Early morning from the front verandah.

Well what a wonderful day or eating and sightseeing I had.

We drove through endless picture postcard scenery. With the turn of each corner anothr breathtaking view. After about 45 mins we arrived in the Gruyere region. First we went to the Calliers/ Nestle chocolate factory. They provide a bit of a tour (I felt like i was at Dreamworld) through many 'room's which tell the story of chocolate.
Next came the tasting room. Yumm!! So many varieties to try. I tried about 50% of them but often just a bite of one and the rest in the bin. After 15mins tasting we were getting the burning feeling in our throats from too much sugar. We then drove to Chateau de Gruyere. Here it is on the hill in the distance.

Walking from the carpark to the top of the hill - the walls opened up to this sweet village and street. The far end is the Chateau.

We went for a walk through the building which was incredibly old dating back to the early 1400's. This is the view of from the Chateau.

We found a great table for lunch in the village. We shared a plate of dried meat (delicious) and then this huge fondue for 3. It was so delicious and with each piece of white bread dipped in the cheese I was thinking this will be my last.... but.... I just could not stop. Combined with a glass of red wine then a shared bottle of red... I did suffer a little afterwards. My body is far from used to eating that much cheese. On average they provide 200gms of cheese per person! We figured a walk in the gorge was needed to help move some of the food through. What a lovely quiet spot. The water was running through though possibly not as much as usual. They have had much less than normal snow this past season and also little rain. So this time of the year should have snow melt and water everywhere. Whereas there was a lake in Gruyere that was very low with alot of the banks of the lake showing.
Silliness after walking through a tunnel.
On our way back to the car we suddenly heard this beautiful sounds resonating through the gorge. Before long we spotted these 2 practising on their long horns.

We then drove down to Lausanne to see a football game. It was the local derby of Geneva Servette (Chris’ team) and Lausanne Sport. It was quite entertaining particularly the cheer squad with up to 7 flares being lit at once and a couple being thrown of the sports track. The the fire officers dashed out to put them out. Servette won 2-0 so we left happy.


After a late dinner of vegetable pizza and salad (anything to move the cheese down) we headed home exhausted.

I was starting to worry that I hadn't heard from Mark that he had arrived home. Happily though, during the football game, I received an sms he had arrived. Exhausted but safe.