Day 23: Interlaken Training Part II
After the Trummelbach falls, we drove back to Interlaken. I was sad to leave the valley filled with so many waterfalls but excited to know that I will be back there again shortly. Once we were parked in Interlaken in the spot as before, we were given free time before 5pm. Katie and Rhianna encouraged us to test the scavenger hunt before they give it out to groups on programme.

The first thing I did was go off with Carly, Jessica, Libby and Cate to do the scavenger hunt. We walked from the parking lot onto the main street. We passed by a fancy hotel and walked right next to some beautiful yellow rose bushes. We walked down the main street past the park where the parasailers land, past the chocolate sotre Schuh, past many shops until we reached a rotary. The first clue was to find the post office; you can easily spot the post office symbol which says "Die Post" in bright yellow with a red cross next to it. The post trucks are bright yellow here.

From there, we spotted our next clue: B + K written on the roof of a building right near the post office which lead us into the beginning of the old town of Interlaken. We walked down a street into an area with hotels and restaurants but we could not find our next clue! We had been warned that the clue may no longer exist; it was a sign for a restaurant that changed. We decided to walk past the restaurant and look for our next clue: a shop named after a bird. After walking for a little bit, we found the store! It was a woodcarving shop named Woodpecker. We went in the shop and looked around for a few minutes. Everything was delicately carved out of wood from dainty owl decorations to large coo-coo clocks. I liked the wooden toys and one set of owls that all fit into each other the best.

As we continued to walk down the street we found our next three clues. The first clue was a blinking triangular traffic sign  which was easy to spot from the Woodpecker shop. Then, we looked for a building with the date 1646 on it. This was not as easy but luckily one member of our group spotted the number on a white building with a wooden roof and red shutters. The buildings on this street were different from the souvenir shops in the other part of Interlaken. The buildings were tall with wooden roofs and white, brown or beige colouring with different coloured shutters. In the distance I could see a rock cliff lined with pine trees; a part of a mountain in the opposite direction of Jungfrau, Eiger and Monk mountains. 

Our next clue was to enter a specific store, Denner's, and find the price of the cheapest chocolate. We found the store next to a bridge and an interesting wooden sculpture of a face. I found the sculpture fascinating yet at the same time slightly unnerving. We went into Denner's which was a small supermarket. We raced to the chocolate aisle and found the price for the cheapest chocolate: 0.45 rappens! (Note: rappens is equivalent to cents in the U.S.). Wow!! This is the best price I have seen for chocolate in all of Switzerland! Of course, I bought a few chocolate bars (milk and dark chocolate) and a chocolate drink! The chocolate drink was a box filled with rich, creamy and delicious chocolate milk. We shopped around in the store for a little while and we ran into Rhianna, Katie and both Heathers. 


We exited the store and my original scavenger hunt party continued on our way. We crossed the bridge over turquoise water. I know that I have continually used this description but throughout Switzerland I continually see snow-fed water untouched by murky mud and dirt. I think moving back to Massachusetts will be a shock....I will expect the buses to be exactly on time, the water to be a brillant blue and mountains everywhere. Fun fact: The elevation where I live at Our Chalet is higher than the tallest mountain in Massachusetts....what?!!? Kind of crazy haha


Anyways, we crossed the bridge into the old town of Interlaken. Our next target was to find a bakery sign whcih proved more difficult than some of the other clues. We walked up and down the street until I spotted it ! It was a large sign of a man in a baking outfit (white apron, hat and pants) on the side of a beige building with red shutters. I was excited because I found the clue!! It reminded me of I-Spy but real life haha. 
We followed the road which opened up. To the left I could see a clock tower (reminiscent of the one I saw in Bern). After crossing another bridge, we entered the main square of the old town. We walked around, following the clues. The cobblestone square was home to quaint buildings including two large stone wheels outside of a museum. There was also a big sculpture of an apple with an arrow through it! We walked through the square to a white church with distinctive black and yellow shutters. 


We exited the square and continued on our scavenger hunt. We passed by construction, stores, and a street filled with flags of different countries on either side. We looped around and had a short tour of the old town. The old town had cobblestone road and the buildings were taller with white fresco fronts and brown roofs. What I liked was that most of the time I could see the snowy mountian top of Jung Frau from anywhere in Interlaken!We crossed back over the bridges and ended near some souvenir shops. We completed the scavenger hunt and it was pretty fun!!


 The group then broke off but Libby and I wandered around the shops together. At one point, we wandered down a street where there was an outdoor market. It was really cool and different vendors had their things out for display from scarves to cds to things carved out of wood. There was also some street performers which is Switzerland tend to be accordion players haha. After some window shopping (I am window shopping for a Swiss army knife), we wandered back near the chocolate shop. We sat on a bench and watched the parasailers land until we met up for the chocolate show! 


At 5pm, we went inside the chocolate shop, Schuh, which had a fancy shop in the front which led into a restaurant area. We went into a room towards the back of the restaurant for the show. The room was white and had a counter at the front with different tools and a few platters of chocolate that were covered. Around the room there were different sculptures made out of chocolate including some singing dwarfs and a parrot sitting on a tree.  A chocolateer gave us a demonstration. He began with showing us a clip of a video about the cacao bean. We all then had the opportunity to try a cacao bean...it was very bitter tasting! Afterwards, he went over to a container of liquid chocolate and explained the temperatures that chocolate needs to be at to make different things while he heated up the chocolate with a hairdryer. Then, he showed us how to make chocolate mountains filled with caramels. He picked two volunteers to help him make a chocolate cow. He poured the chocolate into the plastic cow mold and the volunteers outlined the different parts of the cow with chocolate using frosting tubes filled with chocolate. While the volunteers were doing that, the chocolateer lifted the covers from the platters of chocolate and we all tried the different types of chocolate. There were mountains filled with caramel, white truffels filled with a champagne filling, milk chocolate pieces, dark chocolate pieces, 100% dark chocolate pieces (exceedingly bitter!!) and my favorite, chocolate truffels with chocolate filling. Then, the chocolateer explained how long to freeze the chocolate in the mold and pulled out a pre-made cow mold and took out the chocolate cow. After we admired the cow, he smashed it into pieces and we had some of the chocolate cow along with the other chocolate. Lastly, he warmed up the chocolate again and set aside some strawberries. We had chocolate with strawberries lastly. All of the chocolate was amazing!  I definitely ate enough to spoil my dinner haha but it was awesome! 


After the chocolate show we headed back to the cars for a ride back to Our Chalet. Later that night after dinner I ran my first Swiss night! It was for a small group of Girl Scouts overseas from Germany. After dinner, I went over to the costume closet with the girls to help them prepare the play for Swiss night. The play tells the story of William Tell. William Tell helped Switzerland win independence. He is famous for shooting an arrow through an apple that was sitting on his son's head after he refused to bow down to the dictator of the time (hence the sculpture in Interlaken). We got their costumes ready and practiced twice before it was time to hear Colby, a local cheesemaker, play the alpine horn outside. The sound of the alpine horn is definitely growing on me and looks really difficult to play. Afterwards, I ran Swiss night with Carly and Heather Canada. We taught the group the Vogellisi song, played Jeopardy and watched them eat chocolate fondue! It was the first Swiss night I ran and I am glad that it went well.