Epic Europe Road Trip Day Two (Zurich): Lindt Chocolate Factory + Walking Tour

After a very busy first day, everyone was relieved to not set any early-morning alarms. We ended up waking up earlier than expected which felt like a bonus… but emotions ended up running high.

I try to keep things fairly balanced on the blog: I don’t want to share anything too personal while also trying to be authentic. Let’s just say, this was not my finest hour of parenting, nor were the kids in optimal moods.

In fact, both kids were in tears before breakfast.

One was bereft over our outfit choice for the day. This was the first time the whole trip we’d picked out a specific outfit for said child; it was a sweatshirt they had worn a dozen times and uber-comfortable elasticized blue jeans, it’s not like we were requesting a four-piece suit. The other child was incredibly sassy and grumpy (my favourite combination) and was keen to make as many unhelpful comments as humanly possible—none of which were requested, needed, or well received.

It was NOT the way any of us wanted to start the day and it was, quite frankly, exhausting. Thankfully, I knew Catrina had a plan and we didn’t need to do anything but show up. She had ordered tickets for the factory tour, she had figured out exactly what public transit lines we needed to take (and sent me a document with the departure/arrival times AND the colours of the trams we needed), and had things organized for the whole day down to the minute. At one point I showed John the schedule and he responded: She is your kind of gal!

Indeed.

At the best of times I appreciate a good plan, but after organizing itineraries for over a month, handing the reins over to someone else for a day was positively delightful.

We had bought some fruit and protein drinks at a grocery store the night before, but it wasn’t enough food for breakfast so we stopped at a bakery en route to meet up with Catrina. It happened to be a vegan bakery, but the kids loved their sweet treat and drinks (I didn’t get anything, but I thought fondly of all my vegan friends). This helped bolster moods, and thankfully we moved beyond the literal wailing and gnashing of teeth fairly quickly.

Ha!

Despite some drizzle and fog, Zurich was gorgeous.

Catrina told us she’d meet us at the flower clock by the boat terminal and it was definitely a distinctive landmark 🙂

Once we’d rendezvoused, she continued to take the lead which was AMAZING. She sorted out tickets and did all the necessary communications in German. I could essentially turn off my brain and simply enjoy the experience.

She suggested we take a boat to the Lindt Chocolate Factory and it was the perfect choice! We had stunning views and it was a relaxing commute. Her husband, Kai, opted to bike to meet us.

Now, I have to admit to a HUGE blogger demerit. This is the only picture I got with Catrina from the entire day we spent together. At one point when we were on the ferry coming back from the Lindt factory, she was sitting next to Belle and they were talking and I wanted to take a picture because it was such a sweet moment. But… I didn’t want to ruin the moment. I figured I would take lots more pictures of her, but then I didn’t. Please know that ONE PICTURE is not representative of how much I enjoyed Catrina’s company. I 1000/10 recommend her as a tour guide of Zurich.

Despite living in Zurich for much of her life, Catrina hadn’t visited the Lindt Home of Chocolate in decades. We were happy to give her an excuse to explore a chocolate wonderland with us.

While we waited for our guided tour to start, we wandered around the largest Lindt store in the world. There was… a lot of chocolate!

The most eye-catching part of the factory is definitely the enormous chocolate fountain. It’s the tallest freestanding chocolate fountain in the world (9 meters). Seeing this in person was definitely a wow moment. The chocolate is constantly circulated and kept warm (so it doesn’t crystallize); once a year they switch out the chocolate.

Then we met up with our tour guide. She was perky and enthusiastic; originally from Mexico, she married a Canadian and they live in Germany.

It was a fascinating tour that delved into the history of chocolate making, pioneers of the craft, and then details about Lindt specifically. As an added bonus, we got to try all sorts of unique samples. Like pulp from the cacao flesh (I thought it tasted like apple juice), cocoa nibs, and a piece of chocolate prepared using recipes from before the tempering process was perfected (the same ingredients, but a very different texture and taste).

We got to see the original—iconic—Toblerone mold.

I think the top chocolate bar (maroon-coloured) was the first ever produced?

The most mouth-watering part of the tour was the chocolate fountains. In a potentially controversial opinion, the white chocolate ended up being my favourite. It was very sweet, but SO good. The tour guide also encouraged us to take a bit from all three fountains (dark, milk, and white) and that was a delicious combination.

I was so full of chocolate at this point and THEN, as you leave the tour, you get to take along 8 different kinds of chocolate. This was dessert for the next few weeks.

A worker at the main Lindt shop had mentioned a discount location, so once the tour was finished we went there to look for deals. Belle had wanted to bring back some chocolate for a friend who favours pistachio. All the Easter chocolates were 75% so she grabbed a bag of pistachio chocolates at a 75% discount. (I saw a man checking out with a cart FULL of Lindt gold bunnies. Gotta love a deal.)

Indy was content to sit down and let all that chocolate settle.

Belle posed outside the store with her pistachio chocolate eggs for a friend. They’ll come back to Canada straight from the Lindt store.

Catrina gave us the option of getting back into Zurich via boat or bus and it was a unanimous family decision to go back by boat. While the girls sat inside (it was chilly and I am a wimp in cold temperatures), Indy and John appreciated stunning views from the deck.

We spent the next few hours exploring all sorts of nooks and crannies of downtown Zurich. I will admit since I didn’t do any research about the city before visiting, I don’t feel like I have a good grasp on exactly what we saw, but the streets were all so charming. We were arriving ahead of a traditional snowman burning (from what Catrina explained, it sounds like a twist on North American Groundhog Day celebrations), so the city was preparing for that event.

A few times on the blog I’ve lamented the challenge of finding good free drinking water in Europe and Catrina referenced the drinking fountains in Zurich. I am here to confirm they are everywhere (I think I read there’s over 1,200) and the water is phenomenal!!!

Indy was a big fan.

There were so many charming houses and streets to explore. And we never had to worry about getting lost because we just followed Catrina. I know I’ve said it multiple times already in this post, but I cannot overstate how wonderful it was to not have to navigate ANYWHERE.

Can you spot the workers doing maintenance on St. Peter’s clock? It’s the largest church clock face in Europe, and you can see just how big it is with humans for a reference scale.

A pit stop beside a park meant Indy had time to find something to climb.

Catrina captured the last picture of the day—here I am in front of a Flying Tiger. We try to visit these stores in every country we travel to. Alas, our streak ended in Monaco. We didn’t buy anything, but did ceremonially set one foot inside the door.

We stopped by the grocery chain Migros to get some souvenirs. These were PRICEY in Zurich; the cheapest keychains we could find were over €11!!! Eek. But they were admittedly very cool. Belle got a working clock keychain and Indy got a flashlight.

We walked back to Catrina’s place and got our car. We ended up being able to get inexpensive overnight parking beside our apartment and since we wanted to leave fairly early the next morning, decided to relocate it ahead of time.

It was sad to say goodbye to Catrina so soon. One day was definitely not enough time together. Now I need to convince her to come visit Canada. Maybe she could come run the marathon (or ultra) in October in my little hometown? Hint, hint, hint. It’s the nicest time to year to visit Nova Scotia, in my opinion. (Kae and SHU, help me convince her!!!)

Once again, driving through Zurich was a gong show. There was construction everywhere, so many one-way streets, and we were completely unfamiliar with everything. What should have taken 10 minutes took almost an hour and we were frazzled by the time we got back to the apartment. Thankfully, there was a grocery store close by so we bought some food for breakfast/lunch on the road, and stopped at an Asian restaurant beside our place to get some takeout (sushi, spring rolls, rice).

And then, once again, we COLLAPSED into bed.

Your turn.

• What would you like better? White, milk, or dark chocolate on tap?
• Any city driving horror stories to share??