Switzerland Trip Day 10: Gruyere

Sunday, 21 June 2026

What a day we had today!! We went to the cheese factory, chocolate factory and then Gruyere castle 🏰 

The day started off with a lovely breakfast on the patio at the place we were staying at. She brought out three home-made jams: strawberry, apricot and quince. And then some home-made looking bread, cheese, butter and yogurt. Gruyere cheese of course 👌 She also brought us some lovely orange juice and coffee for Graeme and tea for me. We asked for milk and she brought out milk that had just been milked the day before! While it was a very different breakfast to our normal, it was all such high quality and very nice 🥰

We then set out to meet Harri and Leo at the cheese factory, where we would begin our day. We had got day passes, which allowed us access to the cheese and chocolate factory, castle and transport for a day (transport for two days we later found out). 

We had to go up and down this steep gravel hill from the trainstation to our accommodation 😅 It was a real struggle with our suitcases 🧳 

We started the day off at the Gruyere cheese factory, where we all got samples for 6, 9 and 12 months mature cheese. Even Daniel! We got to see the process of the cheese being made which was very exciting! 

 

Here Samuel was ringing a cow bell.

Afterwards we decided to go straight to the chocolate factory to make sure we could get a slot for that day. So we headed to the bus.

We then had to take a train. There were some beautiful houses!

 

The playground at Cailler.

Leo looking after Daniel while we all went to the toilet before starting the tour. 

We managed to go just before a large group came which was great! The tour starts with a production of cocoa being founded by the Aztecs, to a super expensive drinking chocolate for the wealthy across Europe and then progresses to chocolate as we know it by the Swiss.

We then got to a room where we got to try a cocoa bean, super bitter, and roasted almonds and hazelnuts. They told us how the chocolates were made using these ingredients after that. We got to see a chocolate branch being made (down below). And then we were able to sample three. I got three for Daniel of course 😅

Chocolate wall.

We then got to a corridor with a sample of a milk chocolate where we were told to use all our senses to appreciate the chocolate 🥰

Here we are able to sample lots of different types of chocolates 🍫 Although three were coffee ones which was disappointing. My favourite was the chocomel ❤️

I thought Joshua would have loved this car! But it was too hot really to be out in the sun ☀️ , so we decided to go to the train back to Gruyere so we could go to the castle 🏰. While we were waiting Graeme, the kids and I went to cool ourselves down in a little fountain. It was sooo refreshing 🥰

Harri, Leo and Samuel waiting for the train. 

We then took the bus - the boys tried to make themselves more comfortable 😂

We then spent some time in the old town of Gruyere looking in shops and getting some drinks to cool ourselves down. Afterwards we went to the castle.

Daniel fit perfectly in the little drinks dispenser used for soldiers 😂

The dining room. I hadn’t realised it at the time, but Harri later told me that the images in this room told a story of the history of Gruyere.

The courtyard.

The galleries. 

Walking along a wall.

The castle gardens.

Panorama shot that Samuel photo bombed 😅

It was dinner time so we went to a different restaurant for fondue (the first place was better because it tasted more white wine based) and spaghetti for the kids (pasghetti as Samuel says).

On the way home. 

Tonight was much easier with the kids and I stayed up a little later than even Graeme, who fell down exhausted on the bed at just after 9, to finish the last two blog posts 👌

Tomorrow we leave to Annemasse 🙏

Switzerland Trip Day 9: Bern and Gruyere

 Today was a travel day. We woke up very tired today due to the lack of the sleep from the kids 😅 Nevertheless we made good time. It was also such a hot day, but we didn’t realise until we got down to Visp 😅

Having a quick breakfast of left over fruit with overnight oats. We then had two hours to get everything ready to leave. And we did it!! Phew 😮‍💨 

We got on the bus with all the luggage and I quickly took some shots to remember our times there. 

This grocery shop Volg was our main shop and was a really well stocked shop 🥰 Loved the displays of cheese and chocolate 🍫 

The vineyards of Heida wine. The highest vineyards In Switzerland 🇨🇭 

When we arrived down we had to wait an hour before we could board the train to Bern so we finally went to Migro and had a good look around. We bought some drinks, meat, chocolate and Victorinox equipment for the house. Joshua found a red fondue saucepan that was so cute and he wouldn’t part with, so we bought that for his upcoming birthday. 

We then went to board the train to Bern! Daniel was asleep at this point, so that made it easier on the train :) We put all our luggage downstairs and I found a playarea upstairs for the boys. Joshua particularly loved it 🥰

We then arrived in Bern! We were going to meet Graeme’s cousin there - Freddie and his wife Stefanie and their two boys around the same age as Samuel and Joshua. We managed to then fit all the luggage in two lockers in the train station, and then headed to an animal park with Freddie and his family. 

A beautiful house we passed. 

We made it to the animal park in the sweltering heat and saw some alpacas kissing 😘 

Samuel loved feeding the goat some leaves that he couldn’t quite reach. The goat was appreciative 🥰

We then got to a playground and stopped for a picnic lunch. In this photo we managed to get all four boys together for a short amount of time 😅 Excluding the one with the hat. Icecream was the magic word 😂

Freddie and family then helped us get all our luggage on the first of three trains to Gruyere. On the first one Samuel was asleep, so we took Daniel and Joshua up to the play area. 

On the second train we woke up Samuel to have some drinks. 

On the third train I fed Daniel and were all so excited to finally be in Gruyere to see Harri and Leo 👌

We then realised we had to go up this massive incline to our accommodation 😅 That was sooo exhausting- but we did find wild strawberries 🍓 

Cows near our accommodation that had bells around their neck that made a beautiful ring sound. 

We then went to the old town and had a late dinner of fondue 🫕 It was amazing!!

The water fountain on the main street of old Gruyere. 

This is our accommodation. We made it back quite late and the kids took forever to go to sleep 😴 Probably too excited about, well, everything 😂 But eventually we slept in the boiling temperatures 😅

Tomorrow is the cheese factory, chocolate factory and the castle 🏰