Switzerland: Climbing Alps, Chocolate and Cheese

This past weekend, I went to Switzerland. It's such a beautiful country filled with rolling green hills, lakes filled with swans and color changing forests. We started out in Zurich and then took a train to Luzern. 

We hiked around Mt. Pilatus area which as the local legend goes is where Pontius Pilate is buried. It was so cool to be so immersed into God's creation. It was a little foggy and rainy when we went, but still it was worth it to see the leaves changing colors.

I posted about the trip on my travel blog, A Canterbury Tale. Cheesy, but I'm living in Canterbury for school this semester so, why not? Switzerland was pretty expensive for us college kids. We went to Starbucks and MacDonald's just to see if anything was different. The prices jumped out to us immediately. Try $7.50 for a tall hot chocolate or $12 for a big mac. Something that I would barely consider food is $12! We decided to buy groceries at the local store and cook food ourselves. We ate lots of pasta, cereal and sandwiches...not to exciting but the landscape made up for it. But of course we had to try some local specialties. Switzerland is famous for cheese so we got some great Swiss Gruyère.

It was perfectly salty, sweet, and nutty. The cheese originated in Switzerland and has no holes whereas French Gruyere have holes according to French agriculture law.
We also had Swiss chocolate from Merkur Chocolate. It was so good; smooth, creamy and melted perfected on the tongue.

We also tried a shenkli which is a Swiss donut. It taste like lemon flavored, old fashioned donut. Crunchy on the outside, lemony in the inside.

Lastly of the strictly Swiss foods, we drank some rivella. This is Swiss soda is made with milk whey which doesn't sounds appealing but the drink is quite refreshing. The taste is a combination of coke and ginger ale with a heavy wave of fizz at the end.

I had a great time in Switzerland and I would recommend anyone to take a trip to Luzern and do some hiking around Mt. Pilatus. Do bring a heavy jacket if you go in the fall or winter, it does get quite cold.