by the commotion.
We stopped once more to pick up a mountain of cheese for dinner, and then settled back to a relaxing afternoon, enjoying the views and the sun.
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