Chocolates & Cheese

We bid goodbye to our lovely host Ursula, thanking her for our enjoyable stay at Interlaken and pushed our luggage across the street to Interlaken West station. As we entered the station, a train for Bern left!! There were hardly half a dozen passengers and the weather was very pleasant with a nip in the air. One person with cleaning gear was busy cleaning the station, which was already sparkling clean! It is no surprise that the entire country looks so well kept!

The next train rolled in half an hour. It passed through the beautiful towns of Speinz and Thun before reaching Bern in just 45 minutes. The station at Bern was a very busy one, with scores of trains to different destinations from its 24 platforms. 

Oodles of Chocolates and Cheese are the best food fantasy I can think of! I am yet to come across anyone who does not like them! To see heaps of them and that too in making and not stacked in a food mall is an experience to die for. I was about to fulfill a long cherished dream to visit the Cheese and Chocolate factories! What could one ask more, than to see the Cheese making at La Gruyere and chocolates at Broc in Switzerland!

At Bern we hopped on a train to Fribourg. The journey to Fribourg was a short one lasting 25 minutes through the farmlands. The place is famous for immense quality of milk production and Cartier watch production facility.

A direct bus from the Fribourg station took us to Bulle. It was a short ride through the country side. At Bulle, we boarded a small two bogie train to Gruyere which took just 7 minutes to the destination La Gruyere. The cheese production facility and restaurant are just across the station.

After purchasing the tickets we picked up the Dictaphones which take through the history of cheese making with all statistical details as one walks along the guided tour of the factory. A cow called ‘Cherry’ does the narration of the story of making of cheese.One learns through this novel experience of how Swiss revere the cows. A lovely meal of  ‘fondue’ and french fries followed.

  We took a train back to Bulle where we changed to board yet another one to Broc. The small toy train is painted in dark chocolate color. Broc is the home of Nestle/ Callier, the world leaders in chocolate making. The location of the factory in salubrious surrounding fully justifies the great products produced here. As the train enters the tiny Broc station, a huge hoarding of ‘Callier’ looms large.

  There were scores of visitors including many school children who had come to visit from all over. Very methodically, the reception desk officials segregate the visitors to form groups in languages spoken for the guided tour. One can see a 9 minute film about the history of the factory. The guided tour takes one through the audio visual show and story of cocoa, the bean; it’s sourcing to modern day process in the manufacture of chocolates. It is a 20 min encapsulation of narrative and audio/ visual experience as one goes through a conducted tour. The aroma of cocoa beans is omnipresent and the sight of different nuts that go in making of chocolates is a huge temptation! Finally, one can see the fresh chocolates popping out of the machine, offered for sampling. A surprise treat waits in form of many different varieties of chocolate to eat to heart content as a ‘grand finale’. It was like a dream coming true and gross indulgence!
It was a memorable day as we returned back by retracing the same route via Bulle, Fribourg to Bern, finally. 

 La Gruyere- Cheese factory

 Callier/Nestle  Chocolate Factory at Broc

Mouth Watering chocolates rolling out from the plant