Switzerland - Day 2 (Gruyères)

Enjoyed a little Xmas moment in our hotel room with Emma and Frank, swapping pressies and eating room service (average) and produce from the local Coop supermarket (yummy). I got some great clothes from Anna and a board game from Frank called "Zombies!!!" which would later prove a source of much amusement on our holiday.

After breakfast we departed for our first Swiss trip, to the cheese-making town of Gruyères. Once again the train trip was a joy, even though we had to switch a couple of times. It's true what they say - everything here runs on time, is clean and hassle-free. (Though I did note that the train toilets are just an open hole onto the tracks.)

It was a big thrill to move deeper and deeper into snowy territory. Of course we took lots of photos of the first white trees we saw, which were nothing compared to what we saw later on the trip.

The Gruyere cheese exhibition was right by the train station, and we lost no time going in to learn about this famous cheese.

We had an amusing audioguide narrated by a very happy cow. (Disturbingly, she still sounded pleased with herself when describing the sourcing of rennet...) The highlight was the cheese cellar, through which a complex machine wanders, washing and resalting the cheese wheels.



We ate lunch at the exhibition restaurant - I had a delicious onion soup (with cheese), and Anna and I shared a rosti with grilled pear covered in melted Gruyere. No one was keen enough to try the horse steak.

After lunch we walked up the hill to the old town, surrounded by beautiful snowy fields and hills:

The town itself was obviously very picturesque as well...

...though I couldn't wait to get to the H.R. Giger museum. After a quick tour of the castle, I quickly navigated my way to this Alien fan's mecca.

The museum had a thorough collection of Giger's work, including his early ink paintings, his later (and oft-vaunted) airbrush illustrations, plus a whole room full of original Alien paintings and sculptures. Such a shame there were no photographs allowed inside. Other highlights included the Harkonnen chairs from an aborted Dune film, and the lifesize Sil from Species.

But that's not all, there also a Giger theme bar next door, and we popped in for a nice hot chocolate. It's a very moody place, like the interior of the alien spacecraft in Alien.

3D version of the creepy 'wall of babies' painting...

In a Harkonnen chair...

Check out the creepy lighting. It's like being in Doom 3!




Swizterland is rightly famous for it's chocolates. Here is a small selection at the train station! I tried a guarana chocolate bar.

We went for dinner at our hotel's own restaurant, as it is very well regarded for it's live music, which is authentically Swiss. There was some yodelling, with the offer to try out the Swiss longhorn. You basically just blow a raspberry, and it comes out really well.

We tried the cheese fondue, but no-one particularly liked it (because of the white wine and other yucky stuff they add). The choc fondue was a bit hit, though!