S W I T Z E R L A N D, Cheese & Chocolat

The trip to Switzerland came up to visit some friends that are working there. In just 4 days, we were able to see everything from big cities to small villages. The country has a funny contrast, inside Europe, practically no modern cities.

Switzerland is extremely green. During the winter, it becomes white, because of the snow. It has lowlands to lose sight, decorated with cows here and there, very tall cylindrical recipients to reserve the milk and many, many huge mountains where the best Ski places of the world are.

Money spent: € 450,00 (flights, transport, meals)

Hotel: we stayed in our friends house, uhuh!

Rent a car: € 200,00 - Budget rent a car

Itinerary: place by place, here.

> BERN & LUCERNE

As a capital, Bren is a pretty small city, more similar to a Village.

You can check all around the city just walking. It has a magnificent viewpoint right after the Parliament.

It also has the highest Swiss Tower, more than 300 steps.

As the meals are very expensive, we chose to buy pasta from a local take-away and eat in the viewpoint.

Lots of locals do the same and it was a perfect option, since the weather was great.

We drove to the second city, Lucerne, right after lunch. I was amazed with the city, surrounded by a gigantic lake.

From one side, we see the wood bridge (Kapellbrücke), that connects both margins, with a tower in the middle.

Full decorated with natural flowers, it’s full of people walking around the city, mainly tourists. I lost count of how many photos I took here, even with a very weak light.

This place is one of the most remarkable images of Switzerland, it will stay in my memory.

By the lake, there is several coffees and restaurants, decorated with smooth lights that turn the environment somehow warm and romantic.

On this side of the lake, you can see a church and another iron bridge.

Crossing the bridge to the other side, on the road, we get to the other side of the lake.

There are several artists on the street, playing instruments. Lots of ice scream, waffles, pancakes, for all tastes.

From this margin you can see the mountains full of snow. It’s cold, but the swans swim fast in our direction, hoping for a little bit of bread. It’s forbidden to feed the animals, but the tourists, mainly Chinese here, still give in to temptation.

> MONTREAUX

Montreaux is famous for Freddy Mercury, and it also worthed our visit. Once more, a gigantic and beautifull lake.

Montreaux Palace, a hotel this days, occupies a big area of the main street on one side and extends the garden to the other side.

After leaving the city, we visited the Chateaux du Chillon, a must have visit.

The castle is huge and they provide a great support book for the tour, free with your ticket.

You will be able to explore the dungeons where the prisioners were kept, the kitchen with a fireplace size of a wall, ancient bathrooms in wich the disposals went directly to the river.

The monument is very well taken care of and the view for the lake is marvelous.

You will need around 2 hours to check it out, and it’s a great photography place, if you like.

> LEYSIN

To go up to Leysin mountain, where the cable car is, we had some fog challenges.

From below, we could see some clouds above us. Going up, the clouds surrounded us and we had no visibility at all.

After a couple of minutes, the sky was clean again and we were between 2 layers of clouds. It was a new things for me, surprisingly.

The cable car was closed due to the bad weather. As so, we only had the chance to check out the village.

During snow season (starting january) it must be a great Ski place.

When we went down, the clouds had gone and we could see a gigantic area of vineyard.

It reminded me Porto wine vineyards, in Portugal.

> THERMES PARC

We wanted to go to the thermal waters in Switzerland, of course.

We chose a near place from Leysin with an affordable price (25 Swiss francs per person, with no hours restriction).

The balneary was mixed but very well organized. It had individual compartments to change clothes.

In the pools, we had several options. The biggest one was inside, hot water, with a river that connected to the outside pool, with very hot water. We could see the heat from the inside, due to the low temperatures.

To pass between the outside pools, we could walk or go through the cold water river. It was fun to see people running and making strange noises because of the cold.

Our feet were frozen when we needed to run from a pool to the other. But the feeling of diving our body into the warm water again, it was worth it.

Mais à frente, ainda no exterior, existe outra piscina aquecida com jacuzzi. Para nos deslocarmos entre uma e outra podemos ir a pé, a sentir os pés congelados. Ou, pelo rio, de água fria. Experimentamos as duas opções e fartamo-nos de rir com os gritos de frio que íamos dando. A sensação de entrar na água quente de novo vale muito a pena o sacrifício.

> LE CHALET SUISSE

As a certified food lovers, we wanted to try some Swiss specialities.

On Friday night, we went for a cheese fondue, “Fondue du Fromage”. We ordered the moiteaux-moiteaux (half-half), that means, a mix of two different cheeses.

To eat the cheese, you could use bread or potatoes.

I ate, and ate, and ate. And got so sick that night! Even though, it was worth it!

> MAISON CAILLER & GRUYÉRE

The next day, recovered from the fondue, we went to Cailler factory, where Cailler chocolates are done and also, where Nestlé’s offices are situated in Switzerland.

The visit to the factory is nice, they explain where each ingredient comes from, the several types of chocolat and the way to make it. The best part, you can taste all of them in the end!

The souvernip shop is the sweetest I’ve ever seen.

We then drove to Gruyére, a village kept through times, very picturesque, inside the castle walls. This area is also know for the Gruyére chesse, also used to make fondue.

Inside the city there are seveal coffes and restaurants with a romantic style, similar to mountain chalets. There is a very different one though, the Aliens bar. Decorated with alien themes and the ceiling made out from bones.

In the end of the day we went to visit Lausanne, a city full of portuguese people. We ended up having Portuguese food in a friends of friends house.

Nightlife in Lausanne is fun, full of bars and some clubs. It surprised me in a positive way. I had an idea of people in Switzerland, as a very homy people. I believe the country welcomed a lot of foreigners, both students and work force, that give the country a more global atmosphere.

We visited the country during Halloween, no decoration or masked people were missing.

> GENÉVE

Aproveitamos o último dia para visitar Genéve e no final irmos para o aeroporto.

In the last day we visited Genéve. It’s near the airport so it was a good option.

The city is simiar to the most in Europe. Roads, cars, shops and restaurants. It has some older buildings and of course, Lake Leman.

We made a quick stop in Cern and ended the day in Promenade des Bastions, a big garden that a Lights Show and where you could play outdoor chess. Of course, I could not skip a game.

20181104_161731

20181104_163928

20181104_153757

Switzerland was a pleasant surprise.

Everything is well organized, people are nice and, on the contrary of what I though, that are really fun!

The special reason of visiting friends made the trip even more interesting because we could experience the daily life of a local.

One thing that surprised me the most was the heating in the houses. All the houses have underfloor heating and, when outside the temperature goes below 10ºC, the heating turns on automatically. Any house, store, restaurant is extremely warm (~20ºC), which means you will need a t-shirt under your feather coat.

One more country to go back to, to get to know its white beauty during the winter and enjoy diving in the magnificent lakes during the summer.

Hugs,

Mariana Trigo