36 - Chocolate Rain - Zurich

 Saturday, March 28

We were off to an early start today, leaving the house 7 am to grab the train to Zurich.  Well, it wasn't directly to the train but to also stop by my friend's alma mater, EPFL.  Apparently many engineers for my company have come from this school over the years and we regularly accept interns from there; in Switzerland, there doesn't appear to be too many options for engineering schools so I wouldn't say we patronize EPFL with extreme prejudice.  

Huh, now that's a funny looking student center.

I'm not sure how much my mind went to Rolex while looking at this place, but it cerainly leaves an impression.

As neat as those ramps looked from the outside, they appear almost natural indoors.

The "study" rooms that one can reserve for a time slot.  Given the full glass nature of the walls, I've been told they're not great for talking in.

Somebody spilled a lot of buckets here.  I think compared to the library at Stevens, I think there's a certain fun aspect to EPFL's library.  But do they have a weird mobile dangling above the entrance?  I didn't think so.

École Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne, quite a few of the engineers at work have come from here or the counterpart in Zurich.  Heck, one guy was even a professor here for a while.

I'm not sure what it's for, but I can imagine students making good use of this when it's nice out.

My friend thought the building exteriors were on the tacky side, like someone seeing an episode of the Jetsons and rubbing with it.  I personally liked the aesthetic but I suppose I didn't spend 4 grueling years looking at them 😆 

Clean rooms for the research labs, viewable from the unclean outdoors.  I think Stevens had similar labs but they were cached in a building only accessible via a strange, foreboding alley.

With EPFL in the hind mirror, we continued on to Zurich.  With some last minute planning last night, we decided to spend the night in Zurich and made the hotel our first stop to drop off the bags.  As a pleasant surprise, the room was ready for us at 11:30 so we were able to get completely moved in and grab a warm beverage.  What was weird was that the key to the building and the room was a sliding field on a web page accessed via my phone: the future is now but also kinda weird.

Warm beverage in hand, we next stopped by Migros to grab some light snacks prior to our museum visit.  This pastry was filled with the Ovolmaltine spread, featuring chocolate and crispy bits 😋 

This little section of the river reminded me of the Ardour, running near Dax, with all it's grassy splotches of land.

Maybe these are primroses?  I noticed many clumps as we followed the other tourists on the path to Lindt.

We took the train to head a little outside of Zurich and found ourselves on the walkway to the Lindt museum.  Here, a fountain of chocolate greeted us with the light aroma of cocoa butter and unsettlingly clumpy rivulets of chocolate.  Our timed tickets were for entry at noon so we didn't waste too much time in the lobby and found ourselves exploring the history of chocolate by 12:15.  The museum audio guide could be programmed to many languages but I ended up abandoning it's use after a few listens because it was going slower than the plaques and wasn't adding a whole lot more info.  

Tadah!  I can't wait to suffer an industrial accident inside and for the factory workers to sing a jingle about my folly.

But what could it possibly mean?

Ok, Lindt, I see what you're up to.  Hit us with the chocolate fountain right off the bat, ok.   I personally found the way some of the chocolate clumped and channeled on the way down not to be ideal, but it's still an impressive display. 

The exhibit started with some info about the cocoa plant, it's cultivation, and the processing required for chocolate's critical ingredient.  Next, the exhibit considered the route of how chocolate became a worldwide commodity, starting with its use in meso American society, the popularity of drinking chocolate in European society, and then the development of cocoa powder and commodifcation of chocolate for the common people.  

The history of chocolate section was near, though a little cramped.  But interesting that it first found success as an artisanal drink before the ability to solidify cocoa solids allowed for more mass production.  I can imagine worker productivity on hot chocolate would be much higher than a worker who drank 2 beers at lunch.

Next was a room dedicated to the question: "if cocoa comes from the equator, why is Switzerland so known for its chocolate?".  The answer to that comes down to several names of Swiss industrialists and businessmen; Lindt's big claim to fame was the invention of the conche, a device that stirred and melted chocolate to make it a pleasant, silky mixture.  Afterwards, there was a small section dedicated to the evolution of chocolate packaging, speaking to social trends and advancements in materials.

A diagram of the conche.  Both of us are chemical engineers and we're not entirely sure why this particular design was decided upon.  But being able to melt and mix chocolate (somehow by this machine's motion) was a game changer for the industry. 

The display cases with moulds and packaging were cool to peruse, but they were also a bit tight to access so it's unclear how much the museum designers actually expected clients to check these cases out.  

I couldn't get over the marketing listed on one of these old bars: "Very nutritious.  Very digestible.  Little sugar.  Doesn't make you thirsty!" Needless to say, marketing (and our knowledge of nutrition) has come a long ways 😂 

I think it's a shame that modern industry has moved away from metal moulds, these ones are veritable pieces of art.

Then the main event: how is chocolate made?  The tables exhibiting the processing of cocoa seeds to nibs and nibs to liquid chocolate were overshadowed by three chocolate fountains daring people to sample them dry.  After many, many spoonfuls of chocolate (grabbing a spoonful and going back to read an exhibit table), I made it past the fountains to learn about processing for bars and enrobed candies.  

Finally, this is where the fun begins!  I liked the system of everyone having a spoon and then using a fixed volume dispenser (each fountain had 4).  It might be the easiest and most sanitary way to dispense a ton of liquid chocolate samples to people.

Then, once more, we were confronted by modern marvels of technology: chocolate bar samplers.  The machines were loaded like gun magazines with bars of chocolate and dispensed small chunks when an outstretched hand triggered the proximity sensor below.  As amazing as this was (4 chocolate flavors to sample to one's heart's delight), I couldn't shake the feeling of how perfect this tech would be for a human zoo.  

These were so cool but also concerning 😂 

We found that often, when the machine didn't immediately dispense a piece of chocolate, the people would often start to mash their hand up against the opening.  Most likely, this was from their hand registering on the sensor while the device was still reloading the next piece.

The remainder of the museum was a bit less exciting: a small bit about the universe of chocolate (there was an exhibit talking about how cocoa farmers have very low, unpredictable profits and this can lead to poor conditions and child labor; strangely, Lindt elected not to add anything about their commitment to resolving this issue in the exhibit), a zone to sample limited quantities of Lindor balls, a small exhibit about chocolate R&D (apparently lab grown chocolate is something Lindt is considering), and a chocolate pilot plant.  

Now that we're at the finished product stage, there was no more unlimited product 😆 the lady at this counter was working double time having to instruct people to only take one of each Lindor ball.

The end of the museum is the start of the gift shop!

But first, a quick glance at the pilot plant!  Here, they can test out new formulas and combinations.

I hadn't noticed the giant bunny earlier; I'm dubious of it being made of chocolate, but I'm content with my haul from the museum.

I spent more time in the gift store than I thought I would and I still think I probably could have focused in on a few more niche items, but I was very content with my visit to the Lindt museum.  About 90 minutes with not listening to the audioguide for everything, I think it was a well done museum with the perk of an opportunity to eat your ticket's value in chocolate; I imagine the gift shop is where they make all the value of the exhibit.  

Ooh, a kirschmeter you say?  How many brandyfeet is that?  3.3?

Instead of taking the train back to Zurich, we managed to snag a boat over the lake (der Zurichsee).  Oddly, the boat was about as fast as the train because Zurich was the next port of call rather than requiring 3 stops.  The boat dropped us at the edge of the old town, so we walked around a bit in the old town before taking a very late lunch of raclette.  

Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers, though white blossoms on a gray sky is a bold choice.

The boat was a spur of the moment idea; we were lucky it was within walking distance as it started to dock.  

Ah, the zee.  It wasn't the greatest weather for a lake tour; fortunately, it was a straight shot back to Zurich port.  I think the boat might've actually been faster than the train we would have taken.  

Spotted the Tilly right after we exited the boat, what a weird place to spot such a weird mascot.

Zurich doesn't have a shortage of pointy tops but I also appreciate the dock for smaller craft.

They have to know, right?  What could this name possibly be?

Looks different from the Spaghetti Factory I remember from the Seattle area, there didn't appear to be a weight scale to measure guests before and after.  

There's so many different forms for raclette to take.  This one was fun but I think my favorite is still the lamp and semi-wheel of cheese 😋 

Having cleansed our palettes of chocolate, we returned to the hotel to deposit the chocolate bags and ventured out into the old town.  While walking the Haphtbanhoff street, my friend was able to show many watch brands and speak to their attributes and quirks.  We also noticed that the stores in Zurich tend to clear out their window displays at night, unlike in Geneva where the watches forever remain out for viewing.  

Swiss Henge?

This particular square was perhaps the most atmospheric for me of the old town.  Not that the old town in Zurich was bad, but it didn't feel iconic/unique.  

Der Fraumunster, I'm not sure what makes this one a lady vs gross 😆 

That's him, the burger meister!

I toyed with the idea of attending the ballet here, but I don't like ballet enough to have locked in the evening for 110CHF a piece 😆 

This little passage along the river was a fun little find, not many living spaces but several shops.

A late night snack of Swiss udon 😂 

Overall, I find Zurich to be a charming little city.  I think the Swiss history museum could be worth a visit in the figure but the city overall, while nice, didn't really strike me as super impressionable.  Much like Geneva, living here could be nice: a nice lake, a plethora of stores and restaurants, and charming enough old city quarters. Perhaps the (non chocolate) museums of Zurich merit a visit in the future, but the more I see of Swiss towns, the more I'm leaning toward what a coworker told me: Swiss cities are nice, but the best experiences here are the outdoors.

Anyhow, tomorrow features more Swiss towns 😂