Switzerland (part 1)

We're definitely not the "If it's Tuesday we must be in Rome" sort of tourists, but that isn't how it felt this week.

We've been to France a couple of times before, so we pretty much made a beeline to Switzerland. Our first sighting of the alps caused both of us to utter exclaimations of the "holy ____" variety. Actually, it wasn't just the first sighting that warranted it - the saying became pretty common as we drove around. Switzerland is unbelievably beautiful.

We had a brief pause in Lausanne (not big fans) and then wound our way up and over numerous hills to the melodic strains of cowbells and ended up in Gruyeres (below) where we spent the first night.

We stayed at a great hotel and wandered through the very tiny walled village (complete with castle) to find dinner. Once seated, we were each given serious heating devices: I ordered the raclette which is a big slab of cheese that gets put under a heater and you scrape the melty goodness off and slather it on potatoes and/or bread, and eat it with pickles and pickled onions, and Davis had the "mixed grill" which was a platter of various local meats and sausages that get put on a grill. They were both incredible and a perfect compliment to each other. I tried to take a picture of the event, but I think my enthusiasm for the experience caused me to become too spastic to frame properly.

Our hotel fed us an amazing breakfast the next morning involving meats, great breads, meringues with deliciously extra-fat-laden cream, and more cheese. Davis then announced that he didn't want to eat cheese ever again. That's when we went to visit the cheese factory! I'm all about cheese.

It was really interesting, and I took about a gazillion pictures (I'll spare you the others). We were given a history of the production on our listening devices that contained the quote: "The cheese barons made their fortunes. That was a golden age." For some reason I found this hilarious. I think it was both the notion that there was such a thing as a cheese baron, combined with the very dreamy voice saying, "That was a golden age. " I decided right then that when I grow up I'm going to be a cheese baron.

Stay tuned for my post about our visit to the chocolate factory...