Day 9 - Lost and Forgetful

It's probably good that today was our last day because I think we're loosing our traveling groove. This morning we got halfway to the train station when we realizes we had forgotten the Rick Steves book (which pretty much tells us where to go when we get to our destinations) so we decided to run back to the apartment. So we lost an hour :( And then later on we missed our train stop for Gruyères and ended up in a podunck Swiss town. I am going to blame the "mishaps" on exhaustion and a little anxiety that is creeping up on me re: the next week (traveling, graduation, moving, more traveling, family reunion....just making the list makes me a little tired). It's still ended up being a great day, and pretty delicious :)

1) First stop the Cailler chocolate factory. After a short historical tour about chocolate and Swiss chocolate we were led to a room filled with 16 different types of chocolate to try (talk about a tummy ache!). Tim stomached more than I did. There were some delicious pieces.
2) On our way to Gruyères (before we got lost) we stopped Ina smallest town called Bulle and took a picture of it's castle. I love that all of these little old towns have castles. It's so cool and enchanting.
3) We missed our stop to Gruyères and ended up in a tiny town called Montbovon. We took a few pictures of the beautiful mountains and the church (I'm collecting clock tower pictures, have I mentioned that I love clock towers?) and listen to the cow bells, which I love too!!
4) We visited the charming and quaint town of Gruyères. The one cobblestone street town looks like it popped right out of a fairy tale.
5) We stopped by the Gruyères castle for a quick look around. This castle had some beautiful views and some cool historical aspects, but it was cluttered with random modern sculptures and paintings that detracted from the originality. We were still happy we popped in.
6) Have I mentioned the train bathrooms? Some of the older trains have toilets that peer straight to the tracks....for such an amazingly clean country, we're totally baffled by this.
7) Instead of waiting for a train, we took a ridiculously long bus ride to Fribourg where we were caught a train to Bern. We both decided we should have waited for the train. The bus was hot and crowded and made frequent stops and I don't think it saved any time. Note to self :)
8) My Aunt Dru made a fabulous Raclette dinner (its a Swiss meal). You put melted Raclette cheese over white potatoes with bacon on top it was super healthy ;) and oh so delicious!!!
9) Tim and I went to the Migros (the local grocery store) and bought 26 Migros brand chocolate bars, so be excited family and friends :) We had to bring home Swiss chocolate.
10) I have the best Aunt and Uncle EVER!! They are so great for letting us totally interrupt their groove and stay with them and feed us and watch Oliver and be our tour guides. They made our trip over the top amazing!