Our time in Switzerland

After a number of hours catching up with the passing years Bob prepared a traditional Swiss meal for us called " Rackling ", it is made from a particular cheese that is placed in a flat scoop & melted under a grill before you scrape it off with a wooden spatula onto boiled potatoes that have been cut into pieces add some pepper & eat. I have to say it was very different & quite nice but very high in calories & carbs & oh so filling.Unfortunately we didn't get to see Anthea until about 10.30pm as she had been out to her music committee meeting, she produces musical shows as a part-time interest in her spare time while during the day she holds down a very responsible position with the United Nations in Geneva a real vibrant lady.

We both slept very well after this meal & after a very light breakfast headed off with Bob towards Lausanne on the motorway.Nearing Lausanne Bob asked if we had a motorway card, & when I said we didn't he showed some concern because by not having one if we were stopped by the police we could be heavily fined evidently so we exited from there ASAP onto their smaller roads all the way to Gruyeres.

The Chateau at Gruyeres was yet another town surrounded by ramparts & heavy fortifications & was in remarkably good condition, these days it houses many restaurants & shops but also has an interesting tour tracing the history of this spectacular building which is perched on a mountain top high above the valley giving you a view to die for ( check out the pic above ).

After spending nearly 1.5hrs there we headed down to the main town to the cheese factory where they make - yes you guessed it Gruyere cheese. The ensuing tour with the audioguide was very informative we didn't realise that so much went into producing cheese I guess we take all these processes for granted. One fascinating part of the tour was the different types of grasses, flowers & plants that the cows eat during their time in the high mountain passes there must have been at least 20 vials full of different scents of these aromas, quite amazing.

We then watched the process of taking the treated milk from the large copper vat & transfering it into stainless steel circular mould & any excess ( the whey ) is drained off & then over a period of time the mould is compressed. After that it is transfered to a curing rack where it is continually turned until it matured & ready for sale.

We took the lake road back to Bob's which was a lot more interesting than the motorway because at least we got to see the lake & the houses around it, we were surprised to see a lot of grape vines growing so close to the water, in fact I didn't realise that the Swiss had any wine industry at all as we had never tried any before. When we arrived back at the house Bob made sure that we tried the local product, it turned out to be quite palatable.

The next day Bob, Sara & I took a beautifully kept paddle steamer across the lake from Nyon to the small medieval village of Yvoire which is situated on the French side of the lake. It turned out to be yet another picture postcard village with the cobbled streets lined with lovely stone houses & shops, a very tranquil existance. We had lunch at the local creperie before heading back on the afternoon boat to Nyon. Being retired Bob was doing most of the cooking & certainly all of the shopping & tohight he cooked up a mean pasta with a Bolognaise sauce -really good.
Anthea was home earlt today so after dinner we all just sat around & chatted on I think it was about 1.00am before we went off to bed. See next posting.