Chocolates and Cheeseburgers

  Chocolates and Cheeseburgers

The next morning, we were drinking coffee and Ash called. She suggested we go to Lindt Chocolate factory and maybe rethink Lucerne for another spot further up into the Alps. Fine with us. 

Now, the Lindt Chocolate Factory is quite the experience. All the tickets for the whole week were sold out, but you could still go see it, see the fountain, eat at the cafe, and shop. Great! We ubered down there. It was a ways down the lake, which made for a lovely drive. It is a beautiful spot. The enormous chocolate fountain was quite the sight! We snuck around a bit just seeing what we could see before hitting employees and closed doors. 

We shopped some and then went to the cafe. We weren’t all that hungry but they had some good sounding drinks. Ash mentioned one she saw that was like Coco Havana or something. We thought, for no reason whatsoever, that it would be an iced coffee sort of thing. But, oh no. It was not. It was a massive hot chocolate drink with three shots of rum, real whipped cream, and chili flakes. It was hot, spicy, creamy, decadent and delicious. After 1 sip I think I was drunk. We definitely should have split one and not ordered one each. Lessons leaned! Jason fell into some sort of diabetic coma. Good times. 

There was an outlet shop next door we wanted to hit up but it was closed that day. bummer!! The chocolate was ridiculously delicious. So many more flavors than we’ve ever seen in the US. We bought a sampler bag and planned to have a chocolate tasting later in the week. It was nuts the money they were making in there. Hundreds if not thousands of people every day, all day, buying chocolates, paying for tours, eating at the cafe. Whew. 

After somehow surviving that, we decided to walk across the street to the lake and walk along it for awhile until we found a good spot to sit or possible dip our toes in. Before long, this cute spot popped up with tables in the shade and a sort of beach entry area of the water. We grabbed some cold drinks and took a seat, enjoying the view.

About 3 minutes later, a familiar face walked up to order snacks. It was our Alabama friend from the elevator! We invited him to sit at our shady table and a few minutes later, his wife and two boys also emerged and joined us. We got to laughing and telling stories about all our of various travels. Their boys were rowdy, sweet, and fun with their southern accents. After an hour or so, they took off to go tour the soccer museum so we decided to grab an uber and head back to the hotel. 

We hadn’t yet been over to Ash’s neighborhood so we dropped stuff and walked off to  grab a street car to Ash’s hotel. She had a cool apartment style hotel with a small kitchen and table. Super cute! As we hung out there, a big thunderstorm popped up and it was awesome! It cooled everything down and was so nice to hear thunder again. 

Once the storm passed, we walked a couple of blocks to a cool looking restaurant we found. It did not disappoint! They had absolutely fabulous cheeseburgers. I know that’s a weird thing to eat maybe in Switzerland, but we were 1.5 weeks in at that point and ready to eat whatever sounded good. Man - so good!! 

While there, we were researching some recommended towns to visit to see the alps. They all seemed great but we were shocked to discover how expensive the train tickets were. Like $150+ a person. The ride was barely 2 hours. Sheesh. That seemed a bit bananas to just show up, look around, have lunch and leave. We decided to rethink Lucerne. Lucerne was a mere $28 1-hour train ride.

With that, Jason and I grabbed an uber back to our hotel to conk out for the night. Excited to see a more ‘village’ looking town. Zurich is gorgeous but a very big, cosmopolitan city. Not what you think of when you dream about Switzerland.  As we entered the hotel, we saw our Alabama friends again. They were heading to Lucerne for a few days later in the week so we promised to fill them in the next night when we got back.