I was awaken from one of my catnaps by the sound of breakfast being served. From what I remember, it was nothing too exciting. At around 10:20am, we touched down in Zurich, Switzerland. It is very exciting to be visiting another new country this year. We were off the plane and headed to passport control where we got another stamp. From there, it was down to baggage claim where it did not take long for our bags to appear. This is a great start to the trip.
Our next stop was to Hertz to pick up our rental car. We decided early on that instead of using taxis and trains, we thought it might be fun to explore a little bit of Switzerland by car. After driving in Ireland in the summer, how much harder can it be here. We got all of the bags and ourselves into the Citroen and then made our way to Acasa Suites. This is our home for the next two nights. Even though it was only noon, we were told that our two bedroom suite was ready. We thought about having a quick nap but decided we needed to make the most of the day.
It was only a five minute walk to Coop which is a Swiss grocery store chain. We ended up having lunch at the onsite restaurant before picking up a few things for our road trip tomorrow. We watched quite a few YouTube videos about Switzerland and one thing we learned is to check out the grocery stores. This one had a little cheese shop inside of it. And the chocolate aisle was unbelievable. Be prepared, Switzerland is very expensive and the grocery store really brought that to light. We went back to the hotel to drop off our perishables.
Since tomorrow is Sunday and the stores are closed, we decided to head to the old town. There were a couple of stores we wanted to make sure we did not miss. As we entered the parking garage, I kept hitting the button for the ticket but nothing was coming out. I did this a few more times and finally a voice comes on the speaker and says that there are no more spots and that we would have to wait. I looked behind us and noticed that there was a long line of cars. There were actually two lanes to get into the garage and above each lane, was a sign that indicated how many spaces were available. All of a sudden, the ticket button lit up and it was go time. It was a race to see who would get the first available spot. Lucky for us there was one very close to the entrance.
Our first stop was the Victorinox Flagship Store, the home of the Swiss Army knife. I should have done more research in determining what kind of knife I wanted. I ended up getting the Classic SD Wood which has a blade, small nail file and scissors. One of the best things that you can do is you can have your pocket knife engraved which I did. Once we finished up, we walked around exploring Old Town.
It was back to the car for the fifteen minute drive to the Lindt Home of Chocolate, Switzerland’s largest chocolate museum. We had booked the 4:00pm self-guided interactive chocolate tour (17 CHF / person). The first thing that we saw was the over nine meters tall chocolate fountain that has 1500 kg of chocolate flowing through it. That is a lot of chocolate.
After picking up our audio guides, we started the tour. There was so much to learn about chocolate. From how the cocoa beans are cultivated to how Switzerland became the capital of chocolate.
Towards the end of the tour, there was chocolate tasting. I could not believe how much chocolate we got to enjoy. I think the best part was the buffet of Lindor Chocolates that included flavours we do not have in Canada.
At the end of the tour, we had to stop in at the gift shop. According to their website, it is the biggest chocolate shop in the world. The selection was mind blowing. I was able to get a personalized chocolate bar done by a Lindt Master Chocolatier. Everyone ended up buying some kind of chocolate.
We were getting hungry and we tried to find a restaurant nearby but there was nothing open. We ended up at a Coop and picked up some ready to go meals which we enjoyed back at the hotel. Even thought it was only around 7:30pm, we decided to call it an early night since it was a long day.
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