lausanne roadtrip

Becky, Caitlin and I went on a little weekend roadtrip to the west of Switzerland - the french-speaking part. This was really my first time west of the "Röstigraben". It is really funny to see when all of the "Ausfahrt" signs change to "Sortie". Our first stop was Broc and the Cailler Chocolate Factory.

The tour at Cailler takes you through the history of chocolate, you get to see one production line and then.....the sampling room!!!! After about 10 years of training for this in the form of Bloomington and Bright Indiana chocolate fests, I was ready. I did well and stuck to only the good stuff. Caitlin with her lack of chocolate fest-training couldn't resist and sampled everything. She suffered the rest of the day because that is just too much chocolate for one person!

Our next stop was Gruyère, the home of Swiss cheese!

We had a great lunch at the Gruyere cheese factory restaurant - rösti and älplermagronen.

Our next stop was Chateau de Chillon, just outside of Montreux. We walked around the castle to walk off some of the chocolate and cheese we'd eaten. The chateau sits right on Lac Lémon (Lake Geneva) and is really beautiful.

I'm beginning to realize what a LONG day this was, but the next stop was our wine "hike". This was by far my favorite part of the day. We walked along a path through the vineyards with Lac Lemon on our left side and the most breathtaking views. Unfortunately it was Sunday, so most of the wineries were closed, but we managed to stop for one tasting.

Finally we made it to Lausanne, where we stayed for the night. After finding a hotel and walking around a bit, we walked to the store, grabbed a light dinner and headed to the lake to watch the sunset. It was a little chilly, but we had a blast taking pictures and jumping around.

In the morning we woke up and went to Geneva. We didn't let the rain deter us and walked around the city and saw all the highlights.

St. Pierre Cathedral 

Le Jet d'Eau

United Nations 

Reformation Wall 

Broken Chair

Flower Clock

Crepes for lunch

On the drive home to Zurich we stopped in Bern to say hi to the bears, have dinner, and be entertained by Caitlin's seatbelt testing :)

caitlin & becky visit zurich

My good friends from IU Becky & Caitlin came to visit. Caitlin was coming from Kenya where she'd been working the past couple months and needless to say, suffered from some culture shock. We did a lot while they were here (more posts to come), but here are some pictures from while they were in Zurich: 

Caitlin bought TWO new pairs of shoes and both had PINK on them. For those that know Caitlin, this was an event in itself.

We had an impromptu roof party with my co-workers in honor of Lukas' last day at Deloitte.

IU girls with Daniela in an IU hoodie:

Day trip to Lucerne:

We were there during Lucernefest which equals lots of really yummy food stands:

june in zurich

Well, June has come and gone, but I have some catching up to do on my blog. The weather in June was not what I hoped for 98% of the time (quite chilly and LOTS of rain), but there were enough nice days/evenings that I could still feel the start of summer and was able to enjoy some fun activities. Here is a brief summary of some of the highlights!

Grilling on my rooftop:

Watched a friend break a world record for riding on his back bike wheel for >24km:

Celebrated Mariana's birthday (Mariana not pictured):

Went to Basel for dinner with Lise and saw this amazing sunset over the river:

My team at work had a beer pong tournament (for most of them, it was their first time playing): 

As you can see, I was on 2 of the final 4 teams (Jenna & Flo and "Team USA"), obviously not my first time playing:

Beer pong champion trophy to Team USA:

Sunset swim after work in Lake Zug with Alayna: 



belgium

My friend Candice was working in Europe again, so we met up for the weekend in Brussels, Belgium. I really liked Brussels. While there isn't that much to see as far as tourism sites, it allowed us some time to relax and to enjoy some good Belgian beer!

The first night we went to the Grand Place which is really cool at night because the buildings are lit up in bright colors.

We had some beers at a pub on the Grand Place:

On Saturday, we went to lunch at a restaurant recommended by one of my colleagues who studied in Brussels. We shared some mussels which were really good.

The little streets (and the whole city) were really cute!

We then walked to the Grand Place to see it by day. 

The next stop on our walk was the most famous symbol of Brussels - Mannekin Pis (or peeing boy). It was pretty funny. He has clothes shipped to him from different countries around the world, so that is why he is in costume.

Next we enjoyed some Belgian waffles and and oh-my-god they were so good!

Great view overlooking the whole city and you could see the Atomium in the distance:

The cathedral: 

The Royal Palace:

Cute little park:

And we even found the lesser known and very hidden "Jannekin Pis" or peeing girl: 

Next to Jannekin Pis was a great bar with a very large beer menu that my colleague had also recommended. Note: Belgian beers are strong!!

After dinner at a nice restaurant, we walked by the EU. 

We spent the rest of our evening at the bar in our hotel which was jamming to American music.

Sunday we made the trip outside the city to see the Atomium. 

Great views of the city: 

Then, we grabbed sandwiches from the grocery store and headed to the park where we laid out and enjoyed the afternoon and the beautiful weather.

Here is the trappist beer (made by monks) I drank:

After Candice left for the airport, I had about another hour to kill, so I made my way to another park and sat on a bench reading my book. 

Brussels was a great weekend trip :)