My Month in Europe: Zurich Day Two

I must have been exceptionally tired this day, because I only have a few pictures from everything that we did!

We started off our morning with a business visit to Partner's Group, a private investment company.

The presentation was really interesting, but the best part was afterward!

They had pots of warm milk with little packets of Caotina hot chocolate, and it was easily the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted.

I took a picture of the package so I could look for it during our time in Switzerland, and I ended up finding a big tin of it when we were in the Alps the next day!

I still have about half left (almost a year later!) and I'm pretty sure I'll be ordering some once I run out!

We had some time to burn before our chocolate factory tour (yes, you read that right, we were going to tour a SWISS chocolate factory!), so we made our way into the city of Lucerne.

You guys, if I thought I loved Switzerland before Lucerne, then that city definitely sealed the deal.

LOOK at that!
I think I should move there :)

We walked along the bridge where I took this photo and I was just in heaven with how clean, simple, quiet, and serene this city felt.

After a couple of hours we got on the bus to drive through the Swiss countryside to the Maestrani chocolate factory!

These bus rides are some of my favorite memories with the people I spent a month of my life touring Europe with.
On this particular trip, our bus driver, Patrick, made us all sing some very terrible karaoke.
I know someone has some videos somewhere that I need to steal!

Now, back to the factory tour!

Let me tell ya... the chocolate... oh the chocolate is literally heaven!

At the beginning of the tour they show you a video about the history of Maestrani, which you watch while eating endless samples of their chocolate.

Walking out of the little theatre room they hand you a wafer dipped in fresh, hot, chocolate fondue.
This was before the tour had officially started and I thought I had already died and gone to heaven!

They have a rule that throughout the tour you absolutely must be eating their fresh samples as you walk through.
(Think Costco sample day times 1,000,000 and with the greatest chocolate you've ever had.)

They make their chocolate with cocoa beans from Peru and with milk from cows that live in the Swiss Alps. These cows have a very organic diet, drinking water from the alps and only feeding on the flowers and vegetation that grows in the mountains.
I wish I could have just had a glass of milk from one of the Swiss cows!

At the end of the tour they have a store where you can buy everything you just tasted (and more!).
After getting something for everyone in my family and enough to keep a stock for myself for a good year, I had spent $60 on chocolate alone.

Even though I was so sick from chocolate by the end of the tour I so do not regret spending that much!
In fact, as I'm writing this I'm enjoying my second to last bar of chocolate, Orange Noir, or Dark Chocolate Orange :)

By the time we got back into Zurich we were so sick from chocolate and needed some real food, so we headed back to Louis ' Take-Away that we had the night before.
It really was that good! Or maybe we were just really starting to miss the USA...!

While we were eating we heard some music nearby, so we walked down to this romantic little cobblestone square with restaurants all around.
There was a band there playing called SoulManiacs, and they were pretty good!
We stayed to listen and dance, and also entertain ourselves with some incredibly drunk people ;)

It was so fun to stumble across that little gem!
It felt like such an authentic moment and I absolutely loved it.

The music all throughout Europe, from the guitarists and singers to the accordion players, really added a lot of value and experience to the trip for me.

My Month in Europe: Zurich Day One!

I have to say, it was a big mistake to drag out getting all of these posts done!

I'm coming up on a year from when we left for Europe, and looking at pictures and reading my travel journal is just breaking my heart!

I want to be back so desperately!

I suppose I'll have to be content with blogging about it here for family's enjoyment (as well as my own!). 

This was the day that we travelled from Strasbourg, France, to Zurich, SWITZERLAND!

I was so excited for Switzerland!

On the drive we cut through a corner of Germany and our wheels hit the Autobahn for the first time!

Unfortunately, we were on a giant bus, and our awesome bus driver, Patrick, was responsible enough and kept the speed down.

But it was so cool to see all of these Ferrari's, Maserati's, BMW's, Porsches, and more flying by us at ridiculous speeds.

One day I'll go back and experience that first-hand, preferably in an Aston Martin ;)

We stopped at the Burg Hohenzollern Castle while we were in Germany too!

I stole the above photo from this website, where you can read all about the castle!

The drive up to the castle was a long, slow, windy road, but we kept catching glimpses of the castle above and the valley below, and it was breathtaking.

The views from the castle were incredible, too!

Although, it was rather windy all the way up there on that hill...

Hey, at least I look happy!
There was more than one failed attempt at taking that photo, so we had to change scenery...

...much better :)

LOVE these girls!

Once we got to Zurich we had some time so we walked around downtown!
I was immediately impressed with how incredibly clean the city was!

Walking around we saw the exterior of the Protestant Reformation Church, which doesn't have stained glass for windows, but rather the windows are made out of rocks!

We walked around the shopping district and the lake.
I quickly fell so in love with Switzerland.

Switzerland can't really be explained, but it's just so clean and polished.
The atmosphere was just great and I felt so comfortable there.

It also helped that Switzerland was easily winning on the car front so far...

Engine in the back... :D

We walked down to the lake where there were dozens of Swans.
It was a gorgeous night!

We finally ventured off to find some dinner, and that's when we realized that no one was kidding when they said Switzerland was expensive!
To put it into perspective, a McDonald's meal would have been about $15!

We didn't dare sit down anywhere to eat, so we found this placed called Louis' Take-Away and I got a Tina Burger, which I highly recommend!
The sauce on that thing and the swiss cheese were to die for. I'm craving it just thinking about it.
We even went back for it the next night, too!

When we were walking back to our hotel we came across a place called Bierhalle Wolfe with a band from Austria playing inside. They were decked out in their lederhosen and all!
We wanted to go in dance, but you had to either eat dinner or order alcohol, so we stood outside and listened for a bit.
The guys kept looking over and at one point they said something to us over the microphone, but all we could say back was "English!"
All they said back was "Room #10!"

Crazy Austrians :)

We ended the evening with another ridiculously intense game of Catch Phrase in Katy and I's room.
We all got competitive to the point that a few friendly fights broke out, but us ladies obviously ended up dominating and winning yet another game!

It's safe to say that at this point I didn't think I would ever want to go home.
Switzerland is perfect.