Submitted by Christopher Mitchell on the 2012 summer session program in Switzerland and Italy sponsored by the Department of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management…
This week has been an eye opening experience for me. I had not been out of the United States before I arrived in Switzerland on Wednesday and this country is very beautiful. Living in Delaware my whole life, I have not seen a lot of mountains or much elevation at all, but in Switzerland everything is elevated. The views of the Swiss Alps from the Swiss School of Hospitality and Tourism are amazing. The school itself has great facilities and I have a room to myself which will help me get my work done while I’m here. On Thursday, we had our first spa visit to the Waldhaus Flims Mountain Resort and Spa where we were given treatments and spent most of our day relaxing in saunas and the outdoor heated pool. The Waldhaus is a world class spa and the treatments and facilities showed exactly why that is the case.
As part of our Beverage Management course, we had a wine tasting that evening after returning from the spa. The tasting was focused on white wines, specifically Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. Both were very good wines, but I prefer the Pinot Blanc because of its apple like flavor. We had a free weekend to travel so a group of us went to Zurich, Switzerland because it was highly recommended by our professors. The city of Zurich is very beautiful and it has a lot of historic buildings with grand architecture. We returned early Sunday morning and completed our assignments for the upcoming week. We leave early tomorrow for Austria where we will be staying at a hotel, which is also known for its spa. This trip is already turning out to be more amazing than I could have imagined and I can’t wait to see what else is in store.