"If you miss a bus, you might not have been meant to take it." -All About Steve

My mom and I had a great weekend. The sun was out, and we didn’t waste one minute of the beautiful weather.

On Thursday night, the day she got here, I dragged her to a mall to find the internet and phone store so I could get internet at my apartment. The mall is actually really nice, really big, and will be a place I will come back to in the future (but not on Sundays because it is closed). We didn’t buy anything that night, but I got the information I needed.

This mall was a stark contrast with our experience on Friday night when we went on the hunt for a microwave in France. My mom was feeling very at home when I took her to a strip mall that looks and feels exactly like Southcenter. We bought the microwave and groceries for the week, carried them out to the bus stop, and then realized we had missed the bus by three minutes. Unfortunately the bus only runs every hour. We sat in the cold, dark, Tukwila-like bus stop for 57 minutes. We finally got on the next bus and carried our things home, getting back at about 10pm. For the record, microwaves are pretty heavy to carry for long periods of time. Once again, public transportation was not ideal. Welcome to Europe, Mom.

The next morning we decided to hop on a Swiss version of a Greyhound bus and visit a cute little French town called Annecy. Our bus luck from the night before was still with us, and we missed the train to catch the bus by about 5 seconds. I literally was touching it as it drove away. We had two hours to kill until the next bus, so we decided to eat our salami/ cheese/ baguette lunch down by the main fountain in the city. It turned out to be an excellent lunch spot, and we got on the next bus to Annecy. 

The fountain

Annecy is called the “Venice of France”, and it is beautiful. It sits right on a lake with the Alps surrounding it and has an awesome old town section. 

 

We wandered the streets, had the best ice cream ever made, perused the churches and chateau, and moseyed through the cute shops. 

We then missed the bus… again. By two seconds. For the third time in 24 hours. We were running towards it just as it was pulling away. Rather than stare at a McDonalds and shiver while we waited like we did on Friday, we instead walked back down to the old town and had crepes and beers for dinner. It was delicious. 

On Sunday we got up early and hopped on the train to Gruyeres, the quintessential Swiss alpine town complete with Alps, cheese, and cows. We first went on a cheese factory tour which featured a “5 senses” tour. My favorite sense was “taste” when we got to try three different ages of the cheese. No description would do it justice. You will just have to come try it. 

We then walked up the path to the medival castle and town. It’s a pedestrian only town sitting on top of a hill with cutesy shops and restaurants. We toured the castle then had a delicious fondue lunch. Once again you’ll just have to come try the fondue. Incredible. 

Since we hadn’t eaten enough already during the day, we headed out to the Nestle chocolate factory next. All of the rumors are true – Swiss chocolate is the best in the world. It is creamier, milkier, softer, and more delicious than any other chocolate. The factory was in an adjacent town to Gruyeres, and google maps said it was about an hour and fifteen minute walk. When we asked a guy at the castle for directions, he asked inquired whether we were going by car or train. He had the best look on his face when we told him we were walking. 

We added about 15 minutes to our walk when we mistakenly walked towards the wrong big white building, but we eventually made it to the factory and signed up for the tour. The tour actually has some pretty cool effects, and then at the end you get to sample the chocolate. We were fooled because mid way through the tour you get to try fresh off the press wrapped chocolates. I had heard that you got samples, so we assumed that was it and scarfed down several of those. Little did we know that we hadn’t even gotten to the tasting room. For all future visitors, put the wrapped chocolates in your purse for later and just wait 10 more minutes for this…

This was only part of the sampling display. It is possible I tried all of the varieties.

Again, you’ll just have to come try it for yourself. I had the best stomach ache of my life. We walked back to Gruyeres, took our trains back to Geneva, and skipped dinner.