May 15 began as a beautiful morning and since our time in Switzerland was limited, we tried to make the most of it.  We woke early and went on a little run-walk through Wilderswil to a small castle nearby.  The structure dates back to 1000 AD and is a very nice piece of history.  Although nothing like the ruins we would soon see in Rome and Pompeii – this was pretty cool… and a beautiful morning walk!

It seems that Switzerland is a pretty awesome place…. along with all these beautiful fields, moutains and lakes, they also have chocolate factories!  Knowing this, we made plans to meet my old pal from Denison, Amy Krajewsky Meyer, and her two daughters for a tour and a tasting at the Maison Cailler in a small town near Greyer.  Amy and her family live in Geneva so our meeting place was almost exactly halfway between our two homes.  How convenient…. and tasty!

The Factory gift shop held our attention perhaps better than the factory tour.  There are bins and bins of the small, wrapped chocolate bars that you can select and pack in your own box – to keep or send to friends…. I think we did both!

After Maison Cailler, and since the girls were having so much fun together, we decided to extend our stay and travel the 10 minutes to Greyer.  Yup… where the cheese comes from.  I always though Greyer was in France – Nope.  It’s a beautiful little touristy town that you can walk through in 10 minutes.  But they have a couple of very cute restaurants and the Meyer twins had some teaching to do.  The Littles were introduced to Raclette and Fondue and the Bob and Kathleen also had some terrific Swiss food.  A marvelous, cultural learning experience – even if you don’t like cheese much…

Charlotte and Erin did a little bonding over styling hair…

and Kathleen and Amy bonded over their common Kappa Kappa Gamma routes.  Although we think Amy’s experience with the KKG was considerably more positive that Kathleen’s.  See the fleur-de-lis above their heads?

Our stay in Switzerland finished with a beautiful sunset and many thanks to our hosts, Cindy and Pascal Zeller.  Cindy is an American from Pennsylvania and Pascal is Swiss.  They were so gracious and generous with their time.  They are adventure guides, wedding planners and wedding photographers.  So if you ever find yourself in Switzerland and need these services – hire them at swissholidayhouse.com