Tag Archives: Travel

Midterm break, special weeks, workshops and activities…

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In the middle of the semester we have our midterm break, 1 week off which most of us have used to relax, do some traveling or go back home to visit family and friends.

Many of my classmates and friends have taken advantage of this time to discover and explore some new areas in Europe.

Garda Lake

As I have mentioned before in older posts, living in Switzerland gives you easy access to most of the cities in Central Europe that can easily be reached by train.  There are a variety of convenient flights available to reach other cities further away in a matter of just a couple of hours.

I went to northern Italy with my family, there we visited Venice and Milan and stayed most of the time by the Garda Lake which was beautiful.

Milano

Milano

For the prospective students who read this post and want to get more information about traveling within and outside Switzerland it’s good to check the national train system website: www.sbb.ch which I highly recommend to become a member of.

Besides the regular academic schedules and the practical activities that the students need to perform, there are Special weeks in which the students have different schedules and have a chance to attend workshops and execute other tasks. My class had a chance to experience serving in a banqueting style setting and also attending a workshop on the same day.

Here I have got a video of us during a very interesting and fun workshop of Molecular food that is a new concept that many of us had never experienced before. In this video, our professor Chef in the “A la Carte Restaurant”, is giving a demonstration of Molecular desserts using compressed nitrogen to freeze or lower the temperature of these ingredients. As for the best part of molecular cuisine, check out how all of us are eager to taste this!

I hope everyone had a great midterm break! And by the way welcome to the new October batch for HO1s :-)

Traveling in Switzerland

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Before coming to Les Roches, I had heard a lot about all of the advantages of living and studying in Switzerland.  Its geographical central position and the well-developed transportation system make Switzerland very accessible for everyone who wants to travel both within the country and to other European cities.

I have mentioned several times before about the beauty of the area where the school is, but my first trip out of Valais to a big city was really amazing. First of all, I had to start by visiting somewhere important in Switzerland that I had cherished for a long time…  Zurich!  I had heard so much about the city and had actually met so many people from there in the past that I could not believe it when I actually got there.

From Les Roches in Bluche, it only takes approximately 2 hours to get to Zurich by train if the times you pick have precise connections, and in fact most of them do. This is something that I need to highlight because the organization makes it so easy to travel by train, also the school highly recommends in the beginning of the semester that  every student gets either a half price card or/and an “after 7” card. Accordingly, these cards allow students to pay half-price fares in all the funicular, train and bus transportation, and the advantage of having the “after 7 card” is that you don’t pay anything for any rides taken after 7pm at night! This makes the travelling a lot cheaper, no matter where you go within La Suisse.

Although the city of Bern is the capital, Zurich is the largest and it is also recognized for having one of the world’s largest financial centers.

When my sister and I got there, the weather was amazing.  We were able to take a walk along the main station street, “Bahnhofstrasse” and visit several stores.  One of which I loved because it has the best Swiss handmade chocolate!

The old town in Zurich is so charming, lots of beautiful architecture, several churches and their cobblestoned, car-free walking streets add a pleasant touch to this part of the city.

There is a main river that sort of divides the city and its bridges in between are wonderful with very interesting buildings and houses on each side.  Also different brasseries and restaurants with international food can be found throughout the entire city, and you can go by foot everywhere.

Also, here the transportation within the city is mainly by trams that drive around all over and are quite regular too. Thanks to these trams, you can get from one place to another in almost no time.  One part that you shouldn’t miss is of course the Zurich lake, it is pretty large and people get together here for swimming when there is good weather or taking long walks along the lake.

During the weekend that we were there we really felt like we needed more time to see everything else,  and we cant wait to come back! I look forward to the rest of cities in Switzerland, after this experience it will just get easier to travel next time!