Grand Canal d’Alsace - 03 May 2024

03.05 - Lindt near Zurich and back into France - Grand Canal d’Alsace - Rosenau 

So the rain didn’t start until 12 hours after forecast at about 11pm. Strange comings and goings of cars in the carpark, in the rain for about an hour! Another night of not sleeping well. 

Had a ‘doing’ morning. Tintin has done lots of driving today. This morning we stopped off at our last Lidl in Switzerland - needed milk and a few other basics - and we’re coming up to the weekend again. 

Then joined the motorway, for a really short time so that we could use the free services for Dave. We were parked up at the Lindt outlet place an hour before we were due our tour, as I needed to go and ask if we could park there, as we didn’t fit in the ‘proper’ carpark. The guy couldn’t care less! Lovely shop - turned out better than the main shop, probably because it wasn’t busy. 

Lindt must be raking in the dosh. Was CHF 32 (17 for me and 15 for the ‘senior one’ 😉). You have to book days in advance - and it’s absolutely packed. 

I do feel like we’ve been hanging around the Zurich area - just because of our visit today. 

Was it worth it? Probably. Did we enjoy it as much as Cailler? Definitely not!

The little gold Smart cars made me smile 😊 

The chocolate fountain is pretty impressive! The statistics are here for you. 

Once again you help yourself to a handset, you select your language (only 8, not 12 like the other place!) then queue at the top of the stairs until your allotted time. Not well signposted or explained. 

Very similar to Cailler, talking about where the raw ingredients come from, how it’s dried and roasted. 

Went through the history of chocolate - glad Cailler was mentioned frequently! Went on to talk about Suchard and Tobler, then Lindt and Sprügli. 

Showed us the various wrappers from pre 1950 to date. 

Then onto the reason most people visit (or is that just me?!)

You took a spoon, and tried the three different chocolates - was warm and liquid! The white is definitely like a milky bar kid chocolate and too sweet. The milk is lovely, the dark doesn’t taste too bitter. However, looking at the display - the milk really doesn’t have that much cocoa in it!

We might have had a few spoonfuls - just to be sure of the taste!

Next we learnt about the actual production shown through miniature chocolate ‘lines’.

Then onto more tasting - had to guess which bar. You put your hand underneath, and waited until a piece dropped down. The chocolate orange was the best today - I think! Hercy might disagree!

What a job that lady has - just stacking chocolate bars into the dispensers. I guess it’s a good way to slow people down from scoffing too much. 

We were then allowed to take one chocolate ball each - eight each. Which to be fair in the shop when we bought some later came to CHF 12.50 for 16 balls - so you get a ‘discount’ - but only if you don’t buy anymore!

Then there’s some thought provoking information about not enough cocoa being grown, can it be grown in a lab (noooo!) and what is the future. 

At the end there’s machine, you scan your QR code and it sets in motion a run (like a domino run) and ends up giving you another thin tablet of chocolate. 

I’m not usually defeated by chocolate, and can sadly eat huge quantities with no problem - however, we still have all those chocolate balls and the tablet of chocolate! Was feeling a bit sick of it by then!

Went into the cinema - there was no one there. Just a recap about the history and production. Just saying - rubbish cinema - at Cailler we have steped comfortable cinema chairs!

The shop is huge! Personally I still think it’s overpriced compared with our Guernsey prices. A 200g box is CHF 10 - is about half that price at home. 

We were there for 2-1/2 hours in the end. The experience at Cailler was better, maybe because it was the first, or maybe because the numbers were restricted to 20 per tour, or maybe because we found the raw ingredients quality to taste so good. I’ve subsequently bought more of their chocolate at supermarkets. 

Then the fun began. Our journey into France should have taken 1-1/2 hours, but took double that!

Was just so busy getting through Zurich for the motorway towards Basel. Cities can be really ugly places!

We saw a few Jewish people again today - lots on May Day too - Tintin did say it’s where all the wealthy people are!

Saw there had been an accident on the other side of the road - first one thankfully. 

Entering France was another non event - no one from customs even there. 

Were due to park down by the Rhine - but all roads going there were closed. Found another Park4night place - was only really for cars and full. Next one near a stadium had a height barrier of 2.1m - no good for us. Drove further, and in luck - parked up looking out at the canal. 

Heavens teeth - was just gone 6pm when we arrived - and that’s rum o’clock!

Very peaceful - not in fear of being moved on - however, France seems quite chaotic in comparison with regimented Switzerland. 

So, goodbye Switzerland - we’ve had many good experiences. Not seen many mohos in our month there. Probably because moho owners are usually looking for an affordable place to stay, and eat. We found Switzerland generally quite expensive - but great to have finally visited some of the places on our wish lists. Frustrating at times, not being able to find free places to park, or places without time restrictions, or risk of fines!