Swiss Countryside

When planning the Switzerland leg of our adventure, Jay and I were certain we wanted to go on a scenic train ride in/near the Swiss Alps, but we weren’t sure which one to pick. Our decision was quickly made by three other Swiss stereotypes: cheese, chocolate, and castles. The Golden Pass Line runs a train called the Chocolate Train from Montreux, on the shores of Lake Geneva, to Gruyéres for a tour of the cheese dairy and the Gruyéres castle, onto Broc for a tour and tasting at the Masion Cailler-Nestlé factory and then returning to Montreux. Sold.

The tricky part is that the Chocolate Train only runs a few days a week and only a small portion of the tickets are sold online. Our book said we could buy tickets at any Swiss train station, but the folks in the Zürich station had no what we were talking about, so basically we had to go all the way to Montreux and cross our fingers that there would be tickets available for the next day. We were slightly comforted by the fact that another scenic line, the classic Golden Pass Train, also left from Montreux, so at least we’d get to do that, but it was still a gamble. The universe happened to be on our side last Wednesday at 3 pm: Not only did we get two of the remaining four seats on Thursday’s Chocolate Train but we were also able to nab an upgrade to the “Special Panoramic VIP” seats on Friday’s Golden Line Train for a mere 10 Swiss Franks a piece.

There’s not a lot to see in Montreux itself. It’s on Lake Geneva, which is gorgeous, and there is a famous castle near by, but otherwise it just feels like Aspen: over the top swanky and not a good place for budget travelers. To me it was a necessary evil for the two days of train gloriousness that followed and at least it was pretty.

Chillon Castle, Lake Geneva, "Pre-Alps"

The first day, we woke up bright and early and went to the train, where we were served a breakfast fitting for an experience called the Chocolate Train:

Breakfast of Champions

 Then we were off, zig zagging up the valley walls above Montreux and along the side of the mountain range to Gruyéres. I have never been to a cheese dairy before, I didn’t eat cheese until about a year and a half ago, and there are still very few kinds of cheese I like, and yet the visit to the Gruyéres factory may have been my favorite part. That’s how cool it was. Cheese making is a compact process, with 95% of things happening in the same large room, so it is perfectly set up for tours. From one place, you can see the curdling of the milk, the transfer to the cheese rounds, the pressing of the rounds, and the submersion in the salt bath. Though there is some assistance by machine, the process is still primarily done by hand, with the cheese makers tasked with timing all the steps in the process by taste. 

Cheese maker says: "ready!" then those things on the left are filled with curd and pressed.

The sheer numbers involved are also astounding: in one day, a cow eats 100 kg of grass and drinks 85 kg of water which makes 25 liters of milk; 400 liters of milk becomes one 35 kg round of Gruyéres cheese; the factory does four cycles of cheese making per day, turning four 4,800 liter tanks of milk into forty-eight 35 kg rounds (twelve rounds per 4,800 liters of milk). We were given a sample pack of cheeses aged three, eight, and ten months and Jay and I purchased a bit of mild cheese that I liked and some meat to have for lunch with our bread before visiting the castle.

Cheese!

That's 1/140th of a round

The Gruyéres castle was a pretty standard European castle—we didn’t spend much time inside opting to read in the sun instead—though it was being used as a exhibition space for this cool sculptor from Zimbabwe, which was a fun twist. From there we headed off to tour Cailler, an upscale chocolate subsidiary of Nestlé. Having just been in Belgium and heard claims of Belgium superiority on the chocolate front, I was pleased to learn that the two countries are not actually in competition for this title: Belgium is famous for their dark chocolates with hazelnut filling whereas Switzerland (and actually Nestlé specifically) pioneered milk chocolate. I say, there is enough room in the world for two superior chocolate countries as long as it means more chocolate for the rest of us.

Coming from Gruyéres, the Cailler factory tour felt impersonal and industrial. First, you are shuffled though this fully automated, Disneyland-esque, mutli-room, multimedia demonstration of the history and production of chocolate. It may have been cool, unfortunately we had the pushiest Indian family ever and their obnoxious uncontrolled child in our group. Then, you walk through a “production line” of one of their chocolates that is clearly just a tourist demonstration and completely isolated from the rest of production. However, the saving grace of the tour is the tasting at the end: you are set to roam free in a room of chocolate samples, more than 20 to try in total. Predictably, I tried to make it through all of them and discovered the factory’s secret sample limitation plan: a wicked stomach ache. 

Chocolate tasting is serious business

Chocolates!

From there we boarded the train and were whisked back through the Swiss countryside to Montreux, where the next day we woke up, boarded another train for the Golden Pass Line, and discovered the glory of the Special Panoramic VIP seats: You are in the front row of the train, surrounded by huge windows with nothing impeding your view. Well, almost nothing, the windshield wipers were in the way, but the driver sits above your head. 

Best view ever

VIPs. clearly.

The scenery on the Golden Pass Line exceeded my expectations. We hugged the western side of the Alps the whole way and passed many beautiful green hills below jagged mountains. I also really enjoyed seeing all the Swiss Chalets, reminiscent of Fraser before the mini-mansion boom (especially the carved porch rails). The tunnels were also cool, because in a normal train you never really get to see the tunnel. We had to switch trains twice during the five-hour trip (because the track changes and the same car cannot go all the way from Montreux to Luzern), the weather turned on us, and train fatigue definitely set in but it was an awesome day. There is a reason the route is nicknamed “Switzerland in a Nutshell”:

Just, wow.

Ski area in the middle!

The one on the far right was one of my favorites