Interlaken, Switzerland
I started this week off right with my first Italian cooking class. Our class is so fun, its held in a small hostel in Reggio that has a full restaurant and kitchen attached. Our teacher is an older woman (Simonita) and her husband who run the restaurant. They don't speak any english, so class is lead by a translator, but we mostly learn from watching Simonita, and copying her every move. We learned how to make a traditional 4 course Italian meal with spaghetti and of course pork and potatoes ;) (inside joke. If you don't get it, don't worry). After cooking the meal, we get to sit down in the restaurant portion of the hostel and hang out and eat!!
Friday we had a field trip to the parmesan cheese factory. We went to the original factory where the traditional method of parmesan making was started. We got to watch how they make the famous Parmigiana Reggiano cheese from milk to the aged cheese wheels. This type of parmesan is made from the milk of a breed of red cows that are almost extinct in the world. Each day, these cows produce enough milk to make 20 wheels of cheese. In total, they make more than 584,000 pounds of cheese each year.
Early Saturday morning was the start of our weekend adventure! Emily, Christina, Renee, Ciara, and I woke up at 4 am to catch a train from Reggio Emilia to Milan, where we would catch a train from Milan to Spiez, Switzerland. It was an early morning, but we were excited to go to Switzerland for the weekend. When we got to the train station, our train had been delayed 35 minutes. We were super disappointed and worried that we weren't going to make our train to Spiez. As we were sitting there patiently waiting for our train to arrive, we kept watching the monitor and seeing our train get delayed more and more... 35, 45, 60, 80, 100, 120. Two hours later our train showed up, we had completely missed our train to Spiez, and we could have had 2 more hours of sleep. But hey, it's all about the adventure.
After 5 hours of travel and 5 hours of wasted time, we made it to Spiez, Switzerland then took a small commuter train to Interlaken. The first thing I noticed when we got off the train, was how beautiful Switzerland is. Interlaken is nestled in a valley in the Swiss Alps between two lakes that have the bluest water I have ever seen. Being there reminded me of a mix between Malibu, Canada and Glacier National Park... times 10. The photos don't do it justice. It was unbelievable!
Our first stop was at the Schuh Swiss Chocolate show. We went into the back room of this chocolate and pastry shop and got to see how they make chocolate from the harvest of the bean, all the way to the chocolate and caramel "swiss alps" they make in the shop. And of course we had our fair share of chocolate samples :). Apparently they are only able to sell the "perfect" chocolates. All the "imperfect" chocolates go to the backroom for samples during the chocolate show. At the end of the show the instructor just kept giving us chocolate telling us to "take it, eat it, you look hungry"... We ended up walking out of this chocolate shop with a ziplock bag full of free "imperfect" chocolates. It was so fun!
That night Emily and I took the train to Oberried to meet up with our friends and have dinner at a local restaurant. Oberried is a quaint little town on Lake Brienz; all of the houses are built into the side of a cliff and seem to be stacked on top of each other. There is only one restaurant in town and it is owned by a local couple; the wife does all the cooking, and the husband serves. They told us we had to try the best thing on the menu, the traditional Swiss pork. It was delicious! The pork was stuffed with ham and swiss cheese covered in bread crumbs served with a hashbrown-like potato dish. It was so good! We were the only ones in the restaurant, so we got the chance to talk to the owners about Switzerland and our adventures traveling Europe, it was the coolest experience.
When we got back to Interlaken, Emily and I were walking around town looking for a bar or someplace fun to go for a drink and to meet some locals. We found this cool old fashion bar that had 5 people inside, and decided to stop by. We met a local couple, Zoey and Kurt, who we sat and talked to for an hour. They were so sweet and were asking us about studying abroad, where to travel in the US, and started giving us advice on the cool local places in Interlaken. They bought us drinks and invited us to stay at their house the next time we are in Intrlaken. By far the coolest couple we have met in our travels!
Our hotel gave us free transportation cards that were valid on every form of local transportation. So, Sunday morning Emily and I wanted to explore the Interlaken area some more, so we spontaneously decided to jump on the next train that went anywhere our card could take us. We started going up the mountain and realized we wanted to walk along the lakes. So we got off the train and took a city bus to Unterseen. The bus dropped us off along the water, and we walked on a trail all the way back to town. We stopped along the way to have a picnic with some left over snacks we had brought. In the 10 minutes we were sitting there, the weather changed from clear and beautiful to a full snow storm. It was crazy!
When we finally got back to downtown, we met up with Christina, Renee, and Ciara for a few pastries, and some shopping before heading back to Spiez to start our adventure home. We took the train to Spiez, and had a little bit of extra time, so we decided to take a quick visit to this old castle in Spiez. Note: the train station is at the top of the hill, and the castle is at the bottom of the hill along the lake. It was fairly quick getting to the castle, it was all downhill. We explored the castle and the surrounding area, but then realized that we should hike back up the hill to make sure we make our train. As we start walking up the hill, it begins to pour down rain. We have all of our stuff plus 10 pounds of chocolate to bring home. By the time we made it back to the train station, we were soaked and sweaty. I'm sure it was a great look. :)
We made it back to Reggio without anymore delayed trains or wasted time. We had an amazing weekend in Switzerland and can't wait for our trip back!
Friday we had a field trip to the parmesan cheese factory. We went to the original factory where the traditional method of parmesan making was started. We got to watch how they make the famous Parmigiana Reggiano cheese from milk to the aged cheese wheels. This type of parmesan is made from the milk of a breed of red cows that are almost extinct in the world. Each day, these cows produce enough milk to make 20 wheels of cheese. In total, they make more than 584,000 pounds of cheese each year.
Early Saturday morning was the start of our weekend adventure! Emily, Christina, Renee, Ciara, and I woke up at 4 am to catch a train from Reggio Emilia to Milan, where we would catch a train from Milan to Spiez, Switzerland. It was an early morning, but we were excited to go to Switzerland for the weekend. When we got to the train station, our train had been delayed 35 minutes. We were super disappointed and worried that we weren't going to make our train to Spiez. As we were sitting there patiently waiting for our train to arrive, we kept watching the monitor and seeing our train get delayed more and more... 35, 45, 60, 80, 100, 120. Two hours later our train showed up, we had completely missed our train to Spiez, and we could have had 2 more hours of sleep. But hey, it's all about the adventure.
After 5 hours of travel and 5 hours of wasted time, we made it to Spiez, Switzerland then took a small commuter train to Interlaken. The first thing I noticed when we got off the train, was how beautiful Switzerland is. Interlaken is nestled in a valley in the Swiss Alps between two lakes that have the bluest water I have ever seen. Being there reminded me of a mix between Malibu, Canada and Glacier National Park... times 10. The photos don't do it justice. It was unbelievable!
Our first stop was at the Schuh Swiss Chocolate show. We went into the back room of this chocolate and pastry shop and got to see how they make chocolate from the harvest of the bean, all the way to the chocolate and caramel "swiss alps" they make in the shop. And of course we had our fair share of chocolate samples :). Apparently they are only able to sell the "perfect" chocolates. All the "imperfect" chocolates go to the backroom for samples during the chocolate show. At the end of the show the instructor just kept giving us chocolate telling us to "take it, eat it, you look hungry"... We ended up walking out of this chocolate shop with a ziplock bag full of free "imperfect" chocolates. It was so fun!
That night Emily and I took the train to Oberried to meet up with our friends and have dinner at a local restaurant. Oberried is a quaint little town on Lake Brienz; all of the houses are built into the side of a cliff and seem to be stacked on top of each other. There is only one restaurant in town and it is owned by a local couple; the wife does all the cooking, and the husband serves. They told us we had to try the best thing on the menu, the traditional Swiss pork. It was delicious! The pork was stuffed with ham and swiss cheese covered in bread crumbs served with a hashbrown-like potato dish. It was so good! We were the only ones in the restaurant, so we got the chance to talk to the owners about Switzerland and our adventures traveling Europe, it was the coolest experience.
When we got back to Interlaken, Emily and I were walking around town looking for a bar or someplace fun to go for a drink and to meet some locals. We found this cool old fashion bar that had 5 people inside, and decided to stop by. We met a local couple, Zoey and Kurt, who we sat and talked to for an hour. They were so sweet and were asking us about studying abroad, where to travel in the US, and started giving us advice on the cool local places in Interlaken. They bought us drinks and invited us to stay at their house the next time we are in Intrlaken. By far the coolest couple we have met in our travels!
Our hotel gave us free transportation cards that were valid on every form of local transportation. So, Sunday morning Emily and I wanted to explore the Interlaken area some more, so we spontaneously decided to jump on the next train that went anywhere our card could take us. We started going up the mountain and realized we wanted to walk along the lakes. So we got off the train and took a city bus to Unterseen. The bus dropped us off along the water, and we walked on a trail all the way back to town. We stopped along the way to have a picnic with some left over snacks we had brought. In the 10 minutes we were sitting there, the weather changed from clear and beautiful to a full snow storm. It was crazy!
When we finally got back to downtown, we met up with Christina, Renee, and Ciara for a few pastries, and some shopping before heading back to Spiez to start our adventure home. We took the train to Spiez, and had a little bit of extra time, so we decided to take a quick visit to this old castle in Spiez. Note: the train station is at the top of the hill, and the castle is at the bottom of the hill along the lake. It was fairly quick getting to the castle, it was all downhill. We explored the castle and the surrounding area, but then realized that we should hike back up the hill to make sure we make our train. As we start walking up the hill, it begins to pour down rain. We have all of our stuff plus 10 pounds of chocolate to bring home. By the time we made it back to the train station, we were soaked and sweaty. I'm sure it was a great look. :)
We made it back to Reggio without anymore delayed trains or wasted time. We had an amazing weekend in Switzerland and can't wait for our trip back!
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