Wowza, what a most excellent week!! We've done everything, from touring the factory of the first chocolatier in Switzerland, to sleeping in a 12th century castle, to rolling through vineyards on a wine tasting tour in Eastern France. It has all been so amazing, and again, I'm going to let my photos help me describe what we've been up to....
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| The Cailler Chocolate Factory in Broc, Switzerland |
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| Mmmmm, Toni would have been in heaven!! |
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| Where it all starts - fresh cocoa beans! |
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| Random Swiss castle. |
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| Murten, Switzerland |
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| Burg Hohenzollern |
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| We stayed here! Le Chateau d'Osthoffen |
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| The view from my room in the castle. |
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| And the wine tour begins.... |
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| This was the neatest place - Schaeffer-Woerly Vineyard. |
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| The Alsace Region of France |
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| The gargantuan, gothic, Strasbourg Cathedrale de Notre Dame |
So I don't know what it is about Jynelle and I..... but we attracted quite a bit of attention from both the Swiss and the French authorities this trip. LOL!!
When we were crossing the border from Switzerland back into Germany, we were asked to pull over and get out of the vehicle. The guards proceeded to search the entire car and all of our belongings! The 30-minute delay was well worth it however, when one of the guards opened up and rifled through the zippered compartment in my suitcase which contained my dirty laundry.... I almost laughed out loud, right then and there. Poor guy! In the end, we were handed back our passports and told to continue on and have a nice day.
The next little run-in happened when we were on our way into Strasbourg. It was early in the morning, and we were trying to follow our GPS directions to the meeting place for the wine tour. According to Sir Tom-Tom, we needed to make a left-hand turn.... into a 'bus only' lane.... oy!! Of course there are no road signs, and by the time we realized we were somewhere that we shouldn't be, we were surrounded by the police. Yes, surrounded. I'm not sure where they were hiding, but there were two on motorcycles and about five on bicycles. After being asked to pay 112 Euros cash and being lectured about listening to a GPS ("If it told you to drive over zair, on zee grass, vud you??!! NON! You vud not!!"), we got a few words in edge-wise and explained we were Canadians and were trying to find the tourism office at the centre of the city. The two motorcycle cops had a quick dialogue and then abruptly told us to follow them..... right downtown, to exactly where we needed to be.... Yep, we were escorted, lights flashing, all the way to the centre of Strasbourg! Best part - they didn't end up making us pay anything. *PHEW*
It's been quite a whirlwind, but at the same time such a great adventure, with my bestest friend! We have seen and done some really amazing things, including covering nearly 2200km through five countries... now how's THAT for a vacation!! Love it!
Cheers!
