Well I am sure you will all be pleased to know that I did recover from my hangover, did laundry, dishes AND rearranged furniture last night. Great success!
Today I got up early and met my friend Louise for a 9am trip to Gruyeres. If you don't know what Gruyeres is, let me give you a hint. Ever had fondue? French onion soup? That's grueyere cheese, and Gruyeres, in the Fribourg canton, is where it comes from. It was another stunning day in Switzerland, I swear that all of the good weather in the world seems to be concentrated here. The train ride was about 2 hours and incredibly beautiful, especially the part when I was awake. We arrived in Gruyeres about 11 and since it was not "cheese making time" at the factory which is right near the station, we hopped on this little tram which took us up to town about 5 minutes down the road.
The tram ride was hilarious as they were piping in this yodelelelelele he hoo music and you hear the driver pointing out things a la gauche and a la droit. As we wound around the road, below us were lush green fields with cows here and there in between villages. Surrounding all of this were large snowcapped mountains. And the tram pulled up to a 13th century castle. You think I am kidding? It did seem surreal, I will admit. This place is just kind of like that; probably every other day I shake my head for a moment in disbelief that I actually live here!
The castle was pretty cool and offered excellent views. I will give you a SHORT history of the castle. First, the word "grue" means "crane" in French and this inspired the name "Gruyeres." Don't really remember the details on what the crane has to do with it, my guess would be that the guy who founded it came back one day from battle with a crane as his trophy and then, after a bottle of Valais white and some fondue, asked the little crane if he might like to have a grand village named after him. The crane agreed and the rest is history. The castle was home to 19 counts and then to various bailiffs and I would imagine cheese barons (I learned that yes that is a real job and sounds very good to me). In 1849 the castle was sold to some rich families who went there on holiday and refurbished it, and then the canton bought it back in 1938, turned it into a museum and as the French would say, Voila! The castle we have today.
We wandered around the castle for a while and then walked down and around into town. We found a sunny terrrace perfect for lunch. And of course we had fondue, even though it was probably about 75 degrees outside. I mean, when in Rome...the fondue was excellent and it went very well with the dried meat (see, that again) and also a delicious chardonnay. For dessert I tried a little ice cream with merengues which are also famous here. It was an excellent, lazy Sunday lunch that somehow lasted almost 2 hours. But who's in a hurry when you have views of the mountains and a big bowl of cheese?
We walked back through town and skipped the tram, passing fields of cows on our way (dairy cows, I still have not seen the ones with the big ol bells yet). On the way back, I heard a "cock a doodle doo" - a legit rooster crow in the middle of the day. I thought this was hysterical and we sought out the crower. He was just hanging out by the side of the road and when Louise shot a movie of him, he crowed again, right on cue!!
We got back to the cheese factory having just missed the afternoon cheese making. However, we were able to take an audio "tour" from a nice "guide" named Cherise. A cow who was born during the cherry season, and apparently is British because that was her accent. The "magic" in Gruyere cheese comes from the cows, she told us. This is because all those cows eat a bucketload of grass all day. 100 kilos A DAY. Not kidding. And they eat up all the nice herbs and things that are in the Swiss countryside which is why Gruyere is so special and tastes soooo good. Apparently you can find as many as 75 different smells in Gruyere, according to "Cherise" (and also to the musuem). It was actually a very interesting little tour and we got a free sample!
We caught the train and of course after lots of cheese, sunshine and walking, we both fell asleep. This would have been very nice except every three minutes, since we were on a local train, the whistle shrieked CHOO CHOO!! So freaking loud and I swear, each time I jolted upright in my seat. We decided to stop in Lausanne on the way back just to check things out, since it was such a nice day. We walked up a BIG hill and then a BIG set of stairs and got up to the Notre Dame cathedral. It is under construction (has been since at least Justin and I came in September) but the inside was beautiful. The organ which was stuck waaaay up there in the ceiling was the size of a house, and I think some of the pipes were as thick as telephone poles. After that, we strolled down to Ouchy which is right on Lake Geneva. Ouchy is gorgeous and was swarming with people – quire possibly all of Lausanne could have been down there. We had a beer and looked out at the glassy water surrounded again by snowcapped mountains. Ahhhhh….what a lovely way to spend a Sunday.
Check out my photos at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=5lax6oc9.389wkgzh&Uy=-sfbhga&Ux=0
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