Kimmy in Germany: Ze Switzerland

Up until earlier this month, Matt and I had never really stopped in Switzerland, only driven through it. The longest time we spent was to stop for lunch at a McDonald's where the Swiss Franc rules all- I'm talking about 20 Francs for a moderately small meal for two. At a McDonald's.

And even though the Franc and Dollar are very nearly equal right now, with the inflated price everything seems expensive.

But alas, there were things we simply had to do and see.

I had seen someone go on a chocolate train adventure where they took you in an old-timey train to both a cheese plant AND chocolate factory and both of those things sounded like the makings of an amazing day. We were only moderately disappointed when we learned it was totally booked on the day we wanted to do it. Why only moderately? Because we have this magical thing called a car that transports us to cheesey and chocolatey paradises.

At the end of our Black Forest trip, and following a quick detour into France (where my favorite large grocery store Carrefour is) we continued south until we hit the border where we got to stop and pay for that stupid Vignette to drive on the highways. Enjoy your 40 Francs, Switzerland! Blarg.

But aside from that, it was a pretty nice time. We stayed in Montreaux, a city on Lake Geneva, which reminded me slightly of Monte Carlo with some of the ritzy decor. Our hotel room reminded me of my old apartment in DC because it too had gorgeous wood floors and outdated fixtures.

For our dinner that evening, Matt found a great restaurant (though they stuck us in a room of loud English speakers) that served fondue and steak. Matt had the truffle fondue, and I had steak smothered in a mushroom cream sauce. And the wine was outstanding to boot.

Before heading out the next day for our self-guided cheese and chocolate time, we learned that Freddie Mercury, frontman of Queen, was kind of a big deal in Montreux. Queen really liked being there since it was less crazy than other cities, so they bought the Mountain Studios and that's where they recorded music right up until Freddie Mercury died. The Montreux Casino is where the studio is located, and it too has a storied history. Have you heard of the song Smoke on the Water? Well, Deep Purple was recording down the street when the Casino caught on fire during a concert, and the members saw the smoke on the water from their hotel, and that was the inspiration for the song. Wacky.

Anyway, the casino has a Queen "studio experience" free tour thing that we could check out, and right outside the casino is a statue of Freddie Mercury:

Inside it's a mini museum. With handwritten stuff from the band, costumes - a fan's dream place.

The coolest thing, though, was being in the actual studio where they recorded music. They even had a plaque on the ground showing where Freddie Mercury recorded his last lyrics. The board is a replica, but you can mix two of Queen's songs using the keys. Matt really enjoyed it. I'm so glad we ran across it, because unless you are a complete Queen fan, you'd have no idea. Matt told me that this was one of his all-time Euro-highlights, so it made for a great start to the day.

But yes, on to the food! In the Gruyere region of Switzerland was, you guessed it - cheese heaven. When we paid for our tickets we were each handed a sample pack of cheese - three kinds of varying age. Uh, yum.

The audio guide was narrated by a dairy cow (named Cherry) who took us through the process of making cheese.

We were told there would be people actually making the cheese, but they were late and when they started, it was pretty boring.

So we went to their adjacent restaurant for lunch. It was a tough decision to make, but I went with the quiche and Matt had the risotto.

OH THE CHEESEY GOODNESS!!!

Not satisfied because we are big fat fattys, we drove literally 15 minutes down the road to our next stop, Callier chocolates. It's owned by Nestle (like almost everything else nowadays) but using the Swiss chocolate makes it superior. I think it's my favorite brand of chocolate (Don't tell Ritter Sport! I still love their peppermint chocolate!)

Although the English tour included a totally rude and bratty children-filled family, we still had a good time. As soon as it started all you could smell was chocolate. And then you could dip your hands into big bags of cocoa beans if you wanted to...